Program design team

Program Design Call, March 1, 2010:

to do:

maureen/tapeka: take question about tuesday food to logistics meeting

louis/amb: figure out where to discuss intl paticipation proposal

steph: work to invite tapeka to the next youth working group call to make sure there is real clarity on what the youth WG wants in terms of the space

oya: connect tapeka with local detroit youth.

tapeka: connect oya with angie from children's social forum

steph/walda/kiran: clarify with ICT about the PMA form

nora: will reach out to groups around alternatives to police for security issues

steph/maureen: make sure security history is shared at logistics

maureen/tapeka/nora: work together to identify a volunteer for heading up security

amb: include closing day as part of the OC conversation

amb: follow up on workshop agenda

=

on call:

Adrienne (plenaries, healing, nat'l coord)

Rose (gender justice)

Oya (culture)

Walda (program)

Jerome (program)

Louis (international)

Maureen (logistics)

Nora (gender justice)

Steph (PMA, work projects)

Tapeka (logistics)

1. Check-in on different pieces 2. Review Schedule at a glance 3. Deadlines

Tuesday programming, Opening March, Opening Ceremony:

- we have petitioned the city of detroit, clerk is walking it through. asked for tuesday june 22, march starting at 5pm, taking rush hour. from corner of woodward and warren towards cobo hall arena where we will take the marchers. woodward is the main drag in detroit. side streets - we'll stage: first nations first, then people in wheelchairs. we'll stagger the side streets bringing folks out and heading them south. each block we will collapse folks in. only works if there's between 5-7K marchers. if more than that come we'll have to do something else.

- then getting a space to arrive to - we secured that. we are good with up to 14,000 people in the space.

- volunteers will 'collect' folks as they come in and lead them to where they will be sitting, until we've seated everybody. volunteers will also be able to answer ongoing questions.

- expectation is this will take 2-3 hours

CEREMONY:

- once inside: mayor to welcome us to the city, president of city council to welcome us, then they leave. THEN first nations will open the program with the spiritual welcoming.

- someone from local, then NPC, then international speaker

- hotel/logistics info

- then culture will begin performances.

questions/comments?

- rose: thinking of americas social forum. inside the cultural piece was still going on. was folded into the openings - was interspersed cultural programming. [mt - that's fine]

- oya: what about technical support? [mt - that's taken care of]

- jerome: shouldn't first nations go first before the politicians? [mt: thought on that was to keep the politicians short - no speech, and then they go. everything else - there would be no further breaks; amb: what about having indigenous ceremony on woodward before the march starts, say at 4pm]

- tapeka: what are we gonna do about food? [mt: we'll organize the marchers around 3, will take till 7 for folks to enter cobo hall, won't be finished till 8/8:30 or later. should consider if we'll have vendors, or go to the village, etc. TN: what about vendors along the march route? MT: let's flesh that out at next logistics meeting]

- amb: will spaces be available during the day tuesday for meetings/gatherings? [mt: yes. we're going to set up some tours tuesday, some local workshops. we want to write that up and get support from oc/npc on that. there's enthusiasm to have stuff before 2pm on tuesday. WKF: let's return to this on a future program design call. consider how long it will take ppl to get registered. also be clear on the website about the times.]

Registration On-site:

- mallory and alfredo were there over the weekend, its all planned.

Detroit Expanded (oya):

- so far have sites set up in el paso, honduras, venezuela, possibly cuba. gonna make a call to folks to set up hubs in their spaces. want to have clearer guidelines for folks before we do that in terms of tech needs. working on getting donations of flip cameras for a dollar, which afterwards can go to local organizations.

- on other side is cobo hall side - being part of the plenaries, workshops and pmas...

Work projects (Steph)

- there will be projects throughout the 5 days organized by local orgs. 1 or 2 before hand. sounds solid. plans being laid for how folks will be transported to those different places.

plenaries (adrienne)

- next call march 22, 2010 at 1pm

international participation (louis)

- making progress on a number of fronts.

- working to bring about 8 cubans, may get all of them, may get half.

