OC meeting 1-7-10

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USSF Organizing Committee meeting

January 7, 2010

Albuquerque, NM at SWOP offices

Notetakers: (mostly) Adrienne, Akudo

Summaries

TO DOs:

• Plenary Group meet Friday at lunch (tammy, jerome, michael, will, rocio, rose, alfredo check in with walda)
• Finance and Hiring check-in at Saturday lunch - primarily Resource, Finance and Personnel, with any other OC members welcome to come through.
• All REVIEW CONSULTA when it's sent out tonight and give WALDA any feedback by Friday night and then support the presentation of the Consulta on Saturday morning.
• Add a "Stay tuned for information about the Children's Social Forum" to the website
• Sylvia and Adrienne set up a white board tomorrow for the organizing of Friday evening's meetings. Working groups then put up their times and locations for meetings on Friday night.
• Adrienne write up guidelines for observers and make it super clear
• Adrienne, steph and maureen will go through the list and assign with working groups need to be a part of each logistics subcommittee AND PRESENT TO THE NPC
• staff meeting at the HYATT tonight 8pm
• PMA and outreach discuss travel stipends Saturday
• finance-personnel report to NPC is sat 1:30pm
• a saturday breakfast meeting between personnel, finance, resource (and anyone else from OC who wants to meet) to finalize this recommendation. 7:30am at Hyatt restaurant

DECISIONS and COMMITMENTS

• C-team: will now be on-call body including finance, logistics, local and national staff person, Resources and NPC {instead on a body that meets regularly.}
• Use regular coordinator staff meetings to process things that come up
• Develop Go To Contact List that is available internally and externally
• Connect Outreach to Logistics for getting people to the forum
• Communications: Keep process of internal communication open and let everyone know that the wikis, listservs are all open to the public {but have political conversations of how open we want things to be.}
• FAQ on website: Who to see or join what is happening, how to schedule for calls, what calls are happening and when
• Finalizing the Governance proposal: Clarity on structure, decisions and role of NPC and consistency of calls/schedules
• What is the rapid response for this body. What do we define as quorum and who gets to vote.
• Don't freak out-things will fall into place

AGENDA

10am Welcome and Grounding

a) Welcome to SWOP, logistical updates (10 min)

b) Who's here, overview of OC agenda and the next few days, including evening working group meetings (20 min)

10:30am Walk through and refining NPC agenda, maximizing participation and feedback from regional participants (45 min) (Adrienne)

11:15am: Self-evaluation of the OC--what's working, what's not? (1:15)

a) Conference calls, face-to-face meetings, and in-between meetings work

b) Staff and working group relationships: roles between, working group support needs

c) Developing new commitments from reps

12:30 Break

12:45pm WORKING LUNCH: Working group criteria for new proposals (30 min)

1:15pm Working group reviews and troubleshooting (3 hrs)

a) Deep reports of work done, being done and to be done by working groups and committees (including Registration finalization and website review); ICT social networking site presentation.

b) Specific organizing roles of each working group, overlap.

c) Working through our challenges, gaps, concerns?what do you need? Working groups pair up, rotate?

d) Which groups need to continue pairing up for discussions Friday night?

4:15pm Break

4:30pm Plenary process and children?s social forum (1 hr)

5:30pm OC meeting ends

6pm Town Hall (addressing Albuquerque local politics)

ADDITIONAL COMPREHENSIVE NOTES (side note--we realized that writeboard was maxing out at a certain point so the top content is rewritten)

In Attendance

Adrienne Maree, USSF National Coordinator, Ruckus

Sylvia, USSF National Coordinator, MWRO

Rocio, DLOC, Centro Obrero

Tom, IEN, Indigenous Working Group

Oya, DLOC, Culture WG

Diana, DLOC, EMEAC

Mallory, ICT WG, Tech staff

Tammy, Outreach WG, Labor Strategy Center

Josue, Mayfirst, ICT WG, Language Access

Alfredo, ICT

Jen, PPEHRC, International Solidarity Committee

Sharon, DLOC, Indigenous WG

Derek, Youth WG, People's Institute

Corina, Youth WG, Project South

Jerome, LRNA, Program WG

Dan, Northwest observer

Rose, Gender Justice WG, People's Institute

Walda, LRNA, Program WG

Mayowa, Gender Justice WG

Sha, Resource Mobilization WG, staff

Michael, GGJ, Resources Mob WG

Cindy, GGJ, Outreach WG

Will, DLOC, Detroit Coordinator

Maureen, DLOC, Detroit Coordinator

Steph, PMA and Personnel/Finance, Project South

Roberto, Language Access WG

B, Field Organizer USSF

Akudo, Field Organizer USSF

Bill Bryce, Anchor, Southeast Michigan JWJ

Reviewing the NPC agenda

NPC January 8-10, 2010

Friday, January 8:

