Troy Davis event tomorrow, Groovefest meeting Wednesday

Hey everyone,

We will be on the grassy lawn on the east side of Dale Hall tomorrow from 9am until 4pm asking people to call, text, or email the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles asking for a stay on the execution of Troy Davis. We will have fliers with information, laptops for sending emails, and phones for making calls to the Board, so if you can bring any of these things or you want to come by to help during any time during the day, please do.

If you want to take action online or want more information about Troy Davis's case, visit www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis

We will be meeting Wednesday night at 7pm at Sarah Whitten's house (420 College Ave) to finalize our preparations for Groovefest and get all of our facts & information ready to be hung from trees in the park. We will also be writing Urgent Action letters at this meeting.

See you soon!

Worldfest learning village volunteers

Worldfest needs more volunteers in the learning village. If you are interested in switching over to the learning village instead of just a general volunteer, you will need to have some training because you are going to be molding people's minds directly. It should be really rewarding and fun, so get in contact with me if you are interested. My email address should be on this side bar over here >>>
Chris

Hey everyone,

We will be getting together this Sunday at 3pm at my house (816 S. Lahoma Ave.) to have our first letter writing meeting of the year. We have several things to do and talk about.


Troy Davis and the death penalty

I think it's important that we do something in support of Troy Davis. This case is getting worldwide attention (look at his website here, for french speakers, here is the coverage in LeMonde, and take a look at this opinion piece in a student paper here).  He is scheduled to be executed this Tuesday (the 23rd), and even though there is no material evidence linking him to the crime and 7 of the 9 non-police eyewitnesses have recanted or changed their testimony, on Sept.12th the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole refused to grant him clemency. Please find out more about the case and send your appeals to the Board here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis

Here is what the OSU group did last week 

We should put something together on Monday. We need to speak out in the southern region when things like this happen. Please come forward with ideas for Monday - I think that spelling out the word "justice" on the south oval would be a good way to do it if we can get enough folks together, we just need to coordinate our school schedules.

Groovefest

We still have some work left to do on our materials for Groovefest. We have most of the banners finished for our theme but we still need to make the fact sheets and articles so that they can be hung from trees, put together the book lists, and make some decorations and handouts. I will probably start working on these on Saturday so call me if you can help (405.816.1613).

Also, for those of you who are of age, there will be a Groovefest fundraiser on Thursday night (the 25th) at the Deli.


Urgent Action

Here is a description of our Urgent Action this week:

On 12 September, a group of 24 Uzbekistani nationals, who have been living for around a year in the eastern Turkish town of Van, were expelled to Iran. The group is now held by an unidentified Iranian group. Amnesty International fears for their safety while they are being held by the unidentified group and also that they could be subjected to forcible return to Uzbekistan by the Iranian authorities if and when they are released by the group that is currently holding them.

If returned to Uzbekistan the adults of the group would be at risk of incommunicado detention, torture or other ill-treatment. The group has been recognized as refugees by the UNHCR.

Police officers at the Security Directorate in Van reportedly invited the group to visit the Directorate to receive educational materials for the children's schooling. When the group arrived at the Security Directorate, they were allegedly put onto a bus and transported to an isolated area close to the Iranian border. The Turkish security officials who transported them told the group that "we don't need you here" as they forced them into Iranian territory. Once there, an unidentified group apparently not linked to the Iranian government seized them and allegedly threatened to kill them.

To read the rest of the Urgent Action report, please click here


As always, let me know if you have any questions/concerns. See you Sunday!

