[Imc-tech] IMC Membership Meeting - October 2nd

[Zachary C. Miller]

Even though I am on a train somewhere in Minnesota I am still making
the IMC Membership Meeting on October 2nd at 6:30pm happen at the
IMC. We will be having the meeting at the IMC itself. I have all the
mailing labels that I need printed and with me. I'll be sending the
mailing out from Eugene.  Please send me requests for Agenda
items. Working groups, please send me reports from your group with
"GROUP Membership Meeting Report" in the subject line (where GROUP is
your group's name (e.g. radio)). 

This is the text that I plan to send in the invitation lettter to the
membership, please offer suggestions for edits before Friday (I'm
sorry about the punctuation, my connection is REALLY slow (7kbps with
high latency) and I don't feel like fixing all the quote marks and
such).

Dear Indymedia Supporter, 

I wanted to make sure that you know about the upcoming membership
meeting at the IMC on October 2nd.

Throughout the year hundreds of Indymedia volunteers work in both
official and ad hoc working groups creating and disseminating
independent media and see to the day to day needs of the IMC. In the
last six months these volunteers have produced a weekly radio news
program, a monthly newspaper, a bi-weekly video compilation, a monthly
art gallery, dozens of all ages folk, punk, gothic, and indie rock
concerts, independent film events, .zine readings, a poetry slam,
independent film viewings, a major festival, and more. Our radical
library, open publishing website, community web-hosting project,
community wireless networking project, and production lab continue to
provide valuable media resources for an ever growing pool of IMC
members. Volunteers for the Capital Campaign have raised over $42,000
towards our $100,000 goal. Just this month, the IMC was one of many
hosts for Girlzone.s Grrrlfest 2003, the final Girlzone event. The
IMC.s finance group continues to support Indymedia projects worldwide
through 501(c)3 fiscal sponsorship.

Amidst all of this amazing success, the IMC suffered a setback in May
when the City of Urbana shut down the highly popular and successful
IMC venue space due to previously unknown code violations. The IMC.s
venue space was Champaign-Urbana.s only regular all ages non-smoking
venue and featured about five performances per week until it was shut
down. Our art gallery, production space, and library remain open and
members are learning to work around the loss of the venue space. The
IMC Shows group has continued bringing unique independent music to
town at other venues (e.g. IMCfest at the Canopy Club which featured
16 bands, 2 feature films, and a .zine reading).

As you can see, IMC.s members are hard at work every day becoming the
media.

Twice every year, the IMC holds a general membership meeting. At these
meetings IMC members step back from their daily work and look at the
big picture. The membership meeting is a visioning meeting where all
the members, whether they are active volunteers or supportive
community members, discuss the direction the IMC will take for the
next 6 months and beyond. The membership meeting is also the only
meeting at which the IMC Structure document which governs IMC
operation can be changed.

The IMC.s membership meetings are open to all and operate on a
consensus basis. I have volunteered to gather Agenda Items and
coordinate the calling of this meeting. If there is anything at all
that you would like to have discussed at this membership meeting
please contact me by email (zach at ucimc.org) or phone
(217-621-6768). In order to have a well organized meeting, it is
essential that you make requests for agenda items before the meeting.

                                                                        Becoming the Media,
                                                                         Zach Miller

PS - If you.re wondering about the strange subject line, I.m sending
these letters from my vacation. I.m writing this letter from an Amtrak
train somewhere in Minnesota. I.ll see you all back in Urbana on
October 2!


-- 
Zachary C. Miller - @= - http://wolfgang.groogroo.com/
IMSA 1995 - UIUC 2000 - Just Another Leftist Muppet - Ya Basta!
 Social Justice, Community, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Feminism,
 Sustainability, Responsibility, Diversity, Democracy, Ecology