Working Groups and Committees Working Toward 2014
These Working Groups were formed during the Chicago November 9~ 11, 2012 Meeting to direct the work for our 2012 to 2014 goals. The working groups are comprised of NPC members and allies. The notes will be updated regularly.
The Working Groups listed below have been active for the last six months. They will also play a key role in moving the work towards 2014 forward.
- Accountability-Coordination Team 2012-2014
- Poverty WG
- People’s Movement Assembly Working Group 2012-2014
- Gender Justice Working Group
- Communications-Media Working Group
- Resource Development Working Group 2012-2014
- International Committee
- Pittsburgh Exchange Working Group
- WSF Free Delegation
- WSF Tunisia delegation
Working Groups of the Organizing Committee (OC)
This page lists workspaces of the Working Groups (WGs) of the Organizing Committee (OC), which is the central coordinating and decision making body for USSF planning. Working groups coordinate national efforts to plan and organize the USSF in Detroit. If you are interested in contributing to the US Social Forum process at the national level, please contact lead persons through the links below. You can also explore USSF Projects for project-based work organized through the Working Groups, the Detroit Local Organizing Committee (DLOC) for local Detroit support, and National Committees and Subcommittees work.
Please Login to edit this workspace. Among the USSF goals for participation are openness, democracy, and transparency. With this, we encourage all participants on this site to login with a name that reflects his/her real name. (See link in top right corner of the screen.) This is a public website and all edits on the site can be tracked in RecentChanges with the participant's name which helps protect this wiki.
(in alphabetical order)
Communications-Media Working Group
- Goals
- Implement an internal communication plan
- Implement external communication plan
- Develop and implement multimedia technology plan
- Provide accessible information and background material for organizers and the public (See USSF Resources Page)
- Help us spread the word!
- Produce regular (monthly?) e-newsletter
- Point People
- National Communications Coordinator: Adele Nieves
- National Co-Chairs: Scott Byrd (Sociologists without Borders) and Karlos Gauna Schmieder (Center for Media Justice)
- Detroit Co-Chairs: Reg McGhee (Jobs with Justice) and Lottie Spady (East Michigan Environmental Action Coalition)
- Detroit Support: Talitha B.
- Program Book: Veronica Hill
- Wiki/Data Management, Training: MarkDilley
- Website Information, Email marketing, Web info & design, Online Communications: David M.
- USSF Daily Newspaper (June 22-26), Online Research & Media Archive: Lara Veon
- Design Support: Nadia K, Design Action
- USSF Writers Network: Jackie Smith (Indiana), ussfwriters@gmail.com
- DLOC contacts: Reg McGhee and Lottie Spady
Projects/Tools COMM-Media WG is developing:
- Please Encourage everyone to join the USSF Listserv
- Public Outreach/Communications Materials
- Coordination of Email Marketing: organizing messages/timelines from WGs/NPC/DLOC and sending out unified, scheduled e-newsletter blasts.
- Regional PR Teams
- Press Release Coordination
- USSF Writers Network
- Digital Packets for: Press Packet, General Outreach Packet, Organizing Toolkit Packet, Feed the Roots Grassroots Fundraising Packet
- Graphics Pool of "Promote the USSF" Page Logos, Print Ads, Web Banners
- Volunteer Networks for managing mainstream & open source social web platforms
- Call for Communications-Media Volunteers
- Comm-Media WG Manages Info on the USSF Main Website [1]
- Feed the Roots Grassroots Fundraising Packet
- People's Media Center
Gender Justice Working Group
- Purpose
- Ensure that gender, transgender justice and LGBTQ issues are well-integrated into the planning, implementation and program of the USSF.
- Contacts
- Detroit Local Organizing Committee Representative: Oya Amakisi
- National Planning Committee Reps: Susannah Bartlow and Jacqui Patterson
- Organizing Committee Reps: Mayowa Alero Obasaju and Rose Brewer
- LEADERSHIP of the GJWG
- The “Coordinating Circle” will be made up of the members of the Strategy Team, and the bottom liners from the Organizing and Events Team. It will also include regional representatives and other people who are designated representatives of organizing efforts.