- with venezuelans, thanks to walda and others who have helped out with process, set up a better line of communication. they operate in a fairly decentralized way. they are feeling us on what we're about, how its structured. they are looking more on getting someone from social movements

- lots of work in terms of palestinian and other arab reps from within country and abroad. like cuba, can be hard to bring because of restrictions.

- waiting to hear back from GGJ meeting

- wanting to figure out best place to have a conversation about the character of the 3rd day relating movements in the u.s. and abroad, and insertion of international participants into other spaces. want to think in terms of integration throughout each day.

- let's bring a proposal to NPC for March 17 call

- also think about all the NPC groups who do intl work as well

- also alessandra with the world march for women

- reminder: we have a survey online about international participation. louis will send out a reminder/link. people have to think about that now so we can go thru visa process.

children's social forum, Youth space:

- the CSF organizer is angie smith. not sure how far along she's gotten with atlanta outreach. has ideas/people here already organizing activities. next piece is securing the CSF space in cobo. MT has to connect angie and oya, and threat management will be outside. 40% along. 2-4 school teachers joining that committee. this is for 5-12

- Youth Space: don't have a good feeling about this yet. so far the folks who have stepped up have then left. have some new blood interested in organizing this task. question is can we have a youth space outside? others who want to be in hotels. mallory and alfredo had some thoughts about youth space available in same space with media. looking at ambassador room in cobo hall - holds 900 people. media space looks like it will be an open space for everyone, no one special. then idea was that youth who are interested in media production can be in there.

- amb: have y'all interfaced with folks at the national level? [tapeka: have interfaced with corina - they want space in hart plaza, the village and in cobo. steph: the youth space is different from the youth camp. MT: space at hart plaza, space to sleep are the concerns. Steph: most of the young people are coming with larger delegations.]

- rose: what about child care? going to partner with some local daycares. 4 and under for daycare.

- oya: at hart plaza the culture WG is committed to having a children's and youth space.

media:

- louis: worked with folks last time and it wasn't a problem in terms of where they worked. folks can work with whatever they got.

- MT: have gotten folks already who have been here before, and want to come 2 weeks before the forum and follow somebody. also tavis smiley and his team is going to follow the delta caravan. but we will offer an open space for media, and just let folks know that's what WE have and they can plan something else.

people's movement assemblies [wednesday-saturday]

- there's so many types of PMAs folks want to hold - some self-organized and some thru the program. having stuff go thru the PMA working group will help synthesize and uplift proposals.

- i am telling folks who have 4+ orgs to register as a 4 hour block through the workshop process but CALL it assembly so we can track it.

- walda: folks are told that as a registered group they can do one 2 hr workshop. the four hr requires 2 leads. so they couldn't do more than the assembly right now. so...we can use the same form or tweak it but want to call it a PMA. if its called a workshop, then it will interfere with folks being able to schedule their own workshop. they will follow up with ict to make it easy to do this.

- also having the 10-12 be both workshop and caucus space for some of the overflow.

public/open spaces:

- there's space available at all the hotels for open space.

- also setting up a space at the village.

- the pair up call between logistics and program will help to flesh this out!

- could some of that open space be thought of as space for convergence.

healing practice space (amb):

- will be fleshing it out in terms of what we want/need indoor and outdoor. this will be combined work of local and national

internal/external security (maureen):

- talked about homeland security issues

- talked abotu wristbands that are harder to lose - can shower with them, etc. police said if a person has a lanyard/wristband on, they are with the ussf and unless they are actively engaged in a crime then they don't care.

- also threat management - anglo/afro-american and latinos. good folks, no guns, who are being secured. need to figure out who/how that's paid for.

- internal stuff, thinking about within cobo, a purse stolen or a conflict. will need to train up some folks for that part.

- nora: the gender justice group had discussed that in the instance of interpersonal violence within the forum, there's folks who are doing work on alternative responses that don't involve the police. wanted to do some work around that beforehand so there's a clear way to address it. are willing to pull folks together for this.

- MT: our position is, we don't want the police around here. they asked - what if the klan comes to town? police said they would stop them and protect. we posited doing an action on incinerator with 5000, they said that's too many. 2000 was ok.

