YA Blog

Update!

2008-03-17T10:51:00.002-04:00

YA is now holding youth focused film nights. All films will have a relation to youth and we hold discussions at the end. We have already shown "Tough Guise" and we will be showing on April 12th, "Arlington West". All films are free and open to all ages. They will be at 7pm at the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine, 170 Park St., Bangor.

Notes 18 June

2007-06-19T17:40:00.000-04:00

YA for Monday, 18 June:
WE ARE NOW MEETING AT 6:00 ON MONDAYS INSTEAD OF 5!

Sean came and talked to us in order to evaluate the past year in YA. It actually was really great and led us to create:
YA SUMMER GOALS!!! and ideas
El Salvador education to people in conjunction with gardening and sustainability
immigration and PICA integration (newsletter)
educating ourselves about the economics of things like NAFTA and CAFTA
weekly assignment about something THIS WEEK: NAFTA AND CAFTA- everyone should come to the next meeting prepared to discuss these trade agreements
Central American politics- places besides El Salvador this time! THIS WEEK: CUBA- we're going to have weekly country picks too
That's about it!! Don't forget that meetings are at 6:00 now!
Por la paz,
Hazel

Notes 23 April

2007-04-24T15:43:00.000-04:00

YA 23 April 2007!

June 2 PICA Dinner: For the "Sweet 16" of Bangor-Carasque Sister-City Relationship. There will be a newsletter assembly on this Sunday, 29 April. If anyone's interested in helping, email jon. Also, they were wondering if any YA people would be able to help make tortillas on earlier on that Saturday the 2 of June for the fundraising dinner. Email Jon for that as well.

YA Recruitment: We met and brainstormed with Sean about how to recruit more YA people. Here are our ideas:
Update flyer: picture of us and what we've done to be included
Recruitment on Facebook
EVENT: music show or free food with acoustic/background music with advertisement on facebook
Get into Spanish/History classes in schools (Freshmen and Sophomore classes in particular)
Synagogue/U.U. church
Mall? See what the mall might be able to do for us (regarding a table or permit to pass out flyers, etc.)
More newsletters
Flyers in bathroom stalls everywhere
Movie nights

We decided that we first want to revamp our newsletter. Current topic: the recent Supreme Court case involving a student that brought a poster saying "Bong Hits for Jesus". We'll talk about the case in relation to student rights. Miriam is going to work mostly on that and send the info to me, but if anyone else wants to do research, send it along. Remember to sight sources!

por la paz,

Hazel

Minutes 22 January

2007-01-22T19:26:00.000-05:00

YA notes 22 January 2007
*Diversity Day- Larry Dansinger and I are going to Dirigo High School on Monday, January 29 to give a workshop about youth activism. Hopefully Bekah can come along too. Please call me by Tuesday evening to let me know if you can go Bekah!

*Kazakhstan article- I gave it to the co-editor of the HA school newspaper so that it’ll be in there, and Bapst girls made copies. Please distribute ASAP! I also sent one to Jon who will put one up online.

*Youth Activist Gathering- Probably the beginning of April vacation. It’s a really worthwhile gathering to attend, as there are many issues brought up and discussed at length. More information will come when the time draws closer.

*Earth Day event- I’m wicked excited about this. In previous years we have sometimes had a booth at the HOPE Festival on Earth Day, but this year, through a connection I have at Unity College… we have been invited to take part in their Earth Day celebration. We will probably have our own classroom so that we can give our Conscientious Consumerism workshop at the college and we’ll be able to distribute information about YA and what’s up (increase membership?). It’s going to basically be up to us what we want to do there, and it’ll educate more members of the youth community about consuming issues. Earth Day is Saturday, April 22. So YA members: keep that date open! Also, if anyone knows of any local bands that could partake in Unity’s Earth Day celebration, please let me know.

