JHR Minutes #8

JHR Meeting #8 – Minutes

January 24, 2006 – Café Solstice

Present: Nari Corley-Wheeler, Janice Goh, Julie Chang Schulman, Lily Le, Jacob Galfano

Faculty Advisor: Nari informed the group that professor Jamie Mayerfeld has accepted the offer to be the group’s advisor. Professor Mayerfeld will be acting remotely while he is on sabbatical in New Jersey (via email and telephone) until he returns to Seattle. His email address is: jasonm@u.washington.edu (in Seattle); jmayerfe@princeton.edu (in New Jersey).

Recruiting:

Club alliances: Julie raised the issue of establishing alliances, and added the idea of content-sharing among these coalitions. She commented on the possibility of working across the print/electronic divide by partnering with 206 Zulu.

Another content-sharing opportunity could be established by working with Seattle IndyMedia and Ruckus. Chris Iberle is attempting to create this collaboration.

Other potential alliances: Amnesty International, Huskies for Helping the Homeless, Hip-hop Congress (UW/Ninth Trybe)

Please send ideas of other potential groups and organizations (both on- and off-campus) to j4hr@u.washington.edu

Tabling: In lieu of meeting next Wednesday (1/31), the group will be tabling near the HUB from 10 am – 2 pm. So far, here are the shifts:

10 (set-up) – 11:30: Jacob

11:30 – 12:30: Nari

12:30 – 1:30: Janice

1:30 – 2 (take-down): ???

If you would like to volunteer, please email j4hr@u.washington.edu with the time you are available (more than one can be on a shift – any help is valuable and appreciated!).

Fliers: Lily is creating a flier to promote Jillian Tuck’s discussion about her experiences as a human rights observer in Guatemala (see information below). We will also recruit for membership (both while we table and at the event).

Projects:

- Guatemala human rights speaker: The Guatemala Accompaniment Project is offering a speakers’ series with a human rights observer named Jillian Tuck returning from her service. JHR, Amnesty International, UUCAN, and the Center for Human Rights and Justice (UW Law) are teaming up to organize and promote the event. The event will be held in Smith Hall, Room 205 at 7 pm on Thursday, February 1^st. Note: There will be an earlier event at 5:30 pm in the same room for students in the Latin American Studies program.

For the newsletter, any combination of Jillian Tuck, Kaaren Johnson, Chris Benoit, and Emily Arfin will be interviewed. If you are interested in participating, please inform j4hr@u.washington.edu

Finally, JHR needs a volunteer to make an announcement to the audience before Jillian speaks. This can be brief (and painless!), and be for recruiting and fundraising purposes. If you’re interested, speak up!

- Newsletter: Rough drafts are coming in – keep it up! The group discussed a new format, and decided to focus on a central theme on one side of the newsletter, while the other remains consistent from edition to edition. Sections of this side could include:

- Non-theme stories/interviews

- Opinion/Reader contributions

- Comic

- Interactive/Poll

- Results from previous poll

- Interesting Statistics

- Resource guide/Recommended reads

- Spotlight on…

As club membership and the size of the newsletter grow, all of these facets can be introduced.

The topic ideas (themed articles in italics):

- Homelessness: OneNight Count/TeenFeed/

Homeless Fair (Janice/Nari)

- Sidebar: Facts about the homeless (Janice/Nari)

- Gentrification in the Central District (Jacob/Julie)

- NISGUA/GAP: Seattle Sponsorship/UUCAN (?)

- YES! magazine: Human Rights & Interns w/ resources

(Jacob/Nari)

- Safe Zone Project (?)

- Seattle Urban Debate (Jen Johnson?)

- World Social Forum (Davey D)

Distribution is still being discussed; the Daily, Ruckus, and community spots like cafes and restaurants are all possible outlets. However, the Daily has quoted us a price of $500 per newsletter – which would require fundraising. JHR will be meeting with the Daily to discuss this.

- Radio show: KBCS (at BCC – 91.3 fm) offers workshops to train volunteers to get onto the airwaves. Julie talked about establishing an independent media home at the Aaron Dixon Center, which also would promote the above-mentioned workshops. This home could act as a site to share content among other groups and organizations. Its public affairs section is an opportunity for JHR members to broadcast on the air. Still up in the air is a radio show through UW’s Rainy Dawg Radio.

- Interviews: JHR-USA director Regina Eddleman has established a connection with BJ Bullert, a local documentarian who might be willing to help out. If there is interest, BJ will be asked to speak at an upcoming JHR meeting.

- End of Year Event: A larger public meeting could allow us to screen an interview, host a speaker, or any other idea you may have. This would be a great way to segue into the summer months so that the following school year has a strong corpse of JHR members from the start. Also, the JHR official fundraising event (SpeakSilence) is to be held in October. This should be a focus for preparation at one of our final meetings of this school year.

- News Monitoring: A discussion has been started about JHR members participating in a news monitoring project that is currently being developed by local advocate Daniel Hannah. Daniel works for SCAN-TV and Reclaim the Media. There may be school credit or Work/Study payment available. This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Next Meeting: There will be no meeting next week. Instead, the group will be tabling on Wednesday and at the event on Thursday (see above).

The group is also discussing changing the regular meeting time to accommodate as many interested members as possible. Please send your desired day/time to j4hr@u.washington.edu

Tentative Agenda for meeting #9:

- The Daily: Cost of distribution

- Text shopping (Following production of the newsletter)

- Newsletter: Topic assignments & drafts/Fundraising/Production

- Bellevue Event: Thurs. Feb. 8 – Race & Culture in the Media

- Jillian Tuck: Announcements

- Aaron Dixon Center/Hip-hop Congress (Georgia Roberts)