9am Welcome to Southwest and New Mexico and Grounding

1030am Updates for getting on the same page

11am Evaluation of functionality, effectiveness, accountability of NPC

12pm LUNCH

1pm People's Movement Assembly

415pm Break

430pm Outreach

6pm Break for dinner

7pm Evening meetings: Working group meetings, potential joint work groups meetings and additional self-organized meetings as needed

Saturday, January 9

9am Start with introductions, review agenda and community agreements

915am Grassroots Fundraising

1015am Program + Culture

1215 pm LUNCH

115pm Fiscal Sponsorship, Finance and Personnel Committees

145pm Focus on Youth Working Group

230pm Focus on International

315pm Pre-forum events and coordination with USSF and DLOC

4pm Collective Calendaring and Work Plan development

5pm CLOSE

530pm Outreach Reception (Reception and Dinner for National Planning Committee (includes outreach component in program)

8pm Detroit-Albuquerque Cultural Event {Music starts at 9:00 at the Launchpad. Show will be a fundraiser for the USSF and bring together NM-based and Detroit culture. Includes Invincible and Finale from DET, and local performing artists.}

Sunday, January 10 (ends at 12pm)

9am Special Focus on Logistics

945am Special Focus on Language and Disability Access

1030am Special Focus on Detroit Expanded: video conference with Detroit and consideration of proposal

11am Decisions Hour

12pm CLOSE

Additional NPC information Facilitator: Adrienne

What is the PMA Process? Naming the political moments, possibility of action and feedback on how it can evolve

NPC process: Received about 10 applications for folks who want to be involved in the NPC

I. Questions/Clarifications

1. We have a proposal to get Heather for outreach. Where does that fit in the agenda Answer: It can be discussed in today's conversation

2. Suggestion to effectively organize the working group meetings. Set up a board for when and where each working groups will be having their meetings that has who is meeting and how will be leading it.

3. We have Wifi in the meeting space and the lobby of the hotel.

4. Have historical context of the PMA and the strategies (Naming the Moment) The entire 3 hour of PMA discussion will be the walk through, political moment, strategies, and commitments.

5. Youth workshop is happening around the dinner time on Friday at SWOP.

6. Consider each morning to have welcome and brief intro for observers. Have time for people who is new in the process to have mealtime with folks who have been in this process for awhile. On the first day, we will be going over the guideline for observers. Post these guidelines for each day. Open a chat channel for folks who can not make it.

7. Detroit reps: Need to hold a white privilege workshop and leadership of color training, etc. (Local need from NPC)

8. What is after Detroit? We should start talking about that (idea: North American Forum).

9. NPC application process might take awhile and may not be done in an hour. Online voting process will be completed and the results will be announced on Sunday. We have a little bit more flexible today. Can applications be available so that people can read them ahead of time? Post on wiki.

II. Self-evaluation of the OC

Positives and Areas of Improvement

1. OC Overall--what can we do to improve?
2. Relationship with DLOC committees?
3. Staff support of the Working Groups?
4. Working Group Meetings--how is the process going for each working groups?

1. OC Overall

Positives

• Good structure to prepare for large NPC meeting
• Have consistent meeting
• Cuts down red tape

Areas of Improvement

• More written reports
• More clarity with overall work
• Which decisions get made
• More time for committee to report and ask for support
• OC has more people on call than NPC
• Need more consistent participation on OC

2. Relationship with DLOC committees

Positives

• Pretty good communication with Detroit
• Program and Culture
• Further connections and relationships
• Good Detroit presence
• Oya and Will have been good contacts on DLOC

Areas of Improvement

• Need more communication always
• Strengthen the program representation
• Agree with the areas of culture and native committees
• Much is unknown: what is happening in local committees
• Who initiates communication, who are the leaders of DLOC
• More clarifies for gender justice working groups
• Difficult for Detroit to be involved in national committees and local committees
• Unsure of youth components of DLOC
• Resources need more formal relationships
• Get DLOC members more involved

3. Staff support of the Working Groups

Positives

• Step up to train and chairing local committee
• Welcoming and Positive attitude to youth working groups
• Do a lot of invisible work that is not recognized

Areas of Improvement

• Need staff person on P and C calls
• Who is staff? Clear roles
• Allow Youth group to run itself but with support
• Develop list of go to peoples from chair and staff
• Resources- needs staff to support shifting efforts to relationships with…

