November 2006 Newsletter:

We had our first organization meeting and had 14 people attend. The months that now have a chairperson are: Jan/poverty overview- Catherine Gould/Belleville, Mar/Educatgion - Ross Varney/Belleville, Apr/Economic Issues - Bob Croft/Belleville. May/Human Rights - Rob Burnham/Unitarian Church, July/Genocide- Rabbi Sadinsky/Ahavas Achim, Aug/HIV/AIDS - Wendy Erskine. Sept/Peace Day - Helen Hatcher/Belleville. Rob Burnham agreed to be our technical person and help with acquiring the technology needed as well as setting up the equipment to show the films and power point presentations.

We are still looking for hosts for the following months:
Feb-American Poverty, Mar - Education, Jun - Arms Deal, Oct - Vol. Job Fair, Nov - Coming Together event. I will recontact the other churches, schools and individuals to see if they are still interested in participating and had either forgotten about the meeting or were put off by the rain. We are also in need of help with publicity.

We agreed that the best time to have the presentations would be Sunday afternoons at 2 PM. Whitney suggested having our organization meetings prior to the presentations. In thinking about this, we may want to consider having the meetings after the presentations for the following reasons: 1. Hosts may need more time to set up or review their notes prior to presenting, 2. There may be some people who would like to become involved and would attend the organization meetings. Let me know your thoughts on this.

The first presentation will be held on Sunday Jan 21st at 2 PM at the Belleville Church with an organization meeting following. Rob Burnham and I will meet prior to have a run through on the equipment. Bob Gould, Diane and I will work on publicity for this event. Ross Varney has agreed to put up flyers around town. Anyone who wants to help is welcomed.

The tentative schedule for the year, meeting on the third Sunday of each month:
2007: Jan 21, Feb 18, Mar 18,Apr. 15, May 20,Jun 10 or 24th (depending on Sunday school picnic?), Jul 15, Aug. 19, Sep 16, Oct. 21, Nov. 18.

Without additional people, we may want to all join together on each program. What are your thoughts on this? Any thoughts on how to acquire more people to help with the programs?

Thank you all for joining with me on this program. I truly believe that education is the key to solving poverty and the more people we educate about the issues, the more people who will make an effort to help solve world poverty.