11-08-2012 Meeting Minutes for Northern Wisconsin NORML

11-8-12 Meeting Minutes for Northern WI NORML

Board Members in Attendance:
Rich, Jessica, Jason. Via google hangout, Jay was in attendance.

3 other existing members in attendance in person. Candi, Matthew, and Bob attended via hangout. Jay Blaze from SE WI NORML (www.sewisconsinnorml.org) attended via hangout also.

New members in attendance: a group of 5 came from Green Bay! A woman also came separately.

The meeting was called to order at 5:48 pm. Nox presented a motion to waive the reading of the minutes. It was seconded.

Jessica gave a brief overview of the treasurer’s report. The treasurer has approved the purchase of a 10×10 tent for the chapter. They are currently on sale. Rich will price them and purchase one this weekend. We also have approval to buy USB drives for the board.

Rich discussed the first week of June. The 1st and 2nd of June is the Annual Wisconsin Free Fishing Weekend. June 3rd through 9th is Hemp History Week. The chapter has plans to do something for both events. Rich asked if any of the Green Bay students who are attending tonight would be willing to invite the chapter to the something on the campus.

Linda recently completed a square for Wisconsin for the Moms for Marijuana group. They are now working on a Unity Quilt for all of the different chapters, so she is going to work on another quilting project. This square will be 24×24 swatches. If anyone wants to assist with this, let us know.

www.midwestrenew.org – Rich is going to be tabling at this event, approximately June 20th ish… he will need assistance for this event. Any volunteers?

Change for Change: Rich is working on a change for change project, in which he will get a solicitor’s permit to ask for donations on the streets of Appleton. The proceeds of this would go mostly to our chapter, but also to split some portion of it with another organization such as LEAP, Moms for Marijuana, Chase Hyde, SSDP, MMP, National NORML, Unconventional Foundation for Autism, etc. We are going to see how much we raise, and then vote on how to spend it. Rich will need volunteers who want to walk around downtown appleton on a friday night and saturday night to ask for change for change. He is going to get the permit this week.

We discussed the new laws in Washington and Colorado. Marijuana is still federally illegal, and the DEA is probably not going to just quietly allow them to legalize marijuana without a fight. However, they do not necessarily have the resources to combat this, though they will probably try.

Rich would like to protest or demonstrate somehow, in order to show our support for CO and WA. We discussed if it should be a local grassroots effort of getting people to go to their representatives and speak to them one on one. We also discussed the possibility of going to Madison for a lobby day, or a christmas carolling day for the holidays.

Rich asked people for ideas and thoughts on this topic.

We tried to coordinate a haunted house trip, but we were not able to coordinate it. Next year we will coordinate better and try it again. Nox mentioned that next year we could get the tickets ahead of time at a discount, and then sell the tickets at meetings, as well as meet up beforehand for dinner or some other activity. That way we can arrive as a group and find one another.

Rich discussed that we are going to try to take away the criminal penalties if we cannot outright legalize. Madison leads the way, you can have up to an ounce in your own home and it’s not criminalized. We should be contacting our local alderman, and asking them to discuss decriminalization…

We discussed the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act briefly. Pocan and Erpenbach are gone and won’t be able to sponsor it again. Jay thinks we need to work on Lena Taylor, maybe Chris Taylor. Maybe Senator Ellis. Blaze suggested Gwen Moore as well.

From the Chat/Hangout: Jay Blaze says “I’m interested in removing the automatic 2nd offense felony. As well as amending the law that says “doctors order for possession of controlled substance” to include Medical Cannabis

Rich reminded everyone to speak to their reps and find out where they stand on the issue. If they are against it, try to show them studies and information to change their minds. If they won’t listen, run against them!

Rich moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:19 pm. The motion was seconded. The meeting has officially ended.