Meeting Minutes for 10/18/07

Social justice committee 10/18/07 6:30 pm

Present: Courtney, Becky, Ben, Kinnon, Anna, Cara, Craig, (Nick, briefly)

Welcome to Ben and Kinnon!

Becky - Opening reflection and prayer – a Lutheran basis for social justice – a textual and theological basis – the freedom of of a Christian – metaphorically being a Christ to someone – not wwjd, by what would I do, in the spirit of Christ

Craig - Mission statement review for new attendees: “Embracing service learning in a Lutheran context to empower action and awareness”

Becky - Interests – having “point people” for a few issues might be helpful –

John C. (aka Becky) – student health insurance – sign up list for a subcommittee is circulating and you can contact John if you want to help with this
ALSO, John can host a non-violence training called “Pace e bene” if there’s enough interest. It will be Dec. 5 and Feb. 13 on campus.

Craig – environment, but specifically a plan for PLTS to be zero impact
Our small size is a helpful factor
Composting, recycling, buying from recyclers/post consumers’
Craig has a blueprint of how this can work, from undergrad project – how much can we apply here?
Easy first step: get PLTS up to 100% recyclable purchases

Nick – stopped in on a break at work –
Updates for us after attending student association meeting:
We might get a bike rack for the Looper – yea! Paid w/ stud assoc. funds if a good one and hitch can be found –
Student assoc wants us to designate one offering a month from chapel to a worthy cause. Where should November’s go?
They look forward to presentations from us, creating dialogue, and helping each other out.

Interests, cont’d –

Kinnon – the YEAH shelter – dates and orientations for new volunteers perhaps via email – he has a sign up list for helping out
youth emergency assistance hostel – at Lutheran church of the cross
serves youth ages18-24 or 25, shelter through rainy season
PLTS volunteers usually help cook and serve, or one or the other alternating Wednesdays – Covering shifts around the holidays can be hard. Think you might be around?
Kinnon is willing to be coordinator for us when we have questions
Craig – how can we do service learning with YEAH? This is a tie-in to dozens of issues, from domestic violence to substance abuse.

Anna – Will be visiting Israel during the break. She’ll be staying with and learning more from the Wi-Am Conflict Resolution Center. They help people who get trapped within areas by army blockades and the physical walls that are being erected. They communicate with Israeli settlement groups to be a reconciling presence, organize fair trade that supports the Center, and work to uphold people’s rights. Tourism in Jerusalem is high, but since Israel doesn’t want anyone to see what is happening, you have to be intentional and careful.
Anna is willing to share the experience when she is back, and display/sell Fair Trade goods from the Wi-Am Center.
(Pray for Anna’s trip, that she will be safe and that one more small peaceful group of people will contribute to peace throughout the area.)

Becky – making nomination for Wi-Am as beneficiary of November’s SJC offering – let’s vote – unanimous. Anna can provide more info to get the $ to the right place.

SJC blog! Craig can invite you if you didn’t get it so far and want to contribute! He’s working on the links to ELCA, PLTS student blog, etc. Post opportunities, issues upcoming, etc. Craig is willing to show you how to post if you haven’t done it before.

Craig – reminder that if you want to lead a social justice opportunity, do it! But tie it into our mission statement to help us grow/maintain from year to year

Theology on Tap – Catholic perspective on various issues – On Nov. 6, “Being a Green Catholic” – where? Craig will get it posted at the sjc blog – This is through a local Catholic parish, but it might not be held there.

Becky - Catholic worker houses of hospitality – nationwide but not centrally organized – “to the least of these” is the ethos of the catholic worker – there’s a house in Oakland that started by serving central American refugees in the late 70s, 80s, now serves economic refugees,- students have been going to do bible studies –
anyone interested contact Becky!
they’ve been going on Wednesday evenings –


Craig - Shadow of Virtue – a film – tentatively thinking about February
looking for help paying for film through Student Assoc’s $150 Speaker Grant
A local parish is already covering $600 of the cost, which is actually $750.
There is the grant we could apply for, but we might want to look at other speaking engagements or events that we could use it for, and there is no guarantee we would get it.
Craig will search for a clip on youtube so we can assess pursuing this.
We should decide by December if this is what we will go for the grant for – is there a grant deadline?
Ben – a little devils advocate – people know they should care – but what can be done? Will the film address that? - however, an emotional jolt can get some folks moving – shock value v. impact…
Becky – can the impetus of the film mobilize viewers for local action?
Cara - Seminarians are already fairly aware and passionate – time is the issue! (or am I just in midterm mode?)

Next meeting – Thurs 11/1/07 at 6:00 pm – Beasom lounge

Closing prayer - Cara