[Antiracism] Conference Organizing Update!

Thu Mar 3 15:11:48 EST 2005

Greetings friends and fellow organizers,

I am writing this letter to update all who have been involved in the “Undoing 
Racism in the Happy Valley” conversation thus far.  First of all I would like 
to thank everybody who was able to attend our first planning meeting on 
February 24th, and all who have been participating in the conversation, but 
were not able to attend.  I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know you 
all, and to share a space where we can create a vision for this conference 
together.  I apologize for not having sent this update sooner and request that 
if any views are not represented, you communicate them to me at your earliest 
convenience.  The following information is included both in the body of the 
email and as attachments (which are in a separate email):

1.	February 24th steering committee meeting minutes (Facilitators: 
Zawadi Nyong’o & Elaina Ellis, co-facilitators: Mary Bombardier & Jo 
Comerford, time keeper: Nat Stratton-Clarke, notes: Yasmine Farhang, 
photography: Seth Wessler)
2.	Some feedback about the 1st steering committee meeting.
3.	Subcommittee names, meeting times, and group contacts (please inform 
me if incorrect/incomplete).
4.	Internal and external list serve information and guidelines.
5.	Invitation to join larger or smaller organizing groups.
6.	Proposed project time-line.
7.	Steering committee contact information.
8.	Next steering committee meeting (Wed, March 9th, 6:30-8:30pm, 
location and agenda TBA).

This update, being the first one is lengthy, but it includes a lot of 
important information that I hope will get us all on the same page.  (N.B. The 
attachments are more reader-friendly because of formatting).  Hereafter, 
organizing emails will only be sent to those on the internal list serve.  If 
you wish to continue getting information about this organizing process, please 
see how to subscribe to our internal list serve below.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this.

                **************************************************
UNDOING RACISM IN THE “HAPPY VALLEY” CONFERENCE
1st Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
February 24th, 6:30-8:30
FPH Faculty Lounge, Hampshire College

Purpose of Meeting:
&#9642;	To get to know each other as a community of organizers.
&#9642;	To brainstorm ideas for an anti-racism conference in April that will 
bring together CT River Valley community, college and high school organizers.
&#9642;	To discuss the mission/vision, goals, and format of this conference.
&#9642;	To propose a structure and organizing/decision-making process.
&#9642;	To form smaller organizing sub-committees.

In attendance:
33 community, college, and high school anti-racist organizers attended the 
meeting (See participant list attached)

INTRODUCTION:

We began the meeting with a delicious meal prepared by Nat Stratton-Clarke.  
This was followed by a brief introduction about the origin of the project.  It 
grew out of conversations between local community organizers who have been 
posing the question, “Is this a Happy Valley?” for years together with 
conversations between college students/faculty and staff, who have been 
thinking of ways to build partnerships with anti-racist community organizers 
in the valley.  

PROPOSED MISSION & GOALS

The purpose of this conference is to create a systemic network of Connecticut 
River Valley anti-racist organizing groups and individuals, including
&#9642;	Community members and organizers
&#9642;	Community organizations
&#9642;	High school and college students
&#9642;	Staff and faculty of academic  communities

Participants will have the opportunity to:
&#9642;	Coordinate and collaborate
&#9642;	Indentify and share challenges and resources
&#9642;	Build leadership and organizing skills
&#9642;	Appreciate diversity of experiences
&#9642;	Encourage and inspire each other!

GROUP MISSION/VISION & GOALS

&#9642;	Tying in the upper valley and lower valley
&#9642;	Acknowledging other issues/isms which feed off of each other
&#9642;	Holding organizations and individuals accountable
&#9642;	A network of people to support community organizations and community 
members
&#9642;	A program to connect faculty/staff with community organizations
&#9642;	Preparing an urgent response networking system
&#9642;	Collectively visualizing the valley we want to live in
&#9642;	Asking ourselves the question, “How do we be the change we want to 
see?”
&#9642;	History - Not assuming that we all know the same information about 
the valley
&#9642;	Getting students to expand their parameters 
&#9642;	Having a record that will exist beyond the conference
&#9642;	Envision a police-force that actually lives in the community
&#9642;	Getting out tensions, for a healthy community 
&#9642;	Have an agenda -- ask for commitment from institutions to be 
accountable
&#9642;	How do we undermine our successes?  Find our highest common ground, 
and hold ourselves to it.
&#9642;	Support artists within communities
&#9642;	Recognize leaders not just at colleges
&#9642;	Thinking about accessibility
&#9642;	Recognizing that this is an ongoing process

