5-18-2010 Meeting Minutes for Northern WI NORML

5-18-2010 Meeting Minutes for Northern WI NORML
Christiano’s in Green Lake
Notes taken by volunteer Jessica Franke

We opened the meeting by discussing our meeting location. There was an issue with our press release this week, where the paper did not run our meeting location and also did not contact Jay to inform him. We discussed moving our meetings to the Berlin Public Library in the future, as they are a friendlier venue for our meetings.

Second order of business: Charity designed a second version of the Northern NORML logo, which we will vote on before printing T-shirts.

Proposed Board Members: Jay, Narin, Laura, Jessica, Jan

Treasurer Report: $65 so far!

General Updates:

Tommy Thompson and Ed Thompson addressed the group on State-Wide NORML day 5/15/2010. They are supportive and offered advice regarding reforming the laws and lobbying.

Referendum ballot: Once you file and start collecting signatures, you must have the process completed within 60 days. Be aware of possible problems with filing the signatures in a timely manner, as sometimes the clerks do not file things in a timely fashion or maybe don’t always understand the rules.

Website: Jessica is working on it, and will have a draft for next time.

Membership fees: low membership fees should be affordable for anyone who wants to join. 4.20 is the current amount that is agreed upon, because it’s a low price, and is also rooted in the folklore of marijuana.

T-shirts: once the logo is finalized and approved, we can print t-shirts. A few people mentioned they thought that the background was too dark on the new logo and should be lighter. It will be approximately $5 to ship the shirts if using the local printer that Jay spoke to. We are currently looking for ideas regarding shirts and merchandising – initially our biggest problem is funds to do all of this, so we particularly need to focus on fundraising and getting new dues-paying members. Jay proposed some kind of contest, for encouraging members to sign people up.

Hemp History Week:

The Berlin Journal printed what Jay sent them verbatim, rather than writing their own article and “reporting” on it. However the fact that they did print it at all is still good.

Jay introduced the topic of protesting at a local BP gas station. He has signs and would need 3 or more people total to assist.

Next event: June 5th potluck Picnic / Awareness Fisheree – if anyone knows a folk singer or similar type of musician who would be willing to volunteer, please tell Jay. We do have one musician but we do need another one. So far, we will be the only fishing day event happening in this area. We need to figure out who is bringing what dishes, etc.

Discussed the need to push for Industrial hemp, and it was brought up that alcohol prohibition became unviable because the government was going broke, and our government is currently in a similar upheaval.

We need to become known for something in the area. Madison NORML is mostly well known for Harvest Fest, and smoking pot on the capitol steps, but we can’t all afford to travel to Madison to join every event, and we want to be more vocal in our own area, year round, so we need to get volunteers to help organize events, and become known for something in this area.

Jan made a motion that we vote to move the meetings to the Berlin LIbrary, and that we decide on the times for those meetings. We discussed 11:30am and 6:30pm, which are the times that we had discussed at the previous meeting. Matt seconded the motion. We unanimously voted that the meeting be moved to the Berlin Library.

Jay passed around a sign in sheet for everyone to write their contact number down.

We also discussed breaking things down to the three major headings: Medical, Recreational, and Industrial uses. It’s hard to fight propaganda, and it’s hard to educate people because they are already so indoctrinated against drugs.

It’s more likely that if we focus on Industrial hemp, we can get some kind of corporate sponsorship to help us fund some of our future events. There was a hemp processing plant in Berlin during the war so there may be support here.

We discussed the need to use common sense and to inform members that, no matter what our meeting location, we need to never bring pot or paraphernalia.

Matt made a motion that we make written rules regarding this matter. “For the safety of our participants and our meeting facility, we request that you do not bring any illegal possessions or contraband of any type to meetings and events. Jan seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:24pm.

Next week, Tuesday, 11:30am, at the Berlin Library, will be our next meeting.