Office Person-Nicole
Timekeeper-Mike
Facilitator-Ellen
scribe-Megan
Webmaster-Mike
Code of Conduct Bottomliner-?
Treasurers-?
Vibeswatcher-?

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Sex Talk on 9/23 from 4-6 in the KSC Music/Listening Center. Free food and giveaways.

Speaker 9/18 at 7:00pm in Bowman Hall. Joshua Martin speak about Boise and its affect on trees.

Homecoming is in October.

Write letters to the editor.

AGENDA Coalition for A safe Workplace
Code of Conduct
Fair Trade Coffee
Tabling and Promotion
Focus

Coalition for a Safe Workplace
On Tuesday the coalition held a vigil at the house of the owner of a Espirit Contractors who has continually put the safety of his workers at risk. Three incidents have resulted in the death of three employees in the last eighteen months. They bused in three bus loads of people from Akron to take part in this vigil and protest.

On Wednesday Sept. 25 there will be a protest at the United Church of Christ acroos from Music and Speech. The church has a contract with Duer Contractors who have also endangered the lives of their workers and have shoddy construction. This protest will be at 2:00pm on Wed. at the church. All are encouraged to participate.

Code of Conduct
Jim Watson, the university council, came to update CHANGE about the progress of the code of conduct, a code used to measure the way merchandise sold in the bookstore is produced, and the fair trade shirts.

In January a committee was set up to review the code. A few people were able to show up, but scheduling times was a problem. Jim has since then talked to people on a personal note about their ideas and thoughts. From this the university is waiting to receive approval from the athletic department to place the athletic uniforms and worker uniforms under the code. He believes he will have an answer in the next couple of week, by Oct.11th. The strike within New Era has been negotiated, so we no longer have a need to discuss our plans for this company.

Information from the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), the university's monitoring group for the companies we license our name to, has sent Jim sporadic information through email. Jim has stated we are welcome to see what has been sent from the WRC.

The fair Trade polo shirts in "get-your-gold-on" yellow have been ordered, but university is still waiting to find someone to pay for it. It is about $9,000. Jim, ten days ago, sent a sample shirt to Follet, the owners of the University bookstore, in an attempt to persuade them to purchase the 800 polo shirts. Jim is hopeful that Follet will buy the shirts because the new president of the company is interested in being socially responsible. The lettering on the shirts will then be done in Mogadore. The UCIRI factory in Mexico, where the fair trade t-shirts are made had found a supplier for the tube knit fabric which is used to make t-shirts. This means t-shirts may be a possible purchase in the future. Currently, Jim is waiting to hear from Follet on their decision. There was a suggestion made to write letters to the president of Follet to encourage him to purchase the shirts. His address and information can be found on the Follet website. Ellen will get the information.

A new committee will be formed in January. For the coming semester, a deadline has been set for end of spring semester for the committee to make a decision. Jim is going to email CHANGE a current list of KSU licensees.

Fair Trade Coffee
The parents of the fair trade factory are fair trade coffee workers. UCIRI is a co-operative of farmers in southern Mexico. They live in a mountainous village and are indigenous to the country. For many year coffee farmers have been exploited by large coffee corporations. In response to this the farmers gathered together in the early eighties and began to sell their coffee collectively, side tracking the large corporations. Farmers manage the growing, roasting, and shipping of the coffee. Their efforts have enabled their community to have a school, a health clinic, and provide transportation.

Equal Exchange (EE) is a non-profit organization that works to connect these coffee cooperatives with first world countries. In a highly fluctuating market coffee prices are rarely stable. EE offers these cooperatives a high minimum price for the coffee. If the markets price drops below this price EE will continue to pay the farmers this set price. If the price rises above the set price EE will pay the higher price.

The suggestion has been made that KSU offer fair trade coffee to the university community. The retail price for the coffee is similar to other gourmet coffees and organic options are available. Currently KSU has two or three different coffee brands- Seattle's Best, Starbucks, and other brands sold in the cafeterias.

The final decision about the coffee is to be made by Andrea Spedonis, the Sodexho supervisor for the university. The rumor is she would be willing to talk about this change.

Jim Watson has developed a relationship with EE through his work with the UCIRI factory.

Tabling and Promotion Ideas:
Talk to CACM Nonviolence:Theory and Practice Class- Megan will do.

Tabling- as of yet, no one is really available to do this.

Hang up flyers- Ellen is going to make copies (without bars) and bring them to Mondays meeting.

Chalking- 10:00pm on Sunday Sept. 22, Daniel, Nicole, and Megan will be meeting in front of the student Center to meet to chalk. Daniel will buy the chalk. Join us.

Speaking to people about CHANGE- Monday, meet at 5:00pm by inside doors leading to the HUB.

Letters to the editor

Focus
After some discussion CHANGE has decided to definitely focus on Fair trade coffee. At Monday's meeting we will decide if we would like to work on the Davis Bessie campaign as well. It is a nuclear power plant with all kinds of problems. Mrs. Prez. sits on the board of directors. More information was passed out about the plant to help us determine if this is in our interest.

NEXT WEEK
Davis Bessie
Working Group- Fair Trade Coffee