- walda: internal is what if folks work to disrupt the space. our volunteer core needs to be clear on this and have a statement in the program.

- maureen: have two groups...breasts not bombs, and a legalize marijuana group who want to be on canopies.

- jerome: we need to look for someone pretty quickly to center this conversation, a point person.

closing ceremony:

- still working to get a few workshops for working detroiters who weren't able to be at the rest of the forum.

- we have no idea what a closing ceremony/march should look like

- need to have a sense of what the final PMA looks like, with the culture group and logistics.

- also folks need to know in terms of time for travel

Workshop Schedule

- cultural expressions and film festival 10am-10pm

- open space 8-930am

- children and youth space under ongoing programs

- fundraisers 8-11pm

- check with access folks to see if any other stuff needs to be added

- work to get translated

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Tapeka, Walda, Oya, Rose, Jerome set the: Program + Culture + Logistics date

- Friday 5pm EST

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Program Design conference call Sat, 2/13/10

To Do:

On call: Adrienne, walda {program and culture}, mallory {ICT}, stephanie {people's movement assemblies}, dan {PMA}, fred {PMA}, jerome {program and culture}, oya {culture, DLOC}, rose {gender justice working group}, louis {international}, will {DLOC, healing}, sylvia {nat'l coordinator}, maureen, leslie {program & culture}

The goals of this call are: - To understand all the work the Program Design Team is responsible for [what all is entailed in crafting the 5 days - self-organized workshops, work brigades, culture, plenaries, DEX, dloc programming, and more!] - To understand the current state of Program Design - which pieces are set, and which pieces are still being determined? - To understand who all needs to be a part of that work, and whether they are on the call yet. - To understand how often we need to meet to have clarity and unity in our Program!

overall mesh with logistics - [logistics working group - oya]

opening ceremony/march - [oya and tapeka have discussed - having it in cobo hall with a large hall and overflow space; in logistics have had program convos included culture and political focus on detroit; also come discussion in anchor mtng about whether to kick off in afternoon or later like 3:30-4 and going into evening]

with march 5pm going down Woodward...tapeka is working on getting the permits to start a west grand blvd. we should also check in with indigenous community on what they envision for this.

Who is ultimately responsible? What 2 or 3 people are holding it?

It seems like the logistics staff (Maureen and Tapeka) are holding it. They with DLOC. are identifying team leaders to handle different aspects of the work locally. The next step is to connecting folk nationally to join the teams. The link reflects the 20+ teams that we are working on. The logistic calls will tackle the list one at a time. That is part of the ongoing work. See the wiki working group reports. Before the next time we talk if someone will step up to meeting with Maureen and Tapeka. Oya will meet with Maureen and Tapeka and to follow through on the opening march and ceremony.

So to answer the question of Will there be an opening march? --> Yes, there will be an opening march.

questions moving forward: what will people do once they are directed to cobo after the march (14000 seat arena)?

self-organized workshops - [Program Working Group - walda + kiran]

work projects [done during the forum in conjunction with the community] ***these are different from work brigades [done leading up to the forum]...there's a committee in Detroit to work on this, having a national call on brigades/projects at the end of the month. diana is the contact {will can also relay info} [see additional notes below] NEED- transportation system and communication with individuals and organizations that register for USSF

culture - Oya. events at hart plaza, sharing space with vendors. 2 stages with programming. cultural submission forms will go up soon. also a (visual) art gallery downstairs cobo hall, murals and graffiti art, upstairs we hope to have a children's art village. also working with DEX.

plenaries - Adrienne. sending out a proposal on monday for NPC to consider on wednesday.

