If your section has a national office please provide:

For a long time there has been discussion by different national boards about the possibility of selling the building in Philadelphia which has housed the national office since 1972. In 2007 the board invited the Past-Presidents to work together and to recommend a plan of action.  You can see the report from the Past-Presidents’ committee on the US National website.  They recommended that the building in Philadelphia be sold.
So, the Jane Addams Peace Association is selling the building at 1213 Race St in Philadelphia at WILPF's request. The building does not meet American Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility standards and the cost to make it accessible is prohibitive.
We formed a Site Committee to recommend to the board a new home for WILPF‘s National office.  The questions remain as to where the new WILPF office/s should be and we are looking to our membership for feedback as soon as possible. There is ongoing discussion via email.

Address:
1213 Race Street

City, State/ Province:
Philadelphia, PA

Postal Code:
19107

Telephone:
1-215-563-1170

Fax Number:
1-215-563-5527

Website:
www.wilpf.org

Email address:
executivedir@wilpf.org

Section Details:

Number of Dues Paying Members:     4,000

Number of Participating/ Active Members:   please define these terms?

Section 2007 Income:     $566,681

Section 2007 Expenses:       $589,077

Section Co-Presidents:                                           
Nancy Munger                                                          
75-A Pilgrim’s Path  
Eastham, MA  02742
mungbean54@hotmail.com
508 255 6869

Laura Roskos
464 Windsor St.
Cambridge, MA  02141
lauraroskos@hotmail.com
617 864 0712    cell 617 888 3286

International Board Member’s Name:  Audley Green

Address:   40 Battery  St.  #202

City, State/Province:  Boston, MA

Postal Code:  02109

Telephone:  617 723 0302

Fax Number:  same

Work and/or Mobile Number:

Email Address:  audleyjean4391@aol.com

International Committee or Working Group that IB member participates in:
 
Racism working group, and Rainbow Committee  (nothing has happened on this so far.)

International Board Alternative Member:  either co-president (see contact info above)

Address:

City, State/ Province

Postal Code:

Telephone:

Fax Number:

Work and or/ Mobile Number:

Email Address

2009 International Directory:
Please review your copy of the International Directory and provide all additional contacts and/or information that you would like to be listed in the 2009 International Directory. For example: Section Office, Section Treasurer, Secretary, Branch Contacts, etc.

Section Treasurer:
Barbara Neilson
400 Duboce #318
San Francisco, CA 94117
bln.sf.ca@gmail.com
Cell  415-430-5873

Secretary:
Paij Wadley Bailey
155 Main St.,  Apt. 209
Montpelier, VT  05602

Branch Contacts are all listed on our website.

As it is September 2008 as I am writing this, and last night I watched the first “debate” between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, my first impulse is to say “disastrous”!  The financial system is in meltdown: there have been wide-spread home foreclosures; many, many families have gone bankrupt because they lack health insurance and must pay all medical bills out-of-pocket. The country is bogged down in an illegal and expensive war in Iraq, and from all accounts the coming election could once again be stolen.  This week I viewed the film “Uncounted” which pointed out the way the results were inverted in the Diebold computers in 2000 and 2004 elections, and showed us once again the way so many voters in critical areas were left standing in the rain for hours – some for 13-14 hours!!   And then many went home without voting.  Why can we not vote on pieces of paper and put them in a box to be counted like the South Africans did when Nelson Mandela was elected?  Computers made by Republican supporters, without paper trail, are not viable.  Diebold, the company which makes the voting machines, also make the ATM machines that we use everywhere every day.  We do not leave that machine without a paper that records our action – whether putting money in or taking it out of our bank account. 

If we can elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden on November 4th. then I know the whole world will heave a great sigh of relief, despite the enormous problems that will be awaiting the new President, and despite the fact that their agenda is not exactly what we in WILPF would wish for.  There are forces working to steal this election as they did the previous two, and it is VERY SCARY. 

By the time we meet in Geneva this will all be over so really it is a useless exercise for me to go on and on!  We have to change the way the US relates to the rest of the world, and to do that we MUST change the administration in Washington. 

How would your section benefit from better international cooperation?

