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USSF 2010 Evaluation Next Steps

Next Steps:

The C-Team (sylvia, steph, adrienne, michael, alicia, diana, will, marian, b) will meet to finalize the transition phase bodies in the next two weeks.

Wrap up task assignments:

  • Office: Rent, phones, merchandise -- Tammy, Diana, Cindy (t-shirts thru GGJ), Walda
  • Relationship with Detroit -- Derek, Corina, George
  • Anchors: inventory of resources lost that need to be restored -- Diana, Tammy
  • Support Will on future of DLOC -- Allen
  • Support the PMA process in Detroit to make sure collaborations that have started continue. -- B/Chicago (creating CLOC for future social forum processes?), Ahmina, Allen
  • Jackie will take newspapers and distribute to groups who want them.
  • Way to thank and recognize volunteers and people who were part of this: momento of gratitude -- Alicia, Corina, Cindy
  • How to hold grief and fear as we transition out into the next phase; address unhealthy patterns or processes. -- Sara/IJAN/USPCN, George
  • JCRC and security: IJAN/USPCN are willing to have conversations
  • Library -- Michael
  • Indigenous participation in DLOC and NPC -- Heather has a proposal


Closing the Meeting on a note of Appreciation

   - talk good shit about someone!  Sylvia doesn't forget a thing, remembers everything, she's in the back room, on the golf cart, doing things all the time.  There is a difference between facilitation and coordination.

FULL NOTES

USSF 2010 Evaluation Meeting Day 3

(catch up on what's been moving at: http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/National_Planning_Committee under Face to Face notes)

[if you aren't in Detroit, check in in the chat area and weigh in, we'll work to make sure it's brought in as much as we can]

Political Moment: Backlash (30 min) Purpose of the USSF (1 hr)*** (see below for those already mentioned) *** Synthesis Proposal for moving forward (form, timeline, who, and more!) (1 hr) Wrap-Up Task Assignments (30 min) Closing ( :) )

Notes:

for purpose conversation

USSF Purpose · Create a space for social movement convergence · Manifest the better world we are seeking to build · Create alignment for a national united front · Provide a transformative experience for young and new organizers to deepen their practice and exposure to social movement · Consolidate sector, create alignment, advance agenda

October 10, 2010 Political Conversation on the moment: Backlash

How do we protect ourselves from the right-wing repression What do we do next?

  • What happens to the NPC
  • What are the wrap up steps for USSF2010

Group that met/worked last night: Cindy, Marian, Walda, Sylvia, Alicia, Sara, Will, Jackie, George, Steph, B...

T-shirts and posters 2500 shirts left. Shirts are $5. Organizations will pay their own shipping. SWU taking 25.

Backlash - Prep, Response, Recovery Sara Kershnar

   * WCAR story (World Conference Against Racism)
   * First happened in Durban, South Africa. Was a process to raise Palestinian issues and reparations for Africa. Accusation by U.S. and Israel that call for Palestinian liberation meant that the WCAR was anti-semitic. 
   * There are ways that the opposition uses places that we are not organized to organize against us.
   * Between first WCAR and last one in Geneva. Same forces organized and lobbied different European countries to not participate in the WCAR. Were able to organize states and large human rights groups not to participate. Would then claim that Palestine is divisive. Then tried to connect struggle in Rwanda and Darfur to their own struggle. Put Rwanda, Israel and Darfur on a separate track.