Detroit Expanded - DEX - mallory. so far its on workshop submission forms, there are ppl interested in the idea, folks are checking it. also a proposal placed in other detroit based grants. going forward just need to work closely with p+C so that we book rooms correctly, and a group of volunteers who can support and have rooms close to media center to help organize that. in brazil a lot of ppl expressed interest but it didnt come thru, but workshop ideas will evolve based on what we can offer.

additional local detroit programming - oya. boggs center and hush house is talking about doing projects out in detroit - folks will go and stay there and work before and during the forum, and doing community projects. there are ideas out there by individual organizations, but we havent had that discussion yet. including activities outside the main social forum activities. {mallory - some of the stuff that's unofficial is the most exciting}

actions - coordinating the local and nationally planned direct actions over the course of the forum. Adrienne is interested...

some other questions and thoughts that are coming up...

what's happening after work hours, on saturday - for people in detroit?

list is looking a lot like logistics list, so how will it line up with the logistics work? with OC meeting coming up...

the next logistics nat'l call sun, 2/14 at 5pm est. topics: hotes and solidarity housing (http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/OC_working_group_reports_2-8-10)

need to recruit more logistics folks

Work projects (Will)

- We are having a national phone call at the end of the month. - What is the reason for separating the work projects from the work brigades? --> They were separated to create optimum participation. Work Brigades will happen before the social forum. We are still examining our capacity to faciliate the brigades. Brigades are leading up to, projects are during with local groups. - thinking right now is to focus the work brigades on the 3 middle days of the forum. are working on figuring out transportation.

dloc programming aspect: haven't had collaborative convo yet esp outside of main SF territory

maureen: wants to get out front and have communicative convo on what we're all trying to do. some are having independent convo and decisions on what they're planning to do.

should be understood that some of the "anti-" actions and convos that people want to have are sometimes not what Detroit needs. Need to have a national conversation about this

international participation

we need to be clear on our perspective--where is the room for the convos? don't need experts telling us or saving us, but the focus is on working together. Get educational and practical info to share. how make USSF more global-centric with counterparts around the world?

what's character of Day 3? as we focus on int'l, the int'l is also us: empire. how integrate int'l participants into detroit beyond SF? how integrate into PMA process? we've got good relations with venezuelans--they have interest in having ambassador on a plenary (ran alba bank but comes from a gov't position). solidarity groups can help but some connections not necessarily thru them.

plenaries are specific and there is a plenary team for that, needs to go to npc as a political expression and will of npc. already got a non-npc, non-dloc proposal for a plenary.

have online form that captures info for those willing to work with int'l organizations goal: to get more int'l participation especially in workshop planning and submission

side note: we're building FAQs page on wiki to put on website: http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/FAQs_for_website

children's social forum

Angi Smith has stepped up to take responsibility, planning is at preliminary stage. They are communicating with 2007 CSF and making plans. Request support to mention CSF online so that people know that CSF is happening. Maureen will put Mallory (ICT) in touch with CSF co-chairs. There is a link that mentions CSF on the web (logistical considerations TBA). Need to check to see if it needs more visibility

people's movement assemblies [wednesday-saturday]

1:30-5:30 Wed through Friday block for PMA How to announce different assemblies taking place People can bring declarations from their communities PMA is a part of the process from opening Wednesday Day 1. Listening to Detroit (economic crisis) Thursday Day 2. Discussion Friday Day 3. Resolutions SaturdayDay 4. Actions (calls to action-- gulf coast) beyond the forum and (maybe) during the forum Conversation TBA about integrating with plenaries Groups of 4 or more organizations encouraged to bring in resolutions; Detroit has not had full conversation about what actions we would like to see at USSF, thsee conversations will be planned before hand; Detroit PMA March 13 will be a space "what actions do we want to see happen and what are we going to do to help make that happen" Program and Culture working group has a huge question for PMA process - will there be a form and is PMA developing that? --> through conversations, PMA had looked at forms and thought we were on them. it was on a call for them but there was no submission form. tweaking the submission form would be easiest for tech and translation. submission process might be harder to coordinate given thatthe assembly process is new, so we're ok to be contact folks. where this will get tricky is on printed program. there were some strong examples in atl which weren't as publicized after - queer left forum is great example. this goes with web presence - should do something that says PMA contact. there's a web page with the PMA and organizing kit [mallory and steph worked on] just need it more highlighted. currently people are contacting walda.

