Minutes of General Meeting
February 3, 2012

A general meeting for USC4P&J was held at Maria’s home in Garbatella on February 3, 2012.

Attendees: Maria, Ilona, Marilee, Maria Chiara, Patrick, Greg, Becky
Anna chaired and Patrick took the minutes.
Justified absences: Julia, Gene, David, Andy, Gretchen, Luke.

Agenda:  Film Series, Current Organization of USC4P&J, No War on Iran initiative

Synopsis of discussions held:

1) Film series
Our last few turnouts have been too small, even Mario (our Arcobaleno host) has commented on this.  Some felt that if we continued to attract audiences of ten or less people only, we may want to consider discontinuing the film series.  We need to augment outreach through publicity (like the flyers we once put on the bulletin boards at English-speaking bookshops) or networking with teachers at John Cabot etc., to attract college students (or, as Ilona suggested, even transferring our venue to John Cabot!).   We might also get a free ad in some English language online journal.  But perhaps, too, we must acknowledge the political apathy characterizing people today.  

In addition we have a programming issue: we only have 6 films* for 6+3 slots (six upcoming films and three teasers).  We could do reruns but some, including Anna, are not keen on the idea.  Ideas and suggestions for films are welcome from the general membership.  For now we'll send out a flyer without the teasers and hopefully find, for the future, films on the issues most of our members are interested in, like the OWS movement and perhaps, too, the terrible prospect of new wars in Syria and Iran.

Films we agreed to include in the next 6 slots (and beyond):

*Will the real terrorist please stand up.  Remote control wars.  When China met Africa.   Enemy of the people.  Fuel. Pat Tillman.  Possible repeats:  Iran is not the problem. The Astroturf Wars.   Other possibilities: A new day has com.  Worse than war.  If a tree falls.   Guatemala film.  Climate refugees. 

2) Organization and operational functioning of USC4P&J
Our “communicator”, Anna, needs active people willing to support her in organizing protest events, endorsing issues, etc. since the idea of “Core Members Voting by Email” is not working well enough.  In other words, she would like to form and depend on a smaller group of involved persons -- more like the old CCom. This could even include only two or three members besides herself: people willing to discuss issues on the phone or by email, help draft announcements, and respond promptly with their views on possible calls for a sit-in or endorsements of appeals, etc.   

It was suggested that we meet quarterly to define the issues that interest the group, while leaving the daily decisions to this new “CCom”.  What that means in practical terms is this: the “Communicaor” will eliminate, from her “inner circle mailing list,” the people in the present core group who repeatedly fail to respond to questions in emails and/or come to events.  Thus, in the future, these people will continue to be notified of events to participate in, but they will not be involved in the decision-making process.  This elimination process, one name after the other, will automatically whittle the current “Core Group” down to two or three active members, who may become referred to as a newly resuscitated “CCom”. 

Of course, as was pointed during the discussion, some eliminations may be unfair, e.g. those involving people who, for contingent reasons during a certain period, do not reply to emails or participate in events. Besides, in the past, many of the questions put to an email vote have been complex issues that the recipients had no immediate and easy response to, and therefore could not answer right away or chose to remain silent.   So the Communicator must use discretion in deciding who to eliminate. 

An alternative could be to send announcements and discussion issues to everyone in the current Core Group (as we have been doing up to now), but to count on answers only from those two or three active members who respond always and promptly and will therefore be considered, de facto, the newly resuscitated “Ccom”.

A trial period based on these decisions will soon – or at least by the time the next general meeting is held – help us determine whether this will create a more effective operational method.

3) Stop war on Iran – solidarity action on Feb. 4
The Answer Coalition in the U.S. will be holding a demonstration in Washington, D.C. this Saturday to protest U.S. threats of war against Iran (and Syria), and solidarity protests and rallies will take place in cities across the U.S..  We will do a photo-op at 4pm in front of the Map Wall on Via dei Fori Imperiali, with signs expressing our solidarity with the Washington NOWAR protest. Anna will send out a notice to the mailing list announcing this initiative.

Big thanks to Maria for the hospitality and the lentil soup, Maria Chiara for the exquisite Gaeta pie, and everyone else who chipped in goodies for the potluck dinner.

Next general meeting: date to be announced. Join our mailing list for updates.

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