[IMC-US] agenda ideas please for meeting 3/24 thursday 5pm eastern

[sheri at speakeasy.org]

hi,

thanks muna for getting out a draft agenda.  

i'd like to suggest in no particular order and they don't all have to happen in one meeting of course :)  

1.  vision:  the discussion about the vision of the site come before decision-making process.  this to me seems to be where some of the conflict has come from and getting this clear before taking too many steps in different directions might make sense. along with this might be some principles that people can get behind.  i think of us as a dynamic self-organizing network and that might also be called chaordic.  principles help keep things flexible but in alignment with vision.

2.  list etiquette:  establishing clear list process/etiquette in my mind would be a great idea; this might include someone who can step in to facilitate when things get too intense or to remind someone who might be dominating the conversation to take a step back and let others talk for a while.  i think this would be a great practice to get into.  for the most part we self-facilitate, but i've seen the lists fall apart or conversation stop because a few people start dominating.  how we would do it in meetings translated to the virtual realm.  we're all still learning on this front.

3.   mentoring:  in addition to your item for bringing on new members, i'd like to suggest a kind of welcome or mentoring system so that new people who join either have a (a) wiki to refer to and/or (b) a person who is willing to catch them up on how things are going and the process for working together.  i think indymedia would benefit greatly from some kind of mentoring system like that.  we talk alot about skill sharing of tech/media skills but not about on-line communication and we are a network, socially and digitally.

4.  who's here:  taking a tally of which imcs are involved (on the list and syndicated on the site) and then doing an outreach plan for those not here.  i'd suggest that outreach should also include asking what other imcs would like to see on this site and how the relationship with the us.indymedia.org site can be mutually beneficial - we're all about mutual aid, how does it look in this regard.

5.  language:  could another name rather than us be consider for the chat room as an ongoing name.  perhaps this is a "small" thing but language is potent and united states doesn't work for me or for alot of other people.  perhaps turtle island in honor of the people who lived here before many of us arrived?  or something different than #us :)

6.  tech innovation:  this is a longer term item but should be on the table; how can the open publishing be expanded to achieve more of our goals?  i'm thinking of conversations people have had around open editing, etc.  but we're 5 years into this and how to keep pushing the edges so we're tapping more into our potential....and not stagnating.  i know some folks feel that we're lagging behind in terms of our innovation.  so how can the us.indymedia.org project work towards more tech innovation.

7.  logging:  can someone be designated to make sure the irc meeting is logged and it's posted on the wiki and to the list?

8.  future meetings:  with regard to choosing times for the meeting, i think the time that was chosen this time privileges those people who don't have day jobs or who don't have to work and i hope that that isn't a trend.  i think one of the criticisms against indymedia from the larger movement is that it's a privileged space and making it accessible for people who work is one step toward breaking down the barriers to entry.  

thanks to all for the efforts toward organizing the meeting!  i think it's great that it's happening and look forward to more with greater participation.  i'm sure momentum will be building as people see a good thing happening!

love
sheri  




> -----Original Message-----
> From: muna rva imc [mailto:muna at richmondindymedia.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 07:32 PM
> To: 'Working Group for IMC-US'
> Cc: editors at richmondindymedia.org
> Subject: [IMC-US] agenda ideas please for meeting 3/24 thursday 5pm eastern
> 
> 
> wow, alright it sounds like a decent amount of folks can for sure make it to the
> chat meeting tomorrow for us indy. again, i agree the short notice is in no way
> ideal and in the future let's shoot for at least two weeks notice, if not
> preferrably coming up with some consistent regular meeting times.
> 
> in the meantime, perhaps we can come up with an agenda before the meeting. below
> are my suggestions, based on desires i've heard voiced before. these are ~just~
> suggestions. please add and/or remove ideas... please also consider if you'd
> like the meeting to be focused on 1 particular pressing subject.
> 
> for the folks who said they couldn't make it at 5pm, but could join in later --
> please do. perhaps in creating an agenda, we might want to keep this in mind
> concerning when we decide to discuss certain topics.
> 
> agenda item suggestions:
> + decision-making process
> + spanish language
> + outreach/syndication of us locals
> + effective incorporation of new volunteers
> + individual, local collective, and us affinity visions for us indy
> + future meeting schedule
> 
> perhaps this goes without saying, but when i propose agenda items, i intend
> their discussion to conclude with concrete tasks attached to real human beings
> with reasonable expectations and deadlines.
> 
> once more, the place is chat.indymedia.org, room #us.
> 
> x,
> m.
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