In attendance: Stephen Collins, Kara & Bruce Erickson,
Teresa Malcolm, Maria Meyers

Teresa brought information sent to her by the Midwest
office about the case of Dr. Taye Wolde-Semayat in
Ethiopia. Dr. Taye is the current focus for the
Midwest region. He is a 1989 graduate of the
University of Missouri-Columbia. A leader of the
Ethiopian Teachers Association, Dr. Taye has been in
prison since 1996 and Amnesty International considers
him to be a prisoner of conscience.

We discussed activities for this campaign. We decided
to hold a letter-writing party for Dr. Taye on his
birthday, April 23. Because there is no Ethiopian
restaurant in Kansas City (to our knowledge), we
decided to hold the party at the Tribal Grill on 39th
Street. We will write appeals to the Ethiopian
government, and also collect birthday greetings and
take pictures to send to Dr. Taye himself in prison.

This party will be held INSTEAD OF THE REGULAR APRIL
MEETING.

All local Amnesty groups are invited. We will also
invite people from the peace groups who collaborated
with us on Bill Schulz's visit.

Teresa will contact Tribal Grill to set up the
arrangements.

Maria will post information about Dr. Taye and about
the party on the website.

Kara will bring the birthday cake!

Stephen will contact the alumni association of the
University of Missouri-Columbia and the local Amnesty
coordinator in Columbia to cast about for other ideas
to help with Dr. Taye's case. (And invite them to the
party?)

Finishing up the meeting, we wrote letters for Dr.
Taye; and for cases in Indonesia, Namibia and Egypt.

january 15, 2002

In attendance were Kara & Bruce Erickson, Paul Gamble,
Teresa Malcolm, Maria Meyers and Sara Weilert.

We discussed the upcoming concert at Shawnee Mission
Northwest on Friday, Jan. 18. Kara and Maria said
they'd be able to staff a table for part of the time.

Maria said she asked her mother, who works at Kemper
Arena, about the possibly of Amnesty members ushering
an event as a fundraiser. Maria said her mother was
checking on who to contact for that and would get back
with us.

Teresa told the group that in the spring she will have
been coordinator of Group 115 for two years, and she
feels it is time to step down. She will officially
resign in May (but of course still remain a member of
the group). It was suggested that she come up with a
list of duties for group coordinator to help in the
search for a new one.

We wrote letters appealing for the release of the
following people:

* A brother and sister imprisoned in China after they
appealed for compensation for ill-treatment the
brother had received in a previous imprisonment (for
his participation in 1989 democracy protests).

* A group of activists and human rights defenders
arrested in Syria for criticizing the government.

* A man in Turkmenistan imprisoned after receiving an
unfair trial, who has not received medical attention
for several illnesses.

december 18,2001

In attendance were Teresa Malcolm, Kara & Bruce
Erickson.

Kara said that both she and Stephen Collins will be attending the AIUSA Annual General Meeting in Seattle April 19-21. (For more information on the conference, go to http://www.amnesty-usa.org/events/agm2002.html)

We talked about how we made very little money selling books at the Bill Schulz event in September. However, since the purpose of the event was public education rather than fundraising, this was fine. It was good that the book sales covered our publicity expenses.

Kara said that she talked with one of the ushers at Kemper Arena during the U2 concert, and found out that people can usher at events as a fundraising activity for their group. We decided to ask Maria Meyers if she knew who to talk to at Kemper about this possibility.

Postcards were distributed dealing with cases in Mexico, Russia and Belarus, and two death penalty cases in Texas. In addition, a petition for Leyla Zana in Turkey was distributed (she was also included in last month's holiday card action).

We wrote letters on behalf of Win Htein, who is serving a 14-year sentence in Myanmar after two unfair trials. He is a senior assistant to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar's main opposition party.

We also wrote letters appealing for an investigation into Charges of torture of 11 shepherds in Turkey.

november 19, 2001

letter writing occurred