4. Working Group Meetings -how is the process going for each working groups

Positives

• Consistency of meetings: same time and 2x a month works
• GJWG- -In beginning a lot of energy and consistency and a regional meeting
• Outreach-meeting once per month but need to move to 2x a month. Have retreat in two weeks in Detroit
• IEN--Establish indigenous working groups in North America
• Program and Culture: We eet regulary. We get a lot of work done and pushing to the next level
• Resources- Large team, have energy from foundations and starting grassroots fundraising efforts

Areas of Improvement

• Difficulty of overlap and hard to coordinate work
• Need more commitment ...Need more participant Midwest, West and South
• Keep record for what has been decided
• Get Indigenous group up and going
• More donor relationships and less foundations
• More proactive co-chairs for Resources

Results/Findings from the Self Evaluation

a. What are the Patterns?

• Holding the big picture-coordinating between the working groups for smooth communications/work
• Governance structure: More clarity on decision-making (Negotiate between authority, accountability, trust and power)

Governance structure: More clarity around structure

Governance structure: Be clear of the expectations of being on the NPC-It is about work

Governance structure: Consistency with schedules and meeting times

• Diana has written governance document that we can use and add from these suggestions
• Go-to list
• Getting more people involved-- Connecting outreach to the logistics of getting folks to the forum locally and beyond. Need more local outreach for Detroit participation
• Who are the staff and working group chairs
• Clarity between staff and volunteers on how logistics is being supported
• Internal communication is good but external needs to be strengthened
• Youth Working Group, Logistics, and Communications needs better internal and external communications
• Adele is the new Communications Staff Person because Reg had to step down
• Hiring vs. recruiting

Staff heavy as suppose to 2007 based on volunteers- We need to set up to get more volunteers although we have staff.

How to make visible volunteer work with accountability

• Revisit the C team and staff coordination - who holds the overall vision/picture of the organizing process?
• How the working groups function on the conference calls--increasing participation and improving the nature of it
• Check-in around Detroit representation

b. What is missing?

• Don't freak out-things will fall into place
• OC needs to step up and do/assign pieces that are missing -- need to put more energy into Communications and Logistics. These needs will become more urgent in the next month.
• Keep the process of open communications: Update wiki page and use listserves that are public (Helpful to keep notes public)
• How to get more people engaged but not put them all in the long calls but make sure that work is being done.
• FAQ document that shows how to see/join what is happening with contact info (How to use wiki, what is wiki, etc)
• Standardize our calls on the website on the calendar. Staff or someone can set up reminders of here are the calls over this month.
• Political conversation of transcription that is posted online (wiki).
• We need to be mindful
• Let people know that wiki is public
• We must have back-up people taking the notes for the meetings.
• We have the data policy and need to discuss the transparency of the conversations.

• Suggestion--Send private information individually but not on the listserv.

Proposal to make the listserv archives secure. People can access it by logging in. This is for political discussion later.

• Clarity about how people will like to be contacted (call or email)
• Clarity on what information is public and how we can make it private.
• Clarifying the role of the NPC
• Question--Do we need C-Team now that we have two national and two local coordinators?

Suggestion to have C-team dormant unless necessary.

OC will be the body that does the work and to have Rapid Response Team. How decisions can be made on a rapid level during conference calls. Identifying who are the absolute key folks in each bodies who need to be consulted—Finance, Local, Resource, National Logistics

c. Commitments/ Collective Decisions

• C-team--We will move from a C-team to be an on-call body (finance, logistics, local and national staff person, Resources and NPC) instead of a body that meets regularly. Use regular staff meeting to process things that come up.

• Develop Go to List
• Connect Outreach to Logistics for getting people to the forum
• Communications: Keep process of internal communication open but have political conversations of how open we want things to be.
• FAQ on website: Who to see or join what is happening, how to schedule for calls, what calls are happening and when
• Governance structure: Clarity on structure, decisions and role of NPC and consistency of calls/schedules
• What is the rapid response for this body. What do we define as quorum and who gets to vote.
• Don't freak out-things will fall into place

d. Pending Decisions

• listserv archive: public or secure? -revisit NPC decision and decide whether to re-open that question
• Staff Hiring will be discussed around 4:45pm today

III. Working Group Criteria

How can we be more clear about how to become a Working Group, what is a committee, how can we address overlap, etc.

