Editor's note: this meeting was actually was very fluid and people talked about subjects in almost random order. For reading clarity's sake, I regrouped what was said into the subsections as seen below.

FreeSkool Meeting

• Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2005
• Location: Nabalom Bakery
• Attendance: Kiran, Anthony, Erin, Zoe, Caitland, John, Anders

Checkins

Kiran

I was at the bookfair this weekend and I spoke with several people regarding FreeSkool. They seemed barely interested. I think I would have received a better a reaction if I had a flyer or a calendar to show them. Mental note: having some concrete evidence that your group is doing something as early as possible can be a "good thing."

I'm really interested in having a non-coercive child-care/parenting class. SPAZ (4th and Bankcroft) is actually doing something similar to this starting this Sunday (April 4) at around 1pm. I will see if we can work with them on such a class.

I am going to talk to Dr. David Presti ("Drugs and the Brain") to see if he is willing to have a class. One young girl that I know asked me about cocaine and I gave her the facts that I learned from his class, both the positives and negatives. She ended up not trying cocaine, in part, I think, because I didn't try to coerce her and that she was allowed to make her own decision.

Anders

I checked out the Santa Cruz FreeSkool and found them to...well...mostly focus on subjects that the college kids are into. I think we can do better than that.

I have been speaking with Mike of Color and he tentatively wants to help out. He is thinking about doing a Cantonese ESL class but he can only speak Cantonese, not write. This may be good enough, but we'll see.

Anthony

We definitely have the space, teachers and students to start a beer-making class. We just need to fix a time and place and we can get it going.

I'm interested in a mental health support group. The idea is basically a class where people can come and share what's on their mind. We just need a space and facilitator. I can facilitate but I think other people, like Ashley, are interested in facilitating. Ashley is also particularly interested in holding a class that focuses on the theory and social justice issues of mental health, not just a support class. (Ashley will be gone May but she will be back in June.)

Jake from 5lowershop (http://www.5lowershop.org/) is interested in doing lots of things. I will push him into doing an Electrical Engineering class (e.g., building small electronics, fixing electronics, etc.) because he is most interested in that topic. He also knows somebody that is willing to teach a Network Security class.

CopyCafe was an old BarringtonCollective class/group where people that were interested in writing, drawing, publishing, etc. got together with a copy machine and made cool stuff like 'zines, art, etc. I want to do something similar but instead do a comic book-making theme. I'll let you know what I come with...

Caitland

I ran into Sharon from Girl Army (http://www.girlarmy.org/) and she is interested in working with us. The first day of the next Girl Army course starts this April 3rd but I think we have time to work on other things. In particular, she wants to teach several 1-day workshops.

John

I'm in the middle of organizing a space for an introductory Wiki class. I understand that SPAZ has computers and is making more public computers available.

For now, I'm interested in personally getting all of ya'll organizing FreeSkool up to speed on using the website. Use it -- it will make everybody's life easier. If you don't know how, call me and I'll personally coach you.

Erin

I have been mostly talking with Art and Drama people and they seem to be interested in Art and Drama classes, but that's no surprise.

I know a drama professor who is willing to give his/her students credit for teaching FreeSkool classes. We should all look into seeing if other professors are willing to do something similar.

Kid (<18) Classes

Anders talked about the differences in what parents want a class versus what kids want in a class. In general, parents seem to want classes that act as child-care and/or future-income enhancers. In general, kids seem to want classes that are fun and/or interesting. Further discussion hinted that we may have to present classes in a different light to kids and their parents.

Kiran said that Lawrence Hall of Science (http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/) does a fantastic job of both making things fun and exciting and actually educating the kids. We should pay attention to how they do things.

Anders observed that the mechanical arts, e.g., car repair, plumbing, etc., seem to be fading away. This is unfortunate because such arts are great for people who are not as good at abstract, symbol-based, i.e., traditional, learning. Anders will go around to a few groups and see if any of them are willing to apprentice, that is, take under their wing, one or two kids.

Erin brought up the point that girls are sometimes afraid (e.g., due to harassment) of attending male-dominated classes (e.g., care mechanics). We should also think about offering female-led and/or female-only classes.

Timeline

A lot of discussion at this meeting centered around the timeline. Kiran really encouraged people to think concretely about the timeline because time is running out. The previous tentative FreeSkool calendar planned for a four-month session starting May and running through August. People quickly realized that both doing this and holding at least one community meeting was practically impossible. Some people suggested pushing back the FreeSkool calendar a month (June). Anthony felt this would cause a few classes, e.g., beer-making, alternative education, etc., to lose inertia. Erin suggested having some of the classes (e.g., kids classes) start later (in June). People eventually consensed around planning most of the FreeSkool classes later (in June) and to start any classes that can be easily started earlier, earlier. This idea was fueled by the desire to hold at least one community meeting (see below) in late April, early May.

