Tom Sturtevant Chapter 1
December 17, 2013
At the home of Herschel and Selma Sternlieb
Brunswick, Maine
Present: Rita Clement, Bud Buzzell, Clarence Smith, Richard Clement, Dud Hendrick, Bruce Gagnon, Hersch Sternlieb, Robin Spencer, Dan Ellis, Regis Tremblay Secretary Report: Minutes from previous meeting are on our web site and were approved.
Treasurer Report: Submitted by Dovey Balsam and were approved.
MaineShare: Richard sent in our annual year end report.
Membership: Presently have 166 chapter members with 86 of them currently paid-up on their dues. There is no evidence of past payments to Dan for his services on web site, list serve, and membership program. Was agreed to pay him $2,000 to cover what is past due to him.
Outreach Committee & Media Committees: Regis has proposed a video project to tell the story about the US military empire that both committees would work on. It would be a VFP project. He needs help securing graphics for the video. It would be a four-part series of short videos. Dud, Doug and Bruce participating. Smitty suggests getting it on CTN5.
By-Laws Meeting: Smitty’s final draft will be sent out via email and put on the chapter web site. Will take it up at the next meeting.
Ann Jones Speaking Tour: Author of “We were soldiers” is coming to Maine in early March. VFP will co-sponsor and donate toward it. Dud will follow up. Pat Taub is organizing the event. Re-Writing Vietnam Story: Doug has suggested we get involved in the national VFP campaign for an alternative commemoration of the US war in Vietnam. Dud wants to help. We need more info from Doug at a future meeting about his ideas for our chapter.
Maine Draft & Military Counseling: Larry Dansinger is considering dropping this effort in Maine. Maine is high in percentage of population who do military service and Larry would like to see VFP take this on. It was agreed that we should invite Larry to come to a future meeting to discuss this. Jack Bussell is still doing some of this work on his own in Portland.
Tarak Kauff/Ellen Davidson: They both (from New York) were recently on the VFP delegation to Palestine. We’d like to have them come to Maine to speak, along with former Israeli helicopter pilot Yonatan Shapira (Combatants for Peace) who is now in Maine. We will sponsor a public event for either Feb 1 or 8. Dud will check. We’d provide all speakers with gas money.
A Matter of Duty viewing: Seven of us from the chapter attended the recent viewing in Fairfield. Only about 30 people came. Regis reported that the husband of MPBN’s Jennifer Rooks told him that this was the best public conversation after the film yet. The movie is well done but didn’t go far enough to say no to war. Those that spoke from the chapter made that point.
Drone Die-In Dec 30: CodePink is organizing a drone die-in outside the Portland office of Sen. Susan Collins at noon on Monday, Dec 30. Just days before our meeting 17 civilians were killed in Yemen by drones.
Mary Ann Whitman: Our long-time member Art Whitman’s wife Mary Ann recently pass away. The service will be in February. We will ask Art’s daughter Beth what to do with $100 we’d like to donate in Mary Ann’s name.
Next Meeting: We meet again on Thursday, January 30 at 7:00 pm in Augusta. Details later via email or on our website.
