This is going out to the UN 70th subgroup of the COO.
Attending:
Liz Cormier of Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church United Nations Office (UNO)
Larry Danos of UU UNO
Mary Jane Mikuriya of UU UNO
Roger Eaton of UNA-SF
Eliz Weinberg of UNA-SF / UNA-NorCal
Takashi Tanemori of Silkworm Institute
The purpose of the meeting was to revisit plans for the UN 69th Anniversary Celebration at the UU Church set for Oct 19, 2014.
We first discussed the possibility of bringing the annual DPI NGO Convention to San Francisco for October, 2015. This is a real possibility, but we agreed that a San Francisco team had to be pulled together soon if we are going to have any chance of making it happen. Eliz is looking for others to join her on such a team.
Then we took up the question of a theme for the UN 69th Celebration at UU Church. Possibilities considered were 1) Climate Change, 2) Gender Equality, 3) the structure of the UN - the veto - the unfulfilled "San Francisco Promise" to hold a review of the veto in 1955, 4) Human Rights and 5) the Intersection of Human Rights and the Environment.
It came down to either Human RIghts or the Intersection of Human Rights and the Environment and by a close 3 to 2 votes the decision went to Human Rights. So that is our theme.
At the urging of the UU folks, who know better the limitations of the venue, we downsized and shortened the celebration to a lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 in the Starr King room with round tables. The plan is to have a keynote speech followed by breakout discussions at each table, where the tables will be labeled with their discussion topic, so people can sit where their interest lies. After the breakouts, each table will report back. (Cearly one of the breakout tables will have the intersection of Environment and Human Rights as its topic of discussion.)
Although the MLK and Starr King rooms have a separator that can be pulled back, it is not possible for the keynoter to speak to both rooms, so we will meet in the larger Starr King room. With round tables, the room will accomodate about 150 - we need to pin this down.
So we have a downsized, but very doable celebration coming for UN 69th.
We want to put together a team of at least five. The three UU folks will be part of the team, so we need two volunteers from the larger COO. Please reply here or let me know via phone or email if you can be a COO stalwart volunteer for the 69th.
-- Roger Eaton
415 933 0153
rogerweaton@gmail.com
