| Coordinator's
Report Literature & Web: Finally saw through the final stages of Practical #7, including getting it printed. Whew. Thus far people seem pleased with it though we are getting few orders. Actually we are generally getting few lit orders, but I do send them out when they come in. Carol Moore says she will help set up a shopping cart thing on the website with (a PayPal option) which might boost web sales a bit. It's possible with more lit available on the web as downloads that it reduces sales also, but I don't think that's the main reason. Just low activity I fear . Helped Lincoln finish text on the W-4 flyer after the youth review committee saw a final draft. It's a bit stuck in production at the moment but should be done any day and available on the web. David Gross in CA may have an update for the Low Income practical, #5, for review at our November meeting. I have in mind #8 on Money and hope the Friday night discussion at the CC meeting might tie into that. We have some stray articles collected already that nearly make a com-plete Practical. Edited/wrote More Than A Paycheck for April, June & August. Working on October now. Rick Bickhart has taken take over Ajay Advani's slot, trading off layout with Susan Quinlan. Send out about 100 copies to around 15 people who asked for bulk copies (3 - 25 extras each). Ed Hedemann and Peter Smith keep the websites updated (NWTRCC and HUOW). Created an "update" insert for the phone tax brochure until the local tax is abolished. Video shorts - the video committee is getting this going and we have played a bit with put-ting shorts on our website. More of this will be coming during the next year. Administration/Finances/Fundraising: Add and correct names regularly to the database from calls, emails, lit orders, etc. Eszter Freeman wrote the May appeal and I put it together and sent it out. Filing and trying to keep office papers in order. Sent a few papers that had been hanging around to Swarthmore Peace Collection. Collect mail from the PO Box a few times a week; sort out contributions and send to the bank for deposit etc. Basic bookkeeping in QuickBooks. Contact with Tana the Treasurer off and on about financial matters. Been in contact with the Las Vegas folks, mostly by email, for the November meeting. Also talked with Peace Abbey about the May 07 meeting. After the May meeting encouraged Eszter Freeman to take on the fundraising clerk position, which she agreed to do, just before one volunteer Jef Schultz, called and offered to help. Jef is near Eszter, so they have been in touch and he was happy to support her and help out. I wrote up some ideas and background information for Eszter. She may have a separate report, though we all have so much to do that progress is slow . Network Sent out minutes and notes from the May meeting and the postcard mailing for network up-dates went out in August. Am working on the list updates now and also hoping to add some contacts here and there. David Waters offered to make some calls to find out about affiliates who have not been very responsive. Will probably put together some kind of report on this for the Nov. CC. Have tried to be in touch with the network by email about special things like phone tax changes, the Camp Democracy endorsement, and Cicada's comments on the survey race question and get feedback. Some of this goes to the network folks who only use mail also. Information, Referral, Counseling: Answering questions by phone and email. When the IRS sent out letters on 2005 taxes a number of new resisters got in touch, and a few trickier cases have been coming in also. Nothing that points to any unusual activity by the IRS though. Send out basic info packets to new callers and do a lot of counseling by email or referring people to the NWTRCC or Hang Up On War websites. Had a volunteer transcribe the Counselors' Training from last October. Started with some editing. May have an outline for a counselors' packet at the November meeting. Could talk about get-ting help on pulling such a thing together. Dealing with phone tax and Verizon is still a common question. I've spent quite a few hours on that one with various people. Despite the fact that Verizon has been sending out a letter with an address to deal with phone tax problems now, they are still inconsistent with how they deal with wtrs. Outreach/ Speaking/Media I'm kind of forgetting if anything much has happened on this since May. Did a little media stuff around the end of long distance excise tax. The NPR show "Marketplace" called for comments which was interesting in the sense that they know we exist. What they ran was not so great but a few people told me they heard it. Thought to do maybe a press release around the end of the phone tax but was hoping for the end of the local tax. Ed wrote a short piece for the WRL magazine. Trying to promote tabling at various bigger events thought there has not been much this summer. Carol Moore is tabling at Camp Democracy in Sept (I was there 9 & 10) though it is very slow. Signing up for SOAW table. Hoping to get someone to WRL's Stop the Merchants of Death conference but not sure anyone is going. Programs/Campaigns/Strategy Conf. prioirities Daniel is coordinating the video committee. I've helped support the planning by setting up the conference calls and doing minutes, along with being involved in the discussions. We've held about 4 conference calls so far, which I have arranged through a cheap company. (I've just used the phone line in the budget for that money but I think we are still under.) A few people on the committee have taken on particular tasks (Ed Hedemann outlined short and long versions of content for films; Susan Quinlan sparked a video contest ideas and is getting a proposal to the CC; Peter Smith and Steev Hise are trying to get a video blog set up for our website; etc.) Bill Ramsey, the "survey/1 year campaign" group, and I finalized the survey and let the network know, so I hope it is circulating. I think it will have some interesting insights. Hope we'll have a report at the Nov. CC and about the next steps for this group. Lincoln is coordinating the youth review committee - which is not high activity but seems to have helped with the W-4 flyer thus far. I
think that's it for now. If you have questions, do call or email. |