Specific Backlash

   * Also told organizations that if they agree with Palestinian position they would talk to funders and dissuade them from participating in the process. 
   * Organization that registered workshop did so based on an 8 month planning process. Planned how to attack Palestine support in the USSF. They all knew that Stand With Us would register a workshop. They planned to make an issue of the workshop being cancelled.
   * Organization in Detroit was approached by Jewish Community Relations Council - target people of color organizations about taking a stand about Palestine. Came close to dismantling organizations in the Bay Area. Has been engaging with a group in Detroit. It's the beginnings of dividing and isolating us. 
   * Foundations that support our organizations will be approached. 
   * Groups in the south were denied funding to go to the USSF - accusing the USSF of being anti-semitic. This was before the forum and workshop controversy.
   * People are showing up on lists questioning their relationships with terrorist organizations. Groups like Anti-Defamation League and others work with the government on tracking terrorists. There is a list of over one-thousand organizations being tracked.
   * About 40 workshops on Palestine at USSF.
   * Last week found out that Jobs with Justice is being monitored by Institute of Terrorism Research and Response. Based on week of action for Jobs Campaign. Very explicit in terms of the way the information is getting out. Center for Constitutional Rights trying to connect people to organize a legal fight back. 
   * Not just Palestinian rights organizations. U.S. and Israel share a very tight agenda. It's groups that disagree with that agenda that are being targeted.
   * Ways to reduce our vulnerabilities:
   * Track - should be bold and public - counter campaign.
   * Shared purpose and goals - enough unity on our political goals. Need to know when we're being infiltrated and divided.
   * Shared understanding of what we're up against. 
   * Institute and develop practices that reduce our susceptibility - There is a lot of resentment that builds up and that makes us incredibly susceptible. Includes demcratic decision-making
   * Build a team for political and collective security - develops protocol. Interview sectors on their needs. What do youth need to be here, for example? 
   * Work with tech on Internet security - need face-to-face with tech, lawyers, CCR and others who can talk about security.
   * Should also talk about what to do when we are in the thick of it - like the raids. 
   * Woman running for governor says that there are closet terrorists in Detroit. Need to get deeper into this discussion. 

PURPOSE (political conversation): (George and B.)

   * How do we capture the imagination of people that were at the USSF. Group that met last night worked to capture all of the feedback from the last few days and develop a synthesis
   * Are there multiple purposes or one large purpose?
   * B.s outreach pitch: Forum is your opportunity to consolidate as a sector, create alignment and advance agendas (5 
   * The social forum is place to create a space for social movement convergence - Stephanie
   * Manifest the better world that we are trying to build - Rosalinda
   * Opportunity to create alignment for a united front or platform - Cindy and Tammy
   * Provides transformative experience for young or newer organizers to deepen their practice with social movements - Ahmina
   * Consolidate sector, create alignment, advance agendas
   * Measurement tool for social change - Rosalinda
   * Grew our practice of building the movement - deepen our political clarity - understanding the moment, alternatives, developing tactics and strategy. 
   * When groups who didn't know each other were able to connect, able to build, and change the culture
   * About movement convergence, building to scale, and ground up. those are all points we would support...but then its - towards what? the ability to build mass struggles on the ground - towards what? i call it building the left, that's an objective left, not everyone would identify with that. will said - build liberated zones. what's being named is strategy and tactics towards the world we want to create. we're trying to build - but we don't have political clarity. what are people trying to transform. that aligns us - what are we trying to build for. we havent done that.
   * in being clear about the purpose...no matter what we do we'll be having political battles about how we interpret the vision (bottled water, gendered bathrooms, the heavy political decisions to do that). the question is - is it our role as an NPC to pursue that clarity? or to just create a space. i think this is an amazing body that is incredibly representative of the left. i don't think that we can shape the content of the ussf - it will be less transformative for the movements coming together. 


Point of clarification: there's some teasing out, some addressing. what we're not hearing is - is there divergent points? is there alignment?

Point of clarification: we heard from folks - we want to talk about the purpose, the function, of the ussf. folks stepped up and named some things. we want to capture the spectrum of people's positions. we're not trying to control the content of the forum, we're not trying to pick one purpose. everyone is coming in the room with different purposes, but we haven't named that. we need to know the range. we are asking you to lift it up.