Review distributed proposal--let's start with definition - does this definition work?

question: what is a committee? may need to have a separate discussion on what a committee is and how it forms. working groups are open to anybody. are committees are internal, you have to be a member of an NPC organization?

question: what about organizations that are not NPC members? answer -- working groups are absolutely open to non-npc member orgs and individuals

question: what does "no limit on working groups mean"? no limit on the number of working groups. reality of capacity to keep up with the list of working groups.

Comments: early on we talked about accountability being expressed by having organizational affiliation rather than just pure individuals, "lone wolfs" getting up in the process.

We Need

• clarity on definition and processes of committees
• clarity on whether a working group has to have NPC membership
• clarity on whether folks need an organizational affiliation as a point of accountability.
• clarity for language access which is listed as a committee - this changed to a working group in 07 as part of the evaluation.
• clarity on how to track who all is out there saying they represent the USSF. how do we identify who is actually representing USSF and how to deal with instances when folks self-organize and claim to represent USSF but are not connected.
• clarity: speak on behalf of ussf vs. organizing toward the social forum.
• We could separate them between Operational (Logistics, Resources, etc.) and Representational (Gender Justice, Poverty working group, etc.). Constituency Based working groups -- we need more conversation about this but we agreed in ATL not to separate out groups as constituency.
• There is currently nothing that points to representation/leadership of people of color on working groups.
• We need to know where evaluation fits: Evaluation team is really far behind and need to hire coordinator but can't, so will need to designate someone to take on the role of tracking representation and other evaluative points until we are able to hire a coordinator.
• George is stepping into that role for now. It's national in scope, it's not on the OC. It's a function. Sounds like an internal committee.
• more detailed descriptions of what each working group is doing (make sure it's on the wiki), so that we don't overlap as much
• need a way to check who is representing Detroit because it is not always clear.
• clarity of whether you can be a working group chair but NOT an NPC rep, and be on the OC

Additions/Edits:

• All Working Groups have permission to speak on behalf of the USSF National Planning Process.
• Each working group must have an NPC rep AND a DLOC rep, and post clear and visible contact info, as well as the goals of mission of the working group on the wiki.
• DLOC reps have to go through the process of becoming a DLOC rep, and identify themselves clearly on the calls.
• Working Groups must have familiarity and agreement with Governing Principles.
• We encourage people's self-organization, and hereby provide clarification of what it means to be part of the NPC.
• We have reviewed, understand and are in full agreement with the Charter of Principles

Can people say we want a member of this working group, and here is our organization which will join the NPC? Criteria now says you have at least 1 rep on the NPC. But if you don't already have someone on NPC, but you have an org that wants to become part of NPC AND wants to start a working group? Sounds like yes so far. But it doesn't mean that their organization will be accepted, so they would still be without an NPC rep.

Which committees are recognized and which are not? Table this discussion for now. It's worth exploring what we call these, distinguishing between local and national.

We should write up on the website who is officially speaking for the USSF. Make sure the definition of NPC is clear.

Next step: Folks on Finance, Personnel, International Solidarity, Evaluation Committee should come together to self-define more clearly.

Working Group Procedures: Additions/edits:

• NPC will respond as quickly as possible? within a week of the following conference call?
• How long it will take for the NPC to recognize new working groups. We need to be accountable to folks who apply.
• Set a deadline for April 1st -- no more NPC applications or working group applications after that. We will respond by April 1st.

IV. Quick Review of Governance Document that is being developed

For local committees structure: Leadership of color community trainings, white allies trainings -- people need to go through these trainings in order to organize at the local level.

• Need to add description of NPC responsibilities
• Diana will gather input from today, incorporate it into the Governance Document, and send out draft to NPC. All comments are welcome, send them to Diana.

V. Working Groups Review and Troubleshooting (including Detroit Need)

• Communications is not here.

• Gender Justice

Work being done now?

- developing regional meetings

- fundraising

- increasing representation from outside of east coast

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- Discussion with Gender PMA process. Ruth is on a small subcommittee working out what that might look like. Suzanne Farr, Mae? in NYC.

- Set up regional meetings

- Build list of specific events and programs that will have gender

infusion: Events in conjunction with social forum

- Tie in with DLOC about local logistics

Needs from other Working Groups?

- DLOC rep

- Discussion with youth

- How to set up virtual meetings with others about infusing gender into work

• Indigenous

Work being done now?

- started process of having meetings every 2 weeks to get caught up

- recommendation to implement field organizer position: Heather Milton Lightening. She is available.