*Nature’s Helpers Workshop- Last year some members of YA gave the Conscientious Consumerism workshop in Scarborough for a group of high schoolers. We’ve been invited to do the same again. This year it is on Tuesday, April 10. We can present the same slideshow we did last year, except we’ve revamped it with new and improved changes. Now we just need to figure out some form of transportation that will accommodate ALL members to go.

*Thursday @ 3:30- A meeting at the Peace and Justice Center to help plan the March 17 protests (on the anniversary of when we invaded Iraq). They are trying to get 100 towns across Maine to hold their own protest. The one in Bangor is at 1:00 in front of Paul Bunyan. For more information, contact Ilze Petersons at the Peace and Justice Center 942-9343 or info@peacectr.org

*UN conference in NY- We went over a questionnaire about the conference that I already submitted. We are leaving Bangor at the Greyhound bus station on Friday, February 23 at 8:00am and returning to Bangor at about 5:30pm on Wednesday, February 28. We need to get our bus tickets in the beginning of February, but I’m first going to check about if there are group rates.

*El Salvador Scholarship program- We met with Jon Falk about scholarships in El Salvador. I’ve attached Caroline’s notes about the subject that she took when we were in El Salvador. Here are the points we focused most on:
-It does not just benefit students from Carasque.
-it involves commitments from the students that includes working one day a month, volunteering (like tutoring), and committing to using their degree after the graduate for work in El Salvador.
-it is mostly for high school, which is not free in E.S.
-it is a big priority for them and PICA has agreed to help with the fund, which is not too expensive.

Perhaps we could look into school groups like Amnesty or Spanish Club?
We could have a monthly YA spare change can for YA members and anyone else who wants to donate?
A Carasque scholarship newsletter?

That’s pretty much all for this meeting!
¡Por la paz!

Hazel

Notes 8 January

2007-01-12T11:21:00.000-05:00

YA Notes 8Jan07:

*We are going to depart NYC after the UN conference on Wednesday the 28th instead of Tuesday to be able to attend the Youth SpeakOut. Bus schedule: Greyhound bus roundtrip is about $85 out of Bangor directly to Port Authority Bus terminal in NYC. We will leave Bangor on Friday 23 Feb at 8am, arrive in NYC at 6:30, then leave NYC Wednesday 28 Feb at 7am and arrive in Bangor at 5:25pm.

*Pass out Kazakhstan newsletters or submit them to school newspapers.

*Diversity Day- Monday 29 January at Dirigo High (way far away... in the depths of Maine): How to be a youth activist and alternatives to military service. Larry Dansinger wants one or two of us to present with him to this school. Rebekah said she might? Please let me know by next week - and if anyone else is interested: let me know.

*We went over our ideas for PICA with Caroline who will present them to the board.

*We learned some information about GAP - more details next week. In the meantime, visit: www.dearbono.org

*Global Warming newsletter: Caroline will make the survey that we will poll people with to make a stellar article about global warming that will be "unbiased". Keep collecting info and send it to me (with cited sources).

Por la paz

Hazel

YA Update

2006-11-13T19:37:00.000-05:00

YA notes 13 November 2006
Focus for YA:
WRC *We’ve decided that since we are almost evenly spread among 3 schools that we cannot take on a huge project like the WRC in one school. So we’ve decided that if people from the individual schools want to take that to a student group, they can do so, and if they want information and the presentation we made: contact me! I have a ton of information about it that I can share. hazel@pica.ws So now YA will be the outreach and support group for people wanting to bring the WRC to their schools.

Newsletter- A side project with one column presenting one viewpoint, the other with the other viewpoint. Also, a blurb at the bottom about YA to increase membership. People will send me a little piece for each (with your reference please) and I’ll put it together so that we’ll have a smashing newsletter. You can be working on that for the next 2 weeks (as I will not be here next Monday the 20th).

