This was our first meeting at 8:00pm. Overall, the time change seems to be a good thing, although we still need to boost our attendence a little more. We are currently calling former CHANGE members/supporters to inform them of the time change and invite them to our meetings.

ATTENDANCE
Facilitator-Julie L.
Notetaker-Mike
Timekeeper-Megan
Vibeswatcher-?
Bottomliner-Megan
Treasurer-Chandler, Megan
Code of Conduct bottomliner-Megan
Webmaster-Mike

ANNOUNCEMENTS
-Living wage action postponed due to lack of available people (Please come to our general meeting at 7:00 PM on Thurs March 21st in Rm. 314 so we can make this happen!)

-Teach-in on Guantanamo Bay "detainees": 7:00 PM on 3rd floor of Student Center (look by elevator for room number)--put on by Amnesty International

-CHANGE is invited to speak at a rally for farm workers in Columbus on March 23rd. Megan will find out more details.

-May 4th Commemorative Student Activism Scholarship: applications and details available at the Office of Campus Life (questions? Call May 4th Task Force at 672-3096)

-International Women's Day on Friday, March 8th: big events in Cleveland.

-CHANGE will not have a table at Flash Fest because we decided it wasn't worth the $10 fee.

AGENDA
I. Code of Conduct
II. New Era
III. Mexico workers
IV. April 4

I. Code of Conduct
-The first meeting of 2002 fair working conditions committee was held. In attendence: Pat Coy, Megan Z., Vickie (graduate student, Elaine Williams, and Jim Watson. They created an agenda, got some books, and looked at Bowling Green's code of conduct/process. The committee will continue to meet.

-The shirts from the fair trade factory in Oaxaca are not in yet. They will be a few more weeks.

-On February 28th, KSU signed a contract with the Liscensing Resource Group (to handle paperwork for liscencing stuff). That means that the new contracts should have been issued recently to the liscensees, and they will have one month to agree to the code of conduct or terminate their contract with KSU.

II. New Era
-Jim Watson claims that KSU no longer has a contract with New Era, but there is evidence to the contrary. Anna and Megan are trying to confirm the facts. Meanwhile, we are still planning a campaign against them.

-Mike created a press release to be sent to the Stater, TV2, and WKSU. The release was approved by the group. Dave volunteered to be a contact/interviewee. We are waiting to hear from Rachel Graci to see if her father, a striking New Era worker, is willing to talk to the Stater.

III. Mexico Workers
-United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is hosting a tour through the midwest of a worker and an organizer from the FAT, the authentic labor from of mexico. They would like us to host a speech when they are in the northeast Ohio area on April 18th. Ideally they would like a $200 honorarium, but if we can't come up with the money, it's not a big deal. They will also need a place to stay, along with the 2 USAS reps (total of 4 people). Brian from IRTF offered to help with turn-out.

-We agreed to do it. Mike emailed Lenore Pallidino from (USAS) to let her know we're interested, and to make sure they still wanted to come. Megan will ask SALSA if they want to co-sponsor the event and contribute financially. Anna will ask the International Students in Education and International Students. We might also raise money for the speakers via voluntary donations at the event itself. Once we get a confirmation from Lenore, we will reserve a room and a microphone.

*****We need volunteers to house the 4 of them for one night. ANY TAKERS?*****

IV. April 4
Tom, who is in charge of ordering books and works in the bookstore from 11-8 on Mondays should be contacted about ordering Zinn books.
There was A LOT OF STUFF that we talked about in regards to April 4. If I missed anything, please send the missing info to the listserv.
-The Kent State Anti-War Committee and Student Anti-Racist Action will both endorse the event and have a table at the rally.
-Julie G. will talk to Liz from Late Night soon.
-Casey went to North Carolina (?) and may be there for a couple weeks. He has not been in contact with us lately. We decided to let Chandler take over his role as overall bottomliner for April 4th since we don't know what Casey is doing.

*Rally:
Bottomliner: Mike
Help Mike organize! Email him at mpesa@kent.edu to get involved, to suggest a speaker, etc.

