NEWS

*Schedule is tentative. Exact start times may be modified. Look for updates closer to the date of the event.

WILPF Tribute Video

Submit your photos and videos! Deadline extended to July 1.

In lieu of the traditional Tribute Book, we will be creating a Tribute Video for this year’s Congress!

I AM WILPF

The up-and-coming Brooklyn WILPF Branch is creating a tribute video to honor and celebrate WILPF members. In line with the theme of this year’s Congress, they are asking for video clips and photographs of WILPF women you want to honor and remember, your branch, your issue committees, and YOU – all doing what WILPF members do best – Rise Up, Remember, Reclaim and Reimagine!  Below are a few guidelines, to help you get started:

Submit a video, photos or a mix of both!  Be creative!

• “I am WILPF”:
  Your own personal message captured in a video or photo:
   “I am WILPF.  I rise up and organize for (your activism passion) in (name of city and/or state)”
• Branch Shout-Outs: 
  “We are WILPF. We are the (branch name or branch issue committee name) and we rise up and organize for (branch’s key focus of work)”
  And/or send photos/videos showing your WILPF Branch or WILPF Issue Committee at work in marches, events, or keynote speeches!
• Tributes: 
  Remember all the wonderful women who have passed away and their inspiring legacy of work.
  Honor members who have inspired your activism or have gone above-and-beyond to further WILPF’s mission.
• Other:
  Any photos or videos you feel represent the essence of WILPF.  Again, these can be marches, events, keynote speeches or WILPF members just having fun!

Cost:
As in the past with Tribute Books, a nominal fee will be charged for material submitted for  “Branch Shout-Outs” and “Tributes” to cover the cost of video production.  The pieces submitted for those categories will be a priority for inclusion in the final produced video.  Material submitted for “I am WILPF” and “Other” will be free of charge, though these items won’t be guaranteed for inclusion.  However, the ultimate goal of the final produced video is to include a wide variety of imagery that will showcase WILPF members, so all imagery received will be carefully reviewed and considered.

 “Branch Shout-Outs” and “Tributes”:

• $40 for up to 3 photos
• $40 for 1 video up to 10 seconds long
• priority for inclusion will be given for these images
  Note: If your video is longer than 10 seconds, it will be charged $40 per every 10 seconds.  However, please keep the length to a minimum, so we can accommodate imagery from others in the final produced video.

“I am WILP” and “Other”:

• no charge to submit a photo
• no charge to submit a video up to 10 secs long
• no guarantee it will be included in the final video

Number of Items Submitted:

You may submit more than 1 video or more than 3 photos.  Just fill out the submittal form accordingly.

Submission & Payment Due by 7/1/17:

1. Send an email to video.wilpf@gmail.com
   1. attach your photo(s) and/or video(s)
   2. attach Submission Form: DOWNLOAD SUBMISSION FORM HERE*
      *Items must be listed in the submittal form to be considered for inclusion.
2. A confirmation email will be sent to you when the item(s) AND submission form are received.
3. An invoice will be emailed to you with the total payment due.
   1. You may pay with paypal or a credit card through a link in the invoice.
      OR
   2. You may download/print the invoice and mail it in with a check. 

Only items submitted and payment received by 7/1/17 will be guaranteed for inclusion in the final produced video.  If you paid for an item to be submitted and it didn’t make the video for any reason (i.e. damaged file, poor quality), you will be reimbursed.  Videos may need to be shortened to accommodate formatting needed for production.

If more material is submitted than can be accommodated in the produced video, then material used will be limited per person and per branch.

Copies of the Video:

DVD copies of the video will be available for purchase after Congress. 

For more information, contact Chris Wilbeck, Congress Coordinator, chris.wilpf@gmail.com or 515-229-6988.

Branch Table Exhibits

Reservation deadline extended to July 1!
Reserve an exhibit table at Congress to highlight the inspiring and meaningful work your WILPF Branch or Issue Committee does every day. Every WILPF Branch has a unique personality and issue focus. Branch Table Exhibits are a great way to share your story and see what other branches are doing! 

Table size:
6 ft. long x 3 ft. wide

Bring:                      
Please bring your own tablecloth (table tops are unfinished plywood)
Example of table display items can include, but are not limited to:*

• Brochures, pamphlets, buttons
• Communication pieces you’ve created for past, present or future events                             
• Special banners or signs
• Items for sale*
• Anything you usually display on your Branch Table!!!

*Note: Please assign someone from your branch to be responsible for table setup, take-down and the contents on the table. The conference rooms are not locked at night, so you will need to remove and store any valuable items at the end of each day. Your branch is responsible for any item sale transactions. The Congress Committee will not be able to conduct sales or make change on your behalf.

Set-up:                   
Table locations will be assigned in the order in which they are received. Tables will be available for setup on Fri 7/28 at 7 am and must be set by 8:30 am that morning.

