Updates, Meeting this Wednesday 4/1 8:30pm

Hey Guys,

Just a reminder we'll be having a work meeting for the State Conference this Wednesday, April 1st at 8:30pm at my house (816 S. Lahoma Ave.) to put together the conference materials and chalk the sidewalks for the statewide conference. (Bring your chalk!)

"Don't Look Away" Violence Against Women Panel Discussion
We will be making a short announcement about our State Conference at the panel discussion that is this Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. It is also likely we will be allowed to have a table, so please try to make it to this event. It will be a really interesting panel and a great opportunity to let people know about our conference.

Web Updates
We've made a lot of progress on the internet! The Groovefest website is up (www.groovefest.org) and both the Amnesty and Groovefest myspace pages got a redesign (www.myspace.com/ouamnesty, www.myspace.com/normangroovefest). Also, there are new pictures up on our flickr site - go check yourselves out! www.flickr.com/ouamnesty

Publicity for State Conference
There are fliers below for both our state conference and our fundraiser concert. We will have printed copies available on Wednesday but feel free to print some out before that and post them anywhere and everywhere. Also, if you frequent any departmental buildings (i.e. political science, honors college, etc) please ask if they would be willing to send out publicity for our event to their mailing list.

Election Results
Congrats to our 2009-2010 Officers, now in training!
President - Anna Przebinda
Vice President - John Best
Treasurer - John Goetzinger, (fall) Katie Knutter
Secretary - Cacie Thomas
Fall Groovefest - Sarah Warmker, Elliot Hale
Spring Groovefest - Katie Baker
Urgent Action Coordinators - Mady Ohs, (fall) Cindy Woods

As always, call/text/email if you need anything!

Sarah

2009 Oklahoma State Conference Flier

Meeting and elections this Sunday, Lots of Updates

Hey Everyone,

Our next meeting will be this Sunday, March 29th at 7pm in the Associates Room of the Union. We will be electing new officers for the 2009-2010 school year.

Elections
New officers will take over their roles effective immediately, so that we can make sure our transition to next year is a smooth one since many of our current officers are studying abroad next year. Whoever becomes the group coordinator can also apply for my job with Amnesty as an SAC (Student Activist Corps leader) for Oklahoma. Also remember that the officer positions are flexible and ultimately the group decides how responsibilities are distributed! If you want more info about positions, email okamnestyinternational@gmail.com.

Big Event
If you signed up to do Big Event 2009 this Saturday, don't forget that tomorrow (Thursday) is the last day to register in Beaird Lounge of the Union between 9:00am and 4:00pm. Bring your student ID! If you want to fill out the forms to speed up the registration process you can print them off at bigevent.ou.edu. On the day of the event, Cassie Ketrick from OU Web Communications will be coming along to make a video for OU's official youtube channel (www.youtube.com/universityofoklahoma). Email Chris Schroeder (schro87@ou.edu) if you have any questions about Big Event!

Don't Look Away: Violence Against Women and Human Rights in Oklahoma
The Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Xenia Institute are hosting a Panel Discussion on Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm in the Sandy Bell Gallery at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. See the flier for more details.

Amnesty International Releases Report on Immigrant Rights
Amnesty International USA just released a report about detention of immigrants called "Jailed without Justice." The keynote speaker for our statewide conference, Rosa Clemente, recently became Amnesty International's campaign director for immigrant rights, and she will be talking about some of the things in this report at the conference. You can find more info on Amnesty's website here.

Statewide Conference
As you all know, we are hosting the Oklahoma Statewide Amnesty International Conference at Sarkey's Energy Center from 9am-4pm on Saturday, April 4th. The registration form is attached, please fill it out and send it back if you plan on attending, even if you are a volunteer. If you want to volunteer the day of the conference but you have not been assigned a task yet, just reply to this email - we have a few more things left to cover, especially on the day of the event.

Videos needed - Peace Not Prejudice Film Festival
The Muslim Student Association has invited us to participate in a "Peace not Prejudice" film festival. We need at least two volunteers to use handheld video cameras to film our statewide conference and interview a few people during our state conference, also so that we can send this documentation to our AIUSA field organizer, who will be unable to attend our conference because of a scheduled surgery. If the videos are good, we might be able to get them on OU's youtube channel as well. Let me know if you're interested in doing this - we have cameras you can use. If you want more info about this, email okamnestyinternational@gmail.com.

As always, call/text/email me if you have any questions.

See you soon!
Sarah

Updates and Meetings this weekend

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your work on getting information for our state conference. I know some of you have had trouble getting calls back from your contacts. Ultimately, if they don't call you back by Friday, don't worry about it, we can always go with what we already have.

In light of an city ordinance passed a few weeks ago that requires us to do a substantial amount of paperwork for Groovefest, we will have a Groovefest planning/Board meeting on Sunday, March 8th at 5:30 in the Associates Room of the Union, prior to our 7pm State Conference planning meeting in the same room. This is a lot of work so we will have food at this meeting (fruit, veggies, and pizza). Please try to make it to one if you can't stay for both.

We are making good progress following our timeline, thanks guys for all you do.

Sarah

Reminders

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to remind you all of a couple of things - we need to have those phone calls made by Wednesday at the latest. I have attached the minutes from Sunday's meeting in case you need a reminder of what you signed up for.

For contacting food vendors - when you make contact, you should send an email to okamnestyinternational@gmail.com with
1. The name of the business/group you talked to, including the individual you talked to
2. Their contact info, and
3. What they said they would/could do (or not)

Remember to let them know that we would include their name/logo in all promotional materials for the event.

Also, there will be an event tonight that you should try to make it to if you can:

A Night for the Women of the Congo
TONIGHT, Tuesday 3/3
7-9 pm
Meacham Auditorium in the Union

After the presentation, documentary, and vigil, we will also have t-shirts and handmade bags made by Congolese survivors of rape for sale. The money raised goes directly back to the women of the DRC to aid in their recovery. T-shirts are $10 and bags are $20.

Come make a difference for the Women of the Congo. Hope to see you there!

General Meeting March 1, 2009

Introduction
Meet and Greet/Sign In

Old Business

• Valentine’s Day Fundraiser - We raised $166, see photos at www.flickr.com/photos/ouamnesty
• Budget
• Vagina Monologues – tabling

Elections
Set Election Dates for next year's officers (March 29th, 7pm)

Groovefest
“Human Rights Here and Now”
Sunday, April 26th, 2009 in Andrews Park (201 W. Daws)

State Meeting
Draft Workplan & sign up for tasks

Urgent Action Network
Sign Letters for UA cases

• Weapons in Gaza
• Women in the DRC
• OPIM in Mexico

Added Items
Groovefest Vendor Prices


Close Meeting
Next meeting will be a State Conference Planning Meeting - Sunday, March 8th at 7pm, location TBA