September 9 Meeting Notes

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Please note that each transition in the Agenda is noted below by five words in bold. To match the below with the Agenda, please see the Agenda at the bottom of these meeting notes.

We started the meeting with extra time for members to meet and the music video Frozen to help us begin "on the peace frequency."

Mary Wind facilitated the meeting. She started by reviewing the agenda and meeting objectives. Mary reminded attendees to complete the new member database forms and update the “Group Contacted for the Week of Peace” lists. She next reviewed accomplishments since our last meeting. Accomplishments include:

* Teach Peace's Nadia McCaffry met last Thursday with General Paul Monroe to discuss opposing the Iraq War and will speak together at the Unitarian Church in Berkeley on Sept 15th.

* Teach Peace's Tom & Dar King, and Larry White met on August 29th with Matsui's office to intro Teach Peace and discuss establishing the Department of Peace.

* Teach Peace's International President, Ruben Arvizu, presented Teach Peace at the Humanist Movement in Bogotá, Columbia on Sept 8 th.

* Teach Peace has made major online enhancements to our educational videos and other resources as well as the online store.

* Teach Peace’s Steve Reed introduced Teach Peace to Revs. Michael and Faith Moran, Spiritual Life Center, Sacto. Future interactions with members will follow as a result.

* Teach Peace's Savi and the entire Interfaith working group has pulled together informative educational resources that will be posted online.

* Teach Peace's David spoke at St Anthony's Church, Peace & Justice Committee last Thursday to intro Teach Peace. Future interactions with members will follow as a result.

Other accomplishments were noted like Davis Mayor Sue Greenwald agreed to declare teach peace Week at our October 1 dinner.

Kalmran explained how to use technology for announcements and threaded discussions. Members were taught the benefits of a Listserve and how a Listserve differs from sending e-mail messages. Specifically, Kalmram said imagine a Listserve is a box and you can choose to get what you want and even get a daily or weekly summary. He noted that the disadvantage of the summary options is this is not practical if you wish to participate in threaded discussions. Following this discussion, Kalmran said he would set up two Listserve options to split announcements and discussions.

To begin using the Listserve, go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/freedomfromwar. The Listserve is also now on the Teach Peace Join page.

The Listserve is the way we will manage most announcements going forward. We are growing at a fast rate and it is more efficient to use this technology for announcements. We will continue to do our best to facilitate special announcements and announcements for people who are not online with a card that can be completed before Teach Peace meetings.

Mary passed the Passport sold list and members updated it. We still have our work cut out for us to sell Passports. The “Group Contacted for the Week of Peace” list was also circulated to make sure everyone updated this list. The updates are reflected on the Teach Peace website and you can click here to go directly to this page.

Steve explained that Passports can turned into individual tickets by doing the following three things.

1. Change the $50 in the upper left hand corner to $15 or the appropriate amount collected.

2. Put in X mark in the events they are not paying to attend.

3. Write Teach Peace in the space on the back to indicate where the donation should be directed (as the business model is only for Passports to be eligible for donation to other organizations and individual tickets help pay for the dinner and other expenses associated with running each event).

Steve then showed everyone the Donation Instruction Form. You can access it by clicking here.

Steve also explained that to direct the $50 Passport to another organization, both the original Passport and a Donation Instruction Form must be completed and return to Teach Peace at the address specified on the Donation Instruction Form. All forms must be postmarked by November 7, 2006 as we will be promptly completing the donation forwarding process.

Dave Dionisi demonstrated the new online store to complement the Gift of Hope “printed” Catalogue. The process to buy tickets for the Week of Peace, especially individual event tickets, was demonstrated. To experience the demonstration, visit www.teachpeace.com and click one of the Gift of Hope Catalogue and online store links. You can go through the shopping experience and stop when you see the final “confirmation screen” (or finish the process and help Teach Peace with operating funds).

Mary Wind gave a dynamic presentation that highlighted how Teach Peace is different than other peace organizations. She stressed the message:

1. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

2. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

3. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

4. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

5. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

6. We are teachers. Let the students come to us.

The point is saying and writing this six times is we may not feel we are making a difference the first time we communicate a message. Some messages need to be repeated before they take root. Furthermore, we have to position ourselves so that it is easy for students to want to come to us. Therefore, be joyful and passionate in your efforts to promote the Week of Peace.

We are the service organization that teaches peace to individuals and organizations. WE TEACH PEACE! is our new organizational message and will be highlighted on our website and stationary. We teach peace by developing and documenting best practices with an open source methodology so that educational material can be delivered in the way that makes sense (e.g., in print or if a video via the Internet).

