(1pm to 5pm)  

1.   Introductions (led by Mustafa Omar) were made and new participants welcomed.  Food was provided by Zahara and Mustafa Omar.

2.    The China Human Rights letter:  (led by Larry Roeder) On-line voting showed that the majority of the members did want the letter sent to Secretary of State Clinton; however no majority or even a strong minority opinion emerged on how the format of the letter, whether it should be signed only by those who supported it or be a consensus document sent on behalf of the working group as a whole  The consensus of the group was that the effort was excellent and that the voting option provided an open and transparent way of making complex decisions where a consensus was unreachable.  Since no clear majority had emerged on the format of the letter, the consensus was to drop the issue for now.

3.    The Entry Project, an examination of improving how foreigners are treated at America’s entry points.  (led by Larry Roeder and Tim Buchholtz).   Larry reported that he had discussed the project with the Department of Homeland Security and Dulles airport; but that no decision had been made yet by those agencies on holding a joint discussion with the working group.  Larry is specifically looking into a field trip to Dulles Airport to discuss ideas by a number of airports to enhance the entry experience and the Working Group’s suggestion of using cleared volunteers as greeters.  This project has great potential as a way to involve local citizens in mitigating a real problem.

4.    Management of the Working Group.  Due to recent changes in Loudoun County for Obama (LCO) at a special April 14th meeting and a realization that the Foreign Policy Working group has roots both outside and inside LCO, as well as the Obama Campaign, the group decided on a set of management guidelines to take effect immediately but that will also be reviewed this November.  The goal is to achieve a simply run, fun but useful grassroots body that works to support the Obama movement for change.

·        Continue to be open and transparent.  We will report on meetings on the Working Group website and as well as the LCO Ning, MBO and by email.  Note the group website right now is http://www.artbyroeder.com/obamacampaign/ObamaHome.htm, which is managed by Larry but per an earlier group decision will be ported over soon to a dedicated URL.  We will also retain space on Ning and MBO.  Aaron Etra volunteered to help manage the Working Group services and this was agreed by consensus.  THE NEW URL WILL BE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.  (www.foreignpolicyforchange.org)

·         In order to grow our membership, we will advertise meetings in the normal way on MYBO and Ning and by group email, as well as look for other creative solutions, e.g. advertising in Local publications.  Tim Buchholtz, Chairman of LCDC (Loudoun County Democratic Committee), also agreed to provide advertising space for meetings.

·         Facilitators:  At our first meeting, Larry Roeder was elected Facilitator and at the third meeting Basant was elected co-facilitator.  They have been managing the Working Group with the help of the leaders of specific projects.  So that members can have an opportunity to revisit this system, the group endorsed by consensus those prior decisions and the current process of management, further that the system will be reviewed annually, starting in November, 2009.  That will also be a good opportunity to provide a report on group progress.

·         Decisions by the group will require a quorum, which will be 25% of the voting members.  To make sure that the entire membership has an opportunity to drive or redirect the group’s direction, at each meeting, we will ask participants what they want to do, making sure that all ideas have an opportunity to be fairly aired.  Decisions will be made by consensus whenever possible.  Such decisions might be to give some core group of people leave to do certain things, like run a project, e.g. the Somali project.   The exception to consensus decisions would be if the issues proved controversial, and then we will use voting, as was recently done on the Hullary Human Rights statement through surveymonkey, an automated voting system.

·         What is a member?  Up to now, it was anyone who signed up on Ning or attended our meetings (and asked to be a member) or contacted us by email and asked to be a member.   Now voting members will be limited to those who have attended four or more meetings, or performed a service (like running technical services or a project), or were accepted in by the group, (e.g. two members now residing in Europe and New York and can only participate remotely).  However, anyone may attend meetings, so this in no way limits participation via Ning or any other means..

·         Geographic Limitations:  We are not limited to Loudoun County. (For example, we might engage in a local project on Somalia or Afghanistan or some other area of interest throughout Northern Virginia, Fairfax County and Loudoun County and Alexandria, with Americans, refugees or immigrants, any of whom might then join our working group, or even in some other geography outside our initial region,

·         We also agreed to be independent and retain our current main purpose, to support Barrack Obama and his movement for change through discussions, papers and civic projects. 

5.    The Somali Project (led by Mustafa Omar).  This was a continuation of previous discussions to develop an understanding of the history or the Country, look for a peaceful resolution of the pirate crisis and seek economic rehabilitation for Somalia.  Three deliverables were proposed.

a.    At the end of the discussion, the group agreed to try to sponsor a Town Hall meeting on this subject in May or June to attract Somali-Americans and Americans interested in Somalia that would also look for peaceful solutions.  This Town Hall Meeting (at a venue to be announced) is intended to attract a panel of experts; but to be a discussion between citizens and experts aimed at educating and energizing the general public.  Tim Bucholtz agreed to look for support from Congress.   Larry Roeder agreed to seek USIP and USAID support.  As of this report, USIP has now agreed to provide one speaker.  USIP is the United States Institute for Peace, which has a long history with the Somali ex-pat community.  Members of the working group are also looking to attract prominent members of the Somali American Community and the media.

The USIP people suggested to work with us are “ Dr. Mary Hope Schwoebel in our Education and Training Center.  She has been working on Somalia since 1988 and is currently writing a book on nation building in Somalia.  Another might be Our lead person on Somalia is David Smock, but he's out of the office for the next 10 days.  I'm attaching the link to the op ed he wrote on precisely this subject, which might be of interest to you.  David has held meetings with the Somali diaspora community here at USIP on a regular basis and might be interested in your work, but I'm not sure if the timing of your conference would work for him if it is in May.  I'm copying him here so that he'll see your note.  I'm also attaching links to a couple of other USIP activities on this subject. If David can't attend, I think we would still be very interested in hearing thoughts from your conference on making Somalia economically viable, and any implications that has for peacebuilding activities there.  http://www.usip.org/on_the_issues/somalia.html http://www.usip.org/events/2008/0324_somalia.html, John Prendergast, David Smock, Posted April 22, 2009 | 04:09 PM (EST). Terrorists, Pirates and Anarchy, Somalia Style, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-prendergast/terrorists-pirates-and-an_b_190172.html

b.    An additional deliverable will be a letter to Secretary Clinton, responding to her four point plan on Piracy, inviting her to participate in the Town Hall Meeting and to look for a peaceful resolution of the piracy situation, as well as seek a sustainable economic recovery package to mitigate against future emergencies.

c.    Various members have also proposed looking for local civic projects or even supporting schools and other civic projects in Somalia.