Barrington Collective General Membership Meeting
Minutes for Tuesday, October 7th, 2003
Attendance: Anthony, Erin, Jesse, John, Jonathan, Kiran, Leo, Lindsay and "Eyes Like Staring"
DIY Festival Discussion
There was a recap and a discussion of how things went:
- The People's Park venue was good because it was large, had a good flow of people, and the city people really went out of their way to help us out.
- The sun was very intense at People's Park. Food not Bombs (who were awesome) found comfort by serving food to people in the shade.
- Our publicity was very weak. Some people felt that there should have been a lot more at the festival but others felt that were a lot of people, namely over 200.
- The acoustic music performed by "The People" was really good. Acoustic music seemed preferable because it was low enough to allow people to still talk but festive enough where people had fun and got into the scene. (Loud punk bands seem better for Benefit shows.)
- The workshops were great. The Midnight Law workshop was awesome. The bike repair workshop was cool too but the brutal beat-downs were not so cool.
- The U-shaped arrangement of the tables was a bit awkward.
- We had a tough time getting tables organized. Orlando was awesome for helping us haul tables around.
- Most people liked the idea of having another DIY festival at People's Park, likely next semester.
Things that need to be done next time:
Figure out a date and a venue well in advance (>3 months).
- 2 months before the event, work out the arrangements with the venue. Follow up at 1 month and 1 week before the event.
- Contact and get confirmations people/groups 2 months before the event.
Record contact information in a central place and pass this information to other people. Make sure to obtain (at the least): Group Name, Name of Contact Person, Phone Number and Email.
- Make sure at least one band is confirmed so they can be on the flier.
1 month before the event, finish the flier. Make sure it looks really bomb. It's okay if not every person/group is on the flier, but the headliners should be on it.
- As soon as the fliers are done, start distributing the fliers.
- Keep an eye out on weather reports.
Ask co-ops (and other places) for tables in advance.
Bring items for people to be DIYers. Things like rope, needle & thread, wood, tools, etc.
- Send out thank you letters to the people/groups after the event is over.
Disorientation Zine
Anthony and Jonathan said that we received $50 from the USCA's ERCOM for starting the Disorientation Zine. We are likely to receive another $200 from them because we finished it and it's so bomb. We want to make a few changes to it before we start another run so we're going to have a little get together to do just that.
Contact Anthony to help add to the 'zine at mailto:ampathy@uclink.berkeley.edu.
Freeskool
Erin is wondering what we're all doing with Freeskool. (Cricket noises are heard...) It seems we're all really busy and she wants to help revive it. Currently, the anarchy reading group is the only FreeSkool group still going. Kiran said that it's largely because it's the only group that has people showing up to it every week and that is has a good mix of co-op kids and people from the community.
Erin wants to organize more one-time events and get larger community involvement. She is going make and post a FreeSkool flier and start a French FreeSkool class but she wants others to help her run some classes. Jonathan said that the East Bay Skill Share is a good place to start getting contacts and ideas. Anythony said that there used to be skill shares at Gillman but he doesn't know what happened to them. Jesse said she'll hit up Criag's List to help Erin spread the word.
Contact Erin to help out with FreeSkool at mailto:ottyenok@hotmail.com.
Huge Mural at the Humanist Hall
Erin described that the Humanist Hall has a huge wall facing a fence that could be muralized. She said that they would likely to supply us with paint and equipment. She wants the Barrington Collective to help her organize a mural painting session. There was general agreement that this was a good idea. Erin will report back when she gets things finalized.
Co-op Housing Directory
John talked a girl named Liz who wants to start an online directory of co-op houses. She wants it contain information like descriptions of houses, contact information, services they offer to the community, etc. It would basically be similar to Craig's List http://www.craigslist.org but oriented around co-op housing. Kiran said a girl at the ~ApGar house wants to do just that and Liz and she should link up.
Flyering
The was general agreement that we need to be better at flyering and getting people to join the group. Jonathan said some of people are intimidated of the group and that we need to be more welcoming. Leo said it's good to be aggressive -- that is we should directly invite people to our meetings and events.
Lindsay said she'll bottom line making the next Barrington Collective flyer which will have our mission statement, the time and place of our next meeting, a map of the meeting place and our contact information and web site address.
Contact Linday to help out with flyering at mailto:llowe@uclink.berkeley.edu.
Thank You
There was general agreement that people should be thanked after doing DIY festival or other event. People made a list of people to contact and divided up the responsibility.
Barrington Collective Binder
Kiran really wants a BC binder. She wants to put things like minutes, old flyers, information about how to do organize festivals and shows, contact information, etc. She likes things she can touch and doesn't particular care for computers. Anthony and John offered to scan and print things for her. John said that we can realisticly do both but that there should be some willingness to try to post information so that everybody can share it.
Meetings
We used to have meetings twice a month. General agreement is to have meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 8pm at Cafe Mediterraneum.
Money
We owe Leo $29. John will pay him $29 and have the group owe him. Alexis was holding our money before but Kiran said that she is pretty preoccupied these days.