Meeting Minutes 6/7/00

Sister Parish Committee meetings are held the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 7 pm. in the school. Newcomers are always welcome. If you have questions, please contact any of the members of the committee.

What follows are the minutes of the Wednesday, June 7, 2000 meeting.

Present: Louise, Tim and Sienna, Miguel, Susan, Bob, Margaret, Mindy, Joe, Rick, and new this meeting, Carol Fairbrother.

Politics: Since we hadn't seen Bob for so long, we put him first on the agenda for an update. He described his frustrating efforts this past 6 months and those of Jackie and Walter and people in Vento's office to get Visas for 2 people from TNII active in AA to come to MPLS for the International Convention at the end of this month. Despite many efforts it seems because they are poor basically the Embassy believes that they are at risk for not returning.

TNII Report: Margaret arrived with pictures and lots of news about the delegates coming from TNII. We are still awaiting the names, pictures and bio's to start getting the word out. They have not attempted to get the visas' yet because of a technicality involving Marlene's 18th birthday early in September. That means that the whole group will be getting theirs in early Sept, which is just the amount of time needed.

Margaret also talked with the group about some of the communication problems. The phone has still not been installed at the second address we had hoped for and may not be for a long time. The phones are so bad that web access from TNII is not realistic. Margaret found that the only good connections were at the Internet cafes. We discussed the possibility of suggesting that TNII use their funds to set up an account like hot mail and access email in the city at one of these café's. This cost about $5 for a couple of hours. Louise also suggested buying a new computer to take with her for TNII. Her brother recently purchased a new one for under $300. We have the cash in our account to do that. Mindy also has a 486 to send down. With limited carrying capacity, Louise is inclined to vote for helping them to upgrade what they have. More discussion at the next meeting.

Update on finances: Louise requested and obtained a motion of approval from the group to pay our annual Year 2000 Sister Parish dues of $500. She also received approval to send a check for $5,193 for the candle money we have holding to Sister Parish, Inc to Guatemala to Jackie to hold for paying the tickets for the delegation and any other expenses they may have. Hopefully, when combined with the funds that TNII still has, this will be enough to cover the costs of all eight members of the delegation.

TNII business consulting: Tim reported that Reginaldo is very interested in helping TNII but will not have the time until next month. Louise had a recent newsletter from the family describing their day to day life in Guatemala at this time. Because Margaret's time was short, she did not get to discuss any project issues with the group.

Summer Social Event: Susan proposed a July 30 potluck picnic at Lake Harriet just north of the bandstand. There is lots of room for kids and play equipment. The proposal was approved. We will meet after the 11 mass. The group will provide all paper products and beverages and get the fire started. Bring a dish to share and anything you want to put on the grill.

Candle counting: Tim brought the candles and we spent time in the meeting counting so that we could ask TNII to start making more to bring for both the Oct 29 sale at St. Joan's and the Jubilee sale in Edina (date not known but Mindy will try to find out.) We have 74 pair of whites, 215 pair of green, 98 pair of red. We would like TNII to make:

Delegation planning: Susan Sell has agreed to coordinate our efforts in this area working closely with Margaret and the youth. The youth will most likely have their own agenda and stay with youth group members. Louise and Mindy handed off materials relating to the last visit to Susan to review. More discussion and a timetable will be discussed next meeting.

Columbia report: We discussed action needed immediately to intervene in the congressional vote. Bob and Carol will draw up something on behalf of the group.