- my purpose of this forum is [missed it] - there's key community laders who aren't here right now. purpose is building stronger communities. - to show that we do have a movement - 18000 people is not us making it up. Important for us to show that we still exist.

amb - we need to name the fear that exists here, that at some point we diverge, that we become enemies. we must transform the culture we're in to one of sustainability and self-determination. that means us personally transforming, holding our organizations and communities as a space for new practice, this process is a way to transform local/national/cross sector/cross community. Evolve the relationship between local and national bodies. How can we transform the whole dynamic so that we aren't trying to just organize each person to our point of view, but evolving ourselves so that we can all be on the same side?

- cindy: When we're articulating conversations it's about knowing where we all stand on particular issues. When we talk about grassroots - it does mean poor people, people on welfare...Need political conversations so we know where people are coming from. There are many needs in the movement - we need to be clear about what we are trying to fulfill. We can't do it all. What is it that we can do well? There is need for national coordination, political statement on everything. Not the role of the NPC to come out with political statements. Protagonist of the movement - make sure that people in struggle have the national stage. We haven't reached out enough. 18,000 people is good, but doesn't reach all the sectors that we need to. We do need national coordination, want to talk about how to build a party, but that is not the NPC.

USSF is the space for transforming, network, converging. i believe we need national coordination, i believe we need to build it.

Point of clarity: i'm hearing that we can be all these things, but towards what. what jamie, cindy are saying is can we be this political space? are we filling a space or providing a space. if we're providing a space, how do we still hold some political clarity.

steph - what do you mean protagonists?

cindy: i mean there are folks taking on the radical lines, moving pieces of work.

jackie: i want to propose that those purposes that B listed - that those 4 are segments of a piece for unity - but the question is how much unity do we need. sara's presentation showed why unity is needed, and it needs to be robust. what do we need in order to move forward? this shouldn't be a way to say how are we different from each other, but rather how can we align against them. thinking of that opposition can give us clarity on what unites us.

michael: i agre with the points adrienne was making about the culture, need to move away from competition to cooperation so we can build a bigger movement. this allows us to see all the different facets of the movement and align all of those. there's a lot of political difference. the forum was established with one principle - neoliberal capitalism - that's a broad tent. that is important because it's a strategic unity - it's a recognition that we're not enough. right now, we're not winning, we're losing in the grand scheme. we need more political strength to win, to advance and fight over these details later. the npc doesn't do that, it creates the space for folks to come to do that. shaping that SPACE is very important, to ensure that moves it. - i really like cindy's piece about what is needed - and moving not just the purpose in general, but what do we need now. we have 5 goals, so what do we need now. sometimes when folks talk about a better world they talk about inanimate objects - food, water. but how close are we to building a better space? we don't know how to do these things. we see how close we are to building it. spectrum is not enough, because it doesn't help us move forward, that have different implications. everybody wants more clarity, if some of these are a main purpose, we'll have this kind of forum or that. - emily: all of these EXCEPT united front are a no brainer of what the forum is. around creating a united front it is a big question and at some point we need to address this. We agreed that we will have the political discussions. 3 dimensions for framing the discussion: 1) Who? Who do you work with? Constituency? 2) What? What is your vision? May stop at more of a reformist agenda, capitalism can be humanized...3) How? Strategy - how do you think about social movement? - Ahmina - Has the purpose of the NPC been stated? Social forum is to provide a space for convergence and the role of the NPC is to fulfill that purpose. Do not feel that the purpose is to set political agendas. Create convergence and have political conversations. Relative to "setting political agendas", are we going to change our purpose? We talk in circles - we need to know. jerome: There is an obejctive process going on. A movement building. We can almost do whatever we want to do and the process will still happen - history has a flow. How do we move as much of that objective process from spontenaiety to consciousness. Conscisouness is direction of the process. The direction is not pre-determined - want it to go in progressive, positive, revolutionary direction. What do we need to make sure it happens - dvelopment of a huge body of leaders with clarity on what needs to happen. Need to figure out forms that we have and where are we in the process of transforming spontenaity to consciousness. Have to take every situation to move people from being interested to a campaigner to a movement builder. Move them from membership to leadership. Money - trying to figure out how much progressive movement gets - maybe $100 million/year. Koch brothers alone gave that to right wing movements. Part of process of social forum is to get people to understand that they can win. Whether we get foundation money or not will be immaterial. - derek: we got what we got from y'all - we have to be able to work together. i should be able to call someone and find out how to work with them - i need to know how to put out political statements on CNN - adele: understanding out context in the international community. towards what derek is saying - how are we a political body if we can't make statements unless shit goes down and we're being attacked. Louis - most organizations we are a part of are working to build our base. If this process doesn't help us to do this, then it's not worth it. Helping to build capacity of organization should be part of the purpose of the SF. Greater sense of urgency going on around the country. People doing more with less resources. Not too many orgs with more resources now than a few years ago. United front - doesn't mean that we set parameters. We move things along in a deliberate way. Rosalinda - we as a movement are over-processed. Works best is a free flow of information with emotional response. Corporatization of process. Never gonna win if we compete with guns, violence or money. Ceremony - grounding of all of our minds and spirits in a space of reflection.There was a convergence of movements in the central valley of California until there was a shift - same in the south in the Civil Rights Movement before it shifted. Does it make sense for us to converge for a time as a movement. Workers Party did this in Brazil and we can see the results in Porto Alegre.

