9-9-09 Coordination Team Notes

Coordination Team Notes

Wed, 9/9/09

Present—Michael (GGJ), Diana (EMEAC), Sylvia (MWRO); Cindy (GGJ)

Absent—Maureen & Will (Detroit Staff), Elena (Centro Obrero), Josue (May First), Tom (IEN)

Agenda

• Next NPC face-to-face mtg
• Organizing Committee structure and reps--please review Cindy's last document review
• Process for new Coordination Team role and reps
• NPC conf call 9/16
• Process for new NPC applications
• USSF job positions
• DLOC/Anchors update

Diana Seales is replacing Rocio Valerio from EMEAC on the Interim Coordination Team.

• Next NPC face-to-face mtg

Next mtg will be in Atlanta from October 23-25; Organizing Committee mtg Oct 22

Stephanie is on vacation till 9/12—we’re still waiting for info on hotels and/or solidarity housing.

Perhaps Justin and Kamau can help with logistics.

We need to send out a notice to NPC about Oct face-to-face mtg

We also need to review the budget and clarify travel stipend assistance for NPC members.

-- NPC is growing, stipends should not be considered automatic.

-- We need to develop criteria to determine who we can assist and how many.

-- How can we assist DLOC reps with travel to ATL for logistics meeting?

• Organizing Committee structure and reps--please review Cindy's last document review

Main issues—

-- Do staff have a vote?

-- Clarify if reps must be NPC members and/or can be WG Co-chairs

-- When does OC meet vs. NPC—C-Team recommends one week before NPC call to draft agenda.

The OC will meet monthly but later on my need to meet twice monthly.

-- Extend deadline to select WG reps—9/16?

-- New C-Team language? Function should be about coordination of OC, reminders, some tasks.

More questions?

-- Is OC job description similar to NPC?

-- Is the C-Team what the Accountability Team was before?

The C-Team work will continue to meet weekly but it’s work will be broader—the majority of its current work will go to the OC.

-- We need to specify and clarify roles of OC, NPC, and C-Team, including representation expectations, functionality of the body, political responsibility.

-- On average 16 persons participate on average on NPC calls (Cindy has reviewed call logs).

C-Team is split on having NPC membership as requirement for OC representation

Concerns For—

a) OC requires a high responsibility and level of commitment, including political leadership. :::b) OC reps should also be members of organizations that they can report back to and get feedback from

b) Being a member of a network would also be acceptable.

c) When people have a base, they are more accountable in their work.

d) It is also important that in Working Groups people are doing work nationally.

e) OC reps should have a level of accountability and prioritization of the WG.

f) NPC membership is a political commitment—can’t separate out the political because there are huge implications.

Concerns Against—

a) In July, NPC didn’t discuss NPC membership requirement for OC reps.

b) DLOC participation has been open—some are members of orgs but many are individuals. :::c) Currently, only anchors are NPC members—thereby adding additional representation work for them and excluding good, active DLOC members from OC.

c) Not all people in networks do any report back work.

d) We might be promoting artificial associations by insisting on organizational affiliation, and besides some people currently with organizations have few active members or minimal reporting back.

e) In Detroit, some individuals may be affiliated with groups but they have more accountability to the community and DLOC than to an organization.

f) Being a representative to the OC requires reps to represent their WG not their own organization.

Possible solutions—

1) Create looser guidelines for OC reps, e.g., allow someone who is affiliated with labor.

2) Draft criteria for people who participate in the USSF as individuals.

3) Encourage more Detroit groups to apply to NPC.

4) Expand number of at-large DLOC reps to OC.

5) Discuss OC representation question with NPC on next conf call.

Sylvia will work on draft defining OC, NPC, and C-Team roles and summarizing unanswered questions, plus NPC guidance needed, in OC draft document C-Team has been working on.

• NPC conf call 9/16

We need to send a reminder note—Sylvia can do.

The Program/Culture WG has requested 15-20 min to discuss consulta

Michael will draft an agenda and send it to C-Team for discussion on next call.

• Process for new NPC applications

We have two new applications.

Perhaps we can discuss them at next NPC conf call.

Perhaps we can wait till next NPC face-face-mtg in October to discuss and vote in person.

Ideally, it would be good to bring on new members as soon as possible so they can join in the work.

We’ll discuss again at next C-Team mtg.

• USSF job positions

Perhaps send job notices to Idealist.org—costs $60. Maybe instead we do targeted outreach.

We can also send an announcement to the 5000+ emails we have from USSF Atlanta—Sylvia will ask Josue to do.

We’ll revisit status of current applicants at next C-Team mtg on 9/14

Recommendation—extend WG selection of OC reps to 9/21.

• DLOC/Anchors update

At last Anchors mtg, they had a political discussion about the role of the Anchors.

Next Coordination Team mtg, Mon, 9/14 at 6pm EST/3pm PST

Discuss budget questions

Discuss constituency WGs vs. other WGs questions