[Imc-newsroom] Proposal to fund a stringer in Palestine . . .

[Brian Hagy]

>
> Partial support is definitely a fallback option, as I tried to indicate
> in the proposal itself. There are other options as well . . . one, that
> I recently thought of and was not contained in the proposal, was to dip
> into the $2000 that was allotted for IMC-Palestine but is not currently
> used. When in Palestine, I obviously will be, in a way, part of
> IMC-Palestine. But by the same token, the money was quite clearly
> intended more for the folks who are there on a permanent basis.
> Nevertheless, we could maybe dip into the $2000 with the intention of
> replenishing it. How could we replenish it?

The $2000 some that's going to the IMC Palestine is their money.  They
have to allocate it for whatever they want.  We have no say in it.  All we
are doing is providing the Paypal account.  If you want to contact the IMC
Palestine to see what they say, go for it.  "Dipping" into money that's
not ours is a really bad idea, even if we intend to pay them back.
Primarily because we don't know how or when we could do that.

The idea to fund someone to go over to Palestine and come back and report
on their experience is interesting.  I'd be interested in hearing what the
folks from IMC Palestine have to say about the project.  I know recently
they were miffed that folks from the "west" were coming to help them
"set-up" their IMC, as if they needed help.  Though, i think they might be
interested in a reporter who's trying to disseminate info into central
american areas, as well as northern american areas (though perhaps, this
is my interest more than theirs).

Anyhow, this proposal will be discussed on sunday (our meetings though are
from 12-1, so if you're calling between 1 and 2, you'll probably miss
us).  we have helped raise money to pay for expenses of reporters going to
various locations.  however, these reporters were all local folks.  true,
you will be local eventually (if you do end up coming to the university in
the fall or spring).


>
> Here's where I come back to my proposal. In the proposal, I suggest
> that we could have a panel discussion that would feature not only
> myself (er, I'm kinda not a big name), but known activists from Voices
> in the Wilderness who have already been to Palestine and who could draw
> a big crowd (at least they did as much in Chicago, drawing over 200
> people). In the event that they participated in this past Sunday at
> DePaul University, they raised over $750 merely from passing a hat
> around after Kathy and Jeff (Voices folks) spoke.
>
> Now, here is some recent news. I spoke to Kathy and Jeff at least about
> whether they would be interested in taking the two hour plus hike down
> south to Urbana and they said *yes.* This is extremely good news. What
> remains to be done now, is merely arranging times and such. It seems
> that sometime between June 3rd and 8th might be a workable date for the
> three of us.
>

Not surprising that they'd be interested in coming down here.  Kathy was
here recently.  She was well received, and seemed to be in good spirits
with the folks around here.  It's encouraging that she would want to
return.



talk to you soon,
brian