summary:

   * thanks Cindy for reminding us of our dual sides: political roles in the movement and the NPC roles
   * AMB for reminding us that what we wanted to know is where you are; we are not trying to convince you to be where I am.  we do have a proposal for how to move this work forward.


AMB: a note on facilitation

   * want to come from humility and learn from elders
   * at the same time, we have some things that we are trying to accomplish.  we want to have the orientation that we keep the conversations flowing (how do we get folks committed enough to spend the time it will take for really pulling together)...and also make sure we're responsible enough to be sure to take some of this home and figure out who's doing what.
   * as we head into this synthesis proposal, we request that you listen from a space of how can this work (rather than how does this not work)


==

Synthesis Proposal/Moving Forward

(we brought up to the front of the room the folks who developed this: cindy, marian, will, sylvia, alicia, steph, george, adrienne, ahmina, jackie, jamala, cara)

   * part of the group that brought this proposal forward was the group that was talking about political leadership from yesterday's discussions
   * Transitional Phase: reorganization and communication
   * How do we leave this meeting knowing who is working on what
   * How we are moving forward from here
   * What do we currently have: NPC, OC, C-Team, working groups
   * What we propose: Transition Team (role)
   * Positions and purpose
   * Implications for planning of forum
   * Who is part of this: reach out and assessment of those organizations currently involved (develop a questionaire, who is willing to move forward in this next phase) 
   * Coordinate teams over next six months and potentially shift the structure to match what we need and what we are doing
   * Visioning a new structure for NPC as a whole
   * This body was originally just to check in with the membership. We identified that we also needed a team to coordinate all the teams, that they are flowing into a place where we can come back in 2011 and have had all these conversations to inform our conversation.  To make sure that responsibilites don't default.
   * Teams: 3-4 people each
   * Wrap Up: tie up loose ends, finances, support DLOC in this
   * Synthesis and Evaluation: guideline and report on what happened, recommendations, need a team to put it together (decision-making process on what goes where and to who and how) 
   * Resource Development: pulling from resource mobilization and finance team - budget for next six months (can we get some financial support for transition phase)
   * Strategy: interim steps and political mobilization (i.e. PMA) - don't want to create parallel process with PMA but an integrative process; what strategies do we want to develop to move us forward from now to next Social Forum (others can bring things to this strategy team) 
   * Timeline: Spring 2011 come back together with proposals from these teams in terms of moving forward. 
   * Assuming most working groups are inactive at the moment
   * Key questions/issues not dealt with...yet: 
   * Political and Collective Security?
   * International representation piece (two organizations sit on NPC and have seats on ICC): next WSF in Dakkar
   * Funders' Relationship to USSF (Resource Team)
   * Staffing: where is it at? what do we need? This needs to be revisited. Decision about contracts should have come back here. Do we need a staff person to coordinate all of this? 
   * Data Policy (Synthesis and Evaluation)
   * non-NPC participation on the transition
   * To have or not to have an NPC meeting in the Spring
   * Is Transition Team too big of a task? 
   * CANNOT LEAVE DETROIT WITH A BIG LOAD TO CARRY
   * Modification
   * Separate out membership assessment/analysis
   * Transition Team: Political discussions
   * Priorities: Wrap Up and Synthesis
   * Timing/Next Steps: 
   * Wrap Up and Synthesis
   * Bring structure back to organizations and then have NPC meeting to modify and approval or not
   * Internal organizational discussions part of next steps
   * Staffing: what are the decisions
   * What is the current standing of contract? Who still has a contract and who does not? 
   * Jerome, George and Diana (personnel team) reviewed a proposal from Maureen, Sylvia, Adrienne, Will that went to C-Team and Organizing Committee
   * Coordinators continuing on based on tasks understood prior to meeting: given tasks from this weekend we might have to revise these
   * Four coordinators would stay on: Maureen and Sylvia would work on wrap up til end of October, Adrienne and Will would be on for eval and data review til the end of the year. 
   * Who made the decision? End of June most contracts ended; we (personnel team? NPC in May 2010) agreed to keep four coordinators and bookkeeper til end of August; then meeting and surveys and other tasks it was then proposed by Coordination Team to keep going thru October - this went to C-Team and OC and then back to personnel team??????  The process was not satisfying, and we needed to keep on track of the finances.
   * It defaulted, and it is not fair. We agree on that.  So we need a revision now based on the money we have.  We need to be clear on who makes that decision, and it needs to be comprised of people who understand the tasks we need to complete and the money we have for staff.
   * Recommendations: Victor stay on till end of the year to keep books clean; membership check-ins need to be staffed.


