[Antiracism] Fw: [wmasocial] Next Meeting of the WM Social Forum

[Emily Kawano]

Friends,

The next general assembly meeting for the Western Mass Social Forum will be this coming Sunday, the 21st.  We'll meet at 3:00 p.m. at El Mercado, 413 Main Street, in Holyoke. I'll attach the minutes of the Jan. 7th meeting in case you missed them. The agenda for Sunday will include the following:

-what we want to accomplish in the April event-goals
-how much to scale down the 3-day event-one or two days
-work in small groups: publicity, logistics (space, transportation, food, etc.), fundraising (for April and for sending a representative group to Atlanta in June), program/tracks, coordination)
-next small group meeting date
-next general assembly meeting date

The meeting will be from 3:00 to 5:30. Bring easy to eat snacks that people can access before and during the meeting. As you know we were slow getting started last time, so let's try to start on time. Having a full 2 hours to meet is very important.

Let me know by Friday if you need childcare, interpreter, or transportation. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Doug

Western Mass Social Forum
El Mercado, Holyoke
January 7, 2007

After a round of introductions we discussed the statement:

The nature of a Social Forum is to explore alternatives to systems that oppress people.  In order for the Social Forum to be effective, those who are oppressed need to be present.

There were comments that indicated that we all might have different meanings for "oppressed," but there was general agreement that we wanted a representative group to plan and come to the forum. Thoughts about getting that representative group:
. Send out agendas in hard copy; not everyone has email.
. Language: "oppressed" groups could be a problem; people have different educational backgrounds.
. Take time to contemplate the agenda presented for the meeting and negotiate changes.
. Refer to the principles of the WSF in terms of representation is desired. Don't start over and try to define this.
. Need to be practical and not get bogged down. Leadership should keep it practical.
. Start with the premise that we are allies; we are here because we have an idea in common.

Comments on the proposed conflict resolution committee:
. Test assumptions.
. Complete transparency
. Learn from our experience
. Procedure: if there is conflict in the meeting, one alternative is to ask people to take it outside the meeting. Parties in conflict can also speak to each other directly, preferably outside the meeting. It can be helpful to have a third party guide the communication between two parties who are in conflict.
. People willing to serve as a CR committee: Eduardo, Teeom Williams (nominated by Eduardo), Remy Fernandez-O'Brien, Doug.

Doug Renick went over the current structure and process of the forum organization. This was an informational piece. It was acknowledged that if we scale back the scope of what we do in April, we may not need core groups for the six tracks. The Task groups (Coordinating Committee/Outreach, Tracks/Program, Logistics, Publicity, Fundraising/Outreach and Conflict Resolution) could become the important working groups.

We discussed a proposal for scaling back the April event, which was presented by Emily Kawano. 

Proposal Background:
- Organizing for the social forum is an ongoing process of building relationships and trust, learning from each other, mobilization, networking, sharing, building trust and working relationships.
- Given that April is coming up fast, it will be a real challenge to organize a three day event on the scale that we've been talking about and in the way we all want to do it.
- We are starting somewhat afresh in strategizing and moving on outreach, especially on the race and class front. To do this right will take time - for example going to board or membership meetings can require a month or two of lead time. Building relationships takes time.
 - In particular, if we are serious about enabling the participation of poor people, people of color, and immigrants, especially from Holyoke and Springfield we need to be able to deliver on things such as childcare, transportation, translation, and food. At the moment we have no financial resources.
 -  Originally we had planned on having a celebration/dance for Saturday night but the big spaces (Student Union ballroom and Campus Center auditorium) at UMass are not available.

Proposal:
- Scale back to a one day social forum. This would significantly ease the transportation, childcare, translation and food burden.
- Increase our focus on organizing and raising resources to bring a contingent from W. Mass. to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, June 27-July 1. 
- Use the inspiration, energy and experience coming out of participation in the U.S. Social Forum to organize a full fledged social forum in W. Mass. Most local social forums have emerged this way.

Comments on the Proposal:
. Do we know what the cost for one day would be? I agree with scaling back to one day.
. What will it look like?
. Given the time frame one day is more reasonable.
. I agree with one day.  Link locally. Maybe not have tracks. We can do it for very little money and have Food Not Bombs serve the food for next to nothing.
. One day is not enough. There is strength in unity. Who are the people who will come? Local groups can organize transportation. Two days is best-Saturday and Sunday with an early cultural event. Do as a rehearsal. We have Herter Hall for the whole weekend beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
. How much responsibility are we taking on? Think about the U. Mass space. We could invite organizations to use the space for their organizational purposes (and then join the forum?).

We did not agree on exactly how long the April forum should be-one or two days. That will happen in the next meeting. We did agree to scale down the event, to focus on the long term effort of building a movement and to send a representative group to Atlanta with our support. We should see this is the first act of the play.

Next meeting is on January 21st, El Mercado, 3:00 to 6:00 with food, childcare and possibly translation. The Coordinating Committee will be responsible for the agenda since we didn't on anyone else doing it. Everyone is responsible for outreach and let's reach out as broadly as possible. Hopefully, small groups will begin their work in the next meeting.

Thanks: Eduardo (for the space), Maya/Maurice/Doug (for agenda and facilitation), Maya (for overseeing the food), Emily K. (for fleshing out the proposal).

Notes by Doug Renick


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