meeting notes 5/2/10

Hi OSES!

We got a lot figured out at our Sunday meeting. If you couldn't be there, please help the call-in potluck happen:

-pick up and put up fliers from the mail room once Phoebe tells us they're there
-invite your friends: email them and explain why this is important to you
-make a dish to share! we don't know how many people to expect, but it's good to have lots of food. Be sure to sign up on google docs with what you'll bring when Raquel emails out a sign-up sheet. Co-op leftovers are great! (but remember that lots of food gets thrown out at Sunday commando)
-email your major department admin. assistants to ask them to advertise the event, or do it yourself through Bb (You can use info from Phoebe's poster, and see below for more info you can use.)
-announce the event in your classes, co-ops, other student groups
-ask professors to email their classes
-email list serves

When you do these things, reply all to the group telling us what you've done so we don't hit up the same people.

The event is Monday, May 10, 6pm. Wilder 111 (speakers will begin after everyone helps themselves to food, then we'll stick around to discuss and make phone calls).

specific tasks:
Christina will prepare scripts for who to call and what to say
Julia will email greenscene
Raquel will make a facebook group and send us all a google doc to sign up for food
Phoebe will make posters and put them in the mail room for us to pick up, she'll tell us when that happens

Our next meeting will be Sunday at 1:30 in Int'l House, and the first half will be a joint meeting with NicSis. Then we'll meet for a bit to go over last-minute potluck details (maybe a good time for Raquel, Mari, and Phoebe to coordinate speaking).

THANK YOU! This event is going to be fabulous. Let's spread the word widely.

stickers!

We're doing a sticker campaign at Oberlin to raise awareness about mining in El Salvador. We decided on these stickers (the formatting's a little off here, but you get the idea):

“Podemos vivir sin oro, pero no sin agua” – “We can live without gold, but not without water”

In its 10 years of planned operation, the proposed El Dorado gold mine in El Salvador would use almost 240,000 gallons of water each day—enough in just one day to provide water for a Salvadoran family for 30 years. (CISPES)

Check out Headwaters to read more about El Salvador and mining.

Oberlin in Solidarity with El Salvador, Spring 2010

"Podemos vivir sin oro, pero no sin agua” – “We can live without gold, but not without water”

The proposed El Dorado gold mine in El Salvador would use 38 tons of cyanide per day, which could contaminate river water, soil, and air, and cause health problems like brain and heart damage. (CISPES)

Check out Headwaters to read more about El Salvador and mining.

Oberlin in Solidarity with El Salvador, Spring 2010

I called Pacific Rim to protest unjust gold mining in El Salvador.

Call Barbara Henderson, Vice President of Investor Relations at Pacific Rim Mining and tell her that the company has the moral responsibility to leave Cabañas immediately. Dial 1- (888) 775-7097, then press 1.

Oberlin in Solidarity with El Salvador, Spring 2010

Since 2005, community organizing efforts have successfully blocked Canadian Pacific Rim Mining Corporation’s application for gold mining permits in Cabañas, El Salvador. In response, death threats, kidnapping attempts and assassinations against anti-mining activists continue. Pacific Rim has retaliated by filing a $77 million lawsuit against El Salvador for denying gold mining permits, using the Central America Free Trade Agreement’s (CAFTA) investor protections provisions. (CISPES)

Check out Headwaters to read more about El Salvador and mining.

Oberlin in Solidarity with El Salvador, Spring 2010

meeting notes 4/18/10

Sticker campaign:
Casey will check on how to make stickers at copy shop (done)
decided to concentrate on mining
can make "I called Pacific Rim to protest..." stickers, too.

Call-in potluck:
6pm May 10
Marlee will check on food policy for Wilder (done: reserved room in Wilder)
plan publicity at next meeting
Mari will make a 8.5x11 poster using the great photo she has
student panel: Mari, Raquel, Phoebe(?)
we'll all make food
advertise: classes, listservs, majors, 8.5x11s around
put the date in Headwaters article
Phoebe said over email tabling could be good

Headwaters article:
in the revisions process, will come out in the next couple weeks

Nicsis update:
working on banana stuff, probably interested in doing stickers along with us
decided to have a joint meeting where we update each other and brainstorm
possibility to do tabling together: bananas and mining stuff

Meeting notes 4/11/10

- By the next meeting, will have facts about impact of US consumerism on ES for sticker campaign:
• · consumption & policy: drugs/weapons (Emma, email Meredith), tobacco (Casey), gold/mining/CAFTA/Pacific Rim (Christina), coffee (Laura), Immigration policy & gangs (Raquel)
• · anyone else who is committed to a certain fact being around campus should definitely bring it to the next meeting!
- Mining article: Phoebe and Mari are coordinating: they are awesome.
- Call-in day potluck:
• · Christina will email CISPES to find out when the next national call-in day is and book Int'l House for that day
• · How to get the word out:
o o little flyers
o o facebook
o - class announcements, majors emails, word of mouth
- Need an update by next week on speaker ideas from Meredith and Julia. Would love to do something with mining. If we can't get a speaker, we could do something else:
• · maybe a student forum
• · maybe a teach in
• - or a panel: Volk, ENVS teacher, oses folks
-sign up for the blog! if you become a member, you can make posts to your heart's content!
-Next meeting Sunday, 4/18/10 7:00-7:45pm Int'l House. Sticker facts "due." Distributing the stickers the week after.

meeting notes 3/10/10

This was a great meeting! We agreed on several things we want to do this semester and different people volunteered to start working on them. Meredith, Marlee, Julia, Cyndi, Mari, Nick, Casey, Emma, and I were there (am I missing anyone?).

We were excited about a sticker campaign, and we all decided to find a fact or two about coffee, gold, bananas, drugs, etc. that would inform students of our $'s impact on Central America/El Salvador. Someone said they already had a list of facts... who was that? Cyndi, maybe?

We also want to do call-in days for the mining issue, and Mari suggested doing them at potlucks. We liked that idea.

We were also into bringing a speaker to talk about Pacific Rim--mining--political violence--El Salvador one night, and do a follow-up discussion over lunch the next day with that speaker, as Sam suggested at an earlier meeting.

Meredith says she knows someone who might be a good speaker to bring to talk about mining and the Honduras coup. Julia also had an idea of someone to contact.

Marlee told us about the Nicaragua Sister Co-op Project bananas event happening tomorrow, and we decided to co-sponsor it.

Julia also suggested writing a mining piece for Headwaters, the new environmental magazine. Mari told us she's working on a piece about Pacific Rim for a politics class, and that she'd be interested in turning that into an article to reach a broader audience. Phoebe had also expressed interest in that at an earlier meeting, so maybe some collaboration can happen.

Emma found some information about the Peace Potlucks for us, in case we want to try to collaborate with them when our speaker comes.

We talked about other things, too, but I don't have the notes with me -- so definitely comment with other things that came up and that people volunteered to do!

In other news: Sofia agreed to be our treasurer! Congrats, Sofia! And thanks. Casey knows a lot about how to work with SFC from Oberlin Peace Activists League, and volunteered to be a resource for Sofia.

We decided our next meeting will be this Wednesday, 3/24, at Tank lunch. Nick's going to facilitate and send out a reminder email. Then after break we'll switch the meetings to every other Sunday at 7pm in International House.

welcome! bienvenidos!

Here it is! A blog for OSES, so we can communicate with those involved on campus at Oberlin College, OSES alumni, santamarteños, other salvadoreños, related organizations, etc. Adelante!