When the International office is sending out statements critical of the US we, the US Section, need to have some input.   I know that the Geneva office does run the statements by us.  I am still learning my role in this, and talked to Susi about it this week. 

To keep email traffic simple, it would be best for Susi to send  the statement first to me, as the IB Representative,  marked “AUDLEY – URGENT REPLY NEEDED.”  I would acknowledge the received “urgent” email immediately, so that the Geneva office would know we were working on it.  (I always look at my email at least twice a day.)  I would then run it by our Co-Presidents and/or the whole board if that was necessary. 

If for some reason I did not respond quickly, Susi should then send directly to our co-presidents. 

We should be able to get the required permission/comments done within 24-48 hours. 

I shall bring this matter up to our board at the meeting in October and run it by them for their approval.

What is your section’s political priority on a national level?

Overcoming “american exceptionalism” so that our country can cooperatively contribute to lessening armed conflict globally.

To that end, all of our issue committees work within the analytic frameworks developed by international institutions and working groups and nearly all of our action alerts and campaigns include reference to international petitions, law, or coalition work. Four of our nine issue committees are focused on challenging U.S. policy in specific places: the Middle East, Iraq/Iran, Haiti, and Cuba. Two others, DISARM and Advancing Human Rights work on international treaty participation and compliance. Our Save the Water committee works on protecting water as a human right, both legally/conceptually and in specific communities.

In addition we are working continually on confronting racism in domestic policy and on challenging corporate power in all sectors.

One of the most exciting features of our recent national triennial congress was a workshop on understanding white privilege, led by Sha’an Mouliert. This workshop has been further developed and will be offered to our local branches.  

Our Corporations vs. Democracy committee has helped WILPF address the recent “economic meltdown” by issuing a very timely statement and then using that statement as the basis for an interactive e-mail to our members, asking them to sign on to a petition circulated by Senator Bernie Sanders. We expect to do more on this theme in our forthcoming e-news.

All the issues committees are listed on our website, and a single branch will often have separate working groups participating in several of these at the same time.  

Geneva Office

We would like some feedback on the section mailing. Do you like the frequency and length? What topics would you like to see covered?

Just what do you mean by the section mailing?

What information from the Geneva Office would be helpful to you?

I find that with the websites there is LOADS of information available.  The main problem is having enough time and energy to read, and absorb, and act on the information that comes. 

What do you see as priority issues for the work of the Geneva Office?

You – all of you great women there - are coordinating all the sections, and keeping the international together.  The statements that come out of the office are very good, and we certainly appreciate them.  I would like to check around amongst our members to see how much they use the information. 

How could we improve communication between us (E-Mail, Conference Calls, Section Visits)?

Section visits are always good – we enjoyed Kerstin’s visit earlier this year, and it was good to have Susi and AnneLise at the Des Moines Congress.

E-mail works well.

I don’t think conference calls are an economical way to communicate.  I call Susi from time to time – and I like the connection, but I’m paying for that. 

UN Office (New York)

What information from the UN Office would be helpful to you?

I was in the UN office earlier this year and was quite bowled over by the work Sam and Ray do.   The information available to the membership on RCW and PeaceWomen websites is mind boggling.  I am a relatively new-comer to web sites and am continually amazed at what is there!!  I will compose a letter  when I have time to think, and can get out from under this report, to WILPF members like myself who were not brought up with a computer screen in front of their eyes, and suggest some ways we can change the world without even going to a meeting or a rally!

What do you see as priority issues for the work of the UN Office?

How could we improve communication between us (E-Mail, Conference Calls, Section Visits)?

Do you use the Reaching Critical Will website?

Yes

If so for what? What is the most useful? What would make the site more useful for you?
Yes. Our DISARM committee contributes to the RCW website and works closely with staff to ensure that resources and information posted there is brought to the attention of our members and informs our advocacy work in Washington. In part because of the excellent work of RCW, our DISARM committee remains strong and has grown to include members from more parts of the country in its leadership team.

Do you read the RCW E-news reports on CD, UN GA 1st Committee, NPT?

As I send out the E-news and other mailings from the UN office I have had joyful responses from members saying they had never seen this before, and thanking me for it.  I am interested to keep in touch with members and enourage more to read the different wilpf publcations.