- Caravans from Canada and Seattle preparing to arrive -- go through Highway 2 and pick up folks along the way

- Action camps around USSF to inform and educate native communities about what USSF is

- Have reps in southeast, west coast, seattle puget sound, LA & SF, Great Lakes

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- outreach (Hawaii, international)

- network youth

- building a "Red Road to Detroit"

- Hook up with island contacts - Hawaii in particular

Needs from other Working Groups?

- DLOC rep: Sharon and native representatives from Detroit

- reps from Program and Culture Committee (some folks from the region want to have a Pow Wow)

- Resource Mob to coordinate funding contacts and donors (talking with Seventh Generation Fund)

- connecting with youth working group

• Language Access

Work being done now?

- has shrunk significantly

- turning around specific requests, trying to turn around but it's hard

- trying to make skeleton working plans for best/mid/worst case scenario. a lot is contingent on NPC.

- doing spanish and american sign language, need to figure out a process for arabic (if this body is going to make that officially one of the languages)

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- translations ad-hoc

- building a list/database of folks to plug into the process. we don't have anyone to HOLD that process currently.

- letting folks know to move ahead if they have folks who can do translation for your group...make sure those folks REALLY know how to do that.

Needs from other Working Groups?

- find folks with translation skills and get them to help (make sure they KNOW what they are doing)

- keep list of what you got translated by who

- continue sending names of potential translation and interpretation skills

need to come back to decision on including Arabic as official language of USSF

• Logistics

Work being done now?

- have 2600 hotel rooms locked down (most under $100, wayne state dorms locked down etc...)

- context for children's social forum

- trying to fix the issues that are happening within the logistics committee (locally)

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- children's social forum going with understanding of how it worked before

- security (Detroit Police is offering, private organizations is offering...)

- health and healing (doctors and nurses organizing resources for this need to figure out the parameters for that)

- need to get a national logistics group to coalesce

Needs from other Working Groups?

- Logistics with Security folks from 07

- prayer

- support to identify manageability of upcoming logistics

- build out list of tasks and identify how they can fit directly into other working groups so that maureen isn't holding down so much

• Outreach

Work being done now?

- will be meeting a lot of folks locally and regionally in next 3 days with a big pitch on saturday evening to engage folks

- jan 23-26 outreach WG is having a retreat in Detroit to boost up outreach locally, regionally and nationally

hired akudo and b and will be doing orientation, training and brain dumps so they can get out in the field.

- second run of materials and get them in different languages

- identified fronts of struggle in motion, developing the work plan with b and akudo to target the areas that aren't being reached

- working out data policy with ICT and resources to make sure we are able to collect the information we need to do this mapping, particularly sector, region, contact info

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- filter to get interest folks to the right groups

Needs from other Working Groups?

- communications: beefing up website, tools, etc.

- PMA - have already identified that we need more synergy

- ICT, comms, PMA and outreach come together to think of how to "massify" everything and schedule pushes to boost numbers

- everyone connect with download info to akudo and B

- ICT - data collection that covers the information we need (sectors, locations, etc)

• PMA

Work being done now?

- finalizing organizing plan for next 6 months

- coordinating with leads of PMAs in different parts of the country, how we'll collect resolutions

- coordination with the caravans that are coming in

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- aiming for a PMA toolkit

- prepping for the PMA tent

- prepping for national PMA at the forum - we have a proposal of how they should look

Needs from other Working Groups?

- connecting with outreach and program/culture about how PMA at forum looks

- streamlining reg process with PC (so folks can propose a PMA)

- culture, how we integrate it

- outreach - streamline materials and liaisons!

• Poverty

Work being done now?

- gathering in NOLA to plan delta-detroit march (map, organizing efforts, etc - PPEHRC organizing it)

- have been planning criteria

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- fundraising and budget strategies

- planning what folks will do at the forum

Needs from other Working Groups?

- resource - planning for grants and other sources for $$

- outreach - where are y'all focusing, linking up with other orgs so we aren't bumping heads

- PMA - planning some PMAs

- connecting with indigenous, youth and gender

• Program and Culture

Work being done now?

- culture: working on submission process to handle the influx of folks contacting, clarifying where they are at right now, making sure group is diverse, working with Detroit Expanded, making sure cultural aspect is shared with folks who can't come, working with national cultural events (AMC, Hip-Hop Congress, Labor Heritage), relationship building to reach as many people (and kinds of people and place) as possible, working with PMA - program - we have a written report with a timeline.

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- making sure culture is integrated into every aspect of forum

- planning space, schedule and stage set-up

- see timeline for what program is up to. main things are: getting forms up for the workshops and self-organized events.