Our target market is defined in detail on our site at http://www.teachpeace.com/targetmarkets.htm and can be summed up as: People who would like a world free from war. We help both individuals wake up and “people who are serving our world.”

We are joyful and result/outcome driven.

Mary updated the group that we have Teach Peace flyers (2 page version, 1 page version and an event specific version), plus the Teach Peace brochures, Week of Peace schedule cards, September Newsletter, the website (with FAQs and a “how to promote” Toolkit), and the Passport itself to communicate with others.

She reviewed what the Passport is and stressed that individual tickets can be sold. She noted that it is helpful to let us know who you sold the Passport to but this is not required.

Mary recommended that everyone send an e-mail to everyone they know and ask that person to forward the email to everyone they know. She asked us to get an announcement in church / organization newsletters. She also asked us to put flyers in coffee shops, gyms and on message boards. Her ideas including asking newspapers if they will mention the Week of Peace and for us to call in during radio & TV shows to promote the Week of Peace.

Mary asked that we each commit to taking action on three ideas.

She then did a fabulous job of demonstrating how to discuss the Week of Peace with others to reinforce the Promoting A Week Of Peace Passports Toolkit. Click here for the Toolkit with steps and tips. Following this demonstration Mary noted that we have permission to hand out the information at Nugget and the Davis Food Coop at the following dates and times.

Nugget (East Covell)

1. Saturday 9/16, Mike & Mary, 11 am – 1 pm

2. Saturday 9/16, __________________, 1 pm – 3 pm

3. Sunday 9/17, Mary + _____________, 11 am – 1 pm

4. Sunday 9/17, Bill B. + _____________, 1 pm – 3 pm

5. Saturday 9/23, ___________________, 11 am – 1 pm

6. Saturday 9/23, ___________________, 1 pm – 3 pm

7. Sunday 9/24, _____________________, 11 am – 1 pm

8. Sunday 9/24, _____________________, 1 pm – 3 pm

9. Friday 9/29, ______________________, 3 pm – 7 pm

For the Davis Food Coop, the schedule is:

1. Friday 9/22, Rodney R. & Sandy W., 3 pm – 7 pm

2. Saturday 9/23, Carie M & Katie B., 11 am – 3 pm

3. Sunday 9/24, Karen B. & Mary Anne, 11 am – 3 pm

4. Friday 9/29, Jimmy Spearow, 3 pm – 7 pm

We can distribute information at UC Davis and Jimmy and Dave volunteered. If you work near or at UC Davis, please consider taking a lunch hour to walk around campus and give students the small announcement cards. If you need these cards, call Dave at 758-2362.

Dave noted that Teach Peace members can hand out material and talk with people at the Farmers Market at any Wednesday or Saturday Farmers’ Market. If a Teach Peace member wants to set up a canopy and table, they should contact Dave at 758-2362 but this is not required do get the word out at the Farmers’ Market.

We are here to teach peace so that peace organizations can apply best practices.

Mary presented the annual meeting schedule. Except for October, the time for each meeting is 1-3:30 p.m. and they are normally the first Saturday of the month. The dates are: October 3^rd (Tuesday and 7 p.m.), November 4, December 2, January 6, 2007, February 3, March 3, April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, August 4 and September 8. Additional details including meeting agendas will be sent to you in advance of each meeting.

We ended the meeting with a beautiful song by Pink called Dear Mr. President.

Please send additions and corrections to these notes to ddionisi@sbcglobal.net.

Thank you to everyone! When you work for peace we all win when all is said and done!

Peace, Dave Dionisi

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Agenda From the September 9 Meeting - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear friends,

Thank you to everyone who participated in our September 9, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. meeting. If you missed our September meeting, please read the meeting notes at www.teachpeace.com/september9meeting.htm.

Our next official Teach Peace event is the Week of Peace starting on October 1. Click here for event details and more information.

Agenda

1:00 Welcome / month in review - Mary W.

1:25 Agenda overview, facility layout and Teach Peace general update - Mary W.

1:35 Using Technology For Announcements - Kalmran A.

1:45 Week of Peace: Review Passport Distribution Progress, Organizations Contacted, & Raising Awareness - Mary W.

2:30 Explanation of the Donor Instruction Form - Steve R.

2:35 Gift of Hope Catalogue with demonstration of how to use the online store - Dave D.

2:45 Assignments for maximum participation - Mary W.

3:00 Break

3:05 Happy Cricket preview & Toolkit to help schedule showings - Dave D.

3:25 Meeting Wrap Up & Closing Music