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Meeting Minutes 2.25.2017

Cumberland Valley Rising
Think Critically. Show Up.
The Ribbon Mill * Meeting Minutes * February 25, 2017

Number of attendees: 213

Welcome and Updates:
  • CVR has been incorporated.
    • Insurance has been applied for
    • 501c4 is in process
  • Meetings will change to Sundays from 1:00 to 3:00 as of March 26th
  • Many thanks to Lauren Martin and Kathy Maxwell for their creation of CVR logos!
    • Lauren’s logo will be used on the website and letterhead, etc.
    • Kathy’s logo will be used for tee shirts, tote bags, etc.
  • Introduction of the Steering Committee with brief biographies
    • Katie Clark, President
    • Gabrielle Trinkle, Vice President
    • Betsy Walters, Secretary
    • Lonna Malmsheimer, Treasurer
    • Maggie Savidakis-Dunn, Webmaster
    • Cate Mellen
    • Bryan Sell
    • Lindsey Mauldin
    • Karen Showalter

Committee Updates (following 45 minute committee meetings)
  • Following a member survey, the Racial Justice committee has divided into two parts.
    • Those interested in concrete action around LGBTQ issues, immigration, etc., have joined the Policy and Advocacy committee. Those interested in research and education will remain in an Education committee, currently participating in a member-facilitated workshop.
  • Elections and Voting note that there are 10 days left to file petitions for upcoming local elections. Candidates for Magisterial District Judge and County Register of Deeds have brought petitions to today’s meeting and request signatures.
  • Membership and Communications requested that members sign up as they wish for the following subcommittees:
    • Meeting set up and staffing
    • Entering new members into the database
    • Social media team
    • Tech tutoring
    • Branding
    • Best practices and internal communication
    • social media practices are already under discussion
  • The Events committee is being co-chaired by Mark Laser and Katie Clark. Members are asked to sign up as they wish for the Fundraising subcommittee and/or the following working groups:
    • Civic Literacy
    • Human Library
    • Fake News panel and presentation
  • Policy and Advocacy broke out into their subcommittee groups, which are broken down as follows:
    • Education/Healthcare (Chair: Molly Wilkinson)
    • Human Rights (Co-Chairs: Anna Drallios and Salim Makhlouf)
    • Environment (Chair: Jeff Adams )
    • Economic Justice (Chair: Jenn Smith)
    • Racial Justice Action (Chair: Lisa Huff)
    • Executive/Administrative Efforts (Chair: Michael Reed)
    • Right now, each of these subcommittees is working on prioritizing issues under each of these categories, identifying actions and urgent requests of the larger CVR group that will be necessary for everyone to take. Additionally, the leadership team of the P/A committee is meeting on Tuesday, Feb 28th to discuss our action items, communications plan, and more. *This meeting was highly successful and we have a good idea of how to spread information/take action moving forward. Also, Karen and I are planning an advocacy training for sometime in March. More to come!

Presentation:
  • Dr. Stephen Biddle, George Washington University, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
  • Terrorism
    • Frustration and anger are understandable, but fear is not. Terrorism is actually a very small scale problem. In 2001, even with the loss of 3,000 on 9/11, fewer people died in the US as a result of terrorism than died of peptic ulcers. Since 2001, only 94 people have died of terrorism here.
    • Terrorism is not irrational; rather it is a means to political or organizational (i.e. recruitment) ends It is an ineffective political tool; only 7% of groups have accomplished what they wanted
    • It is a good recruitment tool, keeping groups in the headlines
    • What can/should the US do? Examples of options being discussed/implemented by the current administration :
      • Target leadership with drone strikes
        • We have been doing this; it is effective at suppressing activity, especially against small or new groups
      • Escalation of military presence in Syria, etc.
        • The issue herein this area is collapse of governance, which has led to civil war in the region. Adding any military presence under 100,000 troops is unlikely to have an effect.
      • Improved border control/extreme vetting
        • We have a substantial vetting process already in effect. Travel bans and more extreme vetting send the message abroad that the US is anti-Muslim
      • Bottom line— Doing a great deal more of what we have already been doing is likely to have more downside cost than upside benefit.

Next Meeting: Saturday, March 11, 10:00 to 12:00 at the Ribbon Mill
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