Proposal: Transition Team will look at the budget, revise this structure of moving forward, and figure out who can staff this.

       * people who played roles before need to continue in this structure. For example, outreach should participate in membership analysis.  We need to be sure it's not just a couple of people that are holding this process.
       * Moratorium on bringing in new forces.  But membership should talk with their own groups as well as other forces they are in relationship.
       * Continue NPC calls to continue these conversations so that the people who are in the room can continue to hash this out.
       * Everyone go to their membership and figure out how and whether they'll be continuing to participate in this process.
       * Give ourselves a December 15th deadline for sending out a public summation.
       Support pulling out membership analysis. and the transition team would be in parallel doing that piece. the membership analysis should feed that, so we're not making decisions on what was, not what it should be. 
       * Where does security question go?
       * Clarification: Transition Team is coordinating these sub-committees, but not leading them. They're made up of folks who have been doing that work.
       * When is the question of data policy addressed?
       * Marian  was proposing that we keep the current staff until April. We need to make sure there is money for it.  We need to go back and evaluate where  are these organizations are.  If Jobs with Justice decides not to participate I'll go talk with Bob King.  But the point is that we need staff, and they need to be paid because economic times are hard. 

Revisiting Security Discussion

       * A note on security: we all know about COINTELPRO. The biggest weapon they had was infiltrators.  They had people they knew who were already within the organizations, and turned them into informants or spies.  We are not going to stop people from infiltrating, there will probably be a report on this meeting tonight. So what?  We just need to be aware of it.  What we need to do is require people to DO things.  If they're going to get the information, we need to make them work for it.
       * Another thing that's used is contradictions and divisions that already exist within the body.  The more we hash out those contradictions... How do we sit together with those contradictions and see them as learning?
       * The more transparent we are with statements or what we're doing, the better because we need to be clear because they'll find out anyway.
       * Concern about what to do with Jobs with Justice, how will we make a statement in solidarity with groups who are being attacked?  Channel 4 said we were communists taking over the city!  How do we deal with supporting each other in this context.
       * There could be plenty of observers that aren't even in the room, we're using technology.  But we're also not doing anything wrong and don't have anything to hide. We need to be able to have conflict, and still be able to work with each other.
       * Can there be national communication?  We need to have physical reaction rather than just a political reaction.  They're ready for our calls, emails, faxes.  We need people all over who are looking out and communicating with the security team.
       * Biggest part of security is how to secure the spaces we work in.  Your Struggle Is My Struggle.  We've accepted each other's struggles as our own, which means that if one org is attacked we are all attacked.  There are some funders, particularly from Catholic Church, that are going to the groups they fund and asking clarification for participating in USSF because there's reproductive justice, gay rights, etc.  That's a problem and we need to support each other against those threats.  We need to continue the promotion of ethics in movement building.
       * We need to do a political summation of what happens, because it raised tactical differences.  There are folks in this room who have been politically sneered because of the position we took.  Many of us are being told that we're betraying the Palestinian movement.  What does it mean when we had a tactical difference?  It wasn't a difference in political position, but the implications are being felt by some of the leadership.

