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Join us in the ballroom of the Columbus Convention Center (801 Front Ave) on Saturday morning at 9:00am for important vigil weekend logistical, direct action, nonviolence, and legislative information. You can also look forward to learning more about SOA Watch's 2010-2011 campaign!

This year's plenary speakers include:

Kathleen Desautels, SP is a Sister of Providence from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, IN and is her Congregation's representative on the staff at the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago, IL. Kathleen has been involved with the SOA Watch Movement since 1997. As a high risk line-crosser from 1997 through 2001 when she was finally put on trial in 2002 and spent 6 months in Greenville Federal Prison. Since 2003 she has been the co-coordinator of the PeaceMaker/Guides for the November Gatherings at Ft. Benning.

Alejandro Ramirez became an active member of the Honduran Youth Resistance Movement after his country suffered a coup at the hands of two SOA graduates last year. Over 50 people - journalists, teachers, students and union leaders, have lost their lives for opposing the coup regime and its illegal successor. Alejandro is a history student at the National Autonomous University of Honduras and works with COFADEH (Committee of Family Members of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras) in their violence prevention program.

Bob King was elected UAW (United Auto Workers) president on June 16, 2010, by delegates at the UAW's 35th Constitutional Convention in Detroit. He has led delegations to Mexico and El Salvador to stand in solidarity with the oppressed. In 1990 he led delegations to El Salvador to support trade unionists and church members who were victims of a long campaign of deadly bombings, death-squad murders and disappearances carried out by Salvadoran military officers trained by the U.S. military's School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Ga. King has long been involved in efforts to close the school because its graduates use the training received there to terrorize, religious activists, community activists, trade unionists, and political opponents in Latin America.

Liz Deligio has been a staff member for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at the 8th Day Center of Justice for five years. Liz has been involved with the SOAW movement since 2004 and is currently the SOAW representative to the Ethics Commission in Colombia.

Nikki Thanos is a member of the SOAW Legal Collective. She spent five years in Latin America and now lives in New Orleans, where she tends gardens, makes puppets, and uses her legal education to support social movements.

Charity Ryerson attended her first vigil in 1999. In 2002, she crossed the line and served 6 months in federal prison. She represents SOA Watch on the Ethics Commission, a pre-cursor to a Truth Commission in Colombia. She is currently a student at Georgetown Law.

Maia Rodriguez Sullivan grew up in Venezuela and was there during the 2002 attempted coup. She organized a delegation to Venezuela to observe the reality of the situation in the Bolivarian Revolution, which was skewed by the U.S. media. Maia graduated Earlham College, a small liberal arts Quaker school, with a Physcology major. She is a part of the Activantes, a movement within SOA Watch created by interns in South America who found the description 'pasante' (the Spanish word for intern) did not do justice to the work the young people are committed to. Maia also participated in the planning of last summer's Encuentro, and traveled to Colombia to participate in the Women's Summit as a follow up to the Encuentro.