9-16-09 NPC Conf Call Notes

NPC Conference Call

9/16/09

3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, noon pacific

Call in number: 712.432.0075

Participant Access Code: 388105

mute/unmute phone *6

Facilitator--Sylvia

Note taker--Etherpad volunteers

Present--Jerome, LRNA; Rishi, Leftist Lounge; George, IPPN; Louis, SWOP; Sara and Flo, IJAN; Genaro, SWU; Cheri, PPEHRC; Emily Kawano, SEN; Sylvia, MWRO; Cindy and Michael, GGJ; Ariel, Women's Working Group & Media Equity Collaborative; Jacqui, Women of Color United/WWG; Rama, USPCN; Tammy, LCSC; Adrienne Marie, Ruckus Society; Jennifer, PPEHRC; Walda, LRNA; Stephanie, Project South; Ahmina, EMEAC.

Proposed Agenda--

• NOTE: Since we have a long agenda, we will not do working group reports. Instead we ask that you please send a short (one-two paragraph) written update to the Coordinating Team by the end of the week. The C-team can compile these and send them out to the NPC.

Intro (10 mins)

• Intros/Check-ins
• Welcome to new NPC members

Action Items (40 mins)

• Program Working Group - feedback on Consulta process

-- refer to program/culture email sent in advance of this mtg

• NPC meeting in Atlanta, Friday, Oct. 23 starting at 9 am- Sunday Oct. 25 ending at noon.
• C-team recommendations on travel support to meeting
• Establish agenda committee and facilitation team

Discussion (30 mins)

• Representation on Organizing Committee
• Individuals/Organizations
• Update on Working Group selections
• Constituency groups

Updates (10 mins)

• Personnel/Hiring
• Budgeting
• International Council/Quebec Social Forum
• New NPC applications

Notes--

• Program Working Group - feedback on Consulta process

-- refer to program/culture email sent in advance of this mtg

Rishi, Program/Culture WG

• WGs trying to pull in include Outreach, DLOC, Comms, ICT, PMA. Trying to set up a call for Friday, noon eastern.
• Timeline--Mid-October - would launch consulta (before next NPC meeting)
• End of November - get input
• Online results in mid-December
• Key questions for today—

-- Get everyone on the same page about what the consulta is

-- Consulta (consultation), to help shape political framework of the forum. Has been used by World Social Forum.

• Feedback

-- May First has been involved in Consulta Hemisferica - to develop principles of hemispheric economic collaboration. Planning event at Americas Social Forum in 2010. Use of term "consulta" can sow confusion. Will be doing something at USSF to build Consulta Hemisferica

-- The USSF consulta process will only be for 2 months. People can send suggestions for feedback on the consulta form and alternate names as well.

-- Send feedback by next Friday, 9/25 - if they don't hear back from folks, process will move forward.

-- Will also be need for constant feedback throughout the next month, so keep looking out for notices from Program/Culture WG.

• Next steps

-- After 9/25 will go up online.

-- Were also hoping to get it in Left Turn magazine

-- Do PDF as well.

-- People will have up to 7 weeks to fill out forms.

-- Then subgroup will review feedback and edit, send to NPC for approval.

NPC meeting in Atlanta

• Friday October 23, 9am -Sunday, October 25, noon
• Recommendation on structure of Organizing Committee. Proposing meeting of OC on 10/22
• Also working to schedule meeting between DLOC reps and folks who organized logistics in ATL.
• Encouraging everyone to send a representative
• Steph will be sending out a thorough email on logistics, so be on the look-out for that.

Travel support to NPC meetings

• A lot of groups are struggling financially, but this is also a collective effort.
• Past practice - groups paid their own way to meetings.
• After first USSF, there were resources left over and we offered support to attend NPC meetings. Many organizations did not request support.
• At July NPC meeting a lot of groups requested support.
• What is policy now, and what are budget implications?
• C-team recommendations

-- Develop criteria - based on International Council model

-- Want to assure that if meetings are not in Detroit, that key folks from Detroit have first priority

-- For the next meeting, we'll set up a timeline for requests

• Expenses and budget for NPC and OC meetings

-- $7000 for travel for the last meeting. Does not include food, materials and space rental

-- $55,000 for travel budget for OC and NPC

-- $6,000 for DLOC

-- $20,000 for Staff

-- We have 4 more meetings post Oct: January 8-10 most likely in Detroit, in March dates not determined, most likely not in Detroit, May 21-23 most likely in Detroit, and June 14 thru USSF in Detroit.

