OC working group reports 12-4-09

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Working group representatives: prior to the 12/4/09 conference call, please submit your written report below. This information will be used to help draft the agenda and will allow other working groups to be prepared with feedback.

Each report should include the following:

• Summary of working group projects, activities, and/or organizing work.
• If applicable, summary of working group (sub)committee projects, activities and/or organizing efforts.
• Upcoming deadlines or milestones.
• List of feedback, direction, and support needed from the OC and/or specific working groups.
• Name of representative(s) who submitted the report.

Brief wiki coding (or use icons in edit box):

* = bullet

: = colon will indent or force new line

'' = 2 apostrophes around text for italic

''' = 3 apostrophes around text for bold

Gender Justice

>Summary of working group projects, activities, and/or organizing work. GJWG planning members participated in weekly organizing

>>> phone calls to put together our October Retreat

>>> o Our October retreat was held in Washington DC from October

>>> 9-10^th . At the retreat, the group made core commitments

>>> to building with poor and working class women of color and

>>> the differently abled, being expansive theoretically and

>>> through practice regarding gender justice, and embracing

>>> an intersectional analysis.

>>> + Additionally, the group developed a new name, and

>>> expanded upon our goal, values, principles,

>>> structure, and organizing strategy. A timeline was

>>> developed to help implement our goals.

>>> + Outcomes

>>> # A new list serve was created for GJWG members

>>> # GJWG members are on calls for Program,

>>> Culture, PMA, Documentation/Evaluation,

>>> Communication, and International Solidarity.

>>> # Developed an organizing strategy for regional

>>> meetings

>>> o We participated in the Consulta process, giving feedback

>>> as the GJWG

>>> * If applicable, summary of working group /(sub)committee/

>>> projects, activities and/or organizing efforts.

>>> o Strategy team-This group of people are committed to

>>> participating in the working groups of the USSF

>>> + Working on developing regional meetings as an

>>> organizing tool to increase representation on the

>>> GJWG and for broader USSF2010

>>> + Developed a facilitation guide for the regional meetings

>>> o Organizing and events team-will work together to

>>> coordinate events and programs at the USSF. Additionally,

>>> will support fundraising and coordinate communication.

>>> + Example events, A Health and Healing Tent, a Gender

>>> Justice Tent, a Court/Tribunal

>>> o Sustainability and Movement Building team-will facilitate

>>> opportunities for people at the USSF to plan for a renewed

>>> and inclusive women’s movement

>>> * Upcoming deadlines or milestones.

>>> o Developing monthly meeting times by December 11th

>>> o Organizing regional meetings for February (?)

>>> * List of feedback, direction, and support needed from the OC

>>> and/or specific working groups.

>>> o Security committee-discussion on proactive and

>>> intervention strategies for gender based violence at USSF,

>>> highlighting the importance of healing and process

>>> o Plenaries-discussion about having a gendered analysis

>>> infused in the plenaries

>>> o PMA- connecting with PMA members, including Suzanne Pharr

>>> who is proposing a gender PMA.

>>> o OC- potentially offer support around making the gender PMA

>>> a joint effort with PMA and GJWG

>>> * Name of representative(s) who submitted the report.

>>> o Mayowa Obasaju and Rose Brewer

>>>

Program & Culture

Program Committee/Working Group

• The consulta process is well underway, with more than 400 individuals and organizations providing feedback on the proposed tracks for the forum.

• Comment period ends December 14th, which is coming up in a little under two weeks--people should continue to send it out and around for organizations and individuals to participate. folks should do whatever they can to get this out as far and wide as possible! http://organize.ussf2010.org/consulta

• Reminder: December 14th is the deadline for comments, and based on the feedback, the subgroup will present to the NPC the final list of tracks.

• Working on workshop registration process, which will go live in early January after the consulta process concludes.

• Also, beginning to think about the printed program ahead of time--key concerns around coordination of translation for the hard copy and on-line versions; also concerns around the printing and making sure it happens locally in Detroit.

• Jerome Scott from LRNA will be Logisitics representative from Program/Culture

• Proposals that need to be taken on by the NPC include:

--NPC attention to the coordination of the printed program --presentation of consulta information and final tracks list

Submitted by Alicia Garza, OC representative from Program side of the Program/Culture Working Group

Culture Committee/Working Group

• The DLOC Programming and Culture Committee/Working Group is currently working with the NPC Registration team related to the submission process. We created the first draft for the Cultural submission form for the USSF website. We went to Hart Plaza to map out the technical needs and define the spaces for cultural expressions.

• The DLOC Culture Committee/Working Group is currently working with the IC (International Committee), Logistics Committee, and ITC committees. We are structuring a strategic plan and documenting the process for the future Culture Committees and Working Groups.

