The membership of the TPF board for 2024

[Tony Nuspl]

TPF Steering Committee for 2024 (the "board of directors", listed here roughly in order of seniority), with 3 openings (unfilled seats):

• L. Hochhaus, TPF President, Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), Tulsa
• J. LeViness, Green Party (Okla) and TPF liaison with National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) (currently out of state)
• T. Nuspl, Sec'y/Treasurer, past TPF President 2009-2011, & co-founder of TPF as a non-profit
• D. Yount, Tulsa
• S. Singh, League of Women Voters (LWV) & Tulsa Shambala Meditation Group
• P. Pianalto (added in 2020), Tulsa
• J. Kos (added in 2020)
  
• M. McCulloch, TPF Vice President, Tulsa, & executive director of the Carrie Dickerson Foundation, a climate justice advocacy grassroots group (added in 2022)
• M. Clarke, Humanist Association, Tulsa, Okla (added in 2022)
• [place reserved for liaison from Pax Christi (Catholic peace movement) -- Are you interested?]
• [place reserved for member of pro-peace Jewish community in Tulsa -- Are you interested?]
• [place reserve for member of pro-peace Palestinian community in Tulsa -- Are you interested?]

We continue to recruit for additional members on the Steering Cttee, if you should know anyone you'd like to nominate.

And a BIG THANK YOU to the UU Church of the Restoration for continuing to host us for our quarterly meetings. Find them on facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/COTRUUTULSA Every 3rd Friday at UU CotR is devoted to "Peace & the Environment".

As a collective, both the TPF executive and TPF steering committee ("the board") are committed to seeking consensus, as far as possible, in all our decision-making on behalf of the Fellowship.  Grassroots participation at our monthly meetings is actively encouraged!

Reminder:  Any member of the Steering Cttee or any member of the non-voting Advisors group who is unable to attend the TPF meeting in person can voice their approval or concerns about an agenda item via online discussions, e.g. most likely on Facebook Messenger, e.g. also available, the private discussion forum dedicated to board members and advisors, on this Ning-hosted board. (Participation in the internal discussion of the steering committee is by invitation only. You must be logged in, either to Facebook or to this Ning network in order to participate.) In 2022, we started to avail outselves of videoconferencing (e.g. Zoom, Google, or other platform), to meet virutally, during the pandemic; if there is sufficient interest, we can continue to do video simulcasts for interested members unable to attend in person.

In addition to the Steering Committee, we have a group of non-voting advisors and wisdom-keepers. For 2024, the Advisory Group (honorary positions, TPF emeritii and patrons) consists of the following people:

• N. Moran, past TPF president, Tulsa, Okla
• C. Beckwith, TPF emeritus member, Tulsa, Okla
• J. MacMahon, TPF emerita member, Green Country Greens (eastern Okla), Ft. Gibson, OK
• V. Mapstone-Ackerman, TPF emerita member (out of state)
• B. Griffin, TPF emeritus member, former TPF webmaster
• D. Satterthwaite, Green Country Quakers, Tulsa, OK
• N. Batchelder, Peace House in OKC, Oklahoma City, Okla
• A. Spotts, TPF emerita member (out of state)
• G. Holmes, Oklahoma Veterans Cttee (Tulsa Democrats), in Tulsa, Okla
• R. Guay, Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC), in Oklahoma City.
• B. Bryant, Oklahoma chapter of Global Solutions (ok-global), in Oklahoma City
• A. Mason, former TPF "ambassador" in the Nation's Capitol, with Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, in Washington D.C.
• K. Mason, former TPF "ambassador" in the Nation's Capitol, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, in Washington D.C.
• J. Hoskins, TPF emerita member, Vinita, Oklahoma
• V. Adams-Harris, Director of Outreach and Alliances, the John Hope Franklin Center
  for Reconciliation, Tulsa, Oklahoma; and, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• E. Hatley, (out-of-state), former Riverkeeper for the Grand River, NE Oklahoma; and director or co-founder of LEAD (Local Environmental Action Demanded), Vinita, Oklahoma.
• J. Kuzmarov, TPF emeritus member, editor of Covert Action Magazine, Tulsa