- The Coordinating Circle’s purpose is to coordinate the strategies of the GJWG to maximize success, communicate information, and provide resources and support to the members.
- Coordinating Circle members will be responsible for communicating updates about projects they’re working on, bringing information from the Coordinating Circle back to the region, team, or group they’re working with, and staying up to date on all GJWG activities.
ICT Working Group Wiki
- developing the technology to drive this work.
- Contacts
- National Chair: Alfredo Lopez (May First)
- DLOC contacts: Lou Novak (Detroit Greens)
- Technology Coordinators: Mallory Knodel (May First), National; Tdka Kilimanjaro, Detroit
- Conference calls: For call info/latest agenda, please see the ICT site.
Indigenous Peoples' Working Group (IPWG)
The IPWG is comprised of Indigenous Peoples volunteering to be point persons for conducting outreach to Indigenous Nations and Communities for participation in the 2010 USSF. The IPWG will be comprised of persons knowledgeable of North American and global Indigenous communities and issues. The IPWG will provide guidance to the USSF planning process on matters concerning Indigenous Peoples.
- Contact Persons
- Local Detroit Native Community: Sharon George, American Indian Health & Family Services of Southwestern Michigan, Inc.,
Detroit, MI.
- Representative from the USSF National Planning Committee: Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network,
Bemidji, MN.
- Point Person for Bay Area, California: Morning Star Gali, Community Liaison Coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council,
- Point Person for New Mexico: Ozawa Bineshi Albert, Field Organizer - West and Native Strategy, Center for Community Change,
Albuquerque, NM.
- Point Person for Arizona: Jihan Gearon, Native Energy and Climate Organizer,
IEN, Flagstaff, AZ.
- Point Person for Oklahoma: JoKay Dowell,
Watts, OK.
- Point Persons for North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska:
- Kandi Mossett, IEN Tribal Campus Climate Challenge Organizer,
Bismarck, ND.
- Ozawa Bineshi Albert, Field Organizer - West and Native Strategy, Center for Community Change.
- Point Person for Minnesota: Tom B.K. Goldtooth, IEN Office,
Bemidji, MN.
- Point Person for Wisconsin: Chaz Wheelock, Oneida Nation,
Green Bay, WI.
- Point Person for New York and Eastern Region: Daygot Leeyos Edwards, Youth Representative, Oneida Territories,
New York.
- Point Person for Seattle/Northwest: (Temporary contact) Shelly Vendiola,
- Point Person for Alaska: Carl Wassillie, Alaska's Big Village Network,
Anchorage, AK.
- Point Persons for Canada:
- Clayton Thomas-Muller, Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign,
Ottawa, Canada.
- Ben Powless,
Ottawa, Canada.
USSF Native Outreach Organizer: Heather Milton-Lightening.
Google Group Information:
- Group name: USSF Indigenous Working Group
- Group home page: http://groups.google.ca/group/ussf-indigenous-working-group
- Group email address: ussf-indigenous-working-group@googlegroups.com
Schedule of IPWG teleconference calls TBA.
Language Access WG
- Translation and Interpretation of USSF materials and coordination of tools and workshops
- Contacts
- National Co-Chairs: Josue Guillen and Maria Poblet
- Language Access Coordinator: Roberto Tijerina
- DLOC contacts: TBD
- Conference calls:
Logistics WG
- Address local and national logistical issues
- Develop local infrastructure for the proceedings, this includes site from all programs, volunteers recruitment and coordination, national and local transportation, sanitation, event planning, security, housing, materials for the proceedings
- Work closely with Program and Culture Working Groups
- Contacts
- National Co-Chairs: Maureen Taylor
- DLOC contact: Tapeka Dixon
- Logistics Coordinator: Tapeka Dixon
- Conference Calls:
Outreach
- Seek out, develop, network, and engage organizations and sectors in order to connect them to the movement building work and the USSF process
- Contacts
- National Co-chairs: Tammy Bang Luu (Labor/Community Strategy Center), Ahmina Maxey (East Michigan Environmental Action Council)
- Field Organizers: B Lowe and Akudo Ejelonu.
- DLOC Co-Chairs: Andre Martin and...