canopies [was tents]: the word tent is no longer in our vocabulary, a tent needs certain kinds of permits. but a canopy - nobody cares. we have canopies and by monday/tuesday will have a list of the different options, the capacity [chairs and tables]. right now found abotu $4000 for 5 days of canopies = abotu 150 canopies. we're negotiating with the canopy companies. Canopies will have sides that can be lifted or lowered.

organizations must secure canopies with their own monies, USSF will secure generators Gender Justice 2007 "red tent" Do you have to go thru Program process to have a workshop anywhere, e.g. canopy, elsewhere? No, only if you're registering thru Program to be listed in the program. You do whatever you want in your canopy. How do people register for a canopy? Last time was rushed a no criteria other than you had to run it and pay for it. Anchors will discuss this Tues.

public (open) spaces

we have more than 271 meeting rooms, Monday or Tuesday we'll be around 300; space for Self-organized activities-- 14/15 spaces at hotels and churches (will be 20 by Monday) 40-50 people up to 200; Outdoor spaces- TBA; no programming 8-9:30, people could possibly use meeting rooms during this time; Need to be signed up for

Workshop Schedule

10-12 1-3 3:30-5:30

healing space

medical group can help with injuries, seizures, etc. there are some asking to participate who have "interesting" ways to offer healing. trying to sort out who's leading and who's participating: 1) medical emergency care 2) healing space -- still being determined- desire to have "Red Tent" as part of healing space 3) water 4) comfort station -- where people can rest, mothers can nurse; still being sorted out...all at a very early stage.

In US we have 33 graduates of Havana medical school, many in Haiti now. Anyone willing to ask if they can serve in Detroit? They could serve and talk about their experience.

Red canopy was inside Health & Healing tent in ATL.

tours

there will be tours: labor, environmental--maureen says waiting for anchors to make formal request to oc and npc. idea that tours will begin tuesday before opening march. If opening march not starting until evening, we will need to talk about programming Anchors working on proposal for Tuesday programming

closing ceremony

we have access to Cobo Arena for opening and closing events (14000 seats).

What will be occuring on Saturday? How does USSF relate to working local people (evenings and weekend) ? Could there be a workshop bloc on Saturday? People who work in Detroit during the weekdays asking what will be avail for them on Sat to participate? workshops? PMA could have interactive workshops, assemblies, caucuses

Use assembly and call to action as the closing ceremony for actions that weekend or later?

also integrating culture into both. including cultural activities in evenings during week? yes and during plenaries.

opening could be where we see who's from where--sit with your region and groups. perhaps also show people what they brought or are offering to detroit. closing: what will we do together because we came together.

perhaps 10-12am on saturday more workshops (esp for detroitters) and visions, ideas, resolutions, if couldn't participate on other days); plus time for people to caucus for pma discussions.

Youth space

maureen: fear of kids falling in river so activities will be set up away from water. waynce co communiity college is a few blks away from cobo--have large asphalt parking lots, one large enough for canopy to hold 150 people, plus electricity, tables, chairs. they can use college bathrooms (no showers) til 8:30 nightly. how put youth in hotels who don't want to sleep outside. they can also sleep at central united methodist church where ussf office is. we don't know what youth wg is preparing on content.

youth wg is figuring out how to get to detroit--having calls every othr week with up to 60 youth organizers.--steph will share info with them. local veterans foundation willing to loan cots. youth will need shower areas. forums have had showers and camping in the past

More FYI:

couchsurfing network is reaching detroit, seems to be alive and well. have made good arrangements with hotels, all the info on the website will not cover all that's actually available because poor and low-income folks won't know till late when/if they can come. so know that approx 100 rooms will be set aside for that.

how does this group continue on? these are important convos. program has been trying to meet with logistics. continue to meet separately and together.

this should be ongoing...how do we make sure we integrate all the diff parts together so goals of SF are met?

canopy, performance, workshops, pma--what do the spaces look like so we can match up with programming. that needs to be a call--total survey of all the space.

on tues, 2/16, the printed program group will be meeting (time?)

adrienne will determine how to do follow up on these notes, future meetings and identify where the ansers need to come from (e.g., npc, dloc, etc)