Logistics

• Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2005
• Location: Nabalom Bakery
• Attendance: Anders, Anthony, Caitland, Claire, Crow, John, Kiran, Mike, Molly, Yogi, Zoe

Sunday Work Party Report

Closed Schools

East Oakland

School of Social Justice

• 8501 International Boulevard, Oakland, CA
• 510-879-8582

North Oakland

Washington Elementary

• 581 61st Street, Oakland, CA
• 510-879-1610

Golden Gate

• 6200 San Pablo, Oakland, CA
• 510-879-1200

Community Meeting

Goal

Talk honestly and openly with community members (including kids) about their desires and interests for schooling.

Structure

1. If more than 15-20 people show up, break up the meeting into smaller groups (10-20 people).
2. Go around and do introductions
   • My name is...
   • The reason why I am here is because...
3. Begin general discussion bringing up the following topics:
   • Current state of the Oakland public schools
   • History of public education and its uses
   • History of the Free School movement

   • Ideas and possibilites for the East Bay FreeSkool

4. If we broke up into smaller groups, reconverge into a larger group
5. Close with a shorter discussion while asking the following questions:

   • What do you want from the East Bay FreeSkool?

   • What can you offer the East Bay FreeSkool?

Community Meeting Location Deadline

The community location confirmation deadline is Thursday, April 7th.

• Kiran will be handling the Fruitvale location confirmation.

• Zoe and Caitland will be handling the North Oakland location confirmation.

Checkins

Kiran

I asked some kids about a FreeSkool class wishlist. Here's what they wanted:

• Math (!?)
• Care for Babies
• Animals
• Care for Puppies
• Dogs
• Science
• Planets
• Dance Moves
• Art
• Drawing
• Fasion Design
• Sewing

We should look into contacting pet shops and animal shelters to borrow animals. Kids love animals.

John

I've been researching Oakland Unified history. You can see more at FreeSkoolResearch. I'll do a lot more in the coming days.

I (and Anders) discovered a few organizations that we may work with us. They're also listed on the FreeSkoolResearch page. I'm planning to contact as many as possible this week.

Mostly off-topic: The BarringtonCollective website has been hosting a coop directory (http://barringtoncollective.org/housing) for sometime now. I have been working with somebody else recently on producing a more "dynamic" housing site. It's beta testing right now and will go live in about three weeks.

Anders

I'm doing more and more research on FreeSkool...since it's for my thesis anyways.

Community Meeting (Flyering and Kids)

Discussion

Kiran: I think we should include the following phrases on the flyer:

• "Free School"
• "Community Education"
• "Volunter-Run Organization"
• "We Want your Ideas" (Many said this was "too hippy")

Anthony: We should transmit (in general):

• FreeSkool is happening and it's starting June 1st

• The meeting location, time and date

• People should contact the BarringtonCollective (email, web site) to learn more

Yogi: What about a phone number? Many people do not have regular access to computers.

Anthony: I figure that they can come to the meeting.

John: I think a lot of people are hesistant to give out their personal line simply because they don't want random drunk people calling them at 2am. "Heeeeey buddie!"

Kiran: We totally need have a BarringtonCollective home base with a phone line. I'm totally going to make it happen if I'm still here at the end of the year...

Mike: I can do Cantonese langauge translation at the meeting, but my writing isn't so hot. I can get help doing the written translation.

Many: What about kid liability?

Kiran: Free child care is sketchy...

Yogi: No one is just going to give their kids away to some random people they've never met.

Anders: I think we should encourage kids to stay. If they are getting restless, I think it tells us something about our meeting; that we are too boring or that we're not communicating effectively.

Anthony: Perhaps we need an "Easily Distractable" room? Humor, I think, will help break down initial apprentions at this meeting.

Kiran: The child care worker would also need to be able to speak spanish. And I agree with Anders. If kids are getting bored, we're not doing something right.

Claire: How about a kids table with markers, books and papers? They could go over if they ever get bored.

Anders: We should be treating the kids as people too. We need to make sure we also address some of our questions to the children.

John: Just thought of something. We should have name tags, no?

Everyone: Yes!

Kiran: I think we need to make an effort to make the flyer appealing to the community we're targeting. As much as I like our aesthetic, I think it may be alienating.

Anthony: It shouldn't be boring. Boring itself is exclusionary and alienating.

Yogi: Look at the flyers in the area you're planning to target and take notes on style.

Anthony: We should meet at John's place this Sunday with Erin's printer in tow.

Consensus Summary

• The flyer will include the following:
  • "The Free School is coming"
  • "Community education"
  • "Volunter-run organization"
  • "Kids welcome" (no child care is offered)
  • "Classes start June 1st"
  • Location, time and date
  • Supported languages: English, Spanish and Cantonese
• The flyer will be have two flavors and three languages
  • Fullsize and quarter-size flavors
  • English, Spanish and Cantonese languages
• We will attempt to make the flyer cool while not using our "local aesthetic"

• A child liability waiver will be drafted, just in case

Sunday Work Party

We will meet Sunday, April 10th, 6pm (ish) at John's pad to produce the flyer. Contact <jingoro AT casa-z DOT org> for directions.

Other Ideas

• The Rad Dad Zine is cool

• Dan Miller (Spiral Garden) is super cool (http://www.ecologycenter.org/bcgc/)

• How about using libraries as meeting spaces?
• Maybe the Temescal Library?

Support

Many are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, giddy and, in general, weird. The following is a brief, incomplete and anonymous summary of what was discussed.

• The community meeting seems to have its own focus apart from the rest of FreeSkool. We probably could get a lot of the same information going door-to-door.

• FreeSkool is weird. I feel like I haven't done much, but now I'm going to. Things have been weird. I'm interested...now.

• The working group seems to have paired down from about twelve to about seven active members.

  • Not all the BarringtonCollective people are interested in doing FreeSkool stuff. Other people have other interests, like the DoItYourselfFestival.

  • Many in the area seem to have their own pet projects. It seems like we all want to lead.
  • Many in the area seem interested in what we're doing. "Oh wow what you're doing sounds so cool!" But they don't commit to teaching any classes. It seems like nobody wants to lead.
• There is importance to maintaining personal health, no matter the present demands.

• Even with seven, the goals seem tractable. Different people thought different parts of the FreeSkool project would be most difficult.

• Door-to-door flyering will probably not be that daunting. There are basically three types of people when doing money solicitation.
  1. People that just slam the door on you. Just walk away.
  2. People that go "oh, wow" and give you their time (or money). Do what you need to do and walk away.
  3. People that are ego-driven argumaniacs. Just walk away.
• The earlier days of working in the USCA co-ops made it easier to recruit people, as well as spaces to hold classes.

Next Meeting

Our next FreeSkool meeting will take place Tuesday, April 12th at Nabalom Bakery. See you there!