National War Tax Resistance
Coordinating Committee Meeting
November 7, 2021 * Online
Present: Lincoln Rice, NWTRCC Coordinator (Milwaukee, WI); Sue Barnhart, AdComm (Eugene, OR); Robert Randall (Brunswick, GA); Chrissy Kirchhoefer, Outreach Consultant (St. Louis, MO); Peter Smith (South Bend, IN); Ruth Benn (Brooklyn, NY); Bill Glassmire (Corvallis OR); Derek Brett (Switzerland); Ginny Schneider (Santa Fe, NM); Sarah Weber (Topeka, KS); Eleanor Elizabeth Forman (New York City); Lida Shao, AdComm (Brooklyn, NY); Erica Leigh, AdComm (Seattle, WA); Jack Payden-Travers (Winston-Salem, NC); Daniel Woodham (Kingston, NY); Susan Miller (New York City); Mary Loehr (Ithaca, NY); Jerry Maynard, AdComm (Houston, TX); Anne Baron (San Diego, CA); Jim Stockwell (Micaville, NC; Ed Hedemann (Brooklyn, NY);
1 – Peter went over the NWTRCC consensus process. (Daniel Woodham & Eleanor Elizabeth Forman volunteered to be timekeepers.)
2 – Consultant Reports & Consultant Review
Coordinator (PDF report) – Lincoln’s Coordinator Report.
Outreach Consultant (PDF report) – Chrissy’s Outreach Consultant Report. Answers to questions to both Lincoln & Chrissy: Could NWTRCC be part of a Code Pink series? Chrissy will ask. Should we boycott Facebook? We have discussed, but it would cut us off from a way that many of our members get news from us. How is FB outreach? Steady, the big increase this past year was in Instagram followers (which is also owned by FB). Are you staying your budget 15 hours? Some weeks Chrissy works more, others she works less. Did the CNN article on Eroseanna Robinson lead to more NWTRCC website hits? It’s hard to say because we lost that data when we switched servers, but it did lead to a podcast on Robinson. Comment: Since the documentary the Boys Who Said No features WTRs Joe Maizlish and Randy Kehler, it would seems worth while to doing outreach and possibly sponsoring local showings… Agreed. When there are new articles posted on WTR, can be they also be posted to the list-serve? We do post them on our social media & on the website, but we can also post them to the list-serve.
Consultant Review (PDF Report) (Sue / Erica) – Big hurrah after consultants return. Consultants are wonderful… Not everyone got the review? Lincoln: Alert the office if you think there are folks we have lost contact with. Ginny did some outreach in New Mexico and has reconnected some folks from NM and updated records for NWTRCC. Others can also do that in their area. Rick very happy with excellent staff that NWTRCC has.
3 – Objectives (PDF Approved 2022 Objectives)
The following changes to the objectives were proposed:
- Meetings: add to a) (Celebrate 40th anniversary of NWTRCC at one meeting)
- Newsletter: add e) solicit paid ads for Oct-Nov 2022 newsletter
- Literature: delete “especially Divest/Invest” from b). Add to d) “(Look into translation app for website.)”
- Media: add “Look into In These Times to d).
- Fundraising: add e) Add Year End Fundraiser banner to website (Dec 15-31).
Approved with additions.
4 – Finances & Budget (Approved Budget for 2022 & Finance 2021 Report & Budget 2022 Notes)
No Questions. Budget approved as is.
5 – Proposals & Endorsement
Proposal 1 – Amendments to the Statement of Purpose
These were originally proposals from the previous meeting when the new Statement of Purpose was approved, but the decision was made to delay any decision on the amendments until this meeting. AdComm recommendation: not to adopt the 3 proposals. The statement is not perfect, but these do not make it better. A vote on the proposals resulted in stand-asides and blocks – Proposal does not pass.
Proposal 2 – Sign-On Statement for Tax Season
Comment about if there was time to plan and some details of the plan, such as the symbolic amount. Proposal includes giving the Outreach Committee power to change the statement and plan as needed. Consensus reached with one stand-aside.
No Endorsement Proposals
6 – AdComm Nominees
Jerry & Sue will be rotating off in May. Any nominations for May 2022 meeting? Noted lack of representation in South and Midwest. Jim Stockwell (NC), Andy McKenna (TX), and Nancy Rice (NM) were nominated. February newsletter will have announcement & deadline.
7 – Future Gathering Locations
With Covid uncertainty, AdComm recommended that the next meeting be online. Discussion that these online meetings have allowed for disability accessibility. Hybrid meeting was mentioned (which NWTRCC has been doing for years pre-pandemic). Another note that it is great to participate in local action. Approved proposal that May 2022 meeting will be online.
8 – Evaluation of the Weekend
Jim – thank you to tech folks, Fri was great to see folks; Susan – thanks you, good connecting; Ginny – excellent, looking forward to recordings; Eleanor – really enjoyed connecting, like rain on parched land, Peter G & 201 were fantastic; Erica – great to see faces, Friday social, random groups did not work well, also difficult to hear offhand comments (micro-aggressions) on gender/race – Zoom makes sidebars on this difficult; Anne – talked on “Ouch”; Jerry – mentioned “Oops”; Jack – great weekend and auction; Ruth – great weekend, with international flavor; need better “random” breakout rooms; Peter – good hour break time; Lincoln – Thanks to Outreach / Fundraising for planning help, Chrissy, AdComm is marvelous, manual Zoom breakout for Friday could be done in future; Sarah W – tech issues even with new laptop b/c of internet issues; Chrissy – wonderful seeing folks and social time, Lincoln’s organizing and AdComm; Sue – great conference, great hearing from international folks;