Facilitation Team

• Volunteers--Adrienne (on last facilitation team), Maureen (on last facilitation team), George Friday (on first facilitation team), Steph Guilloud! (on the specific proposal around constituency groups), plus Anchor team rep.

Representation on Organizing Committee

• At last NPC meeting we decided to form Organizing Committee (OC) made up of reps from Working Groups, all staff, and certain subcommittees (International Solidarity Committee)
• The Coordination Team has been discussing reducing the size of the Organizing Committee:

-- having 1 representative from each working group, with 1 alternate.

-- having a representative from national staff, and a representative from local staff (instead of having ALL staff)

-- also having folks be members of the NPC

• Question--Is there money in the budget for OC travel? - Yes, seen as one and the same. Trying to schedule OC face to face meetings for the day before NPC face to face meetings and so consolidating travel costs.
• Are folks open to reducing the size? Sounds reasonable
• What about recommendation for one rep from local/national staff

-- harder to sign off on in relation to some of the finance upkeep...we might need more staff on the OC to rep all that work. and where would field organizers fit in? thinking of work plan coordination

-- could have other folks on call to share info but not vote.

• Has the NPC ever voted on anything where there was a split vote...a nonconsensus decision?

-- we've always done pretty good at building consensus.

-- in that context, participation is the much more powerful right than the vote itself.

• Do we have agreement with OC reps being NPC members?

-- concern…this does limit participation from DLOC members. we have 2 at-large spots, and then the 4 anchors who are NPC members. each of the anchors will already have a spot. will limit that number.

-- is there a way to revisit this convo at the next face-to-face meeting?

-- at last meeting didn't we decide that political decisions are made by NPC? if the OC is the body carrying out the work, and the NPC makes decisions then why would that be an issue?

• The international committee, like other committees, is going to be a part of the NPC. we didn't make a decision on it for OC - but in making it smaller, it ultimately felt like it made sense if committees weren't part of it.
• There's still some stuff that needs to be resolved, especially regarding constituency groups.
• Is there anything written about the OC?

-- Yes, coordination team will get out to people in the next few days.

• Will OC meetings be open like the NPC meetings are, if people are interested in sitting in? When you say NPC meetings are open, do you mean people interested in participating or in observing?

-- Locally folks who are interested in the process have come in. People proactive in the process, but don't have a vote.

Constituency Groups

• There was an email from the Women's Working Group (thank you Jacqui and Ariel). We were trying to make sense of this in July - what is now being called constituency groups.
• What we did was pull aside groups doing broad logistical work - PMA, outreach, tech, communications, logistics, etc - we made the distinction between those groups and constituency groups - groups attending to the needs of certain groups of people.
• We had youth, women, and in July we added Indigenous. We also had some conversation around other groups - poor, people with disabilities, LGBT - we can go on from there to other ethnic, faith.
• We talked about having the constituency groups be part of the NPC at large, not part of the Organizing Committee. But their work would play a role by way of NPC participation.
• The email from Jacqui and Ariel addresses their concerns relative to the women's working group.
• Suggestion is that this is something we discuss in October face-to-face. Better as an in-person conversation. Ariel and Jacqui down for it being a face-to-face meeting.
• Steph - I had a proposal about having a deeper conversation around constituency groups, youth hire, field organizer roles, organizing plans and budget for that, work brigades, caravans...I was going to propose that we look at that and how to spend and decide. We have some built in ideas over the years. Let's spend some time and land some of these at the meeting. I'd be down to help on that part of the agenda. (Send to AMB/Maureen/George for agenda development)
• Ariel--Please send thoughts, feedback to Ariel and Jacqui leading up to the meeting in Atlanta.
• Genaro--I do have a proposal on the youth site. A group of youth pulled together a proposal - I can send it out to the list to look at. Check in with Maria from SLAP and AMB/Detroit folks around youth in Detroit.