PROPOSAL: Create a security team together that will respond to these questions. No opposition.


WHO?

   We are taking a break for people to nominate folks for taking the lead in these teams, and to sign ourselves up to participate in these teams:
       * Transition Team:
           Nominated Lead: Steph
           Interested in Participation: Alicia POWER, Walda LRNA, Jerome LRNA, Rosalinda,  Tom IEN, Sara K IJAN, Tara, Will DLOC, Adrienne
       * Synthesis/Evaluation: 
           Nominated Lead: George (2 votes), Maureen, Will, Louis
           Participation: Mezna, Steph, Jacqui Patterson, Jackie Smith, Tdka
       * Wrap-Up
           Nominated Lead: Sylvia
           Participation: Terry, Derek PI SATS, Maureen, Ahmina EMEAC, Alan Haber (megiddo@umich.edu)
       
       * Resource Development
           Nominated Lead: Sylvia, Sha, Michael
           Participation: Jacqui P, Monica B (Sisters of the Road), Genaro, Michael, Sha, B, Walda, Nisa J, Charity H, Tara PPEHRC
       * Strategy
           Nominated Lead: Steph
           Participation: Steph, Mezna, Cindy Domingo/Rosalinda Guillen, Alfredo Lopez, Heather IP working group, Diana EMEAC, Jerome Scott, Walda Katz-Fishman, Odile Hugonot Haber WILPF (odilehh@gmail.com), Flo Razowsky IJAN, Emily Kawano SEN, Jen Cox PPEHRC, Alicia POWER, Tammy LCSC, Marian Kramer, Oya, Sarita, Eddie
       * Membership Analysis:
           Nominated Lead: Will Copeland
           Participation: Alicia POWER, Alan Haber, Flo Razowsky IJAN (after 11/12/10), Corina McCarthy-Fadel YOUTH, Tara Colon PPEHRC, Adrienne RUCKUS
       * Political Security Team
           Nominated Lead: Sara K IJAN, David Marques, B Loewe (2 votes), Kali Akuno
           Participation: Mezna USPCN, Terry FM, Jamie, Adele, Oya, Ife Kilimanjaro
           

Consensus: C-Team will take these teams and come up with a synthesis that we'll come back to in two weeks.


Wrap-Up

   We wrapped up stuff at Cobo Hall.  But we didn't have close-up for Detroit.  Locally, the anchors have kept up their meetings and conversations, noting that there were a lot of folsk who were wiped out and needed some time to get back to families, relationships, healing.
   1. There are some logistical things that need to be wrapped up.  Office, rent, merchandise left over, USSF phone calls still coming in.
   2. Goal was to strengthen local capacity.  Are we really done in Detroit?  Are we truly wrapping up? What does this look like? Do we close the 800 line? Close the office space?  We need the anchors to let us know they still are holding here.  What still needs closure? 
   3. Are we DONE and moving into another phase, are we moving on from Detroit?  Did we live up to the goals we had?  Are there promises we haven't fulfilled?  Are there some things we can come through on?  There were fundraising efforts that were successful, and some that frankly didn't work.
   4. What will we do with the reports?  There's a lot of good stuff, but also a lot of damage in there.  What do we do with that?

