Minutes. March Meeting

Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting held on 9 March 2016

1.Present: Margaret George, Linnea Glynne-Rule, Karen Cooper, Wailim Wong, Megan Bridgeland, Georgie Wong, Chris Clarke, Shirley Sweeney, Chris Ramsey.

2.Apologies:  Hetty Tye

3.Matters arising from the minutes of 10 Feb 2016:

Item 3: Linnea pointed out that the annual subscription is £7.50, not £7.00. 5d: Wailim will contact the festivals. 6: Karen has put the ‘success stories’ in the cathedra. Chris is revamping the information poster and having it printed. He is looking into ways of making our identity more obvious on the table.

4. Secretary's report:

The Monthly Action for March contained various strands –

1. on Syria there is a call to contact our MPs to ensure that the UK’s input to the peace process currently underway in Geneva includes Human Rights benchmarks. There were 2 letters to be signed to S Newton and Karen and Linnea have done copies for their MPs;
2. early forced marriage and FGM. We are invited to participate it a campaign being launched in April. From April to July the Dept for International Development will double any money raised by Amnesty. It was agreed that Margaret will email to get us included and that the proceeds of the street collection on Sat 11 June can be used for this.
3. We were encouraged to take part in an action for International Women’s day on 8 March. This came too late for the current meeting. It was agreed that Wailim will keep a calendar of significant dates and put them on the agenda well in advance so that we can plan better.

5. Treasurer’s report: Linnea reported that we have £899.40. She has paid the rent for our new venue which costs more than the previous one (£25 as compared with £15). Shirley very generously offered to pay the difference for the year, and this was gratefully received.

6.    Campaigns and Individuals at Risk:

i. Georgie reported on Central America. Good news is that in Guatemala there have been guilty verdicts against 2 members of the military who had been responsible for women being held as sex slaves. In Honduras there has been the murder of prominent Human Rights and environmental defender Berta Caceres. This despite the fact that she was supposed to be under police protection. Georgie had brought a letter to the Honduran embassy to be signed.

ii. there were no new reports on N Africa or on Israel and the Occupied territories

iii. Stop Torture. Wailim had a petition to HM Government to call for an enquiry into British involvement in rendition. Chris said that there would be meetings at the AGM concerning Stop Torture and the campaign may be going to continue as regards the UK and N Africa.

iv. My body my rights. There was no update from Lucky.

v. Former Soviet Union: Margaret had brought a letter to sign on behalf of journalists in Azerbaijan.

7. Future events:

1. The Perranporth St Piran’s event went well and got into the Packet and a mention in the Cornish Independent.
2. The walk is scheduled for Sun 22 May.
3. Street collection in Truro is 11 June.
4. It was agreed to ask for another Mayor’s Coffee Morning, maybe in August. Maybe do something creative at it (badgemaking/ facepainting?)
5. Other ideas included: a) a proposal by Shirley to ask for collections to be held at Morrisons and Sainsbury’s in Newquay. She had already approached the managers and needed official letters for the secretary. Margaret would write the letters and send them to Shirley. b) One World week c) a musical event possibly in Falmouth at ‘Beerwolf’ – Karen and Megan to investigate this venue. It was agreed that Chris would ask Farshid to email all AI supports in Falmouth to alert them to our presence and possible plans for action in Falmouth.

8. Motions to the AGM.

Chris and Wailim are attending the AGM. Chris will take the Group’s votes and vote following discussion of the motions. For guidance, and as a guidance to individual members who may want to vote online we took a position on several of the Motions. (individual members may of course vote exactly as they themselves decide). The following are Motions which we discussed.

S1 support

S4 support

S7 support

S10 oppose

A1 support

S2 support

S5 oppose

S8 oppose

S11 oppose

A4 oppose

S3 support

S6 oppose

S9 oppose

S12 undecided

9. Date of next meeting: Wed 13 April at the Methodist Church, Union Place, Truro