Table Cost:          
Cost per table, to cover rental/delivery fees:
$50 for full table
$25 for ½ table (share with another branch)

Request due:     
By 7/1/17
To request a table, send an email on/before 7/1/17 to:
Congress Coordinator, Chris Wilbeck, at chris.wilpf@gmail.com.
Please include in your email:

1. Contact information for branch member responsible for table (name, phone, email).
2. Name of branch
3. Size of table requested (full or 1/2 table)

Payment due:   
By 7/1/17
All requests and payments must be mailed to be received by 7/1.  Any requests and payments for tables after this date cannot be guaranteed.              
Please make your check payable to: WILPF.
In memo line, include branch name and “table”
Mail (no cash please) to:

WILPF
Re: Branch Table
PO BOX 13075
Des Moines, IA 50310

For more information, contact Chris Wilbeck, Congress Coordinator, chris.wilpf@gmail.com or 515-229-6988.

JACBA Book Corner
The Des Moines WILPF Branch will be hosting a Book Corner on Friday and Saturday.  Featured will be a selection of books from the 2017 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards (JACBA), as well as other award-winning books that engage children with topics focusing on WILPF’s work exemplified by our Issue Committees. You are invited to browse and register to win a book for donation to your community. WILPF branches are also invited to share stories of their successful JACBA book programs, with written recaps and photos of past events.  A small selection of books will also be on sale.  For more information about how your branch can participate, contact Jan Corderman at jancorderman@msn.com or 515-205-4504. The Des Moines Branch is grateful for a grant from the Miami Fund, administered by the Jane Addams Peace Association, which has helped to make this Book Corner possible.

Take advantage of your trip and come early or stay late to experience Chicago! 

There are many places to visit near Congress headquarters, as well as free and popular tourist attractions just a short cab ride away.  Visit Millennium Park, The Art Institute of Chicago, or take a bus, boat or walking tour highlighting the cultural and architectural history and diversity of Chicago. 

Those coming early can also register for the Chicago Neighborhoods & Diversity Bus Tour, arranged as a pre-Congress activity on Thursday, July 27, from 2-5 p.m. at a reduced price of $25. See Registration, for more details. 

There are so many wonderful options, you’ll have a hard time choosing!

Click here for a Google map with Congress Headquarters (828 S Wolcott Ave., Chicago, IL 60612).

Transportation To/From Congress

Click here

Local Area Restaurants:

Most meals are included with the Full Congress Access and Daily Congress Access registrations. For your on-your-own lunch on Friday, the conference facility’s cafeteria (located on the first floor of Student Center West) offers a wide variety of food choices. For Saturday night dinner, there are numerous options in the nearby culinary scenes of Little Italy and Greektown. 

Women Organizing for Action
Putting Imagination to Work—Congress 2017

By Mary Hanson Harrison
President, WILPF US Section

A little girl was rushed during the night into a bomb shelter in Israel, near the Syrian border. Cold and scared, she could not sleep. To quiet her fears, her father told her: “Picture a little girl just across the border in Syria who is also in her bed and afraid of the noises, and wish her sweet dreams.” Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE, was that little girl who imagined the possibility of another little girl just like her, huddled in another cigarette smoke–filled shelter. It was a revelation that night, Susskind tells us in her TEDx talk, “Fighting the Poverty of Imagination: Building a Future That Never Was,” that there actually were children in Syria, that the “other” existed as a human being. This expanding of her imagination guides her work today.

Whatever the reality of the moment—an event, a challenge, an opportunity, a call to action, or a loving suggestion like that of Yifat’s father—how long does it take for that moment of imagining to be realized?

The freedom to imagine and to create is essential to the survival of humankind. As Jane Addams noted more than a century ago, in Democracy and Social Ethics, “much of the insensibility and hardness of the world is due to the lack of imagination which prevents a realization of the experiences of other people.” This is the starting point for changing the system.

Since WILPF’s founding, we have held to creating a world of peace and freedom. Over the decades WILPF US has taken up many issues in our campaigns, issue committees, and branch and member work to do just that: realize this hope, this dream of peace and freedom.

At the end of July 2017, by coming together in Chicago, on the University of Illinois Chicago campus, we have the opportunity to imagine again how we can, in renewed commitment to “next steps,” move closer to this imagined world of peace and freedom. We are faced with the great challenge of building a resilient, creative force to counter the policies being propagated within the new US administration and cabinet, Congress, and the military/industrial/security state complex.

To rise to this challenge and opportunity, this Triennial Congress will offer topic-oriented workshops to complement and strengthen the analysis and focus of the issue committees. There will be blocks of time for all members to meet with the issue committee they wish to work with, and there will be time for branches and at-large members to meet together. There will be skills workshops on diversity and anti-oppression, building effective alliances and networking, storytelling to change the narrative toward peace and freedom, and learning how to use media as a tool to accomplish our mission. This Congress provides the opportunity to move from imagination to creative and effective short- and long-term goals over the next three years, leading toward the 34th Triennial.

This may seem a huge task, but it is the possibilities that imagining can bring to the reality of our world today that give us compassion when we are angered, faith when all around seems darkened, and courage to rise up together!

Let’s not forget that soon after the signing of the egregious Versailles Treaty in 1919, Jane Addams closed the 1919 International Congress of Women with this challenge: “We shall have to learn to use moral energy, to put a new sort of force into the world and believe that it is a vital thing—the only thing, in this moment of sorrow and death and destruction, that will heal the world. . . .”

Come join us in Chicago—to learn from and to talk with one another and to bring forth the energy and creativity to put the power of our imagination to work!