Champaign County ACLU Steering Committee
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Room 3405 Siebel Building
The meeting was called to order at 7:05PM
In Attendance: Bill Brown, president, Stuart Laird, Esther Patt,
Stephen Portnoy, Carol Leff, Richard Schnuer, Carol Inskeep, Faruq
Nelson, Bob Illyes, Paul Debevec, Ward Henson.
1. Approval of minutes of May meeting
2. Announcements & Communications
a) Update on finances Treasurer Steve Portnoy reported on the
moving our Busey savings account to Busey checking to consolidate funds
available. Current balance is about $2,400.
b) There were no Law School Chapter & Student Chapter reports
c) IL Division chapters conference call, legislation, other communications
Ongoing issue concerns included, the legal issues surrounding the
videorecording of police operations (including the Martell Miller
eavesdropping case)
d) Norton award. The Norton Award for service to the chapter was
presented to Ward Henson, who was leaving the area after years of ACLU
service. Ward had been unable to attend the annual meeting where the
award was officially announced.
e) ACLU-IL guide to Civil Unions: civilunions.aclu-il.org—could be distributed at our table at Farmers’ market.
3. Old Business
a) Follow-up on dorm protest action & arrest—charges were dropped
b) Rights of protestors—In light of the arrests in campus dorms
this spring, we returned to the discussion of the need for information
on the rights of protestors, perhaps in a quiz format. Such information
could be distributed at our table at farmers’ market and other venues.
The value of a public forum on the issues surrounding First Amendment
rights to protest was again agreed upon, although without any specific
planning.
4. New Business
a) New member Faruq Nelson was introduced to the steering committee.
b) Relationship with east-Central Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (eCISSA)
Stuart Laird initiated extensive discussion of the local ACLU
relationship with the eCISSA alliance, which we agreed should deal with
policy/school programming in a clear structure, but not with the
student-led social networking. Need for development of curriculum and
in-service training.
c) Market at the Square June 25th – information, ideas
d) July 4th parade—Carol Inskeep will follow up on the July 4th parade if there is sufficient interest
e) Bill Brown circulated a letter from Garth Minor, Champaign
Community Relations specialist, thanking us for our input on the city’s
Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Pamphlet. Specifics of the
response in the attached letter.
5. Adjournment at 8:38 PM
Next meeting: September 1
Roger Baldwin Bill of Rights Celebration: September 24th
Fall meetings:
October 6th
November 3rd
December 1st