[Bookstoprisoners] Steering Meeting Notes 9-20-07

[wmullins at insightbb.com]

Steering Meeting 9-20-07
Attending: Dan, Rory, Mike, Chris Ritzo, Bob, Bill (notes)
 SHOWS:
Dan gave an update on the IMCfest. Good progress has been made. Printing 2500 tickets--800 3-day passes ($25) and 1700 1-day passes ($10). November 9-11.
A revised Shows contract has been finished, incorporating new Shows policies to protect IMC from liability issues et cetera. 
Stage rebuilding/relocation to north wall of main room in progress. Shows Group would welcome experienced carpenters willing to donate their time and tools.
PRINT: 
September issue out now. Reminder: If submitting pics to PI, they need to have lots of pixels in order to show up well in the newsprint format. 300 ppi or higher was recommended.
TECH:
Recently installed five public access computers in the west end of the basement. Direct cable access is in progress to section off basement computer connections from those upstairs, thus hopefully preventing internet loss in the basement.
WRFU:
A WRFU table is up at the Urbana Farmer's Market for the remainder of the season. Other IMC groups are welcome to share and help staff the table. Please contact the RFU group if interested.
October 18, 19, and 20 RFU will hold a used electronics sale at the IMC. 10-12 am and 5 to 7 pm on Friday. Thursday is an IMC members-only pre-sale. Accepting donations of all sorts of FUNCTIONING electronics equipment (except for CRT monitors).
Tower fundraiser still in progress.
Air time is available for a variety of time slots. Come to an RFU meeting if interested in proposing a show or getting trained.
BOOKS TO PRISONERS:
Still looking for volunteers to provide housing for the November Books to Prisoners conference attendees. Please contact Suzanne Linder via bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net if interested.
Booksale this weekend, 9/28 to 9/30. Open until midnight Friday and Saturday. $2 bag sale Sunday 2 to 6pm. Of note: We still could use some help with taking down the sale Sunday night, 6pm to ? and Monday, 10 am to ?. Contact Bill via the e-mail above or by replying to this post if you're interested in hauling books away. 
AGENDA ITEMS:
1. Steering approved new IMC member Chris Ritzo's working with various IMC groups to satisfy UIUC coursework requirements. He will be working Tech for now along with other working groups. Welcome.
2. The General Membership Meeting date has been set for Thursday, November 8th, and will also serve as kick-off event for the IMCfest November 9-11. Dan will be arranging catering and possible shows for the GMM.
3. Members of the Steering Group have begun a revision of IMC by laws and structural documents in order to incorporate changes in IMC policy that have been adopted over the years, so that our official IMC documents are up to date with current practices. A draft should be ready by the 10/18 Steering Meeting and will be available for review by Working Groups prior to its ratification at the General Membership Meeting. (See Mike's recent post to the IMC list in the Addendum below.)
4. Reminder of existing policy: All IMC Working Groups should be aware that when they file grant applications, the appropriate paperwork should be routed through the Finance Group.
5. Reminder: In general, equipment that IMC Working Groups purchase and use at the IMC should be available to other Working Groups for reasonable use. Working Groups should have a process in place for sharing access to such resources and equipment.
 
Addendum: Mike Lehman's 9/20/07 post regarding IMC Structural Document revision
The notes from tonight's Steering meeting won't be posted for a few 
days. However, an important and long-delayed project needs to get 
started. We need to revise our structure documents in time for a short 
discussion and adoption at the next General Membership meeting, a vital 
task we should no longer put off.

The Steering group acted tonight to schedule the GMM for Thursday, Nov. 
8, the night before IMCfest starts. The intent is to have a business 
meeting, followed by a bountiful repast, followed by some light 
entertainment.

While the business agenda for the GMM has been light recently, it's 
because we've also been delaying a necessary project, which we need to 
accomplish. For some time, we have been operating on consensed-to, 
on-going changes to various IMC structure documents, which don't all 
agree among themselves. The result is that we know what we're doing, but 
don't have a concise, edited and up-to-date set of structure documents 
that reflect the way we do things now. That is our goal with this 
process, not to make major substantive changes in what has become 
long-established and consensed-to process.

Bob and Mike long ago agreed they'd work on this project, but have been 
busy with other projects. There were several names mentioned of 
those-not-present-but-would-be-useful-to-have-on-board (Al and David, 
for instance, without knowing their availability.)

There is a real concern that anyone with a dog in this fight to be 
involved in the process from the start so that this document revision 
will be clear and easily adoptable at the GMM on Nov. 8 without any 
particular drama. To do this, we need to have a viable draft available 
in time for review and discussion at the October 18 Steering meeting, 
where it will be on the agenda as the major item of business. There will 
be several working meetings announced between now and then on the IMC 
list, so watch for them or propose a date to meet.

The documents that need this treatment are available here:
http://www.ucimc.org/files/UCIMC-Bylaws.pdf
http://www.ucimc.org/files/UCIMC-Statement_of_Purpose.pdf 

Note that pages 1-3 of the Statement_of_Purpose.pdf are the "Structure 
document," which we propose to revise and bring into concordance with 
the Bylaws, but there is no intention to revise the opening UC IMC 
Statement of Purpose itself, as it has served us well.

These docs are available for easy capture to document format at these links:
http://archive.ucimc.org/mod/info/display/bylaws/index.php
http://archive.ucimc.org/mod/info/display/structure/index.php

The Structure document makes reference to an "IMC consensus procedures 
document." AFAIK, this document was never completed. We may address this 
issue by suggesting the adoption of a common consensus document already 
in use, if we're not able to compose an IMC one. It's not been much 
needed for reference in practice, but would be good to have as an 
educational tool nonetheless. Your input is solicited on this, as well 
as on the other documents under discussion.

In fact, this is the proper time to get involved if you're really all 
that interested in lengthy, dry, and often dull documents. The time for 
long philosophical discussion on these, if it is needed, is now, in 
small meetings, because it would be a disservice to other members at the 
GMM to wait until then to do so.

Monday nights may work for others, as they work for me. I'd like to 
propose Monday, Sept. 24 at 8pm, but am flexible. Please propose a time 
and day that works better for you if you'd like to be involved, as I 
think this is something that may take relatively less time that we may 
have thought. Having a deadline of Oct. 18 helps with that.
Mike Lehman
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