Sunday  1pm – 5pm Home of Larry Roeder, 26128 Talamore Drive, South Riding (Chantilly), VA 20152

1.       Introductions and Agreement to the Agenda were conducted by Larry Roeder

2.      Improving America's Image abroad - A Pilot Project Involving Dulles Airport.   The Working Group has been exploring how to enhance America’s image abroad, including a pilot project at Dulles Airport to improve the experience of entering foreigners..  Larry Roeder and Tim Buchholtz are managing this project and need volunteers for what is expected to be an expanding project.  Speaking at the event was Sally Harvey of Traveler’s Aid, the oldest NGO in the United States.  An agreement was reached at the meeting for a partnership between Traveler's Aid and our group in which we will advertise to the larger Democratic community in Loudoun County, as well as Loudoun County for Obama and the working group membership for volunteers willing to assist foreigners entering the United States via Dulles Airport..  This will be done through a joint formal announcement developed by Sally and Larry.  Any volunteers would need to vetted by Homeland Security.  This is an exciting development because it offers a practical application of the working group's desire to stimulate positive change in keeping with President Obama's vision.  For questions on volunteering, contact Sally Harvey, Program Manager, Trafvelers Aid, Washington Dulles, International Airport, Washington, DC 20041.  Call 703-572-7350 or email Sally at Sally.Harvey@MWAA.com.  The website for TravelersAid is www.travelersaid.org.

3.      Update on the Somalia Project:  The Working Group has been discussing a joint project with USIP, the United States Institute for Peace which will involve two joint-events.  Separately, there have also been discussions about doing a Peace Rally in 2009 or next summer.  

• June 12th   The group heard from Speakers who appear at the June 12th Session with USIP during which an emphasis was expressed to focus partly on the gender related questions, on the piracy issues and in general solutions for peaceful unification. Ms. Shukria Dini of the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, made a particularly interesting commentary on the role of gender in the Somali discussion.  Shukria, a new member of the working group, will also be a speaker at the joint USIP event.  Mustafa agreed to present talking points drafted by Larry on the Working Group on the 12th and the speakers agreed to send Larry their presentations for posting on the website.  We also anticipate that USIP will film the event.

 

 

 

• Second Event,   Mary Schwaebel of USIP could not attend at the last moment; but Larry and Mary are discussing doing a second event at USIP.

• Peace March   After considerable discussion, Larry recommended that it was too early in the group's evolution to do a peace March in 2009 and instead recommended that the group pencil in a march for June 2010 and make a decision in November, in order to allow enough time to plan to examine the current flux of events in Somalia.  The group agreed.  In addition, Larry recommended that the group develop now a letter to the President asking him to make Somalia an issue of priority.  This letter will be coordinated with the local Somali community and interested Americans and then be transmitted to the President through through influential friends of the working group.  The group also agreed to this plan.

4.      Future Topics:  Basant was invtied to discuss her new role at the next meeting on June 28th.  In addition, Afghanistan will be a main discussion topic. 

5.      Update on the Working Group website.  www.foreignpolicyforchange.org.  Larry did a presentation on the website and Aaron did a presentation on possible future plans, drawing on designs of websites like ReliefWeb and USIP.    This set of briefings went very well, especially the notion that improvements should happen, but be developed in keeping with needs.  In the mean time, Larry was asked to develop a submit function for our website, which will allow anyone to propose suggestions for improvements or documents or links for posting on our website.  Aaron also announced a contest to develop an ICON for the website.  More on this will be announced at the next meeting.

6.      Venue and time of the June Meeting.   1-5pm  Sunday June 28th.  Venue will be in South Riding but the address is to be decided.

• Preliminary agenda

  •     Introductions.

  •     Update on Partnership with Traveler's Aid

  •     Update on Partnership with USIP

  •     Update on Improvements in the Website and announcement of an icon contest.

  •     Briefing by Basant on her new role coordinating civic projects.

  •     Discussion on Afghanistan  -- details to be announced during the month.