| 57 | Aside from my normal Co-Director duties which include implementation of our strategy, outreach and recruitment, public representation of the organization, new member handling, staff leadership and collaboration, with my Co-Director, on emergency decision-making, I've been called on to work on three major areas of work the LC has prioritized: USSF, POC Techie Training Project and the Occupy movement initiative. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | '''USSF''' |
| 60 | In the wake of the 2010 United States Social Forum, in which we played a major role in both the tech work and the political leadership, the National Planning Committee has been discussing the major issue it faces: what to do in the future. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | At the end of 2010, MF/PL made a proposal which I presented to the NPC, to decentralize the Social Forum into regional forums that would conduct their own live sessions while linking, on-line, for several special events. We insisted that such a development reflected better the growing specificity of struggles and movements in various parts of the country. We also argued that the economic problems we were anticipating would make fund-raising several million dollars much more difficult. And since the technology at the point of an upcoming Social Forum would be advanced enough to handle linkage, the regional forum idea was much more feasible. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | The proposal wasn't supported at the time. That has changed as people now see the economic downturn we anticipated and that shift to stronger regional struggles. We believe a strong percentage of the USSF leadership supports our idea and that it will probably carry. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | That development is certain to make May First's role in the Social Forum even more prominent for both technological and political reasons. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | '''POC Techie Training''' |
| 69 | This innovative program has moved forward although challenges faced by one of its partners, the Progressive Technology Project, has delayed it somewhat. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | We have a partnership in place between ourselves, the Praxis Project and PTP. We have the funding committed and have trainers named and in place. Praxis, which names two trainees, has made their selection and we now await PTP's nominations. In addition, we have a basic curriculum outlined and are commencing work on the full curriculum. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | PTP is suggesting a Summer launch of the program. This week, Praxis Project rejected that start date proposal, suggesting a launch in April and hinting that it might attempt to do the project alone. This is not acceptable to us and I'll have to bring those organizations together on the issue. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | In any case, we will have to write the full curriculum (and get it approved by the partners), begin mentor training and set up preliminary orientation for participants during the next few months. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | '''Occupy''' |
| 78 | At its last meeting, the LC established as a goal the strategic recruitment of organizations. That goal was brought to the forefront when the Occupy movement virtually exploded onto the political scene in this country. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | About a week or so into the development of the movement, I identified various Occupy local movements that appeared potentially critical to the movement and made a pitch for membership in MF/PL. After another week of back and forth communication, Occupy Together joined MF/PL and set up its website on our servers. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | We then decided to play a larger role in the movement by attracting memberships from Occupies all over the country. Since these movements are highly informal, most without bank accounts, we had to adjust our membership policy and so we got Occupy Together to post a statement on its site that we would accept free memberships from any Occupy movement with a General Assembly or playing a major supportive role. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | There are now about 60 of those movements (some from other countries) as members. When one joins, I send out my traditional new member message (which is always tailored to the new member's activities and often cites my own personal history with the movement they are part of) but I intro that with a couple of paragraphs explaining exactly what and who we are. These new members don't have the introduction others, who come to us after investigating who we are, might. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | The response has been stunning both for its impact on our activities as well as the heightened profile it provides us in the movement. |
| 87 | |