National Sweatshop Workshop

WHEN: Saturday Feb. 23rd 10AM-1PM
WHERE: TX State Teacher's Association Blding

Room 201 316 West 12th St. (right down from the AFL-CIO)
WHO: Lianna Foxvog, national organizer for sweatfree communities will be helping us build our campaign for this year, updating us on the movement across the country and helping us build enforcement procedures from the city sweatfree ordinance and county resolution toward.

Please come and learn how we can work toward a more fair sweatfree Austin Community. If you have not already, please RSVP. Light brunch and coffee provided!

National Sweatshop Workshop, Feb 23rd!

This Saturday, Feb 23rd from 10am~1pm is the National Sweatshop Workshop. Our campaign is fresh and we need a lot of organizing and so forth. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to organize and efficiently carry out the campaign. There will be activists from all around town so it will be a great chance for us to know how everything is working in the city and county level. It is going to be at 11th and Lavaca. If we RSVP, lunch will be provided and transportation is not an issue. We can carpool and parking is relatively simple during the weekends. This is a great opportunity for us to learn about the campaign so if you can make it, please send me an email at nakarmia@gmail.com so that I can RSVP. See you guys Saturday!

Tabling Cancelled for Valanetine's .. But with all the LOVE!

Dear folks,

There have been some change in plans. We will NOT be starting the photo campaign tomorrow, Feb 14th.

The original idea was to meet up with the coop president a week before valentine's and correspondingly kick off the campaign on Valentine's day. That didn't happen and we decided to carry on with the plan.

In Think Local Act Global however, we came across students on the coop board and they seemed optimistic and positive. We made a collective decision that we shouldn't start on the photo campaign on Valentine's day for the following reasons. The coop should first hear about our campaign from us, not from the publicity received on Valentine's day. We don't want the wrong idea that we are against them, in fact we very much want to work with them. Thus, the first order of business is to schedule a meet with coop representatives to introduce our campaign and see their stand. We will be working on a letter draft to the board members so look forward to that in the near future.

I apologize for this sudden change of plans and short notice but we strongly believe it is the right thing to do. The campagin is starting out great and everything will fall into place respectively.

Thank you for being a part of the campaign and of course all the love on the occasion of Valentine's.

General Update

1) Valentine’s day event

We have decided to do a photo campaign for Valentine’s day. We will be in the west mall taking pictures of people with their messages of support for our Sweat shop free campaign. We will process these pictures and use them as potential resources as putting them in display boards, sending it out to the Co-Op and so forth. We will also be publicizing this at Think Local Act Global, maybe even snapping a few pictures when we have the opportunity. We will be making a display poster after the general meeting tomorrow, Feb 12. We will also figure out a tabling schedule for this event after the meeting.

2) Facebook Group

Our awesome co-leader Hernan has created a facebook group for the campaign. I know everybody uses facebook so please join the group. We decided to use the facebook group as a discussion place for the members, and general announcements. Whenever you find out something, have a question or want to share information, please post it on the facebook group. Just to get it started, please join the group and type in what you have researched or any idea that you have. We will be using the blogspot website for formal announcements, posting of minutes and so forth.

http://utexas.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8711596283 JOIN NOW!!

3) United Students Against Sweatshop Conference Calls

As mentioned in the presentation last week, United Students Against Sweatshops is an awesome resource for our campaign. I have been on the conference call for a few weeks and have found the call to be extremely helpful. Students from all over the country are on the call and insightful information, ideas are shared. Even if you don’t have much to say, it is ok to just call in and listen to everything that is going on nationally.The conference calls are Sundays at 8pm Central (Conference is about 45 mins). If you don’t have much going on Sunday evenings, try it out! The number to call is 712-451-6100 and a pass code is also required. Ask me if interested.

4) Leftovers

This is a big campaign and we have a lot of resources; so to make use of everything efficiently and accomplish as much as we can, we decided that we would have certain positions within the campaign. Think about a position you would be interested in, for example, if you really like talking to people - Public Relations or if you like doing extended readings (erhhh)- Resource Person. Be creative and bring it to the meeting tomorrow. One thing very important that I learned from the meeting last week was about the unused-resources-in-the-back-of-the-room. This is a solid campaign and it effects people’s lives in a very direct way. There is also a lot to do, so if you think you can contribute or have ideas, please bring them out. You have already decided to make a difference by joining Oxfam, now give it the best and witness change directly through your actions!

Abhishek