In memoriam:

• R. Friend, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in OKC. He died in January 2023. Obituary online.
• B. Geary, Pax Christi (Catholic peace movement), former TPF SteeringCttee member 2005-2021. She died in early January 2022, from Covid-19.
• Carl "Huti" Reynolds, past TPF Vice President 2009-2011, Veterans for Peace, & co-founder of TPF as a non-profit in Oklahoma. He died in October 2021, after a long struggle with his health.

• Terrence "Terry" Luce, TPF emeritus member, retired University of Tulsa psychology professor, and a veteran of the Korean War. He died 4th November 2020, age 87, in Tulsa, Okla., after a long struggle with cancer.

• L. Hicks, TPF emeritus member, of Tulsa, Oklahoma passed away on in January 2019, age 77. Obituary online

• Bryan W. Cheek, former TPF Vice-President 2011-2012, and former member of the TPF SteeringCttee; he was a member of TPF since 2003. He died in March 2018.

• Clark Inkaniswh, Native American Church, former TPF SteeringCttee member 2009-2011, and former TPF Advisor, 2012-2015, in Tulsa, Okla. He died in November 2015.  A funeral service was held in Broken Arrow, 2nd Dec 2015. An active board member, he gave the keynote address, Dec 2012, at our 10-year landmark celebration, in Dec 2012.
  

  Obituary online

• Armin Saeger, former TPF advisor from Green Country Quakers, Tulsa OK, died 28th April 2012.  He was a WWII Conscientious Objector (C.O.), and the author of an autobiography entitled Sowing My Quaker Oats (2010). Obituary online.

• Harry Allison, former TPF advisor. He died in 2008. Obituary online (with mention of his civil disobedience in protest against the Iraq invasion).

 

Our activism is undertaken to a degree under the following larger regional and national organizations.

Umbrella Groups for TPF Activism & Fellowship:

• Peace Action (National) – their webpage: http://www.peace-action.org/
• Veterans for Peace (National)

• September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

• National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
• National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – Oklahoma city chapter
• Green Country Friends (Quakers), in Eastern Oklahoma
• Unitarian Universalist Churches of Tulsa
• Oklahoma Center for Conscience, OCC (formerly Oklahoma Committee for Conscientious Objection, or OCCO) – Oklahoma city
• Center for Racial Justice, Tulsa
• The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
• The Peace Alliance (National Campaign for a Department of Peace)
• OK-Global -- their webpage: http://www.ok-global.com/education.html

In other words, how is TPF structured?
We are a grassroots, bottom-up, civic-sector organization, organized as a collective. We are governed by an entirely volunteer Steering Committee, equivalent to a Board of Directors, including three volunteer officers (President, Vice-President and Secretary/Treasurer). The Steering Committee consists of the nine or ten (or more) active and engaged members of the Fellowship, selected annually. We follow an internal by-law on consensus decision making. We also have a non-voting Advisory Group, consisting of former board members, our financial supporters, and wisdom keepers. There are various sub-committees or task forces with specific peace-related missions, organized by issue, which you can join. We are a registered non-profit.

Mission statement (adopted in 2008 or so):

"Tulsa Peace Fellowship is an advocacy group which has united to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engineered by war. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options and just solutions, we hope to spare the lives of more innocent people affected by violence throughout the world." --see "about" section, on our Facebook discussion group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tulsapeacefellowship

"TPF offers citizens and community groups tools and resources to participate personally in our democracy, to help shape federal budget and policy priorities, and to promote peace, social and economic justice, and human rights." --alternative mission statement, from the archives (see 2009 counter-recruitment update)

Thank you!

Queremos Paz.

~on behalf of the TPF Steering Cttee

 

"There never was a good war or a bad peace."

~Ben Franklin