Summary of Jan 14 Citizens Meetings

Meetings were held at 11 am and 7 pm.

1. Library Committee: Members are gathering material and are ready for a working group meeting. They will meet sometime the weekend of Jan 16-18. Watch group notices or contact Andreu Donat if you want to help.

2. a) Music: Rose discussed different musicians who want to play at AA and renewed her request for help. If anyone knows anyone who is interested in a paid position assisting with events, please pass along names. Request was made to include Fado in the program, and we agreed to look into it.

b) Conferences. Rose suggested a conference in the Spring on Virtual Democracy. Later suggestion of discussing the issues surrounding Gaza conflict was received more energetically, so we will try to get some experts from all sides to participate in discussions. We will try to form a colloquium on the issues, perhaps with the facilitation services of Convivencia.

c) Book group: Stui agreed to lead a discussion on Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth on Jan 28 or Feb 4. Milena Piccard has also agreed to come back and talk about Snow, as many people were not available for the discussion in December. TBD.

d) Other events: Convivencia and Bayt al H. events ongoing. Panel discussions based on AA history, art and architecture still planned. Thanks to Convivencia and MuslimServ for December/January events. The donations to the A.A. donations boxes through December were transfered to MuslimServ. (1771 L)

3. State of the Sims: Rose announced that she submitted an application for the Linden Prize on AA's behalf and is working on bringing the website up to date. If you have material you'd like to see included, please send to her. Talks are still going on with the Confederation of Democratic Sims.

Evening meeting additions:

-Residents at the evening meeting asked that we consider having more social dances, and perhaps follow up on the idea of a tapas/hangout place.

-Micael Khandr will present a talk on "Stability, Obedience, and 'Conversatio' at the Convivencia Institute on Tuesday (after President Obama's speech on January 20, 2009.

-more discussion on the appropriate form of government, with opinions favoring broader scope than Sharia system would allow. We will listen to all points of view.


Action since meeting: New citizen Joaquin Gustav will perform at the Souk market on Wednesday Jan 21 at noon (following the citizens meeting) and again on Saturday Jan 24, at 7 pm.