[Imc] What & who is the IMC

[nancy dietrich]

Below is a summary of the U-C IMC for those new to the list.  Feel free
to stop by and say Hi.


Hi, Sam.  Thanks for replying to my email.  The Independent Media Center
is located in downtown Urbana--218 W. Main St., Suite 110 ( a couple of
doors down from The Office Bar & Grill).  The IMC is a grassroots
organization, compiled of volunteers in the community.  The IMC is
actually an international movement;  there are IMC's all over the United
States and the World.  The Urbana-Champaign IMC is actually unique in
that we are the only one that has received non-profit, tax-exempt status,
and we also have an actual public space (which needs staffers :-) ).  We
are committed to providing independent news & views, and helping
citizen-journalists (people like you) with the tools & training in order
for ordinary citizens to empower themselves to produce news on what they
feel is important.  We're really trying to provide an alternative to the
News-Gazette and other corporate-backed forms of media, and cover stories
that the local media doesn't cover.   We host an interactive website
(www.urbana.indymedia.org), are publishing a monthly newspaper, currently
produce a weekly newshour, the IMC Newshour, which airs Mondays at 6pm on
WEFT, 90.1 fm.  WE have had national syndication with Free Speech Radio
News on several pieces by some of our volunteer journalists.  We also
produce 5 minute environment-focused pieces for WEFT called "Life in the
Bike Lane."  And anyone is welcome to post news on our  website, as well
as respond to the posts which are made.  For members of the IMC, we have
production equipment which is available for check-out.  We have a
circulating library, which members can check out books from.  We also
have a number of progressive periodicals available for reading at the
IMC.   We have a meeting space at the IMC, which different groups use for
videos, meetings, fundraisers, programs such as concerts & poetry
readings, etc.  We also host art shows at different times.  

So the IMC really does a lot, and we're all volunteers.  The different
working groups you can get involved with are:  news/radio collective
(meets Sundays, 1:15pm), news/print collective (Thursdays 6:30pm), space
(every other Wednesday, 6:30pm), fundraising/finance (every other
Wednesday, 7:30pm), librarians (check the librarians email list for more
info), tech (Wednesedays, 6pm), outreach (every other Sunday at 11am). 
At the IMC, there are copies of "Reports from Working Groups to the
Membership" which details the accomplishments of each group over the past
year.  Stop by to get a copy, and to meet some of the people involved
with the IMC.  

Again, thanks for your interest, and stop by any time.

Nancy 

On Wed, 29 Aug 2001 12:56:30 -0500 Sam Valenti
<svalenti at students.uiuc.edu> writes:
> Nancy--
> 
> I signed up for this list on Quad day but am still not sure what you 
> all do or 
> where the IMC is. Sorry if I missed that in previous e-mails. If you 
> have a 
> second, just summarize your groups purpose and tell me the location  
> of the 
> IMC and when your other meetings are.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Sam
> 
> *********************************************************************
> Sam J. Valenti
> Marketing Major
> 217-332-4948
> 
> 




Nancy :-)

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