[Imc] Steering Group Notes 5-6

[Sarah Kanouse]

IMC Spokesgroup meeting notes
Sunday, May 6, 2001
Independent Media Center

Attending: Mark Enslin (facilitator); Cope Cumpston, James Jacobs, Paul
Riismandel, Brian Hagy, Sarah Kanouse (notetaker), Sehvilla Mann, Mitra
Ghaboussi, Peter Miller, Mike Lehman, Ben Emerick, Sascha Meinrath.  

Announcements:
Cincinnati marches June 1-3.  Mike plans on going and has put up info on the
website;  who else would like to go?  Contact Mike L. 344-5609

Working Group Reports:
News:
WEFT programming committee approved newsgroup proposal to host Friday Forums
through June 30; will examine at that time to continue.  No show tomorrow
night.  Next Monday's show is about the Racial Climate Survey; email news
headlines to the list of events that have occurred since the last broadcast
(April 30). Last newsgroup meeting was poorly attended.

Space:
Last meeting 5/2
Fridge: The freezer part of the refrigerator is leaking freon and is not
keeping things cold.  Mike L. estimates that the fridge would take at least
$200 to repair due to the freon leak and recommends not fixing it as it is
old, inefficient, and will probably break down irreparably in the near future.
 We currently cannot sell frozen foods because the freezer does not work.  Can
we justify a new refrigerator on the basis of our events and the retail sales?
 We can also buy a used one, but we don't want a very old model or one that
may need repairs.  The co-op has an extra freezer that is not using at all and
they would like to get rid of it.   Mike L. will look into buying a
fridge/freezer combo through Scott Smith, Thrifty Nickel, and used appliance
shops.  Perhaps we can co-shop with the school.

Staffing: not currently missing any shifts after 4 p.m., except Friday.  M-S
12-4 all need staffing.  Call the perma-sub list if you're going to miss your
shift.  Pauline will send the list to the IMC-staff email list.  Subscribe to
the list if you're staffing.  Imc-staff at lists.groogroo.org.  TRAINING
Saturday, may 19 at 2 p.m.  ~1 hour.  ALL STAFF SHOULD ATTEND!!! 
Basics--signing up a member, checking out library materials, using the log
book, handling problematic visitors, etc.

Recycling:  Put it in the bins.  Keep it separated.  

Sign support letter went around to be signed.

Finance:
Last meeting 5/2
Get people to sign up as members!!! We need to start pushing retail,
memberships, and donations for fundraising.  This is an important role for
staff.

We got our charitable registration and state sales tax exemption this week. 
If you are buying anything for the IMC, bring the sales tax exemption letter
with you.  Sascha will give one copy to each working group.

501(c)3 application was returned with "clarifying questions," such as "Does
your organization encourage people to break the law?"  However, the agent in
charge of our case seems willing to work with us.  Sascha will emphasize open
publishing, empowerment theory and democracy in response to the questions. 
James brought up "copy-left" (public domain, no ownership possible) over
"copy-right" (intellectual ownership) as tactic.  Will be put on later
agenda.

Librarians: no report this week

Tech:
Used computers are no good.  Tech group is trying to get parts together to
repair computers, but it is a time-intensive endeavor.  Very difficult to get
donations of new equipment/durable goods.  Peter suggested going to in-town
tech companies to contribute similar to Seattle IMC; Mitra suggested pursuing
business liquidation sales and putting up a donor page to thank big donors. 
Paul doesn't think it will be successful and won't be worth the time
expenditures. Tech group will discuss equipment acquisition strategy at this
Wednesday's meeting and coordinate with other groups, including steering.

Eye-opener computer:  Tech group can't handle it; Zach can but is on a leave
of absence.

What about the logs? Nothing has happened yet.  Do we keep logs briefly or
only stats?  Logs can be useful though dangerous (Seattle).  Let's get a
recommendation from Tech to bring to the Steering Group.

Outreach:
Last meeting 5/6
Co-op Festival will be Saturday, September 1.  All co-ops in town, real and
planned, will get a dpace to demonstrate their function and perform outreach. 
The IMC will both sponsor and participate.  Location TBA.

Membership pushes.  How to do?  

Booths at Farmer's Market, Taste of Champaign, WEFT Fest, Sweetcorn Festival. 
Sarah can register IMC for booths.  A signup sheet for staffing tables went
around.

Also library displays.  Sarah has that info, too.

Discussion on increasing diversity in IMC through outreach.
Cope:  reaching out to students, boys and girls clubs, etc. through training
and workshops is important to do in addition to do anti-racist reporting.
Paul: Important to coordinate outreach and increase participation in outreach.
 Outreach work should go on in that working group.  

Mark:  Outreach/diversity concerns can also be part of the mission of each
working group.

Old Business:
Personnel:
"Doug" has not returned since Monday's discussion with IMC staff, in which he
became very belligerent and left.  Brian made it clear that his leaving
communicated to the IMC that he would not return until he could demonstrate
that he was receiving some care and would show respect to IMC staff and
facilities.  He has not returned.  Paul: we need a set of guidelines to ensure
that we deal with similar situations fairly and in a caring fashion without
making other members of the IMC community feel unsafe.  Perhaps a small group
can create a set of guidelines?  Mike pointed out that each situation is
unique and that process needs to be responsive to that uniqueness.  Mike will
create an initial proposal for how to deal with folks who make other folks
feel unsafe and bring to the steering group for discussion and revision.  

Meeting Change:
Should we change Steering Group meeting to bi-weekly?  Steering Group meeting
have been under-attended for many weeks, which may indicate that weekly
meeting are too tiring for folks.  Paul suggests moving to bi-weekly meetings
to increase preparedness and participation.  We may want to increase meeting
length, which may require moving Outreach and News meetings.

Cope is in agreement: the meeting frequency and time excludes some from
participating and could see meeting only monthly.

Mark: it may be hard to keep in touch if we only meet bi-weekly.

Mike: it may be better to miss a few weekly meeting than only meet bi-weekly.

Peter: At least 1/3 of the meetings are taken up with reports, and decision
making is not getting done.  We need to change the structure of the meetings
to facilitate decision making; possibly with more concise (writtern?)
reports?

Sarah: we restructured the Steering Group meeting and found participation
dropped off sharply.  Concerned that pushing efficiency is exclusionary.

Paul: Let's emphasize running tighter meetings so that people feel effective:
circulate agenda in advance, come in prepared, start on time, post minutes on
email list and bulletin board.  We'll revisit the frequency of meetings change
later.

Global Open Publishing Proposal:
Postponed to next meeting.
Goal is to make IMC open to all.  UCIMC policies already adhere to the Global
IMC proposals.  We could accept it without changing our own policies.

Print Group:
18 people attended print group meeting on 5/3.  Next meeting is 5/10 at 6:30
pm.  There will be small group meetings each week on various aspects of print,
with larger meetings every other week for coordination.

Paul Riismandel is next week's facilitator


I've changed my email address!  Please respond to this message by writing me
at skanouse at eudoramail.com.  Thanks!

____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1