- need to develop teams - printed/online program teams ASAP

- also a team that's looking at the whole 5 days (program, culture, PMAs)

- getting plenary process started and adopted by the NPC

Needs from other Working Groups?

- culture needs youth working group to be a major part of this and be a part of the WG, want to be as intergenerational as possible - want to do an orientation for youth

- culture with outreach - doing a CD as an outreach and fundraising

- culture needs to know role in opening ceremony, opening march and tours

- culture wants to work with indigenous group to ensure that is incorporated

- culture needs clarity around funding - tents? stages? equipment?

- culture needs to know if ICT can support cultural events on website

- program needs to connect with ALL the work groups, priority is how much SPACE we have (logistics)

• Resource Mobilization

Work being done now?

- about to hit the wall on foundation fundraising - we're at the last round of dockets. have about $450K raised

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- shift into grassroots fundraising efforts (registration, march and material sales, etc)

- getting NPC organized to raise the funds

- discretionary requests from donors and foundations

- monthly briefing calls to funders who are supporting the forum. will need folks from npc, staff and dloc to be on those calls.

Needs from other Working Groups?

- pledge sheet follow-through from NPC

- real clarity from groups what they are raising money FOR

- EVERYone fundraise

• Youth

Work being done now?

- 3 folks been involved thus far

- clarifying communications issues

- writing up a 6 month plan that folks can add on and engage in

- updating a contact sheet

- outreaching to organizations and individual youth

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- determining how we will work with college students vs youth, and youth vs youth workers

- a youth outreach packet (including a little history of Detroit and Why Detroit)

- PMAs beforehand (boston for instance...Youth Road to Detroit)

Needs from other Working Groups?

- resource mobilization - can $ be made during the forum, a plan for youth (especially hs and younger) to generate resources to come.

- ICT support on having an updated very current contact sheet

- outreach: on youth outreach specifics, support in CA/west coast, Alaska, HI, midwest

- anyone who can help clarify finding what is already out there!

- communications - materials specific for youth

- program and culture: where/how folks can plug in

• International Solidarity

Work being done now?

- visa issue clarification for folks coming in country for the meeting with Bill Martinez as legal support

- invitations/visa letters to folks who are interest, or folks who are being targeted, folks in the global social forum process

- getting folks to resource themselves to come

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- ongoing relationship of NPC/USSF with World Social Forums coming up in 2010

- potential participation of key people at international level in USSF process (as observers)

Needs from other Working Groups?

- resource - may need solidarity fund support

- Indigenous - international contacts that should be invited

- program + culture - on international day

- language access on translation and interpretation

- DLOC about actions (something larger and symbolic for solidarity) and reality tours, tying international folks into local reality

• ICT (the tech reps of the ussf - we translate the policies and practices of ussf into technology, warrior attitude)

Work being done now?

- prioritizing the security, privacy of data...will go to jail before we give up your information to the govt.

Responsibilities in next few months up to USSF Detroit?

- project group phase with weekly meetings, 6-7 meetings

- recruiting tech support

- a multi-site approach: organize.ussf2010.org (implementation of the organizing vision of the forum - for registration and workshop info, allows folks to become organizations of the forum and part of a process leading up to the forum)

- detroit expanded collaborative democracy workshop with 25 cities (will be submitted as a regular workshop proposal)

- techie congress (tensions between tech and movement - feel used and not respected.)

- soft launch then hard launch (soft - putting it up for testing, hard - announced to the big public!)

Needs from other Working Groups?

- not just to throw 'tasks' at ict, need to engage as political processes and as organizers

Troubleshooting

• Logistics

- will is coming to atl, then emery is going to detroit. have a work brigade on deck to go from atl to detroit to connect a lot of logistics pieces (like childrens social forum and security).

- can look the logistics list of tasks and identify what needs to happen as combinations of each working group (like registration did)

- will will connect the doctors, nurses up with the health and healing folks. right now the national group is not taking responsibility for that health work. also connecting further with cara and rita from 2007 health and healing tent.

- we need to get folks recruited into the logistics group, and set a regular meeting time.

- immediate fix/delegation of tasks

- adrienne, steph and maureen will go through the list and assign with working groups need to be a part of each logistics subcommittee AND PRESENT TO THE NPC

- meet tapeka dixon, she is stepping up and doing some of these tasks

• Money, hiring, finances (with Steph):

- wanted to vet the personnel proposal for y'all here to preempt what we bring to the NPC

- infrastructure: payroll - we have transferred fiscal sponsorship to praxis project, so now will be setting up payroll, contracts, stipends, personnel policies, fiscal policies

- staffing the work - this is not just finance or personnel, this is OC

- want to reframe this. ALL of us are STAFFING the USSF. some are paid by our organizations, some are doing it in-kind, and some are paid by the USSF. hours, %, etc shift across the board.