• We are planning an orientation meeting with youth leadership from New Orleans, New York, Georgia and Detroit about the role of Culture in the United States Social Forum. We are building relationships with artists locally, nationally, and internationally.

• We will also work with members of the PMA Working Group to find ways to incorporate culture into the sessions. We would also like to present something to the NPC about also incorporating culture into the plenaries as well.

• We are working with Janks Morton to bring the film Men II Boys to the United States Social Forum Progressive Film Festival. It discusses the relationships between Black boys and men. After the showing there is a male only healing session to support mentorship. Do we need to bring this proposal to the NPC?

• The culture committee is collaborating with ICT, logistics, DLOC, Outreach, Communications, and others on the Detroit Expanded Project. Our goal is to make the United States Social Forum accessible to people globally using video conferencing and video streaming. We will also highlight the programming happening outside of Cobo Hall and Hart Plaza. The concerts and other forms of cultural expression will streamed as well.

• We are also working with the cultural organizations in developing their conferences before and after the USSF 2010 to encourage full participation from their members. We are connected with the Allied Media Conference, The Hip Hop Congress, and the Labor Heritage Art Exchange Conference. The list continues to grow.

• We are collaborating with the Allied Media Conference, galleries, community gardens, youth groups and more to develop murals throughout Detroit. One of our members is using his Kresge Grant to fund one of the murals.

• We are working with the IC Committee and the Hip Hop Congress to bring in artists from Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and South Africa.

Goal

Our goal is to set a firm foundation and plan to implement the culture expressions at the United States Social Forum. We are making a concerted effort to document the process for future Cultural work in the USSF. We want the limited perspective of culture as a form of entertainment only to be expanded to understand the role of art in building and communicating movement to our communities.

NPC and Culture

Proposals that may need to be addressed by the NPC include:

• The integration of culture into the plenaries, PMAs, etc.
• The Detroit Expanded Project and the resources and support that we need to make that happen
• Janks Morton film and male only healing session

Report by Oyatunde Amakisi, Co-Chair of Programming and Culture Committee and Working Group

Resource Mob

Resources Working Group December 2009 Report

The RWG has developed a plan with multiple strategies to raise resources for the USSF. At the moment we are getting fairly good foundation support that is helping to sustain our core costs. We had recent commitments for an additional $100k from Ben and Jerry's Foundation for 2010. Decisions are pending from both Unitarian Universalist Veatch at Shelter Rock and Wallace Global Fund in December.

In the meantime we have focused a lot of effort on getting the non-foundation/grassroots funding going. We contracted with Sha Grogan Brown in Washington DC as a Development Coordinator for 3 months. Sha has done a tremendous job in his first month. So far he has:

• Initiated the process for online fundraising appeals – convening a joint committee of tech, communications and other working group reps to develop the strategy and infrastructure
• Helped to coordinate the online registration process – helping to convene a joint committee of staff and working groups to determine registration rates, setting up the infrastructure and process for registration,
• Developed a Grassroots Fundraising Toolkit – convening a small team from the NPC and RWG to develop this. The toolkit will be used by people and organizations planning to attend the USSF. The toolkit gives ideas on how to raise resources for travel and expenses to the USSF.
• Initiated the process for major donor discussions – convening a subcommittee of the Resources WG
• Disseminated the Organizational Pledge sheet developed at the last NPC/DLOC meeting - 11 pledge forms have been submitted so far, totaling $58k in pledges for non-foundation support. Sha has set up a team to follow up with the remaining NPC organizations and collect more pledge sheets. A new deadline has been set for December 11 to have them submitted.
• Initiated discussions on materials development and sales – this has been more challenging in terms of finding people and organizations that can take on the work of managing the sales and fulfilling orders. Sha is searching for organizations that specifically do this kind of work.

These strategies should begin to generate revenue by mid-December when the first online appeal goes out. The RWG has held regular calls every three weeks. Foundation allies from the Funder/Movement process participate on these calls as well to help us strategize. We have a new representative from Resource Generation, a network of young philanthropists. Eleven people participated on our most recent December 2 call. Next year we will also begin monthly calls to update funders on the progress of the USSF. This will be for funders who are supporting the USSF and potential supporters. We will draw from the NPC and DLOC as guest presenters each month.

The RWG is growing and becoming increasingly active. Our next call will be delayed due to the holidays and is scheduled for:

Monday Jan 11th 3pm eastern, 2pm central, 1pm mountain, 12pm pacific

The RWG Co-chairs are: Priscilla Hung (Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training), Genaro Lopez Rendón (Southwest Workers Union) and Michael Leon Guerrero (Grassroots Global Justice). Michael is the OC representative. We have not yet selected an alternate.