Personnel Hiring

• Steph - we're in process.
• Communications and Tech and Resource Mobilization working groups are receiving applications and working out a process to recommend a candidate.
• Field Organizers will be vetted by outreach committee.
• Logistics coordinator will be recommended by DLOC for on the ground.
• National hires have been receiving applications, Coordinator application extended a bit, omission in wiki posting.
• The coordination team will make the recommendation for the national coordinator.

• All of this will come to the personnel committee who will make sure there is balance.
• Then based on where we're at with transferring the fiscal sponsorship to Tides, we'll hire as close to Oct 1.
• Want to be responsible about making hires that we can pay. Personnel will make recommendations with resource mobilization around staggering. Want to have at least 6 months in the bank before we hire anyone full time.
• The simpler option is to wait until we have Tides in place, since all of the hiring and other materials are handled by Tides. Good news is we were approved by the board that Tides will take on the USSF national project!
• Need some folks to look at set of materials from Tides including a Memorandum of Understanding and Conflict of Interest materials. After that there will be a 1-1 relationship between one staff person (likely the National Coordinator or one of them) and Tides.

-- Who can help? Michael (next week is busy), Sylvia on Tides, Ariel on Tides

• Any questions about hiring process? As many recommendations as possible by 25th of September.

-- When would Tides be set up? should be by the end of the month. we don't have to transfer all the money, just the money we need to start hires. orientation with tides. they are clear and straightforward. worst case scenario is start oct 15.

• Reminder for new NPC folks - part of NPC role is to overview financial management.
• Tides Center is the largest center intermediary and fiscal sponsor to about 250 organizations and projects (including members of the NPC). Also acts as a foundation, primarily donor advised funds. The USSF National Project would have a team at Tides specifically assigned to handle finances, do audits. We would be decision makers for all spending. We will have a specific budget run and decided on by us but lives in the Tides Center. Also will have an account run by the anchors. Tides account would handle all payroll. In this way we could move from site to site without losing payroll.
• The staggering piece is something we need to make a proposal about. It's something we should seriously consider, based on our finances.
• Last forum we did an exercise that prioritized what we would fund if all the money didn't come in. We should do that, and then figure out who we can authorize who can make those decisions. Also need to look at budget, and look at work plans.
• At the NPC , we should be matching the staffing where the work plan is needed staffing.

Budget

• We sent out templates to folks - need those back from all of the working groups…have received two.
• New World Foundation just gave USSF $20K (thanks!)
• Cash Flow--prioritizing, staggering of staffing - this all makes a whole lot of sense. we're operating like we have $200K in the bank - but it doesn't say that we have money coming in in january-march - we need to be conscious about that.

New NPC applications

• At this moment, until the C-Team is handling until it hands over the work to the new OC.
• We've received 2 more applications for the NPC. If we do online voting meeting these two could be coming. It's Black Radical Congress and the Center for Economic Research and Social Change.
• Do we think anyone else is going to apply? There are 6 applications out there floating now but have been floating.
• Is the application process open all the time? Yes
• We need some political conversation, related to the constituency groups. There's more interest this time around.
• Also note that Pushback Network, based on the NPC requirements, cannot be on the NPC.
• Recommendation? Hold off until face to face - we need to do a better job of orienting the new folks and getting them up to speed. Agree - Cheri, Jerome (we could invite them to the meeting - several people said "true")

Resource Mobilization WG Materials

• EGA is meeting at beginning of October - materials - we need something in hand to distribute at these spaces. Who is making those decisions - we need something.
• Communications working group, There were postcards somewhere... Genaro - send a written request, Sylvia will help thru Comm WG

International Council and Quebec

• IC is holding its twice a year meeting in early october in montreal in association with the upcoming Quebec social forum.
• We have a delegation participating in meetings to connect the USSF to the WSF, as well as connecting the Day - global discussion on responses to the crises during 2010 forums. Delegation includes--

--Jenn – PPEHRC, Cindy – GGJ, Rocio - EMEAC going to represent DLOC, Maureen -MWRO/Detroit, Mallory - Mayfirst/ICT, Michael is also attending as GGJ.

These meetings are the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 3pm EST/ 12pm PST

We've rushed through these things, but if any of the new NPC members need more clarification just holler at Sylvia and Adrienne. adrienne@ruckus.org and smorduno@yahoo.com