-within that - all of us are operating by a basic set of principles - self-mobilization, high communication, accountability. want to get smoother - lets think of ourselves as one large body.

-based on the money: in oct we came with packages and opted to hire national coordinators, tech, communications, and field organizers

- proposal

salary (10,500): general coordination at national and local level

- PT contracts (11k at $1750/per): ICT, development, communications, bookkeeper, language access,

-for field, that it be 2 general, 1 indigenous, 1 youth (4K split between the 4 positions)

-logistics is 1 PT - 1750/mth, and a other stipends totaling 1250/mth

TOTAL is 24,500 a month

- in terms of cash flow - if we don't raise ANOTHER DIME, we're only short by $50K. this is good news. this isn't including registration $.

- additionally we suggest upping the stipends for logistics, and the bookkeeper piece will go up around the forum.

- we agreed for flat pay rates, which is currently flat based on time.

- additionally in proposal - we want to set up a solidarity fund through a foundation so that ussf doesn't operate as a grantee for travel...this would mean that we also don't raise $ for travel. solidago has offered to support on this. we have low capacity.

- in terms of contractors - we have to be very specific about what can and can't count as contractors. if someone gives $ for a specific role?

- in July we had an agreement for a flat pay scale. and for a living wage - to be a good employer.

- what about budget for indigenous travel?

- we're at a new juncture...are we a staffed coalition? OR is it a coalition of organizations putting in time and resources towards a process. we havent had this conversation yet.

- also question of oversight - who is collecting reports? where is accountability?

- some people said they didn't need health benefits, some were guaranteed that.

- also, does this mean field travel budget is split amongst 4 people?

- how do folks get chosen for hire? we decided working groups would create a job description, put it out there, and make a recommendation to the personnel committee.

Right now we have:

- 2 National Coordinators sharing 1 FT salary

- 2 Local Coordinators with 2 FT salaries

- 2 ICT sharing 1 PT salary

- 1 Dev at $3200

- 1 Bookkeeper at $1250/month

- 1 PT Field organizer at PT pay

- 1 PT Field organizer offering part in-kind

- also $3000 a month to Detroit to stipend some logistics work

Praxis has offered for us to use their payroll, but that's an added cost

Additional conversation:

- if we go with a more decentralized process, we need to keep coordination and cohesion at the staff level.

- we need working groups to communicate to personnel - what you are hiring, what you need, timeline, so they can actually be helpful

- we're getting stuck every time on travel guidelines

- make sure it's a political understanding in terms of the time spent on this work, that we volunteered as staff

- want to be sure that down the road, concerns that come from staff or contractors. are we following praxis personnel and travel policy since they are our fiscal sponsor.

- history - we have been with project south for 5 years without a lot of this clarity. now we are at a place where we are cleanest we could possibly be.

- praxis is flexible for us. tides offered more safety, but wanted significantly more control which would have been very slow.

• Resolving and moving forward:

Need to bring to the NPC

- reframing of the role of the NPC IN THE NPC AGENDA

- personnel committee give us a bare bones lay-out of what agreements are in place, and what living wage would actually look like.

- between outreach and PMA, let's come up with clarity on travel stipends for the organizers

- need to figure out the in-kind form of what each NPC organization is putting in. need to document that!

- we need more people on the personnel and finance committees.

- OC recommends that the 14 hires are done at either bare bones or living wage level

we have over next few days:

- staff meeting at the HYATT tonight 8pm

- personnel and finance meeting Friday night

- PMA and outreach discuss travel stipends

- finance-personnel report to NPC is sat 1:30pm

suggestion:

- a saturday breakfast meeting between personnel, finance, resource (and anyone else from OC who wants to meet) to finalize this recommendation. 7:30am at Hyatt restaurant

- can we accept the overall frame presented at this meeting? YES we have consensus, and steph will follow up with the stacked folks

- also, we will need 200 staff to pull this off. there is a CORE staff we're paying, and then a total staff to reboot and grow our working groups.

VI. CONSULTA

• got 900 responses, 70 in spanish!
• did another post consulta round with the NPC. will be sending it to everyone tonight.
• will also be pulling together some cross-cutting themes.
• LOOK AT IT HARD and be ready to roll into the NPC meeting Saturday morning with support!
• let Walda, Jerome or Rishi know any other changes you might have, but otherwise, we expect you to help it be smoothly accepted.