PROGRAMMING IDEAS

&#9642;	Leaving space in the workshops for participation
&#9642;	Having an open space; concentrating on the organizing aspects
&#9642;	Having the conference be Participatory!
&#9642;	Talk about/see successful models
&#9642;	Storytelling – why this is not a “happy valley”? People telling their 
personal stories; Playback theater
&#9642;	A physical space – a center – build community/know what people are 
working on
&#9642;	Video/webcast across groups
&#9642;	No “talking heads”
&#9642;	Saul Williams – speaker and performer
&#9642;	Free performances?
&#9642;	Tim Wise – white privilege speaker
&#9642;	An open space for people to speak/organize
&#9642;	Jaime Shaggy Flores
&#9642;	Do the people we invite work within communities?
&#9642;	Project 2050 (Youth performance group)
&#9642;	Barbara Love – Social Justice Education Program, Umass
&#9642;	Magdalena Gomez
&#9642;	John Edgar Wideman
&#9642;	Enoch Page

FUNDRAISING IDEAS:

&#9642;	Five College connections!
&#9642;	Co-sponsorship (seek co-sponsorship from religious groups, etc.)
&#9642;	Peace Development Fund
&#9642;	Consider sponsorships from local businesses that are independently 
owned by people of color.
&#9642;	 Ensure that our process in organizing, even fundraising, is part of 
the work in undoing racism.  
&#9642;	Corporate sponsorship??
&#9642;	Don’t allow the corporations to be part of this
&#9642;	Students of Underrepresented Cultures and Ethnicities (SOURCE) groups 
at Hampshire College
&#9642;	Other Five College student groups
&#9642;	Bid on goods & services provided by organizations (massages, etc)
&#9642;	An art show!
&#9642;	Haymarket People’s Fund
&#9642;	Matching money – Five College Partnership
&#9642;	Community sponsorships
&#9642;	Co-sponsorship on a sliding scale (from $15 - ???)
&#9642;	Let the sponsors be involved
&#9642;	Five College student groups throw a PARTY
&#9642;	Culture Shock party

SUBCOMMITTEES:

	Three main organizing sub-committees were formed to further these 
discussions.  Each subcommittee will have two group representatives who will 
help with coordination of group activities/processes as well as update and 
work together with other group representatives.  The conference coordinator 
will be a full-time paid staff person who will help oversee this process, as 
well as work closely with those in the subcommittees.  As far as possible, 
subcommittees and their members will:
&#9642;	Have a fair representation of the target community. 
&#9642;	Agree on an organizing and decision-making process.
&#9642;	Work as a team, respecting the diversity of experiences within.
&#9642;	Create a work-plan, time-line and meeting schedule that works for the 
group.
&#9642;	Delegate tasks and share responsibilities.
&#9642;	Use Hampshire College work-study and conference coordinator’s 
resources.
&#9642;	Share skills and resources.
&#9642;	Stay in communication.

The subcommittees were divided (complete contact list attached), and agreed to 
have their 1st meeting as follows:

1.	Outreach & Publicity – Thurs, March 3rd, 6:00-7:00
2.	Registration, Logistics & Food – Wed, March 2nd, 6:30-8:00
3.	Fundraising & Programming – Wed, March 2nd, 6:30-8:00

Updates will be shared at our next steering committee meeting on March 9th, 
2005.

INVITATION TO JOIN!

We invite you to join any of these subcommittees, in any capacity (sharing 
ideas, resources or contacts, committing your organizing time, etc.) by 
contacting any of the following people:

&#9642;	Outreach & Publicity – Sophia Biniori – sbiniori at student.umass.edu
&#9642;	Registration, Logistics & Food – Zawadi Nyong’o – zanSS at hampshire.edu
&#9642;	Fundraising & Programming – Elaina Ellis – eellis at comcol.umass.edu

SOME FEEDBACK POST 02/24:

	While we will spend some time at our next meeting, giving feedback 
about the process so far, these are some thoughts that have already been 
expressed:
&#9642;	We are trying to uproot racism, but we are going to have a racist 
process because we live in a racist society.
&#9642;	Concern – the subcommittees are heavily white and upper valley.  How 
do we make decisions that are representative?
&#9642;	Where is the youth representation?
&#9642;	We need to do more outreach to youth, people of color, 
Franklin/Hampden county, and other groups to have as fair a representation of 
organizers as possible.
&#9642;	We must honor the work that has already been done by those before us 
and those currently living and working in our community.  “Recognize the 
shoulders on which we stand.”
&#9642;	Celebrate already existing networks of social justice organizing.  
People are involved in this process because of those relationships.
&#9642;	Do we have to have the conference/event at Hampshire College?
&#9642;	While we have many ideas, we must be flexible and work with what and 
who we’ve got.
&#9642;	The process is more important than the outcome because that is what 
will live beyond April 30th and create sustainable partnerships for more and 
more work to be done.
&#9642;	We need to craft a mission statement which reads with love and 
compassion.
&#9642;	We need to develop a media list of those who are willing to speak 
publicly about the conference.
&#9642;	While the decision-making structure is hierarchical, with a 
conference coordinator, sub-committee reps, and sub-committee members, there 
is an emphasis on team-work, and taking advantage of this opportunity to have 
a full-time paid staff person who is totally dedicated to this process being 
transparent.  The conference coordinator also has institutional responsibility 
and must therefore make decisions accordingly.  

