[act-ma] FW: UnityAyiti: Important Strategy Meeting, Tuesday at 6:30 pm!

Sun Oct 31 21:50:02 PDT 2010

From: danthbagelman at msn.com
To: suren at fairjobs.org; susie_husted at yahoo.com; danthbagelman at msn.com
Subject: FW: UnityAyiti: Important Strategy Meeting, Tuesday at 6:30 pm!
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:04:27 -0400

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:30:31 -0400
Subject: UnityAyiti: Important Strategy Meeting, Tuesday at 6:30 pm!
From: dpanchang at gmail.com
To: unityayiti at googlegroups.com

Hi, all!

Next meeting will be this Tuesday; we have a guest, Rishi Rattan with Physicians for Haiti, who has a great deal of experience with local and national mobilizing for global health and justice issues.  He's offered to help us think through some of our goals and actions in a more strategic way, just in time for our Nov. 12 plans.  

This Tuesday: 6:30 pm in HSPH, room G-13.  651 Huntington Ave.

1. The agenda for the meeting is below, let me know if you have additions. 
2. Task assignments thus far (thanks to Lama, Paul, and Marshall especially for your help with publicity and outreach!)  Please volunteer if there's anything you can help with.  

3. Cholera updates 

1. Agenda for Tuesday, Nov. 2:

Bigger-picture goals & petition
      -- Review of key advocacy points given recent discussion

      -- Strategies to raise awareness of key advocacy points
      -- Petition on main these issues - getting it co-sponsored, circulated

Immediate goals & strategic action
      -- Strategize around short-term direct action that fits into our advocacy points
      -- How can we mobilize people around this?  What are our internal & external goals?

      -- How can we build this into the teach-in?
      -- What needs to be done to make this happen?

Nov. 12 Teach-in 
     -- Brainstorming on content and approach (internal and external goals)
     -- Overview & updates on who's doing what: Space, outreach, publicity, speakers, etc.

2. TO-DO LIST - Please volunteer to take on one or more of these tasks:

1)
Teach-in logistics: Thanks Lama!  3-7 pm on Nov. 12 at Encuentro 5.

2) Publicity: Design flyers and posters: Paul

3) Outreach: Spread
the word to student groups, Haitian groups, activist groups, etc.  Ask
if they can be in attendance, if they have people who could be
"speakers," and if they'd like to co-sponsor our petition.

4) Media: Spread the word to activist/independent media, Haitian radio stations, etc: Marshall is helping with Haitian radio stations.

5) Petition: Take the lead on finishing it.

6) Other direct action: We all need to brainstorm on this in the next meeting.

7) Cholera: I'm working with some other Harvard students to
organize a fundraiser for cholera prevention efforts; if you'd like to
help, let me know.

3. Cholera updates:

Democracy Now: Partners in Health Physician on Haiti: "Cholera will not go away until underlying conditions that make people vulnerable change"  

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/26/partners_in_health_physician_cholera_will

Haiti Liberte - Kim Ives: "Cholera catastrophe spreads in Haiti"
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/front_cover_news_of_the_week_english.asp

AP: "UN probes base as source of Haiti cholera outbreak"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjc5MsH4NSSI1QrszZHp9st1w8OQ?docId=45709c4d42f6400bb7dfab4b2750b2de&index=2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Deepa Panchang <dpanchang at gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 6:25 PM
Subject: UNITYAYITI: To-do's and next meeting! Responses appreciated!
To: unityayiti at googlegroups.com

Hello, everyone!

Here are some updates and our to-do list in planning for November 12!  At the last meeting we decided the Nov. 12 event will be a teach-in.  We feel there is still work to be done in mobilizing a core group of people to work with us and thus an educational and awareness-raising forum is more appropriate as a next step. This should help build support for protests or similar activities in the next few weeks.  For this teach-in, we are envisioning an action-oriented event bringing diverse people together - those with knowledge & experience of Haiti and those who are seeking it - to share  perspectives about the key issues.  We will also present people with 3 actions they can take: 1) Signing on to a petition regarding the broader issues, 2) Taking a small direct action towards a concrete result we can expect to see in the near future (to be designed!!), and 3) Coming out to our next meeting!

To make this happen....please read the following and reply with your feedback!!!

TO-DO LIST - Please volunteer to take on one or more of these tasks: (if you haven't been out to a meeting yet, that's ok, you can still help!  Just let us know what you're interested in.)

1) Next meeting: This Saturday.  Does noon work?  Any ideas for place?  I will send out final meeting time tomorrow morning!

2) Teach-in logistics: Thinking through time and place (with feedback from the group, of course), reserving the space.  Current thoughts include UMass Boston, Encuentro 5, or Harvard.  

3) Publicity: Design flyers and posters

4) Outreach: Spread the word to student groups, Haitian groups, activist groups, etc.  Ask if they can be in attendance, if they have people who could be "speakers," and if they'd like to co-sponsor our petition.

5) Media: Spread the word to activist/independent media, Haitian radio stations, etc.

6) Petition: Take the lead on finishing it.

7) Other direct action: We all need to brainstorm on this in the next meeting.

8) Cholera: I'm working with some other Harvard students to organize a fundraiser for cholera prevention efforts; if you'd like to help, let me know.

If you are interested please let me know soon, along with any preliminary thoughts.  Or, feel free to call (832-875-7539).  

THANK YOU ALL!!   

Deepa

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