CHAI General Meeting
August 9, 2007
5:30pm
Arusha Centre
Present:
Tavis Ford, Karena Monroe, Horst Fergel, Luiz Veronese, AJ Matsune, Ed McCulloch, Gunther Kurring, Dale D'Silva, Krista Wells, Monique Serroul, Tara Wells, David Wilson, Jennifer McVeigh.

Introductions:
This week is CHAI's 1 year anniversary!

Homeless Awareness Week:
* CHAI will have a booth at info fair on the 16th, and a rally on the 20th at noon
* AJ – not comfortable stating that the government has a complete lack of plan, as they have announced 6 programs, it makes us sound uninformed
DECISION: we will state “a complete lack of long-term plan”

Election-based Events:
* Grant – IDEA – Election Forum – unspecified date
some candidates don't think they're effective, but we will highlight progressive people
issues to highlight – city could be standing upt o developers, secondary suites, inclusionary zoning, land allocation to non-profit housing
* it will promote 4-5 good candidates, raise the level of debate, push relevant ideas to media
* problem – candidates and audience likely to be on side – preaching to the choir, may be more effective for individuals to volunteer on campaigns
* Bryn, Grant and Luiz are willing to work on the forum
IDEA – parent-teacher interviews about candidates - “he/she needs to do better” etc.
IDEA – a positive action – ask if there are any projects in planning that the city can donate land to
IDEA – report cards on each candidate
come up with a few key questions, make sure results are published on website and released to press
* take results and say – this is what could be done
* report cards can target more people than a forum – more convenient for candidates, and can be published in any number of forums
* raise the level of debate, compare and connect candidates
* problem – politicians can always say what we want to hear, then fail to act
the questions need to be detailed and specific, so we can go back and check the reults
* should call Amy Steele at FFWD to ask if they will do it with us
DECISION: We do not have enough time or resources to put together an election forum, we will do the report cards instead
ACTION: report cards need to happen by in the last half of September
ACTION: Bryn, Luiz, David and Ed will help write the report card questions, Dalw will help dissemante them to the media through his Sierra Club links
DECISION: CHAI members will attend a large forum as a group to ask questions
DECISION: CHAI will write a list of demands for city hall, release to press and put on website on time for election
ACTION: AJ and David will help Grant research our demands
DECISION: David interested in long-term education messaging
ACTION: Jennifer will encourage people on CHAI's email list to attend HAW events

Rally/Event – Sept. 20Th, noon:
* David – IDEA – flash mob – spread blankets somewhere for 10 minutes – the action has ato have self-explanatory images and a press release before, pamplets after
IDEA – have people fill in a chalk outline of house
city hall is a small area and looks good with any number of people
pull people from Superhero event Wed.
IDEA – put up fact sheets next to Alnoor Kassan's election posters
IDEA – sidewalk chalking lasts beyond short time of event, easy and cheap
IDEA – bring cardboard boxes to signify temporariness, build housing models
IDEA – use projector to build shadow house
IDEAS– boxes - write 5 key messages on them, have $ bats knock them down, act as if we're moving in to city hall, narrator needed
DECISION: We will meet at Bankers Hall, march down Stephen Ave and chalk, stack boxes on steps of City Hall
ACTIONS: AJ will collect some boxes, David will write a box-play script and have it ready for the next meeting

Long-term Possibilites for CHAI:
ACTION: This discussion will happen at the next meeting, when there is sufficient time to explore ideas.