Program: Weekdays August 16-19

Monday, August 16, 5:00 PM PDT
How To - Fashioning Change

Fundraising and Relationship Building: "Fashioning Change" takes a traditional "women's program" of a fashion show and turns it into a powerful analysis of social justice issues.

Christine Morin is an active member of the Cape Cod Branch.  She has served on the board as Membership Chair and Co-President.  She was also on staff from 1997 to 1999 as Membership Chair.
 

Elenita Muniz, co-presenter, has always loved crafting costumes, whether for a ball, a student play, or a political rally.  Her time now is mostly given over to tapestry weaving and grandchildren. WILPF has been at the center of her activism for over 30 years, along with her UU church. Everything she does has a political element—even her wedding to her dear Judy was a political event. She believes our work must always include some fun, laughter with the tears, and good food. Her Cape Cod WILPF community is what keeps her going.

Candace Perry (She/Her) is an activist, writer, and social worker. She grew up in the military and is a passionate advocate for peace. She’s a life member of WILPF, an active member of the Cape Cod Branch, and former Local2Global participant, member of the national board, and editor of Peace and Freedom. Her writing includes short and full-length plays, which have won prizes and been produced in the US and Ireland. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in several publications, including Ms. Magazine. As a social worker, Candace has worked as both a clinician and a community organizer.

Tuesday, August 17, 5:00 PM PDT
How To - What Youth Need to Know before Enlisting 

A project of the East Bay and San Francisco branches of WILPF, our mission at Before Enlisting is to shed light on these issues, and encourage teens to consider other career options, or at least wait a year or two before signing a long contract with the military. We seek to share different narratives about the military other than the ones teenagers usually see, and to spark conversation. We aim to educate, empower, unify and enlighten our communities on issues of war and peace.

East Bay WILPF member Sandy Thacker on far right with BEFORE YOU ENLIST veterans Eddie Falcon and Rosa Del Duca and therapist Roberta Stern who volunteer with the project.

Rosa del Duca is a writer, musician and conscientious objector. She grew up a tomboy in rural Montana, where she joined the Army National Guard when she was seventeen. During her long contract, she became not only a conscientious objector, but a feminist and unlikely rebel. That tumultuous time is the focus of her memoir, Breaking Cadence: One Woman's War Against the War, and her companion podcast, Breaking Cadence: Insights From a Modern-Day Conscientious Objector. She is interested in speaking to young people about recruiters, military culture, alternatives for paying for college, and standing up against Unjust Wars.

Eddie Falcón served for four years in the USAF as an active duty enlisted aircrew member. He was stationed in Little Rock Air Force Base. He completed four short overseas tours, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, as well as performed medical evacuations in Hurricane Katrina. Eddie is a California native and moved back to his home state after separation from the military in 2005. He resides in Bay Area where he received a Masters degree in Spanish and has worked in high school education since 2012. He is currently a board member of Warrior Writers, facilitates writing workshops for veterans and civilians, and organizes events for these writers to share their work in public. He also gives presentations to high school classrooms about the realities of military service.

Siri Margerin came into this world the child of a military parent, and grew up through the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. She went to art school, worked as a farm laborer, factory worker, waitress and bartender before settling into her professional career in Animation Production. By 2001, thanks to a triple wammy of a wake up call: the death of a beloved childhood friend of her sons' at the hands of the police, the dot-com bust, and 9/11, she was kicked back into the world of activism and organizing. She organizes against the idea that violence and war are the best tools to be used to build a just and secure world, particularly for our youth. She is the Bay Area coordinator of the GI Rights Hotline, providing telephone counseling to servicemembers in difficult times. She is on the board of About Face Veterans Against the War. She has also worked extensively with BAY-Peace (Better Alternatives for Youth) and Before Enlisting to provide youth with honest information, alternatives to violence and war, and critical resources. Another world is possible.

Roberta Stern has been committed to social justice issues for most of her life. As a psychotherapist for 40 years, she has seen firsthand the affect of social injustices on peoples' lives. She was an early member of Therapists for Peace and Justice which formed after 9/11 and continues today. She has been working with the Before Enlisting program for 4 years and is committed to helping high school students be fully informed about this life or death decision before deciding to enlist.

Sandy Thacker, a member of WILPF East Bay in California, has been a high school and middle school teacher, a documentary photographer, and a house builder. She now teaches carpentry to elementary school kids. There are so many wonderful opportunities for young people after graduation. She joined Before Enlisting to encourage high school students to get the facts about joining the military and to look at all of the alternatives before making a decision that will affect the rest of their lives.
 

Wednesday, August 18, 5:00 PM PDT
How To - Membership Development: One by One: Building Relationships

Now’s the time to ask more people to stand with us to address the existential threats of the climate crisis, nuclear proliferation, and the degradation of our democracy. Help shape the future of our organization and amplify our work by growing WILPF.  Join Shilpa Pandey, Jan Corderman and members from across our section and a core group of experienced organizers led by Francis Engler to think through what we’ve already accomplished during our One by One We Grow initiative and offer insights and expertise as we move forward.     

Jan Corderman, WILPF US Membership Development Committee Member
Francis Engler, Organizer & Political Director, UNITE HERE
Shilpa Pandey, WILPF US Membership Development Committee Chair

Thursday, August 19, 5:00 PM PDT
How To - Preserving Your WILPF Legacy - Record and Archive Branch Interviews

Interview your members about their peace work and add the recordings to branch documents for your archives.

Judy Adams, Ph.D., joined WILPF after arriving in California in the mid-1970s with her then-husband, an Air Force conscientious objector. She founded the WILPF/Women’s Oral History Project with 96 interviews (1979-89) and donated the collection to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. The slide show opening her presentation premiered in the 1980s at a community outreach event. She wrote her book, Peacework: Oral Histories of Women Peace Activists (1991), while an Affiliated Scholar at Stanford’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She, her students in her peace studies/oral history classes, and volunteers from other branchesconducted the Interviews.