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4/19/09 Notes - Addendum NJ

LIST OF TASKS TO CREATE STRUCTURE AND ORDER Outreach purpose and key points:

  • Discover what are the communities’ more prominent concerns, what do THEY want to reform?
  • Connect on common issues to create relationships/web of connection between communities
  • Create awareness on the commonalities between us (not exclusive to Detroit)
  • Pre-event issues education and awareness (through gatherings, events, potlucks, etc)
  • Building a critical mass
  • Organizing our own collective efforts
  • Consider persons’ histories, personal relationships, and how to make these developments for change and action and awareness sustainable.
  • Outreach requires one-on-one face-to-face meetings with organizations to communicate what the USSF is and build bridges. (The potluck side should put on events.)

How to engage/involve people when they are busy with their own daily lives, working, preoccupied with bills, real life situations, daily tasks, etc.?

  • Consistent dates for potluck and other outreach event(s) per month
  • Film screenings
  • Invite new people to meeting earlier, to make an efficient way to integrate and orient new members
  • Tune into what is already going on, highlighting and supporting certain events and orgs
  • CREATE AN ORGANIZATIONS CALENDAR WITH EVENTS from different groups on it
  • Look at all groups and neighborhoods we want to reach, if they have existing events, etc
  • Help promote and attend
  • USSF is a gathering of movements in existence and in motion

LIST OF TASKS TO CREATE ORDER and STRUCTURE:

  • Appoint a team of individuals to guide and orient new members (to rotate and share this responsibility) and create an effective way to integrate new members in meetings.
  • Have new members come 30 min before the in-house meetings to be caught up to speed
  • REMIND ALL MEMBERS TO Post all meeting notes on the wiki page so that existing members with internet access can be caught up to speed
  • “Orienting guides” Present a brief write up of key points to introduce the purpose of the USSF, a summary of what has happened with meetings so far, and a summary of what is happening now.
  • The write up could be part of what is used in the Outreach kit.
  • Orienting guides’ responsibility would be to update this information for the purpose of orienting and integrating new members.
  • Appoint facilitator(s) for time, for rule reminders and “friendly but firm” enforcement
  • A few individuals can share this responsibility, and determine at meeting who will enforce time, and who will monitor and remind for rules enforcement
  • Begin meeting with reminder of the rules of respect/etiquette to be upheld during the meeting
  • Appoint events calendar caretakers- include a bulletin board for the calendar events related to USSF and affiliate organizations, and a page on the wiki
  • All individuals encouraged to announce and post events on the calendar, on the wiki page as well.
  • In addition, the calendar caretakers can be persons of contact to email or call with event information. They will regularly update and check on the wiki and bulletin board to make sure all events are listed between both sources
  • The caretakers will create a monthly print out and email/link with the events listed
  • Appoint a team of individuals to create an Outreach kit to advertise the USSF for multiple purposes, ready for use by mid June
  • Designate a team of individuals to work on this. The drafts of the product will be presented to the LOC, evaluated and added to, critiqued, with multiple stages, to create the finished product.
  • Include: (raise this with the committee to ask for suggestions)
  • What is the USSF and what is its purpose? Vision? What does it look like?
  • Why Detroit? Info about city selection, Detroit history and some stats, (because this Outreach kit isn’t only for Detroit based orgs or communities who know this info)
  • Who is the USSF? Who is involved with the USSF? Who can be?
  • How can local organizations and communities get involved?
    • Contact information- (to find out more info, to find out about events, to find out about fundraising, to find out how to attend meetings)
    • Donation information
    • Meeting information
    • Calendar of events to attend information
    • And  ??


These are the same notes as POTLUCK & OUTREACH - we should consider how to merge any differences and how to make sure to find all the pages this group is going to build and use. Maybe on Committees - but I see two distinct groups there - Outreach Committee and Open Meetings/Potlucks Committee. Best, MarkDilley


4/19/09 Notes

Agenda:

  • Introductions
  • Purpose
  • Chairs / Co-chairs
  • Major Tasks
  • Recording Secretary
  • Representatives on working groups


Introductions:

Include check in at beginning of each USSF meeting from each person (bring flyers):

  • Name
  • Organization
  • Committee you are on
  • Updates of your Detroit work

In Attendance:

  • Priscilla Dziubek
  • Ilana Weaver
  • Gwen Gaines
  • Ahmina Maxey
  • Nisa Joorabchi
  • Derek Grigsby
  • Shane Bernardo
  • Rocio Valerio
  • Checked in on local work we’re all doing
  • It’s very important that the USSF planning work supports what we’re doing here in Detroit
  • Should be incorporated into the LOC meetings
  • What does outreach in the sense of the USSF mean? How do we involve every sector of the city in the USSF, feel ownership of it, and want to get involved?