What could be improved?

Do you use the Peace Women website?

Yes

If so for what? What is the most useful? What would make the site more useful for you?

Do you read the Peace Women E-news?

Yes.

Do you forward the PeaceWomen E-News to others? 

Yes

What could be improved?

Did your section discuss the international programme proposal circulated in August 2007?

Draft program was circulated to all branch leaders prior to adoption; I wrote an article about it for the spring issue of Peace and Freedom; Susi Snyder and Annelise Ebbe attended our section’s congress this past June and offered two workshops on it there.   

Yes

Did your section modify its own programme work as a result?      

Our newly adopted and more flexible mechanism for funding the advocacy and educational work of the section means that we are better prepared to support our members who choose to participate in delegations or projects initiated by WILPF international.

We’ve adopted a new e-advocacy support system, which enables us to better publicize statements drafted by WILPF International and link them to immediate opportunities to take action—such as signing petitions or writing to congress. This supports our ability to contribute meaningful to advancing coalition work, which is much of what we do.

Yes

What is the main focus of your section’s programme?

I answered this above – see political priorities.

Going forward, we would like to work with international on bringing a WILPF delegation to the 5th World Water Forum in March ’09 and to the Durban Review.

We have well established issue committees that are enthusiastic about working toward each of these goals, but in particular we feel we have might have some influence at the Water Forum.

US WILPF’s “Save the Water” National Campaign was created three years ago and this year became an Issue Group to continue work for the next three years. Save the Water primarily works to prevent and roll back the privatization of local water systems, reduce the use of bottled water, and promote the recognition of water as a human right.  

As a women’s organization this is an opportunity for WILPF to join with other groups from all nations to assert that “water is a human right. “ In particular, it is an opportunity to raise the voice of women in opposition to the commodification of water for private profit and to assert the right to safe, affordable and sufficient water for all. It is women the world over who suffer disproportionately from water insecurity that also impacts food security, and the health of their families and communities. And it is women, their families and communities that suffer when water resources and land are fought over. Most importantly, as one of the few NGOs with standing at the UN, it is important that WILPF participate in some way to support the call and work for an International Treaty to the “Human Right to Water.” 

Before the IB meeting in November, Nancy Price, member of the “Save the Water” leadership collaborative will elaborate some details of the ways in which WILPF might participate. She was a delegate to the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003 and participant in the first “People’s World Water Forum,” the parallel event to the World Water Forum, in Mexico City in 2009. She will inquire with her colleagues about what plans are underway for an inside/outside strategy for this forum and formulate a proposal for how WILPF might be able to contribute and participate effectively. Nancy’s report can be distributed via e-mail to the appropriate groups prior to the meeting or presented at the IB meeting by me or Carol Urner, one of our section’s program chairs who will be present.

Challenging Militarism?

Yes

While all of our work challenges militarism, this theme is most clearly visible in the work of our DISARM committee. DISARM members recently organized activities in 37 branches to commemorate Hiroshima/Nagasaki and helped launch a petition, originating with our Burlington (VT) branch to designate August 6 as Nuclear Disarmament Day. Last year, 17 branches organized events/actions around Keep Space for Peace Week, and we expect greater participation this year. As part of this effort, we invited members to sign a petition against siting a US military base in the Czech Republic, organized by the Nonviolent Movement against US bases in the Czech Republic and Europe For Peace. Almost all branches and at large members in other communities are planning vigils or other activities for Oct. 11, to commemorate the congressional authorization of the attack on and invasion of Iraq in 2002.

We’ve recently become a member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and continue to be a member of United for Peace and Justice.

Members of the DISARM committee have been visible and active in Washington, D.C., and have identified allies among legislators; these relationships have been tremendously important during the Bush presidency and may become more important after the November elections when the administration changes.

Strengthening the UN?

Yes

This spring, we initiated a new program in cooperation with the National Women’s Studies Association. This Practicum in Advocacy at the U.N. brought 16 students from 14 U.S. colleges and universities to New York for a week of participation in the Commission on the Status of Women meetings. In addition to attending the CSW, these women were responsible for taking notes as designated sessions and side events, and attended evening seminars to further consolidate their learnings from the day. This program will be continued in 2009, with a capacity of 20 students, and a third sponsoring partner, the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights (Suffolk University).