Agenda from September 14th meeting

Introduction Meet and Greet/Sign In
About Amnesty International:  How to be a more strategic activist, National Priorities

Constitution
Proposal of amendments, discussion, clarification
Vote to approve 2008-2009 Constitution

Planning the Year
Compile list of issues/interests
Develop Semester Plan for Meetings

Groovefest “See the Cycle, Be the Cycle: Vote with your Dollar”

September 28th, 2008 2-9pm in Andrews Park (201 W. Daws)
• Volunteer Signups
• Meeting this coming Wednesday the 17th at 7pm at Sarah Whitten's house (420 College Ave)

Southern Regional Conference
“Our Rights, Our History, Our Vision”
Memphis, Tennessee October 31-November 2, 2008

Oklahoma State Meeting

Tentatively scheduled for February 7th in the Union

Added Items
Fair Trade Norman meeting immediately following this one

Historian Katie Baker mentions that our photo blog is up

WorldFest is coming up - October 3rd-5th in OKC

Close Meeting
Next meeting Sunday, September 21st at 2pm at Sarah’s house (816 S. Lahoma Ave.) time TBA

Photoblog

Hi guys,

Since we're using everything Google, I've begun using our Picasa Web Albums account (Google-operated) for photo hosting. The username and password are the same as the ones for the gmail account. I uploaded some pictures, including some new ones from the Meet and Greet Picnic. Check it out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/okamnestyinternational

See you later,
Katie B.

Updates on Fall 2008 semester

Hey everyone! Hope that you are all feeling good about school starting again.

Here's what our schedule looks like for the semester so far

Immediate events
SOW (Sooner Orientation Week) Involvement Fair Sunday (tomorrow!) from 2-6 in the Walker-Adams mall between the dorms.
CAC Howdy Week

Start-of-School events
August 28th - chalking for picnic & informational meeting
September 1st (Monday) 5pm - Labor Day Picnic (Pot luck) in Reeves' Park (back to school party!)
September 2nd (Tuesday) 7pm - Informational Meeting in the Scholars Room of the Union

General Meetings
So far all have been scheduled for 5pm on Sunday evenings in the Heritage Room of the Union. Here are the dates:
Sept. 14
Oct. 19
Nov 9
Nov. 23
Dec. 7

Other dates to keep in mind:
Fall Groovefest September 28th in Andrews Park
WorldFest Fair Trade Market in OKC Oct 3-5 (Volunteer opportunity for our group if we want it!)
AI Southern Regional Conference in Memphis Oct 31-Nov 2
International Human Rights Day & 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Dec 10th

More updates coming soon!!

July 2

Please please read this article I read in the NY Times. It says we pretty much stole our interrogation techniques at Guantanamo from Chinese communists during the Korean War. Torturewhat?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02detain.html?ex=1372737600&en=727ea9eaf9d71aa3&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Meeting June 24th

Fall Groovefest
Groovefest board meeting tomorrow at 7pm in the Will Rogers room of the Union
Sarah Whitten presented her idea for the theme (look on the groovefest blog!)
We talked about trying to prepare the educational materials this summer since the event is relatively early in the semester - September 28th!

Ideas for Summer Activities
Statewide Conference Planning
Prepare education materials for Groovefest
Fundraising
Awareness activity on Guantanamo Bay

Urgent Action
It would be a good idea to do fundraising for our postage expenses
We watched "Sierra Urban," a documentary about residents of Medellin, Colombia
For more info about the human rights situation in Colombia, read this

First summer meeting, Urgent Actions

FIRST SUMMER MEETING

Since several of us are in town for the summer and have expressed interest in holding summer meetings, we will have our first summer meeting tomorrow (Tuesday June 24th) at 7:30pm at Sarah Whitten, Chris Schroeder, and Matt Whiteway's house on 420 College Ave. It is very close to campus, but if you need a ride feel free to call me (Sarah) at 405.816.1613 and I'd be happy to pick you up.

URGENT ACTIONS

For those of you not in town, you can still write Urgent Action letters with us. I have attached the latest ones to this email. Our newest one is about the Human Rights situation in Colombia. Trade unionists and human rights defenders have been threatened by paramilitaries there, and we have a movie that explains the complex, ongoing conflict in that country that we can watch tomorrow. It's called "La sierra urban: warfare in the barrios of Medellin, Colombia."