Purpose:

Priscilla:

  • Purpose:
    • To get in touch with other groups to see how USSF can engage with their organization
    • USSF will be beneficial to organizations so they can realize the problems we deal with in Detroit are not exclusive to the city, people all over the US/world also have these problems
    • Did not join Outreach Committee because of the high level of dedication it requires

Shane:

  • Purpose:
    • Gauge communities interest – What are their key issues/hot points?
         o Connect with each other on common issues
         o Create awareness on commonalities between us
         o Building a critical mass of individuals
         o Organize our collective efforts 

Nisa:

   * Purpose
         o Going off of creating awareness of commonalities between us
         o Process of pre-education – involve people who are not apart of the activist network; involve people of different commitment levels; figure how to engage people on different levels of commitment
         o Concrete, tangible, concise events
         o Engage and involve people who don’t already know about events like the USSF and what they can do – create an action
         o We amongst our organizing of the USSF must be organized so that the
         o Information , Education – what community can do,
         o Shedding light on the problems, crating potential solutions 

Rocio:

   * Purpose:
         o Knowing each other’s history
         o Build personal relationships throughout this process 

Derek:

   * Purpose:
         o Reach out to the communities that are affected by poverty and crime, everything that kills us. This is a huge worldwide event and we need to take advantage of it.
         o Our main goal should be that we build those relationships in poor communities, and that we continue those relationships after the USSF.
         o Educational process
         o We want to make everybody no only think about Detroit but think about everywhere. We all have common issues. 
   * Potlucks – Going into the neighborhoods and getting people involved that way – barbeque, etc. 

Gwen:

   * Got drafted to be apart of Potluck Committee by Marian Kramer – Organized for the December 5th potluck
   * Through food we can have a common bond. Over food we have come to our common issues – water, foreclosures, taxes.
   * Purpose:
         o Coming together on the issues of poverty
         o Only thing we have in common is poverty 

Ahmina:

   * Purpose:
         o Reach out to those who are not activists
         o Address the glaring holes in who is not at the table right now. Include the communities that are not already apart of the USSF planning process 

Ilana:

   * Purpose:
         o Have the process reflect the outcome
         o Breaking Bread potluck model can accomplish the goals we’ve addressed
         o “Another Detroit is happening” 
   * The Breaking Bread potlucks can play a big role in achieving the things we all have been talking about.
         o Each potluck addresses a certain issue
         o Ilana outlined the specifics of the potlucks (past meeting minutes outline this)
               + Place to meet people
               + Creative activity at potluck
               + Action – Ask people to attend local organizations event
               + End every dinner with music and dancing 


Other Ideas for Outreach:

   * Films / Film screenings
         o With opportunity for discussion
         o Including aspects of the potluck in it 
   * Benefit from more than one Outreach event per month
   * Task of Outreach Committee: Welcome people who are not familiar with the Social Forum. Have an introduction to “What is the Social Forum?”. Meeting a half-hour early for new participants.
   * Being very intentional with who we partner with, what events we go to, create synergy for the forum.
   * Connect with community gardens, connect with existing events
   * *Partnering with existing events
         o
               + Oya has Woman’s Film Festival
               + May 1st event
                     # Barbeque at Clark Park for May 1st march
                     # Centro Obrero having event too where they will be discussing historical oppression of peoples 
   * Ask groups that we reach to input their events on a calendar
   * Ways to outreach – we can learn from MWRO and how they do outreach 


Chairs / Co-chairs:

We will decide these at the next Outreach/Potluck meeting Tue, April 28th after the LOC meeting.


Major Tasks:

   * List of organizations
   * Calendar of Events in the city
         o Physical calendar at LOC meetings/Potluck meetings 
   * Outreach Kit
   * Be very intentional about how we create a “Outreach Kit” and how we frame it 

Should we do potluck the week the NPC is here?

   * Ask groups that already do food type events to host something while the NPC is here 


New Business:

Timeline for Tasks