| | 4 | |
| | 5 | The Committee convened at about 10:00 am on December 20, 2008 and made self-introductions. |
| | 6 | |
| | 7 | Committee Members Present |
| | 8 | |
| | 9 | * Alfredo Lopez, May First/People Link |
| | 10 | * Christy Thornton, NACLA Report on the Americas |
| | 11 | * Daniel Kahn Gillmor |
| | 12 | * Louis Head, Cuba Research & Analysis Group |
| | 13 | * Hilary Goldstein, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting |
| | 14 | * Jamie McClelland, May First/People Link |
| | 15 | * Josue Guillen, The Praxis Project |
| | 16 | * Liz Mestres, The Brecht Forum |
| | 17 | * Mallory Knodel, May First/People Link |
| | 18 | * Makani Themba, The Praxis Project (who arrived about 1:00 pm due to a transportation problem |
| | 19 | * Linda Thurston and Sam Anderson were unable to attend this meeteing. |
| | 20 | |
| | 21 | == Reports == |
| | 22 | |
| | 23 | * [wiki:projects/leadership-committee/dec-2008/reports/movement-building Movement building report: Social Forum Report, conferences, workshop, book, APC] -- Presenter: Alfredo |
| | 24 | * [wiki:projects/leadership-committee/dec-2008/reports/membership Membership report: how many members do we have, different types, etc.] -- Presenter: Alfredo |
| | 25 | * [wiki:projects/leadership-committee/dec-2008/reports/infrastructure Overview of equipment/infrastructure] -- Presenter: Jamie |
| | 26 | * [wiki:projects/leadership-committee/dec-2008/reports/finances Overview of finances] -- Presenter: Jamie |
| | 27 | * [wiki:projects/leadership-committee/dec-2008/reports/labor Staffing/labor] -- Presenter: Jamie |
| | 28 | |
| | 29 | And the Committee accepted these reports as reflected in the meeting materials after considerable exploratory and clarifying discussion. |
| | 30 | |
| | 31 | After its lunch break, the Committee began its decision-making work. |
| 9 | | We passed the proposal without modifications. Our discussions raised questions about how to involve more of the membership in decisions like these (we determined that for now, the leadership committee will make the decisions for the organization as we work toward developing a system to involve more members). We also raised the conflict within the social forum over providing a neutral space versus taking a stand on issues. We agreed to support the social forum process without engaging in the conflict. |
| | 37 | The Committee passed the proposal without modifications. |
| | 38 | |
| | 39 | Our discussions raised questions about how to involve more of the membership in decisions like these. We determined that for now, the leadership committee will make the decisions for the organization as we work toward developing a system to involve more members. However, we also noted that a fuller discussion of mewbership involvement would take place in the third proposal later in the meeting. |
| | 40 | |
| | 41 | We also raised the conflict within the social forum over providing a politically neutral space versus taking a stand on issues. We agreed to support the social |
| | 42 | forum process without involving our organization in that conflict. |
| 15 | | We passed the hemispheric proposal without modifications. We discussed the importance of working with other networks to pull it off (such as Right to the City and Solidarity Economy networks). Christy volunteered to help involve MFPL in the upcoming series of national meetings with US Latin American solidarity groups. Louis encouraged us to involve US movement organizations in this work, not just solidarity groups. Makani helped us clarify that our proposal is not to neutrally provide a tool for this work, but to participate with the political agenda outlined in the proposal. |
| | 48 | We passed the hemispheric proposal without modifications. |
| | 49 | |
| | 50 | We discussed the importance of working with other networks to pull it off (such as Right to the City and Solidarity Economy networks). |
| | 51 | |
| | 52 | Christy volunteered to help involve MFPL in the upcoming series of national meetings with US Latin American solidarity groups. |
| | 53 | |
| | 54 | Louis encouraged us to involve US movement organizations in this work, not just solidarity groups. |
| | 55 | |
| | 56 | Makani helped us clarify that our proposal is not to neutrally provide a tool for this work, but to participate with the political agenda outlined in the proposal. |
