October 18 - Minutes

Lena
Wal-Mart: The High Costs of Low Prices November 14 there will be an underground grassroots screening of this documentary. Lena came to the Progressives becuase in order to make a room reservation a student organization name must be attached, they would like the help of the Progressives to make a room reservation to show this movie on November 14 and also to facilitate a discussion afterwards. We already had a room reserved for movie night, so this worked out perfectly!

Jessica
Petition initiative for troop withdrawl from Iraq, 2500 signatures from residents of the city of La Crosse are needed in order to get this question put onto the referendum in April. Jessica would love some help collecting these signatures, if you are interested she handed out petition packets, but you could stop by her office (upward bound in murphy library) or see Ryan, I think he might still have some? Also, Jessica will be canvasing on Nov. 2 before and after the RFK Jr. event, and also on that day there will be a table set up in CC for petitions to be signed. Wednesday November 9th the Progressives will be helping out by having a clocktower day to get in peoples faces, which is what we do best, and get some more petitions signed...Jessica offered donuts if you help out, so theres some incentive! If you would like more information, want to help out, or for anything else, you can contact Jessica at either thill.jess@uwlax.edu or jessica@wisconsingreenparty.org

SOA
If you are going to this event you should have already recieved an e-mail from Andrew about the specifics and the bad news of only being able to take one bus due to lack of monetary support. Fundraising for this event is essential! Think of idea, send them to Andrew, lets get this thing rolling! Right now if you are signed up, and recieved the e-mail from Andrew, he needs your check or money or however you are paying ASAP it is going to cost us $174 right now and checks can be made to the UWL Progressives. If we do enough raising of funds we can probable all be reimbursed for some of this money. If you live in the halls, please go ask your Hall Council/Exec Team for funds! For more informaiton on this you can contact Jill Hayes (she already asked and has some experience) or Jackie Jarvis...they can get you the info on how to approach your hall for funds, as it can be tricky for this kind of thing!

Movie Night
This weeks movie will be TONIGHT at 7pm in the Ward Room at CC and will be The Revolution Will Not be Televised. This is an amazing movie about the overthrow of an overthrow of Venezualan President Hugo Chavez...I suggest you go see this movie if you have not already!

RFK Jr.
Tickets are now on sale for $3 this event will again be Nov. 2 at 6pm at the REC. If you are still interested in volunteering contact Kristen Pitts pitts.kris@students.uwlax.edu you can get free tickets by volunteering...

AB 343
Kapanke will be on campus TONIGHT at 6pm at the student senate meeting in room 327 CC please pack this meeting and let him know how we feel about this ban on birth control! Write him more letters and make more phone calls, he needs to know how we feel and we need to know which way he is planning on voting!

Democratizing Education
Conference in Madison. This will be a conference with people from all over the country and some from outside the country. Registration and housing is completely free. This is an excellent opportunity to creat a network and also to hold open discussions regarding affordable and accessible higher educationg. Contact Ryan ASAP if interested! schryver.ryan@students.uwlax.edu

Spanjar
Xcel Energy rate increase of $8.19 per month and an increase in fuel prices is going towards a horrible cause that can prevent us from ever recieving a renewable energy source! The PSC is holding a public hearing about this rate increase, but they are holding it in Madison, which is not even in Xcels customer area....they have agreed to hold a live video broadcast of this meeting in La Crosse and in Eau Clarie...we need to get them to agree to hold an actual meeting here, it is very important that they can see how many of us are opposed to this rate increase and what it means! Contact Candice Spanjar at candice.spanjar@psc.state.wi.us and tell her that we do not support the rate increase and feel strongly about having a public hearing held here in La Crosse, since we are the ones who will be affected by this rate increase...there is SOOO much more information on this subject, contact Ryan Schryver if you are interested and im sure he could go on forever about all you ever wanted to know about this horrible idea...

Anti-Racism Taskforce
There will be a meeting this Thursday at City Hall at 1pm...if interested in going or working on this issue contact Carrie Olson olson.caro2@students.uwlax.edu

Protect our Organic Foods!
www.organicconsumers.org for more information on how to do this!

