[Imc] Minutes/notes from last meeting

[Paul Riismandel]

Urbana  Champaign IMC meeting 10/22/00

In attendance: Mike, Peter (facilitating), Molly, Cope, Danielle, Paul R. 
(notetaking), Sascha, Sara, Sehvilla

Next meeting facilitator: Sehvilla

Committee/Collective Updates:

Tech:
Molly: Zach and Molly couldn’t meet, maybe next Monday.  Goal is to have a 
website by 11/5 fundraiser.  Perhaps end up creating documentation for the 
server software.

News:
Peter: Trying to get things together for elections.
Sehvilla: has an audio tape of Nader caravan and rally in St. Louis.
Sascha: putting together spreadsheet of news archive.
Mike: possible story re: living wage and county nursing home.
Cope: What happens to stories that are covered?
Peter: post to website, aired on WEFT
Cope: N-G could use some progressive letters.
Sara: Some people are interested in starting a real alternative newspapera 
longer term goal.
Paul: We should think about Public Access TV.
Molly: Connecting to Deep dish TV and the like.
Peter: Gregory Brown murder story  he mentioned it to N-G writer and an 
editorial subsequently showed up on Friday regarding police power.  We have 
an effect.
Paul: and ideathe website might have a ‘potential story’ board/database.
Peter: is there yet a news e-mail list?
Danielle: Yes, but people not added yet.  Can sign up at groogroo.com.
Molly: Is someone following local news?  We should know who is following what.

Space:
Sara: Has a meeting 10am Monday  to see Cinema Café space2000 sq ft.  Lori 
Patterson, who is versed in real estate, will take a look at it.  Another 
option is the Chub Conner office space.  Called downtown Champaign 
landlords to get comparison prices.
Danielle: has floor plan.  Estimated gas & electric is $333/mo.

Equipment:
Mike: Next meeting at his house at 7:00pm Wed. Work on training presentation.
Molly: Will we publicize trainings?  Make them public?
Mike: This one’s just for us, perhaps future ones will be public.

RFU:
Mike: Sen. Fitzgerald has come down hard with the NAB and supports 
anti-LPFM legislation.  Cal l you senators!
Peter: Durbin is working hard to help LPFM
Mike: According to FCC rules programming created at WEFT doesn’t count as 
local programming for RFU.

Radical Librarians:
Sara: We have seven items.  Need rest of stuff from S26.
Sascha: Any materials not archived?  What about photos?
Paul: Need to dupe video materials.

Incorporation:
Sascha: Forms and checks sent to gov’t.
Sara: Got first check from Belden.
Sascha: Make checks payable to U-C IMC.
Peter: We’re incorporated with the state?
Sascha: Yes.
Peter: Then we can go 501(c)(3)?
Sascha: Not yet.

Bank Account:
Sascha: Found a good “unofficial deal” at Busey, as long as we don’t make 
too many deposits or transactions in a week.
Mike: Living Wage found a good deal at First Federal.
Sascha: U of I Credit Union is free.
Molly: Union Planters has lowest fees and no per transaction fee.
Peter: So should we just let Sascha go ahead and open an account?
Everyone agrees.
Molly: What about accessibility?  Credit union is least accessible.
Danielle: Downtown Urbana is best.
Peter: Are single signature checks OK?
Everyone says it’s OK.
Mike: Who will deal with landlords and such?
Molly will do it.

Tech Training:
Session next meeting.

Old Business:
Meeting Location:
Peter: How about McKinley.  Free  b/c he has an office there.
Sarah: Had an appt. with Urban League but got stood up.  Can rent 
facilities from Champaign Park District for $5 fee and $6.50 /hr.
Mike: Douglass Center may be important.
Danielle: We should table since we’ve had small meetings lately.
Agreed.

Fundraiser:
Sara and Sascha will meet with Jim Buell.
These are the details:  Nov 5 7pm to Midnight, featuring speeches, music 
and skits.  Music is Paul Kottheimer and the Poster Children, other 
performers are News Poets and a theater group.  Will have an info table and 
are looking for speaker, need a rabble-rouser to talk about independent 
media and independent politics.  Show videos from S26Brian Hagy will head 
that up. IMC gets 50% of door, asking for $10-$50 donation, sliding scale, 
$5 for students and limited income.
Peter: We should contact people who came to S26 events.
Sarah: Hidive will have usual publicity, Maiko will make ‘invitations.’ 
Cost at facility is $100-150 to cover sound and doorman.
Peter: Will contact Black Grad Student Unionthey’re getting political.
Sascha: Need people to contact groups for info.

Fundraising:
Sascha: has large list of people who have made some commitment.  Hit people 
up for $ if you know them.  We have about a dozen at $50/mo.  We still need 
ideas.
Sara: Would like to invent a structure, boilerplate e-mail, letter, 
reminder, solicitation.
Danielle: Post these template to the listserve since it’s archived and 
searchable.
Mike: Talk to Mike Doyle about a software package.
Peter: think of ways to delegate to helpers  don’t have to rely on the core 
group.
Danielle: the space is important for thiswe can have it staffed.
Sascha: What’s the deductible status of donations right now, pending 
tax-exempt status?
Danielle: Ask Zeigfried to find out.

Pacifica Crisis:
Peter: Talk of Democracy Now going away at WEFT.  Possibly replace with 
expanded role for local public affairs.
Paul: It’s not impossible.
Mike: we need to think both short term and long term.
Summary of situation (lost track of notes):
Danielle will attend WEFT Programming Committee meeting on Thursday to find 
out what’s going on and answer any questions.  Paul, Peter and Danielle 
will meet to put together a proposal for the IMC taking a role in producing 
local public affairs on WEFT should Amy Goodman be fired from DN or should 
DN go away altogether.  Suggested Nov. 1 deadline for this proposal.

Mission Statement:
What is it?
Danielle: We should make it a writing assignment  who will help?
Sascha: Someone should write a seed statement.
Paul: Interested in hacking one out.


Organizational Issues:
Peter: The Sunday meetings are not conducive to growth into a larger body. 
We’re all busy and we tend to run about 2 hours.
Danielle: Need to organize into smaller focus groups empowered to make 
decisions.’
Paul: These meetings are more like board of directors meetings, which is 
OK.  We can’t reduce them until we have more people who can form smaller 
groups.
Peter: We should aim to keep meetings shorter, like an hour.
Paul: Good idea, but we should be realistic, perhaps start by cutting down 
by a half hour or so.

Then things pretty much ended
.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/imc/attachments/20001026/9b08be37/attachment.html>