Draft of Minutes of PWJ meeting, 4-12-06, at Joe and Bonnie’s. (Written from memory by Paul M. on 4-14; my apologies for having lost Paris’ notes. Please email me with any additions or corrections and I’ll email out an "amended" version later.)

Present: Joe Hesla, Bonnie Beckel, Paris Dunning, Linda Berglin, David West, Jim Feldman, Paul McHugh.

After a soup and bread supper, the meeting was called to order at about 6:40 by Paris. After agenda review, Joe led us in song.

Linda gave us an update on the Health Care Amendment. In the Senate, it’s passed through the Health Care and Rules committees and is now on the Senate floor. As chief author, Linda will decide when (or whether) to bring it up for a (roll-call) vote. If all senate DFLers vote for it, it will of course pass. The problem is that a group of DFL senators (Linda referred to them as the "rural guys") are wavering, after at least one was urged to oppose it by the Chamber of Commerce in his district. Linda suggested (per her email of about a week ago) that PWJ could consider doing a phone campaign similar to the one we did 2 weeks ago, but aimed at shoring up support for the bill among this group of rural DFL senators.

In the House, as Linda told us in an email several days ago, there is an opportunity to try to force a vote to get the Health Care Amendment attached to another bill (as a way of doing an end-run around Fran Bradley’s having killed it in his committee).

Considerable discussion ensued about what to do. At least one person said they felt burned out and didn’t necessarily have the energy to pursue it further. Steve S. said he was completely booked in the next 2 weeks; David said he had no time until the week of the 24^th. At least two people expressed serious reservations about pursuing attaching it to another bill in the House, as being too procedural, hard to explain to people, and perhaps too much a part of DFL politics. The consensus was not to work on this.

We also discussed whether to pursue a phone campaign in support of the Senate floor vote. The ideas that energized the group were (1) making sure we would be calling only from true "hot lists" (it appears that the list we had used to call Fran Bradley’s district 2 weeks ago wasn’t so "hot", and some callers had gotten demoralized calling from that list), and (2) to find an office/organization willing to serve as a "phone bank", where we would go as a group and make calls (partly to avoid long distance charges, but mostly to have more fun!).

Also, Linda noted that if we can successfully get this through the Senate, universal health care will have been taken a step further than it has before in Minnesota. It could also be the occasion for a press conference, which could get media attention especially in the context of Massachusett’s recent, precedent-setting health care measure.

Eventually we took a vote, during which we said each what we were willing to commit to doing. I believe that everyone who voted (Linda and Steve S. abstained) committed to do something – either to be part of the phone banking project, or in the case of Jim, to talk with selected Methodist ministers about who/how we could get our message out to in their congregations (mainly with an eye to the future).

The dates that worked for the most people for phone banking were Tuesday April 18 and Monday April 24. Linda said she would check with the Nurses and other groups to try to locate a phone-banking venue.

Paul led us in singing "Woke Up This Mornin’ (With My Mind Stayed on Freedom)". We adjourned at about 8:20.

Next PWJ meeting: Wed., May 3, at the home of Jim Feldman, 2220 Humboldt Ave S. – food at 6 p.m., meeting at 6:30.