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the above, please contact 
Zawadi Nyong’o, zanSS at hampshire.edu or 413-559-6089.

                  ***********************************************
COMMUNICATION!

While there will be a lot of one-on-one communication, some scheduled large 
meetings, and perhaps some smaller meetings, we have created a number of email 
list serves to facilitate communication among sub-committee members, between 
groups, and with the larger community of social justice activists who may be 
interested in participating in the conference, but not necessarily in the 
organizing process.  These lists are broken down as follows:

External List:

Mail to: antiracism at lists.hampshire.edu
Admnistrator: zanSS at hampshire.edu (Zawadi Nyong’o)
Subscribers: Any social justice organizer interested/involved in local anti-
racist organizing
How to subscribe: http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/antiracism 
Purpose: To keep local organizers up to date with anti-racist organizing 
efforts.
Who can post: Anyone can post, but because of the large number of people 
subscribed to this list, messages will be screened by the administrator.  This 
will help regulate the use of this list.

Internal Lists:

Mail to: antiracismorganizing at lists.hampshire.edu
Administrators: zanSS at hampshire.edu (Zawadi Nyong’o), eellis at comcol.umass.edu 
(Elaina Ellis)
Subscribers: CT River Valley social justice organizers involved in the 
organizing of the Undoing Racism in the “Happy Valley” Conference
How to subscribe: 
http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/antiracismorganizing 
Purpose: To keep the steering-committee up to date with conference organizing 
activities/processes.
Who can post: All steering-committee members can post, with no regulation, 
except that subscribers adhere to some basic guidelines (see below).  Non-
subscribers messages will be approved by administrators.

Mail to: antiracismoutreach at lists.hampshire.edu 
Admnistrators: sbiniori at student.umass.edu (Sophia Biniori), 
zanSS at hampshire.edu (Zawadi Nyong’o)
Subscribers: Outreach & Publicity sub-committee members
How to subscribe: 
http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/antiracismoutreach
Purpose: To communicate with fellow sub-committee members.
Who can post: All Outreach & Publicity members can post, with no regulation.  
Non-subscriber messages will be approved by administrators.

Mail to: antiracismlogistics at lists.hampshire.edu
Administrators: zanSS at hampshire.edu (Zawadi Nyong’o), natstrat at yahoo.com (Nat 
Stratton-Clarke)
Subscribers: Registration & Logistics sub-committee members
How to subscribe: 
http://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/antiracismlogistics 
Purpose: To communicate with fellow sub-committee members.
Who can post: All Registration & Logistics members can post with no 
regulation.  Non-subscriber messages will be approved by administrators.

Mail to: progandfunds at c-a-h.net 
Admnistrators: soulfighter at c-a-h.net (Maurice “Soulfighter” Taylor)
Subscribers: Programming & Fundraising sub-committee members
How to subscribe: http://c-a-h.net/mailman/listinfo/progandfunds_c-a-h.net 
Purpose: To communicate with fellow sub-committee members.
Who can post: All Programming & Fundraising members can post with no 
regulation.  Non-subscriber messages will be approved by administrators.

BASIC GUIDELINES FOR USE OF LISTS:

&#9642;	Think about how much space you take up
&#9642;	Use non-violent language only
&#9642;	Be aware of different privileges
&#9642;	Be aware of racist processes
&#9642;	“We” statements to show solidarity
&#9642;	Don’t post too much, and use direct communication when necessary
&#9642;	Post only information/requests/concerns that are relevant to the 
organizing process.
&#9642;	Communication should be democratic & free flowing

(Guidelines will be further discussed at the 2nd steering committee meeting on 
Wednesday March 9th.  Any suggestions can be sent to zanSS at hampshire.edu )

In the attachments, please see the steering committee contact sheet, sub-
committee contacts and a proposed project time-line.  If you are unable to 
access these documents, please let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Zawadi Nyong'o
Alumni Fellow
Community Partnerships for Social Change (CPSC)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
413-559-6089 ext. 2 (Mon/Wed)
413-584-8975 "Is this a Happy Valley" (Tue/Thurs)
zanSS at hampshire.edu