You can keep up with our Urgent Actions and find more on our UA blog at ouamnestyua.blogspot.com

GROOVEFEST NEWS

Also, a date has been set for the Fall '08 edition of Groovefest - Sunday, September 28th. There will be a Groovefest meeting Wednesday night (June 25th) at 7pm in the Will Rogers room of the Union (home of the booths and the sooner schooner, by the food court) Next fall's theme and slogan will be voted on, and other issues like nonprofit status for the event will be discussed. If you are interested in getting involved with Groovefest, Norman's biannual human rights music festival, this would be a good meeting to attend. If you want to know more about Groovefest you can visit www.groovefest.org

If you want to get on our Groovefest committee, which is in charge of Community Awareness and Education for the event, our Groovefest coordinator for Fall is Sarah Whitten. You can email her at sarshgirl@ou.edu.

See you soon!

Thanks for a great 2007-08!

Hello fellow human rights activists,

Thank you for being amazing! This message is to send you well wishes for summer, a year-in-review summary of our activities this past year, and a little bit of info about what is coming up, including changes in our mailing list.

This year our group experienced a lot of growth and success, thanks to efforts from many of you who helped us meet our goals. At our first few meetings of the year, we listened to several great short presentations about several different human rights topics from both members and visitors, and had great discussions that, more often than not, lasted long after the meetings were over. Many of us attended our first "Groovefest" human rights music festival in October, where several new group members got acquainted with each other and with the Groovefest crowd at our information table. In November, John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," came as our guest speaker and gave an inspirational presentation about the role of corporations in the contemporary world. At the end of November our group constructed a cardboard "Maze of Injustice" installation on the south oval to raise awareness about the April 2007 Amnesty International report of the same name that uncovered a failure to protect indigenous women from sexual violence in the U.S. During the spring semester, with the help of our new Urgent Action Coordinator, Mady Ohs, our chapter started meeting every week, changing our meeting format to include alternating general and letter writing meetings. In March, we participated in the World Neighbors' "Walk for Women" on International Women's day. In April, we volunteered at a coop support center for foster parents with Big Event, held a constitutional convention to talk about changes to our group and amend our constitution, and later that month held elections for the 2008-2009 school year, creating six new officer positions (Historian, Assistant Treasurer, Volunteer Coordinator, Groovefest Coordinator, Campus Liaison, and even a Mascot). For our last event of the year, we cohosted the Spring '08 edition of Groovefest at the end of April, during which our volunteers at the Groovefest/Amnesty table collected an impressive number of signatures for our Urgent Action letters. Our presentations on the main stage for the "community forum" segment of Groovefest included a presentation about Guantanamo Bay by Will ODonnell and poetry from Chris Schroeder. Our Groovefest volunteers that day got the chance to talk (and dance!) with a lot of other activists from Norman. All of these events happened in addition to all the meetings, letter writing sessions, discussions, movie screenings and other events we attended together. This remarkable level of activity would not have been possible without the energy and spirit of our human rights community, and undoubtedly our momentum will allow us to do even more next year!

Speaking of next year, we've got a lot in the works, including another round of Groovefest, regularly scheduled volunteer events, and hosting the second annual AI Statewide Conference in the spring. Of course, we will continue our regular meetings and Urgent Action letter writing too.

For those of you in Norman over the summer, we will be holding informal meetings periodically to write our UA's, screen films, and enjoy each other's company. If you're not in Norman, you can still keep up with our Urgent Action Network online - so either way, make sure you sign up for our "members" mailing list for 08-09 if you want to stay informed!

About our mailing list

Our group has grown a lot this year, and with it the volume and frequency of our emails. In order to communicate better with people who have different levels of involvement, we have decided to discontinue our old mailing list and create two new lists to replace it - one for "members" and one for "friends."

Our "members" list will receive all of our emails, including weekly reminders about meetings, details about activities and events, urgent actions, and committee reminders. This list will normally receive one or two emails a week. If you would like to be on this list for the 2008-2009 school year and this summer, please send an email with the subject "members" to okamnestyinternational@gmail.com

Our "friends" list will receive monthly updates about our most recent news and upcoming events. If you would like to be on this list for the 2008-2009 school year, please send an email with the subject "friends" to okamnestyinternational@gmail.com

Thanks for everything!

OU Amnesty International