Barrington Collective General Membership Meeting
Minutes for Sunday, August 17th, 2003
- Free Skool
- Website
- Zinez (Disorientation, others)
- How we are doing as a collective
- Federation
- DIY Festival
Present at the meeting: Kiran, Thomas, Claire, Charlie, Laura, Dayna, Jonathan, Fletch, Anthony, Leo
Free Skool
Decentralizing the initiative. An idea: the web-site is used as a data base, every two weeks to a month a flyer is made off of the web-site. People should get teachers.
We need to advertise more -- one good way is to get more people to go to and use the web-site, stickers, public discussion lists, craig's list, berkeley daily planet, diy festival, bay area progressive directory, holytitclamps.com, working with the farmers market, Bersel Bruct play at Hinkle Park, Event Zine.
Meet Kiran at the Cafe' Med. Monday Night, 18th, 6:30 to 10, and then at Kingman for this installment of free skool flyers. Please! Get some and distribute them all around.
Website
Need for a "contact us" part of the website. We should all decentralize the use of the website -- if we all use it regularly and put in energy then no one will feel over-burdened.
Zinez
Disorientation: Cooperation with the Berkeley Mike folks and the slingshot folks we need to get together and start working on this... Particularly addressed to new students, and making people more aware of avenues in the community at large get it into the dorms check the website for updates on cordination and the next meeting time funding from the USCA?
The Guide
Guide of community events, radical groups, happenings, ext. We need to distribute this if it is going to be successful looking to be published in a month.
We need: funding, groups that are interested.
Funding sources: co-op funding, ASUC funding, community based, be inexpensive in production.
Who will be listed? Cooperatives, co-ops, radical lists.
Should there be limits? Who should decide?
Charlie will bottom line this, but he needs and wants help for this really to take off. If you want to help contact discuss at barringtoncollective.org. Basically people will be getting events and posting them on the website. All sorts of events.
DIY festival
Funding: Jonathan fronted $322 dollars, $200 of which is coming back. Free Skool money is proposed to help pay back. Other ideas: Bake sales, prior to the event and during, asking for donations. Making sure that people don't feel at all like they have to.
Contacts: Look at the web-site, go ahead and contact those who have not been contacted -- look on the website.
Working with the city: Tuesday at 2:30 in the city hall building... people need to go.
Sound system: We need to get Cloyne's sound system, Linsay?
Bottom lining tables? D and Erin
DIY festival planning meeting: Tuesday 8pm 26th Cafe Med.
Federation: A national federation, local federations, apguardia meeting! Kiran's art is a Nobalom now!
How are we doing as a collective?
Growing a lot.
Worries: Students leave after a time. Try to focus on stable community, hard to find. Interests so wide -- attracts loose group of people. We have to appeal to working people. More stable. Cricket noises.
Also, lack of diversity, nonwhites, older. We could suppress white male involvement. Learn from bus riders union: advertise on buses, minority neighborhoods.
Smaller subgroups in order to make people feel comfortable. More discussions based on race, gender. conflict.
But what is the collective if its just a bunch of affinity groups. So who puts on free skool or DIY. Maybe once the B.C. grows... collective of collectives.
We cant get lost in the metaphor. There is, this is a network of collectives. But there is substance to the web. We dont need to call ourselves an affinity group everytime we do it. B.C. is the spinal cord so that both feet don't walk at the same time.
Use phones and in person communication. Self facilitation at meetings. Follow through on commitments. Fun. Spearhead. Take on psychological burden but no actual work.