The tentative timeline is thus as follows:

OUSD Troubles/Community Meeting

Some people are really concerned with the recent OUSD shutdowns and firings. Golden Gate school (North Berkeley) is being shut down and turned into a charter school run by UC Berkeley. The adult schools run by OUSD are being shut-down and the perhaps the classes will be picked up by community colleges. In general: 5 schools in OUSD are slated for closing, 7 schools are going to "reorganized" (everybody fired, some rehired), and 13 others are going to be turned into charter schools. Not suprisingly, many people in the group have been expressing strong interest in using these difficult situations to try to connect with the local Oakland communities and do something positive.

Anders strongly felt that the group wasn't paying enough attention to the OUSD situation. He basically felt that people were focusing too much on the traditional "arts and crafts" oriented classes and not using the OUSD situation to do something more important. Most people agreed with Anders. A few felt that the "arts and crafts" classes were still, nonetheless, important.

People eventually consensed after readjusting the timeline (see below) that there wasn't a conflict between the OUSD situation and the "arts and crafts" classes. The general plan formed around the following:

• Have one or two community meetings where we meet with local Oakland residents and gather their thoughts.

  • If nothing useful is gained from the meeting(s), start the FreeSkool classes as we expected.

  • If good ideas are gained from the meeting(s), change the FreeSkoolSchedule using the input from the community.

  • If crazy, blow-us-away ideas are gained from the meeting(s), have a meeting and go from there.

People consensed on (tentatively) holding two community meetings:

• One in the Fruitvale area (largely Spanish-speaking)
• One in North Oakland (big mix of cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds)

Everybody agreed that door-to-door solicitation is the "thing-to-do" to get the community meeting organized. John pointed out, from eariler conversations with Crow (and older, experienced fellow), that door-to-door advertising is incredibly effective. Essentially, once people realize that you're not trying to sell them something, they become surprisingly open and receptive. Kiran is the only one attending the meeting that could speak Spanish well enough to handle the Fruitvale area. She would be a lot more comfortable if somebody more proficient, e.g., Rusty, came along. Erin suggested that people ask their Spanish-speaking friends for help.

Kiran said that there was an existing community group in North Oakland that we should contact. (Further details are lacking in my notes.)

Absanteeism

The following people will be gone the following dates:

TODO

• Ask Spanish-speaking friends if they would be interested in helping us go door-to-door advertising the community meeting in the Fruitvale area.
• Look into using school grounds and buildings as meeting or class locations.
• For those who spend time with kids (e.g., John and Kiran), ask them what kind of class they would like to attend (literally).

• Erin knows a drama professor who is willing to give his/her students credit for teaching FreeSkool classes. See if you know any professors that are willing to do something similar.

• Start confirming your teachers and spaces.
• Start working on the Work Party agenda (see below).
  • Especially work on researching the general OUSD situation.

Work Party

Everybody at the meeting agreed that we need to finish a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. Thus, everybody (that means you reading this) is invited to Kiran's super cool lounge (with computers, food and a hot-tub) to help work on the upcoming summer FreeSkool. This work party will meet at the Ashby BART station and then we'll carpool from there.

Work Party Details

• Date: Sunday, April 3rd, 2005
• Meet: Ashby BART station (MLK side, not Adeline) by 5:30pm (we'll carpool from there)
• How Long?: Most will go all night (sleep over) but some are planning to leave at around 11:00pm.

Please contact John (jingoro@casa-z.org) by Saturday if you are planning to come. We need to know how many people are going to show up so we can plan the accommodations and provide you with our phone numbers.

Work Party Agenda

• Plan Community Meeting(s)
  • When are going to have them?
  • Where are they going to be held? (We need to have confirmed locations)
  • We need to design the actual flyer
    • Where are going to flyer/go-door-to-door?
    • What are going to say to people when we go door-to-door?
  • Figure out the structure of Community Meetings

• Start making the actual Calendar (It does not need to be complete)

• Research the OUSD school closings
  • Can we have our community meetings at the closed schools?
• Research the general OUSD situation

Next Meeting

Our next FreeSkool meeting will take place Tuesday, April 5th at Nabalom Bakery. See you there!