In addition to the practicum delegates, the CSW was attended by over forty U.S. members.

The Milwaukee (WI) branch held three fact finding hearings and conducted extensive research on racial discrimination in their community to produce a shadow report on U.S. compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This was filed as part of a combined U.S. Civil Society intervention last summer, and WILPF has continued to work with the U.S. Human Rights Network to ensure that recommendations in the CERD committee’s concluding observations are implemented by the U.S. government. Our particular concern is that CERD’s provisions become familiar to local and state officials, who have responsibility for ensuring that the treaty’s provisions are adhered to in practice.

Truth in Recruitment project challenging U.S. compliance with the CRC optional protocol on the Use of Children in Armed Conflict on issues related to the improper and abusive recruitment of children into the U.S. armed forces. The shadow report submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child built on on-going efforts by our members to limit recruiters access to schools, and community venues, and the concluding observations issued by the were similar in many cases to those proposed in our report. With the help of staff in Geneva, and in particular Kirsty McKay, we were able to support our report and build relationships by sending members to CRC meetings in both February and June 2008. The report, as well as the concluding observations, have been shared with selected legislators, one of whom hopes to have congressional hearings on some of these issues over the coming year. Our major goals will be to stop the automatic release of student contact information to recruiters by public schools and push for the institutionalization of peace and human rights education in the school curriculum.

Investing in Peace?

Yes

WILPF was an early member of the civil society coalition promoting Rep. Kucinich’s proposal for a Department of Peace, and our members, particularly in the Washington D.C. and Cleveland branches have kept this high on their priority lists. We have endorsed and publicized HB676 introduced by WILPF sponsor Rep. John Conyers which would provide health care to all by extending the existing Medicare program to cover everyone. WILPF also joined in the working group of NGO’s drafting the International Violence Against Women Act, currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate. This bill would allocate significant new funding to supporting women’s grassroots organizations in conflict regions while creating an oversight structure within the State Department charged with ensuring consistency with international human rights law and best practices in the administration of these funds.

Building WILPF?

Yes

WILPF U.S.’s strategic plan includes as national priorities, building Y-WILPF and eliminating internal racism as means to strengthening WILPF as an enduring organization.

We have added two positions for Y-WILPF to our section’s national governing board, created internships for Y-WILPF organizers, and are currently deliberating a by-law change that would make it easier to organize campus branches.

We have funded a project that will encourage branches to sponsor full day workshops on identifying and working with “white privilege.” We are considering a second project that would include distributing copies of Joyce Blackwell’s monograph No Peace Without Freedom to all branches and engaging the whole of our membership in an on-line discussion of that book.

This year, we’ve also put considerable effort into improving our membership records and integrating electronic communications infrastructure that will automate membership dues and pledges AND allow us to communicate via e-mail more often and in ways that translate into effective political action. This new infrastructure, developed by Democracy in Action, will considerably strengthen our section’s ability to engage in nationally coordinated and sustained campaigns. It should also grow our organization by making membership available and accessible to much larger numbers of people.

One consequence of our new technology, however, is that we may need to eventually look at re-conceptualizing what a member is. The research literature on internet organizing is showing some surprising trends that suggest that our section’s established way of “counting membership numbers” may be quite outmoded and perhaps even counterproductive if what we want are influence, engagement, and donations.

In addition, we organized national tours for WILPF co-president Kersten Greback and Palestinian section President Hanan Awaad. These tours helped raise awareness of WILPF as an international organization among our members and many of the local events featuring these speakers were well attended. Each of these tours was subsequently documented in our magazine, Peace and Freedom.

At our national congress, UK section President Diane Brace gave a wonderful workshop on organizing Connect Days to build membership at the branch level. Several of our branches, including Boston, have adopted this model.

How does your section communicate with the International Offices?

On administrative and operational issues, the Section’s Director of Operations communicates with International Offices; in some instances, the communication originates with our co-presidents. As IB rep, I serve as the liaison between the International Board and the U.S. Section membership and between the International Board and the U.S. section’s National Board.