Feedback from NPC about what needs to be wrapped up:

       * Anchors have not conclusively arrived at these comments, but MWRO is wounded.  There is some physical stuff that was broken.  We were excited so we didn't mind.  Paper, cardboard and crayons all are gone.  Video machine for security, that was broken.  Things taken out of this office, carts for Cobo, they disappeared.  Our capacity & ability to continue relies on replacing it.  Phones have been turned off 3 times since USSF.  We have kept up with our ongoing work in the midst of all this.  
       * Amnesty International asked MWRO to be an anchor for their 50th anniversary, and that invitation came from our work with the USSF.  We're starting a series of conversations with them.  We've made connections as a result of the social forum. 
       * Around anti-zionism and Palestinian struggle.  Talking with coalitions, keep talking and getting closer together.  We need to keep talking about connecting and converging our struggles.  It can't be that it's over.  Of course we take a vacation but we need to keep talking.
       * My feelings were hurt with this set up -- nobody talked with us about how we were going to use this church this weekend.  We didn't arrange for activities with the church.
       * Shit happens if we don't talk to each other -- Default.
       * I miss you when you don't keep me up with what's happening in your hood.
       * We fell in love with the process, we want to be involved.
       * Adrienne takes responsibility for not having checked in with MWRO, got caught up in facilitation tasks.
       * Do anchors want to keep having us keep coming back?

Relationship with Detroit:

       * Will: Convergence vs Conference... DLOC has actually stopped, for all intensive purposes.  We have a variety of activists in the room from here and other places, and I'd like some feedback about how to structure or continue DLOC, where do we go?  Hasn't helped theorize or facilitate what's happening locally, this is an opportunity.
       * Adele: When the USSF ended, I held stress & guilt in my body, and I broke down, needed to step away from Detroit and the people I was organizing with to figure out what self-care meant.  I assumed that a lot of other people organizing felt that way and needed to step back.  That was what my distance came from.
       * Derek: I got dehydrated and had to go to the emergency room, so I'm sorry but I left on a stretcher.  The USSF hasn't exited this community.  Let's have a party with this community.  There are some people I met who I don't want to say goodbye to.  Let's exit this community a little better.
       * Corina: I actually didn't think we cared about each other around this table.  What Maureen said to me really hit me as deep.  A lot of real things happen in our lives every day, and we should take that into account, care about each other and make that real in the work we're doing so that we care about the work even more.
       * Diana: What happened in Detroit around USSF is even deeper. There are a lot of collaborations, food justice, people's water board, incinerator action and environnmental justice movement.  There are some infrastructure pieces that peopel have started that are very specific and have changed the way we think about organizing in the city.  We need to continue to hear that and support. 


Wrap-Up Tasks

  • Office: Rent, phones, merchandise -- Tammy, Diana, Cindy (t-shirts thru GGJ), Walda
  • Relationship with Detroit -- Derek, Corina, George
  • Anchors: inventory of resources lost that need to be restored -- Diana, Tammy
  • Support Will on future of DLOC -- Allen
  • Support the PMA process in Detroit to make sure collaborations that have started continue. -- B/Chicago (creating CLOC for future social forum processes?), Ahmina, Allen
  • Jackie will take newspapers and distribute to groups who want them.
  • Way to thank and recognize volunteers and people who were part of this: momento of gratitude -- Alicia, Corina, Cindy
  • How to hold grief and fear as we transition out into the next phase; address unhealthy patterns or processes. -- Sara/IJAN/USPCN, George
  • JCRC and security: IJAN/USPCN are willing to have conversations
  • Library -- Michael
  • Indigenous participation in DLOC and NPC -- Heather has a proposal


Closing the Meeting on a note of Appreciation

   - talk good shit about someone!  For example: Sylvia doesn't forget a thing, remembers everything, she's in the back room, on the golf cart, doing things all the time.  There is a difference between facilitation and coordination.