YA recruitment:
-myspace: Dave
-business cards (bright colors…): Dave
-flyers available for PICA auction: me
-PICA email list: me
-News&Views blurb: me
-word of mouth through SEAC, Amnesty, and other student groups: everyone

July 31 minutes

2006-08-07T18:42:00.000-04:00

Notes July 31
We are interested in having a speaker about Wal-Mart for the group since there is an idea of having a SuperWal-Mart in Bangor L .

We decided a date for the parents meeting Friday August 18 at 7pm. I will check with Jon and Kathryn to make sure that works for them.

Fundraising ideas for El Salvador trip: we realized we need to raise approximately $10,000 for 7 of us to go!
-ask teachers/relatives/friends for donations
-cans for donations in convenience stores and local businesses with a flyer describing why we’re fundraising that Dave is making and will send out to all of us
-bottle drives in groups of 2 or 3
-all of the money we make, we are going to keep 50% for our own personal trip and the other 50% to pool together in a YA account for the time being. That way, once we’ve done all the fundraising, we can go to that account and fill in the money holes that each of us has.
-collect coins!
-I’m going to check with Sean about what kind of people we can go to for support. Someone thought of the idea of asking Stephen King, but we need to wait so that we can go to groups/foundations like his professionally and have a letter written to present to them before we just start asking people informally.
-Miriam pointed out that when we do bottle drives, sometimes people like to make out checks to the organization instead of giving us bottles. We need to wait until I know whom we make the checks out to! It looks sketchy if they’re just writing checks out to us.
This week Dave is going to put flyers and cans in Franks Bakery and gas stations around Bangor. Cassie and Emily- cans in 3 stores in Glenburn
Make sure you write down where you put cans!! And inform the owners when you will be checking/collecting the money.

BIKES- The people who aren’t going on the trip (and myself) need to start working on this if we want to do it! We though of a slogan: GreenCycles with a picture of a bike with a basket that has a plant growing out of it. Hannah you thought of the idea of the contract/form—would you be willing to write that and send it out?

PAZ
-Hazel

July 24 Minutes

2006-08-07T18:35:00.000-04:00

Notes July 24
Ideas for upcoming schoolyear:
-a newsletter page to get out to schools about current events: not biased, just the facts so students can be informed in an easy to read format!
-presentation to youth in Carasque to tell them about Bangor when we go to El Salvador
Bikes- we want contracts/forms/applications for people and their bikes: "I’m _ years old, and I’m ___ tall and I want this bike because I want to promote the message of environmental awareness and I will use it instead of cars to lower greenhouse gas emissions!" …or something to that effect
Jon and Kathryn gave a presentation about the El Salvador delegation. If you are interested, email Jon at jon@pica.ws for more information and to get your name on the interest list.

Notes for 12 June 2006

2006-06-16T14:46:00.000-04:00

Caps and Gowns: The collection did not end up happening because people could not show up at graduation. We decided next year we should advertise more in advance, as in at the beginning of the last quarter/semester.

Community Garden: The plan was to ask Rebekah about this and to update us on what info she might have. Otherwise, we should try to get in touch with maybe the school officials from Bapst that are involved? - Rebekah , if you could pass that information onto me, I could certainly get a hold of whoever.

Bikes: Miriam is going to talk with Bob Borak about coming in to talk to us about bikes. We'll see what dates work for him - just not the 19th. We should come up with some more specific questions for him on what we want to know. How to fix bikes? About riding bikes? etc. ...

Website: We took a look at the website and came up with some changes to make. We want more pictures - so you should all take photos, or bring in any YA pictures you may have. Most other suggestions surrounded grammar and wording. -- We thought about incorporating a blog, which would be exciting. The minutes could be posted into it, and those that weren't there could add their input through commenting. Thoughts on that? - I'll ask Alayna about the possibility.

And finally, WRC: we worked on the big map project, and for the most part, we've drawn it. It just needs to be colored in. EVERYONE should try to collect any functional markers that we can use to finish it.

We also began to update the powerpoint presentation that we'll use to talk to school and community groups. - These were the initial thoughts, but people should add and comment on what they think would be useful.

