Meeting Recap

At today's meeting we drafted and sent an email off to Mr. Wexler to indicate Amnesty International's interest in contributing to or heading Springbrook fundraising efforts for the community service project he is running in Ecuador. (More details to come.)

Ms. Kelly also noted the advocacy group assignment that all of Springbrook's 10th graders will be undertaking in October or November: students are expected to research a specific sociopolitical issue, examine the US government and advocacy groups' respective stances on it, and write a letter to an official involved in addressing said issue. As Amnesty International has definitive views on a number of such issues, we are hoping to find some way to use this assignment to our advantage, i.e., recruit more members or increase our visibility in the school.

In that vein, Mr. Mann's plans for more dynamic morning announcements gives us the opportunity to put out psa-type media on darfur, poverty, the death penalty, etc. Please look through the list of issues Amnesty has prioritized and pick one on which you would like to create a powerpoint or other informational piece.

Weekly Meeting

Our first meeting of the year was held yesterday, Wednesday September 2. We will continue to meet on Wednesdays this year in Ms. Kelley's room, G311. All are welcome.

On a quick technical note, please subscribe to the RSS feed located on the right-hand side of the page so that our blog posts will be sent to you. Additionally, we will be posting information about upcoming events both on the wall in Ms. Kelley's room and on our (now functional! yay!) Google calendar.

We discussed the following at the meeting:

• maintenance of the blog/ the creation of a website on the school server
• morning announcements
• potential project in which we donate $1000 to build a well for a village in rural Africa
• potential project in which we donate money to Mr. Wexler's school in Ecuador that the students can use for local poverty relief
• drafting an email to Wexler on said subject
• human rights seminar project- contacting clubs, organizing, getting permission, etc.
• clubs include: African/Haitian Club, German Club, Asian-American Club, Art Club, Desi Club, French Club, Students Against Landmines, Spanish Honor Society, French Honor Society, Gay Straight Alliance, IB students (CAS project), Model UN, Forensics Club, Green Team, Muslim Student Association, interested individuals, possibly professional speakers
  

Action points for next meeting include making a banner for Ms. Kelley's room, drafting an email for Wexler, researching potential projects, getting a head start on morning announcements, and setting up informational pages for bulletin board in Ms. Kelley's room.

Please comment with any comments, questions, or concerns. Have a great week, everyone!

Update: Banner-y type thing!
It is not actually all that big (12 x 18"), but maybe we could center it on the board?

Meeting on September 16

We will meet on September 16 (the Tuesday after next) at 7:30 pm at Savory Cafe in Takoma Park for the meeting organized by the Takoma Park chapter of Amnesty International. All are welcome. If anybody would like to carpool, please email shsamnestyinternational@yahoo.com or contact one of us and we will arrange it.

Savory is located at 7071 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912.

The Takoma Park Amnesty International website is located here: http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/usa/group297/

Here is Savory's website, which has directions and other information: http://www.savorycafe.com/

Update

We held our first meeting since our bake-sale on January 2nd and discussed our plans for the new year. We decided we would like to do some local work, and emailed a woman's shelter to see if they need supplies. If not, we will search for opportunities elsewhere.

We also discussed where we want to go with our Darfur campaign. We decided to attempt to do a raffle first. Michelle and Julia will sometime before Wednesday talk to Mr. Durso and find out the school's policy on raffles. After this, we plan to contact local businesses to see if they will donate items to our raffle.

In addition, Julia has found a place that will allow us to sell free trade chocolate. She will bring information on this to our next meeting, which is next Wednesday. All members should attend!

Genocide in Darfur Information Sheets

Please add information for the information sheets as comments to this post. Thank you.

Meeting Recap

Today we decided that the genocide in Darfur will be our focus for at least the next few weeks (in addition to continuing efforts regarding the death penalty). Otherwise, we hope to adhere to the calendar of local events that Amnesty International has sent us.

Potential events/fundraisers:

• bake sale (green food coloring?)
• car wash
• jazz band - Mike
  
• selling free trade chocolate - Miriam
• dance
• raffle - Juliana
• publicity - Leah
• coordination with Heritage Talent Show - Julia
  

If you would like to assist in confirming or organizing any of the above, contact the person listed.

We would also like to welcome two new members, Juliana and Tracey.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, Nov 7 @ 2:10

Meeting Recap

Today's meeting consisted of advertisement for our October 25 Day Against the Death Penalty protest. We have decided to hand out black ribbons in room G311 in the morning and in the cafeteria at lunch to tie around our wrists in protest. We will also be handing out information sheets. If you can make it at lunchtime to hand out ribbons and information sheets, particularly if you have A or B lunch, please let us know.

We made a flyer that will be distributed to teachers in their mailboxes, and we submitted morning anouncements. We still need approval from Mr. Durso for the flyers, but the information sheets to be handed out on the day of the protest are not finished yet. It would also help if we compiled some more statistics and relevant pictures before the next meeting.

Mr. Durso also decided that he doesn't want us to put up large posters because he thinks they'll make the school "look like a gas station".

Thanks to Mr. Gordon, we have an advertisement in the box on the school's front page and a group page on Edline. If you've attended club meetings, check Edline to see if you're registered as a member. If not, email shsamnestyinternational@yahoo.com with your full name and we'll add you.

Also, Mr. Wexler informed us that there are Amnesty International meetings at Savory, a restaurant in Takoma Park, every Tuesday. If anybody is interested in going, let us know.

Next meeting: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

First Meeting Recap

General:

• Keep Mr. Durso et al. informed of our plans
• Slides for morning announcements, possibly a powerpoint or two
• Flyers, posters
  
• Possible fundraising options
• Movie night
• Bake/pizza/chocolate sales
  
• Jazz band concert?

Upcoming Events: World Day Against the Death Penalty (Oct 10)

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), of which Amnesty International is a member, has renewed a previous 2000 petition calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.
This petition is based on the following premises regarding the capital punishment:

• Violates the universally affirmed right to life ;
• Constitutes the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment ;
• Constantly risks the irreversible error of the execution of an innocent person ;
• Provides no added value to the deterrence of crime ;
• Brutalises those societies that employ state sanctioned judicial killing.
  

You can sign the petition here.

Within Springbrook, we are hoping to organize a one-day protest of the death penalty to raise student awareness and encourage interest in our future endeavors. This will consist of the wearing of a black ribbon (or something to that effect) signifying one's support of the anti-death penalty effort. Details regarding the creation and distribution of these ribbons on Oct 10 have yet to be decided.

*For those of you with C lunch, we have tentative plans for a meeting in Mr. Wexler's room later this week (Friday?) to discuss our plans for the 10th. Obviously, confirmation is pending Mr. Wexler's agreement and the proportion of members with C lunch. Please let us know if you can make it.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, Oct 10 @ 2:10

Post your questions, comments and concerns here or email us at shsamnestyinternational@yahoo.com

Hello everyone!
Welcome to Springbrook's Amnesty International Club.

We will be holding an interest meeting at 2:30 on Wednesday, October 3 in room G311.

We will be discussing the goals of the club and ideas for future projects.
Hope to see you there!