AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION         

                                                             of Champaign County

 

                                                               Steering Committee

                                                                 October 4, 2007

 

Present: Bill Brown,, Susan Cohen, Elaine Gehrmann, Ward Henson, Carol Inskeep, Esther Patt, Richard Schnuer, Carol Spindel, Shirley Stillinger,

  

The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. by the chair, Esther Patt.  The June minutes were approved with this correction: Yohnka is the correct spelling; the September minutes were approved with this correction: the date in the heading should be September 6, not 9.

 

Reports

 

a)  Treasurer: Ward distributed the report showing total assets of $2,991.62.

 

b) Illinois Division: Esther participated in a conference call with the chapters.  The Civil Unions Bill is one focus of current ACLU work.

 

c) Law School chapter: they are interested in more than criminal justice, especially in increasing their membership.

 

New Business

 

a) A teacher at Uni High has expressed interest in the Freedom Files DVD, which we gave to the local public high schools.  Bill will order the two-DVD set; Carol will get it to the teacher for           the school library.

 

b) Fall gathering, Sunday, October 28 at Carol Spindel’s

Carol will get the wine, glasses, and paper goods.

Ward will set up a table to check people in; he will bring name tags and membership applications

A sign-up sheet for food to bring was passed around.

 

c) Unity March, noon, Saturday, October 13

We agreed on-line to be a sponsor of this march.  We agreed to donate $25.

 

d) Ideas for an issues forum:  the committee agreed on a forum on hate speech with a pane representing various points of view.  Carol Inskeep will coordinate.  Date for the forum:sometime late January or early February.

 

e) Speaker for the annual meeting in April: Esther will try again to get Susan Thistlethwaite.

 

f) The Champaign County Public Defender, Randy Rosenbaum, will attend our December meeting. At the November meeting, we will make a list of subjects we would like him to speak about to give to him in advance.