December 2018. Minutes

Truro and District Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting held on 12 Dec 2018

1. Present: Margaret George, Georgie Wong, Linnea Glynne-Rule, Meike Koops, Carole Liesse.

2. Apologies: Chris Ramsey, Hetty Tye, Karen Cooper, Wailim Wong, Shirley Sweeney.

3. Matters arising from the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 Nov: Meike reported on the Sanctuary conference she attended with Karen on 1^st Dec. Karen reported that it had increased our followers on Twitter. Xmas stalls: we had poor weather for the 2 outdoor stalls, only about half the cards sold (but we can use them next year). A total of £493.96 was collected, £22.05 spent on postage, we estimated that the cost of buying the cards actually sold was about £250. So the profit was £221.  23 Write for Rights cards sent off; several people took the booklets to write from home, and Chris was able to take some to talks he was giving. Margaret had written to S Newton asking her to attend the event at Speakers House on 12 Dec but had no reply. Group name change Margaret had notified Farshid.
4. Secretary’s report: the monthly email had been circulated (but since the meeting it seems that it was the 2017 version. The Dec 2018 is going out with these minutes). There were also copies of Groups News and the Winter edition of the Amnesty Magazine. Advance notice of the AGM and Conference 13-14 April in Nottingham.
5. Treasurer’s report: Karen reported that we have £501.56. There is money to be paid in from Xmas card sales. Chris had had donations of £35 from talks he gave at Truro College, Callywith College and the Quakers. Karen urged the group to do more fundraising. She will be organising the move of the account to the Coop Bank. She will be complaining to HSBC about the difficulties they have caused during a protracted anti-money-laundering procedure we were subjected to.

6. Planning for events

Nae Pasaran film. Margaret had enquired of the Labour Party if they would want to do a joint showing, but equipment is a problem and the person organising films in the past is away now. We hope to follow up by enquiring of a Falmouth film student Meike is in touch with or Higher Town Church, where the vicar is supportive.

Pub Quiz. Meike will check if Chris had found anywhere and will circulate an email to all pub to see if any interested. Carole suggested her partner may be willing to be question master. The provisional date is 7^th Feb.

7. Campaigns

North Africa: Karen reported that the Cambridge group did a poetry reading for Azza Soleiman. She will contact them.

Central America: Georgie reported on 2 letters (both the same) received from Mexico. There is hope that the new President may be able to move ahead with the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students. Re Honduras, there was an excellent article in the Guardian about Berta Careras.

Former USSR: Margaret had brought letters to sign to the Russian Federation.

Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories: Chris had sent the latest newsletter which had been circulated. There was a letter to sign on behalf of Khalida Jarrar, a Palestinian Parliamentarian held in administrative detention.

We discussed the case of the Stansted protesters who blocked a plane deporting migrants and have been found guilty under anti-terrorism laws. Amnesty has a campaign on this on the website

8. Forthcoming events –

1. Amnesty pub quiz: see above item 6.
2. Film ‘Nae Pasaran’: see above item 6
3. Regional Conference: this will be on Sat 9^th March in Exeter.
4. Annual Conference and AGM: 13-14 April in Nottingham.
5. Future Group meetings: it was suggested a) that we move the meeting forward to start at 6.30 if it is OK with the Church. (this has now been checked and it is agreed) b) the meetings should be more active – more speakers, maybe do letter-writing rather than just signing

9. NEXT MEETING: Wed 9^th Jan at 6.30pm, Sambells café, Truro Methodist Church.