- Generally it should be less about trade policy and more about what the WRC is and why we should join. This is the general layout at this point for the presentation:

Map Exercise- talk about global economy
Map Part II - talk about unequal distribution of wealth
(there needs to be a transition here)
What is a Sweatshop?
Cost Analysis of shirt
Where do sweatshops exist?

And then - a little on global trade policy - which needs to be refined - and it needs to transition into

The WRC as part of the solution
- What is the WRC
- Schools that have joined
- What are the benefits/why should we join
- examples of purchases that would be affected - caps and gowns, etc.
What is the process for joining?

What can you do !?

--------------------------
So - you all should be making suggestions on this, we have to continue to put together the end of it. And then we should start talking to people.

Next meeting some folks from the Sister Cities committee of PICA are going to come in to talk about the Scholarship Program with Carasque. EVERYONE should bring in petitions that have been signed, and EVERYONE should bring in markers!

If I forgot anything, email it out.

Peace on ya,
Tracy

Notes for 5 June 2006

2006-06-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

Caps and Gowns: We need to collect caps and gowns at graduation. It is at June 11 at 4pm. Miriam can make it and Dave and Caroline said they might be able to. We should make a couple of posters and bring a couple of boxes.

Garden: Dave and Rachel talked to a woman - at a store? - who gave them a phone number for someone involved in this garden at Bapst. It'd be great if one of you could email that out. Hanna will talk to SEED who said they were interested in working on this. Hanna will also collect their emails , so we can get a hold of them.

WRC : Exciting News! Three schools have joined the Workers Rights Consortium. One school is in Colorado and two are in California, we think. I know a student from the school in CO because we went to El Salvador together on a PICA delegation. We should work to talk to these other student groups about their strategies and successes and obstacles.

Hazel talked to a guy from the League of Pissed Off Voters named Alec who wants to get some younger folks involved. She should send his email address out! (Even if only so I can say, hey what's up.)

Next meeting we will make the big map and refine the WRC presentation.

Then we had interviews. After a lot of difficult discussion and thought, we decided to go with Hazel as the new Youth Adelantando Organizer.

I think that's it - email anything I might have left out.

Tracy

Notes for 29 May 2006

2006-06-16T14:32:00.000-04:00

We arranged caps and gowns -- hopefully that went well? and all managed to be coordinated? Let me know!

We talked about the WRC and how to make it appealing. We decided we have to show how it effects the "me" and keep it simple.
We want to present to the school board eventually, but first we should get more support. These were some ideas:

Have postcards that community members could send in
Advertise the fact that we're trying to join, let people know! Have a table at an event with postcards and have a call in.
Continue to get petition signatures.
Advertise the board meeting and get lots of people there.
Use the ya presentation that we already gave as a tool to talk to other groups, especially student groups.

We came up with groups to talk to :

Student support:

amnesty
seed
gsa
qcc
art club
aids committee
book club
student council
language clubs
key club
nhs

Community support:

central labor council
food and medicine
food not bombs
kiwanis
maine fair trade campaign
psa at umaine
bangor theological?
fields pond?
mpac
wassookeag school parents?
maine association of independent neighborhoods
p and j center
pica
student womens assn at um
uu church
hammond st
other churches
beth el
women work and community?
mpa?
vets for peace?

And for a convincing argument:

Maine's recent legislation
Governor Baldacci's letter.
UMF, UMaine, Colby, Bates , all part of WRC, I think?
Bangor = largest hs in state, it should be an example.

We also talked about ways to refine our presentation:

The map exercise was good. We've decided to make it into a .... dual tool.

We should make a big map and divide it up into sections based on wealth. This kind of requires lots of describing so we can go over it next meeting. - We should shorten the powerpoint, but use key points of it. Leave lots of time for questions and discussion.

Okay - I think that's it for now - if people could look over the applications that come in , and if everyone came up with a couple of questions , it'd be stellar.

See you soon !

Tracy.