-We need speakers, groups to table, etc.
-Mike talked to scheduling and is filling out the paperwork to reserve the plaza.

*Advertising/Promotion:
Bottomeliner: Anna
Help Anna advertise! Email Anna at pinchthedevil@hotmail.com

-We will advertise in the Daily Kent Stater, and possibly the Free Times. We will also send out press releases to local media outlets, and probably do a mass-flyering campaign.
-Mike will get a copy of our spending allowances from Judy Ripple. Due to schedule conflicts with Ripple's office hours, it may take until Wednesday to get it.
-Other things that were mentioned included hand-bills and chalking.
-We will ask Julie G. to make a flyer as soon as the co-sponsors, rally time, etc. are finalized.
-Please tell everyone you know (and even people you don't know) about the events so we can make April 4th 2002 a big success!

*Rovics Money:
-We do not have yet enough money to pay David Rovics. Rovics is asking for $500 for the performance + $200 for travel/lodging expenses (for a total of $700). Megan was not sure how much money CHANGE has left in our treasury, but it is between $100 and $350 (probably closer to $100). -This money cannot be allocated by USS because he is part of the same event (Howard Zinn) that was already allocated. Rovics may be willing to do with a little bit less, but not much less, because performing is his only source of income. If we cannot get enough money in time, he might have to cancel on us.
He does not yet know that we don't have the money, and has been advertising our event on his website and email list.
-Megan will ask Cleveland Jobs with Justice for money. We threw around the idea of asking the Green Party of Ohio, and progressive Cleveland congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Sherrod Brown to financially contribute, but I don't think anyone actually volunteered to get in touch with them.

*****IF ANYONE READING THIS IS ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE SOME MONEY TOWARD THIS, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH US!*****

*Tickets:
-We have gotten several requests wanting to know about tickets for Howard Zinn. People are planning to come from out of state and want to make sure they have tickets reserved. One person even called the scheduling office from a guy in GEORGIA saying he was going to drive up here to see Zinn and wanted tickets.
-Mike will ask Judy Ripple from Campus Life what the rules are regarding tickets.
-We decided to informally reserve tickets for people by writing their names down and withholding that many tickets from sales. We probably will NOT be publicly selling tickets in advance though. Tickets will be sold at the door.
-There is room for 1,000 people in the Ballroom, so we don't expect to have a shortage of seats.
-Tickets will be free for KSU students and $5 for all others.

*Website:
-I updated the website a little bit over the last week, but we need to put a lot more information about April 4th on there. Last year the website served as an up-to-date information center during our rapidly changing schedule. Hopefully the schedule will be less turbulent this year, but I am sure that an online schedule will still be very helpful.
-Julie L. volunteered to bottomline the April 4th section of the website. If anyone else would like to help, please get in touch with Julie L. or Mike.

*Benefit:
-The benefit concert will be held on Friday, April 5th. Julie G. will bottomline. Time and location to be announced. We are in contact with Late Night Christian Fellowship, who have offered to host the benefit again. If you have ideas for musicians or anything else, email Julie G. at jgumerma@kent.edu

*Showcase/Banner:
-Mike reserved the display case by the Hub (under the map of the world) for the week of April 4th. We will use it to promote our events. We can't have a banner in the normal location outside the Student Center because the Indian Students Association beat us to the chase.
-Mike will see if there is anywhere else where we can (legally) hang our April 4th banner.

*Workshops/speakers/etc.:
-Apart from the rally, Howard Zinn, and the benefit, we will also be doing some other events the week of April 4th.
-We decided to do them all on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (or maybe just Thursday and Friday)

Some ideas we proposed:
-a workshop: possible topics include living wages, New Era, sweatshops
-videos (keep it down to 2 or 3 this time): maybe "Life and Debt" and "Trading Democracy".

*Documentary:
-Some guy wants to follow Howard Zinn around on April 4th and videotape him for a documentary he is making. We are trying to get him in touch with Zinn to get Zinn's permission.

Probable Topics for Next Weeks Agenda: April 4th, New Era, and Mexico Workers