People's Movement Assembly
- To support participatory gatherings and convergences for communities to discuss and analyze conditions and to make collective decisions toward shared visions and actions
- support People's Movement Assemblies as part of the organizing process before, during and after the USSF
CONTACTS:
- National Co-Chairs: Stephanie Guilloud (Project South) and Rubén Solís (SWU)
- DLOC reps: Fred Vitale (MWRO/MI Greens/Centro Obrero BOD) and Elena Herrada
The PMA Organizing Kit is now available!
Poverty WG
Goals of the Poverty Working Group
• Reach out to and engage in the USSF groups and organizations dealing with poverty, with special attention to those in the Detroit area;
• Identify and encourage other groups of workers, both employed and unemployed, to participate in the USSF;
• Collaborate and consult with other NPC working groups and committees around issues of poverty and the participation of the poor;
• Organize a march to the USSF that unites the poor of the geographic south and north in common cause;
• Produce educational materials and organize workshops on the structural nature of poverty, the struggle for a new social contract, and the elimination of poverty;
• With our international allies, organize workshops and events at the USSF that focus on the international character of poverty and the struggle to end it.
- Meeting Notes
- December 3-5 Assembly to End Poverty Planning Meeting
- Contacts
- National Co-Chairs: Marian Kramer (MWRO) and Mary Bricker-Jenkins (PPEHRC)
- DLOC reps: Maureen Taylor, Gwen Gaines, Ann Grimmett
Program/Culture WG
Program/Culture WG organizes workshops and cultural events for the USSF.
- Oya Amakisi: Detroit. Co-chair of Culture and Programming Committee, Executive Director of the Detroit Women of Color, Inc and the Detroit Grassroots Community Arts Center
- Rishi Awatramani: Washington, DC. Co-chair of Culture and Programming Committee, Virginia New Majority, Leftist Lounge
- Walda: Maryland. Co-chair of Culture and Programming Committee, League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Teaches at Howard University in DC. On NPC for 2007 USSF, was part of Project South at the time
- Jerome: Atlanta. Co-chair of Culture and Programming Committee, League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
- kiran nigam: Ann Arbor/Chicago. US Solidarity Economy Network, North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO)
Program Subgroup Description
Program Subgroup will be working on the review process for self organized workshops submissions, actually doing the preliminary reviews, working with submitters and suggesting collaboration, if possible, starting in February. We will begin doing final reviews of all workshop proposals in March and sending out acceptance letters/emails in May. We are collaborating with logistics, language access, ICT and other working groups to match workshops with venues and develop the printed/online program.
- Contacts
- Walda Katz-Fishman
Culture Subgroup Description
The United States Social Forum 2010 has created performance and visual art showcase opportunities for those interested in volunteering to present their work. We are seeking artists who are interested in helping to build a movement and heal our communities through social justice and the arts.
The USSF 2010 will showcase art, culture and entertainment in ways that convey momentum and hope. The USSF 2010 shares a vision that challenges poverty, exploitation, oppression, militarism/war and environmental destruction-- locally, nationally and globally. Cultural expressions representing diverse communities include: performance art, visual art, and film at the Hart Plaza and Cobo Center in downtown Detroit.
- Contact
- Oya for more information at amakisi@gmail.com
Please note that Groundswell does not handle the cultural submissions for the United States Social Forum.
Please visit the Program/Culture WG contact information and meeting dates.
Resource Mobilization Working Group
Resources WG Conference Call Agendas, Notes, and more (aka Fundraising)
- * Develop long term fundraising plans that includes ways to secure and organize resources including people, in-kind donations, organizational support, and registration
- National: Michael Leon Guerrero (GGJA), Genaro Lopez-Rendon (SWU), Priscilla Hung (GIFT)
- Local: Diana Seales (EMEAC-Anchor)
- Conference calls:
Youth WG
NEWS: THE YOUTH OUTREACH PACKET IS UP!! Help us get the word out on the YOUTH ROAD TO DETROIT!!!
National Co-Chairs:
Derek Rankins, People's Institute, New Orleans, LA
Corina McCarthy-Fadel, Project South, Atlanta, GA
DLOC rep: William Copeland