VII. PLENARIES

• we want a Plenary Committee made up of NPC members
• also, are we working towards 3 plenaries, one each day (day 1 is opening ceremony and registration, day 5 is closing ceremony, PMA; then day 2 {local}, 3 {national and international struggle and their convergence}, 4 {solutions, visions and strategies} are each workshops, PMAs, etc), that reflect the content of the days

question: the international social forum movement has backed away from the plenary. are we only ones doing it? answer: it's gone back and forth - some are all about the self-organized process, some decided to have those larger spaces. last time we decided to have 6, 2 per evening, which were hard hitting and too short. this time, the hope is that through the PMA we unearth the major things. then politically we need to decide if we're going to have them, how long, logistical. its about the political decision of when/how to have these major conversations.

• we need to come with a recommendation and some clarity:

- committee of the NPC

- volunteers

- was it successful in 2007? mixed reviews. this reflects the theory of the social forum.

- how can we ensure that this is not a clusterfuck? :)

- how can we see the plenaries as a point of convergence, instead of silos? our sense was that in the u.s. the plenaries were a necessary piece for us (in other countries where movements are more established, these conversations might not need this). time, place and conditions.

- need to frame the conversation, identify the clear process (tammy, jerome, michael, will, rocio, rose, alfredo check in with walda) AT LUNCH ON FRIDAY

VIII. Children's Social Forum

• amazing space for children to teach each other, got toys and resources donated, there are lots of questions still to be answered but there are many conversations to be had between folks in Atlanta that were engaged and folks in Detroit now. That position was stipended for 3 months (and was included in proposal for cash flow)

• we were able to have a test run at the Southeast Social Forum, and we perfected from there. If we decide to do it, we should try another test run before June in Detroit.

• Themes of Children's SF matched what was going on in the broader forum, children presented at the plenary. We should integrate it even more this time.

• Detroit: folks have been thinking on it but not necessarily at the point of moving on it. Desire to keep 8-12 age range, and also have a component where parents could be there with younger kids.

• A few folks have been identified, who haven't been as involved in other aspects of the USSF process, may need more orientation about what happened at the children's social forum and even in general about the social forum process.

• Matrix Puppets Theater and Rosa Parks ?? who could integrate some really fun and innovative programming into it.

• Culture committee can create space in Hart Plaza where kids can be and not be inside the whole time.

• What about insurance and rules & regulations? Kate Shapiro has a whole packet of what rules they had to follow, how many adults per kid, etc. Need to double check about matching it up with Michigan rules.

• Might even need to put something together for younger kids -- we need to have answers for folks who are coming and bringing kids.

• Need to make sure that people register for the children's social forum -- it's not just a drop-off center.

• It's not on the registration form... last time there was a separate registration form, and an ask that each parent would volunteer a certain amount of hours. Right now youth is listed as 13-24 yrs old on registration form.

• There needs to be a statement that says Stay Tuned for Children's Social Forum so that people with kids know to come back to the registration site.

Who Needs to Talk to Who?

Meet up Friday night after dinner (7-10).

- Youth Camp and Youth Tent being redesigned and want to work with Detroit: talk with Maureen and Tapeka who have been working on securing spaces

- Program & Culture and Logistics

- DLOC & Indigenous

- Outreach & Comm-Media

- Poverty & Gender Justice

- Language Access & DLOC

- PMA & Outreach

- International Solidarity & Indigenous

ICT will be floating to meet up with various groups. Is there some kind of tech tool that we can use? The lobby at the Hyatt is the only place that has wifi, not in the meeting room. Logistics is in high demand!

Recognize there are varying levels of access to resources and meeting outside of the Hyatt, for example places where you have to pay, so we're offering the Hyatt as the neutral space where you can meet for free.

Not meeting:

- ICT & Youth

- Resource Mob & Logistics

WRAP UP

SWOP is so excited we're here! They've planned a bunch of stuff for us to do, so even though we're tired we should really show up and support the events they've organized. Town Hall tonight about state-wide budget cuts.

Tonight there's also an opportunity to get yer groove on: 3rd and Central - "One Up" at 10pm. (21 It's 21 and older. There's another club two blocks away that is 18 and over for folks who want to go there

Friday night potentially a house party.

Saturday night at 6pm: Throw down! New Mexican feast! NOT mexican...NEW MEXICAN. Outreach reception and dinner: welcome to fabulous national freedom fighters but also chance to meet local folks who won't be at NPC. We need to end on time so we can be there, and then a concert that night.