Attending: Norman Kurland, Norbert and Marlene Hermes, Harriet Epstein, Jean B. Fry, James Dayley, Rich Biernacki, Steve Roy, Marie Kurland, Rowland Brohawn, Geoff Gneuhs, Mr. Lozano and Dr. Rósón de Pérez Lozano, Dawn K. Brohawn, Michael D. Greaney, Kemp Harshman.

Materials Distributed: Agenda, Core Values; Code of Ethics; minutes of the 3/17/04 Excom Meeting; Second Quarter Treasurer’s Report, Steve Roy’s Core Values Restatement, Steve Roy’s Capital Homesteading memorandum.

Meeting was called to order at 10:10 AM by Dawn K. Brohawn, rotating chairman.

The Opening Prayer was offered by Geoff Gneuhs. The Core Values and Code of Ethics were read. It was agreed that the business meeting would be abbreviated to provide enough time for the Visioning Process to be facilitated by Harriet Epstein.

Approval of Board Minutes from Prior Meeting. As per the agenda, the Excom Minutes from 3/17/04 and the Second Quarter Treasurer’s Report were distributed, but were tabled for approval at the May Excom meeting.

DECISION ITEMS

Suggested addition to the wording of the Core Values. Norman Kurland moved to add “academia” to the list of institutions in Numbers 5 and 8, after “the business corporation.” Harriet Epstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Acceptance of Steve Roy’s personal expression of CESJ Core Values. In order to apply for CESJ membership (which requires submission of a signed statement of the CESJ Core Values), Steve Roy offered a personal restatement which he felt were more in keeping with his personal religious beliefs. He did not feel comfortable declaring a belief in God (which CESJ describes as the absolute source of absolute values), but acknowledges that sovereignty starts with the human person and that a person’s highest responsibility is to pursue absolute values. While stating that CESJ as an organization would not change its core values that acknowledge an ultimate and higher source of absolute values and human sovereignty, Dawn and Norm expressed their belief that Steve’s personal restatement captured the essence of CESJ’s principles. They both recommended that Steve’s restatement be accepted, and that he be accepted as a CESJ member. A number of people expressed concern about whether CESJ was changing its stated core values to reflect Steve’s personal statement. Norm explained that CESJ’s core values can only be changed by consensus, and that while CESJ is not a religious organization per se, we believe it is important to recognize that there are certain values that are absolute and certain rights that are inalienable, and these derive from something above human beings or human society. Michael Greaney felt that Steve’s expression was not inconsistent with CESJ’s core values. Norman G. Kurland moved to accept, Kemp Harshman seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Discussion on CESJ’s Accomplishments and Where We Go From Here. Norman Kurland, gave some brief opening remarks to the effect that CESJ is uniting people around the moral ideas that provide the foundation for a just social order. He then introduced the Board meeting participants. Steve Roy took the opportunity to read aloud his personal non-religious restatement of the Core Values. Kemp Harshman commented that religion provides the balance between anarchy and despotism. Most social movements reject religion, but CESJ recognizes certain universal principles accepted by all the major religions and spiritual systems.

Norman Kurland asked, “what’s holding us back?” We have accomplished much with almost no resources. We need more money and active participants in order to get our message out effectively. He mentioned that Steve Roy may be able to locate someone with a lot of money who is serious about empowering people — getting money power to people. Norm said that in terms of understanding how to change systems, particularly economic and social systems, the most important thinker in CESJ’s paradigm is not Louis Kelso or Bucky Fuller, but Father William Ferree. Father Ferree studied Pius XI and discerned the various principles on how to change the social order. Most people are afraid, or feel helpless, which inhibits effective action. Fr. Ferree pointed out that when we are faced with injustice, we must organize with a direct intention toward the common good, and we must also have a specific strategy for change. Although we must go back to Aristotle and seek to inculcate courage (as well as the other individual virtues), we also need to go beyond mere individual virtue and consider our relationship to society as a whole. No power created by man can resist people when they are committed to bringing about change.

Norm also explained that as charity is the soul of justice, we also have to understand the concept of Social Charity, how we treat our institutions and work to change not to destroy them. A critical programmatic feature of the effort to restructure the social order is the concept of “social justice tithing,” in which we devote time instead of money to the effort. This gives us a specific and identifiable task — how can we find time to advance the cause of social justice and reach out and teach others?

Steve Roy Presentation. Steve Roy, founder and CEO of Wellspring Productions, offered some personal observations about CESJ’s mission and how he wants to contribute his efforts to that. He is involved in many activities but considers that nothing is more important than the work that CESJ is engaged in. He considers that his place is to market the idea to bring economic and social justice to every family and individual in America. His goal is to market and communicate to the world to bring economic democracy and justice through the Just Third Way.

The groundwork has been laid, Steve believes, and now we are ready for the start button. Now we have to tell people about it. This involves the basic problem of paradigm shifts. He thought that groups like the Unitarian Universalists have a “huge social justice component” and would find commonality with CESJ We are proposing the biggest restructuring of the US economy in history, and then to extend it to the entire world.

We need to align our paradigm with our marketing effort. We need to make it in peoples’ self interest to promote what we’re talking about. History has caught up with Louis Kelso. People are familiar with the ESOP, and that needs to be exploited. The ESOP concept is the model for the whole economy. Things will get moving when we get more people actively pushing the message. They do not necessarily have to be members of CESJ, but supporters of CESJ’s principles and programs. We need to explain the difference of the Just Third Way from capitalism and socialism. Everything is still focussed on jobs, and people don’t know that there is such a thing as a Just Third Way. They need to know they could get the benefits of ownership in “real time.” We need to change the paradigm. The goal of CESJ is to get the message of economic justice out into the market place. Economic justice demands economic democracy. What CESJ has far outstrips people’s attention span; they all have other concerns that drown out the important message that CESJ has to offer.

Steve also mentioned that CESJ’s Capital Homesteading book could really help change things. For communicating to nonpolicymakers, it may be too complicated. We should develop a “Capital Homesteading for Dummies” and a documentary to explain the concept and build a bigger base of support.

Dawn K. Brohawn asked, what simple “one sentence” message is going to opens people’s minds. Steve Roy responded, that’s what we need to figure out.

Norman Kurland introduced the next section of the meeting, emphasizing that we need to get people involved with selling CESJ’s vision and mission. Dawn K. Brohawn and Harriet have worked up a participatory visioning process which the group will undertake. As Norm described,, twenty years ago we formed CESJ. We organized a Presidential Task Force that brought together leaders from across the political spectrum. We had two trips to the Vatican to present our proposals and met with encouragement from the Pope. Since then we have had many other accomplishments (he referred to list of accomplishments included in the packet), and are reaching out to other countries, such as Argentina, Iraq, Russia, China, and Mexico. Norm mentioned that we are trying to build more support from Senator Santorum, whom we are contacting through Fr. Cassian Yuhaus’ efforts. Rep. Wyvetter Younge has introduced the CIC resolution in Illinois. The Oglebay Norton Employee Economic Empowerment Association is working with CESJ members to carry out a ground-breaking worker buyout on the Great Lakes. The question to be addressed in the next portion of the meeting is, what does CESJ want to accomplish in the next 20 years?.

VISIONING AND ACTION SESSION (See attached script).

Harriet introduced the process, giving instructions to participants who developed focus topics and broke into groups to develop a vision around one desired outcome for CESJ. The groups presented their decisions and group action item at the afternoon luncheon.