Environmental Council
Meeting this Thursday at 4pm!

NEXT WEEKS MEETING WILL BE OCTOBER 25 AT 7PM IN 257 CC

Give us our Birth Control!

AB 343
Big success with AB 343 petitions, however, if you had your classes sign the petitions without their addresses, please get the new petitions and have them resigned.  Phone call campaign at the clocktower went wonderfully...well all except the lies we recieved from John Perlich.  John is an aid in Kapanke's office and was misinforming us about the bill already being voted on and on the governors desk.  The bill is still in committee and has yet to be heard...so it will be a while before this bill is voted on.  To go along with this October 27th is lobby day in madison to let our representatives know directly how we feel about this issue.  Coincidentally it is also "sweep out the lobbyist" day in Madison, so if you are lobbying that day make sure to bring your brooms to let the professional lobbyists know that our voices need to be heard as well. This is brought to you by the People's legislature.
 
Mug Campaign
Reusable mugs for sale once again this year!  Jill and Adam have been been wonderful enough to restart this program as a fundraiser for SOA.  The mugs are now available in both red and blue and cost $5.  You can use this mug on campus at any of the food locations and recieve 4oz extra free, and you can save waste by not using a new cup everytime you drink something on campus! This Thursday from 8:30-11 am at the clocktower we will be selling these mugs and giving out samples of Fair Trade coffee! If you would like to help out with this on Thursday (Tomorrow) Please feel free to show up and help out...its always a good time at the clocktower!
 
SOA
55 People have already signed up which is amazing, but we would like at least 70 people in order to fill more than one bus! Also, we need people over 25 to ride on the busses with us, so if you know any professors or community members who are interested in going on this trip with us, PLEASE contact them and let Andrew know! Hotel rooms can be made available for them if they wish to not camp along with us.  New this year, we are camping! So if you have extra tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, other camping gear...please bring it along! Right now we are looking at a base price of around $120 if no fundraising is done...so we need to get going on the fundraising! We are planning on leaving Friday Nov 18th around 11am and returning Monday Nov 21 around 10am...last year we were back in time for Monday classes, so dont worry about those!  This trip will be well worth a missed class or two...trust me! If you have any questions or know people interested in going, ple ase contact Andrew at gilbert.andr@students.uwlax.edu
 
Liza's Birthday!
Next Tuesday is Ryan's dog's 1st birthday, in honor, there will of course be a party at Ryan's house.  This is also a progressive party/fundraiser idea/green calendar planning party.  So come prepared for a good time and with lots of ideas to get the progressives some money!
 
Adopt and Off-Campuser
New program that was tested out last Sunday by a few of the progressives.  Any progressive living on campus that would like to donate a meal to a progressive living off campus is encouraged to participate in this new program.  On Sunday's we meet at Whitney for brunch at 12:15, so find your on/off campus pal and meet us there!
 
Guy Wolfe is Amazing
Second year in a row to be names peacemaker of the year in Wisconsin, by two seperate organizations, if you see this elusive man around, congratulate him...he's too modest!
 
Week Without Violence
October 24028th WSSA is putting on a week without violence There will be various happening at the clocktower throughout this week and the 27th will be take back the night...so keep your eyes open for more information on this excellent event!
 
Depeleted Uranium
Sad, sad thing... check out this video to see for yourself, but be warned, this is nothing that is to be taken lightly, it is serious and it is disturbing: http://www.bushflash.com/animation.html when you open this site click on the video for poisonous legacy to watch it. Bree, Joe and Zach are working on this for a project, if you are interested in helping them out or want more information I encourage you to contact them or research the details
 
RFK Jr
if anyone is still interested in helping out with RFK Jr. and hasn't signed up yet, there are open spots open for various volunteer opportunities that night (Nov 2). Contact Pitts for more info on what is still available pitts.kris@students.uwlax.edu
 
Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting! If anyone has anything they are passionate about working on and what the help of some progressives, or if you just have annoucements or ideas feel free to share it with us all at the next meeting, this group or at least a few people in it are usually up to taking on almost anything!
 
Next meeting as always will be next Tuesday, October 17 at 7pm in 259 CC