We had an excellent meeting of the UN 69th Committee on Thursday evening, June 5th. In attendance were
From UU-UNO and other UU Church members
Liz Cormier
Melvin Starks
Larry Danos
Mary Jane Mikuriya with guest Katie from Manchester England
Natalie Shuttleworth
Marlowe (sp? last name?)
From UNA-SF
Roger Eaton
Elizabeth Weinberg and guest Takashi Tanemori
Did I miss anyone?
Roger went over the role of the UNA Council of Organizations (COO) as a partner with the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Organization (UU-UNO) to have a successful UN 69th Anniversary Luncheon at the UU Church on Sunday October 19th with the theme of Human Rights. The general outline we had already developed for the event was that there would be a Keynote speaker and then we would break out into pre-arranged discussion groups, one group per round table. Since UU-UNO is a member of the COO, it was understood that this was a cooperative effort all around.
The good news was that Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange has agreed to be our keynote speaker. Larry Danos has seen her speak at several events and endorsed her as an excellent choice for keynoter. She has two focuses, Community Rights and the Rights of Nature. We thought we should be sure to ask her to weave into her talk the global role of the United Nations. Shannon had requested $150 contribution to Global Exchange but had said this was not a requirement. Liz thought we might be able to raise the money from the UU Church. Roger suggested $100 since it would be easier to ask the Church for that smaller round amount, so Roger will ask Shannon if $100 is OK. (Email to Shannon has been sent - she is out of town in Mendecino County on Community Rights business until Monday.)
We will combine outreach for the UN 69th luncheon with outreach for the COO with a target of at least doubling our membership from six organizations to twelve. Outreach will be primarily to Bay Area Human Rights organizations, but also, in the spirit of promoting the history of the United Nations, to local chapters of national NGOs which were original members of the UNA-USA Council of Organizations, such as the League of Women Voters. See the list at http://www.unausa.org/membership/council-of-organizations/council-of-organization-members. Those organizations with an asterisk by their name were founding COO members. MaryJane thought it important that the recruited organizations use the luncheon as a way of getting better acquainted with each other. To this end Roger suggested when we reach out, we ask for two members at least from each organization to attend, one to lead a table in breakout discussion on a topic of interest to the organization, and one to sit at another table for cross-fertilization. Also for each table, we need someone to take notes and write them up afterwards. (There will be too many tables for each table to report back, so we will publish the notes instead.)
In the course of discussion it became clear that if we are going to have a full house, then there is going to be an awkward break after the Keynote and after lunch. The event will be in the Starr King room at the UU Church. There will be sixteen round tables that can handle 8 persons around each. However, only seven can fit around when people are eating. Also, sixteen tables in discussion at the same time in the same room will make it too hard to hear across the table. So we have two transitions that we need to make when we begin the breakout discussions.
After lunch, we will need to shift several tables into the Martin Luther King Room through the open sliding doors that are between the two rooms. Details tba. (;-)
We decided on two future meetings - dates are tentative still - a notice will go out early next week to confirm or shift them: Thursday July 10 at 6:00 pm at the UU Church will be our next UN 69th meeting. We will want our COO outreach Committee to join us. Then Tuesday, August 19th also at UU Church, our next COO general meeting. Doors open at 5:30, meeting begins at 6:00 with potluck. We will want to have done a lot of our outreach by then and to have new organizational representatives in attendance. The Action focus of the general meeting will be UN 69th, andt with Elizabeth’s help, we hope to have Mary-Frances Wain, UNA-USA Deputy Exec Dir to be our “Vision” speaker - she is very good at how to organize.
Other Ideas that came out in the course of the meeting:
* Secure copies of the excellent book “United Nations at a Glance” and have a stack of them for sale at the Oct 19th Luncheon. (Liz Cormier also mentioned Dean Acheson’s “Present at the Creation” - his memoir about his years in the State Department from 1941 until the end of Truman’s Presidency.)
* Get a film about the UN from the New York UN Department of Public Information (DPI) Office.
* We will use tickets from Eventbrite and also sell tickets at the door if there are spaces available.
* We need COO business cards.
Please reply by InterMix to fill in what I missed in my notes and to extend the discussion.
Oh and here is the link to the UNA Gender Crosstalk. UNA-SF is going to receive the annual Eames Communication Award given to one UNA Chapter at the annual meeting -- largely for our Gender Crosstalk Initiative. Please link in and leave your message of 150 words or less addressed to the Exec Dir of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Thanks so much,
--Roger Eaton
+1 415 933 0153
rogerweaton@gmail.com
