National War Tax Resistance
Coordinating Committee Meeting
November 3, 2019 * Corvallis, Oregon
Present: Lincoln Rice, NWTRCC Coordinator (Milwaukee, WI); Robert Randall (Brunswick, GA); Bill Glassmire (Corvallis, OR); Peter Smith, Michiana WTR (South Bend, IN);; DeCourcy Squire, AdComm (Minneapolis, MN); Chrissy Kirchoefer, NWTRCC Outreach Consultant (St. Louis, MO); Cathy Deppe (Segundo, CA); Kima Garrison, Portland WRL/WTRs (Portland, OR); Erica Leigh (Seattle, WA); Gary Erb (Boulder, CO); Steve Dear, Planet v. Pentagon (Elmira, OR); Ed Epley (Corvallis, OR); Sam Yergler (Eugene, OR); Joshua Wrolstad (Eugene, OR); Beth Blick (St. Paul, MN); Michael C (Eugene, OR); Byron Clemens (St. Louis, MO); Anne Barron, AdComm (San Diego, CA); Sue Barnhart, AdComm (Eugene, OR)
Virtual: Rick Bickhart, Co-Treasurer (Staunton, VA); Ruth Benn (Brooklyn, NY)
1 – Introduction (Go Around – What have we taken away from this weekend?)
hope, impressed with coalition building, not by himself; NWTRCC ties together issues; happy to see people, great first meeting; got a lot from 201 discussion & meeting elders; energized with week of action potential; connections; new and old connections; local person really happy to see us kids; strength in working together
1A – Peter went over the NWTRCC consensus process.
2 – Consultant Reports
Coordinator (PDF report) – Lincoln’s Coordinator Report (separate document). Answers to questions: Question about Tom Hastings’s response to funding request from International Center on Nonviolent Conflict: Tom is on the advisory board and a friend of NWTRCC. Tom explained to Lincoln that an application to ICNC would be a waste of time and resources. ICNC has told him in the past that they are not interested in supporting WTR; What takes up most of Lincoln’s time? Newsletter, appeals prep, and processing donations; meeting prep.
Outreach Consultant (PDF report) – Answers to questions: Expectations with inter-organizational collaboration? Going to SOAW in a couple weeks. Will talk to folks there. Conversations are where collaboration starts. AdComm will be meeting earlier than normal in January to continue these conversations. She will continue conversations with other groups as well.
3 – Consultant Review – Consultants left room as AdComm explained that the the feedback from the network was very positive. Consultants returned to claps. Erica happy the work that she handed off.
4 – Finances & Budget (Proposed Budget for 2020 & Approved Budget for 2020 & Finance 2019 Report & Budget 2020 Notes)
Comments:
- Not receiving Craigslist this year greatly affected for our budget. But because we always planned on not receiving the Craigslist, our cuts are minimal for next year. But if we don’t find new funding sources for 2021, we will face much steeper cuts.
- General donations and large donations seem to be budgeted high? These amounts are based on the previous 4 years. And there is wide variety in the these numbers from year to year, so it is difficult to be accurate.
- Perhaps Berkeley would donate more. NWTRCC always receives money, but it would probably be greater if we officially applied. Also should reach out.
- Suggestion to add a line item to “consultant training.” Put $61.05 in this area.
Budget Approved with one suggestion.
5 – Objectives (PDF Approved 2020 Objectives)
The following changes to the objective were approved:
- Outreach: a) evaluate and continue; b) three to five c) Outreach Coordinate does meeting (e) Evaluate use of ads;
- Meetings: Nothing
- general comment that intersectionality would be a great skill
- Newsletter: Nothing
- general comment to let climate crisis affect our work
- Network: Nothing
- Literature: Correct spelling error. c) climate crisis pamphlet
- Media: Nothing
- Digital Nothing.
- Counseling: Nothing
- Fundraising: e) Have an online auction test, f) look at having a fundraiser at meeting.
- general comment: how are we going to go about. Appeals, projects, etc; Maybe a grant based on week of actions
- could be a fund loser or a distraction/be careful with a fundraiser
- Support: Nothing.
6 – Proposals
Proposal 1 – Earth Palm Card Update (Proposal PDF)
Suggestions:
Planet Over Pentagon instead of “Planet vs Pentagon”; change military to pentagon; change pentagon to war “planet vs war”; emphasize cutting military budget dramatically; shorten; don’t use words like fighting; include “Spend money on supporting victims of war”; use word “Earth” instead of planet
AdComm requests that Outreach be empowered with creating final version – Approved
Proposal 2 – Peace Tax Return (Proposal PDF)
AdComm requests that Outreach be empowered with creating final version – Approved
7 – AdComm Nominees
Any nominations for Nov meeting? Ruth Benn, Erica Leigh, Robert Randall, Jay Sodean (said no), Sarah Mueller, Sam Koplinka-Lehr, Lauren von Bernuth & Orane Sharpe; Michael McPhearson, Matthew Hoh, Lida Shao, Youth Advisory Council folks, Josh Wrolstad. Next newsletter will have announcement & deadline.
8 – Future Gathering Locations
Possibly South Bend, they are talking about it. Also reached out to Maine recently, but haven’t heard back yet. Idea of having one meeting spot being regular. San Diego is an option. Try to have the meeting in San Diego, see response, and make a decision. Big downside in not reaching out to new folks. Could have a meeting committee, because moving the meeting taxes staff greatly. Cleveland & DC were not very successful in new outreach, Oregon was great because of contacts and outreach with Bill, Kima, Sue.
9 – No Endorsements Proposed for this Meeting
Sue B: Black Friday Climate Strike; And the week after on Friday; please have NWTRCC please support and consider intra-meeting climate groups. Sue will send info Lincoln and the proposed endorsements will be send on Loomio & the people at the meeting, since more info is requested before making a decision (e.g., who is sponsoring event)
9 – Evaluation of Weekend
Byron: Great ideas from local OR folks, thanks to all the people. Gary: Outstanding. Robert: Great participation; all wonderful places. Peter: Jill is great facilitation. Bill, thanks to all and Jill. Joshua: Vigil great and future meetings with action… water protecting. Sue: great meeting folks, action great, and do fundraising and next meeting. Sam: Jill great, great conference. DeCourcy: great local organizers and consultants, two cities worked out well. food great, vigil great, and good to do with another issue. Erica: great! more connections, 8 folks at 101 which is amazing. Kima: Thanks Bill. Ed: great meeting model. Ruth: more fun to be there, but good connection. Rick: sorry to not be there. thanks for passing microphone. Chrissy: Thanks Bill, Jill great. Cathy: great time, thanks Bill. logistics was fun to watch. One of the best I’ve been to with the local folks with different perspectives. Beth: great to see Oregon and confluence of issues. Lincoln: AdComm, Chrissy, Sue, Kima, Bill, all made this meeting great. Anne: Meeting is a “A”
Thanks to Bill Glassmire, Kima Garrison, Sue Barnhart & all who contributed to getting this weekend organized!
See the blog report “WTR and the Environment: NWTRCC Conference Recap” by Lincoln Rice
