Logistics
- Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2005
- Location: Nabalom Bakery
- Attendance: Anders, Anthony, Caitland, Dana, Erin, Helen, John, Zoe
Report Backs
john:will talk about world grounds later, zoe and i went doen to freedonm school in richmond,got a house rent-free, 15 kids 1-8 grade, hs elsewhere, 2 classes, reading time and cooking class,working on schoold mandated homework throughout, Cesar and Wendy started it, will help us out in any advice or networking. Recommended: for trial liability they explain that their are volunteers, have no insurance,never had a problem with that. All recommended churches-should look into that, also must find community leaders, focal points of attention, get them on your side,getting donations is good, and make sure it is from most impoverished people, everybody, anything they can contribute, give them a stake in it and sense of involvement, talk to anybody, do not be afraid, never know who will get involved
John: have been sending the emails from responded people to BC list, have some close to confirmaytion clases, nothing definite. Talked to Peter, an Oaklnad art school teacher, was possibly interested in using his own sspace, if we have something good going, he would jump in.
Zoe: said not interested in goverment funding, a lot more freedom witout accountability, i.e. fire code calls.
Helen: I've been ridiculously busy, but not too many opportunities to talk to churches. They said sorry, we're busy and we can't help out. Even the large churches don't have much space, and I saw their .. One church said keep us posted but if you'r available in the fall. I don't know where to go to Oalkand. I don't know which areas of Oakland.
Anthony: sooooooo, have a location for Benfit show, tentatively, 382 Bayshore in Sf, a Flowershow satellite space, have the spacew for events, want to open it as a Free Skool location for classes., Binny is interested in teaching a meditation class, for May 21. We need to do promotion in E and W Bay, help with setup and clean up, and split proceeds 50-50. Comunnity Health class is on, people don;t want depending others on them, will have facilitators at all time Will confirm time and location, Jerry at Spaz said he would get back to me about his space. Can t come to La Pena on Thursday, i flyered for it.meeting at Lapena at 7:30, Holding on to the letter to NOLO until i see Patty Pink again,
John: wants the NoLO supplies before she does the class. It would be good to get it now.
Anthony: Kiren called Sol and cancelled, b/c we didn't flyer.
Anders: didn;t get any confirmations, sent an email to Brenat about Fire art classes, sent an email to 15 groups tday from Seed library to Youth together, other worker coops centered on education,asking for teachers, went to the meeting, don't have any flyers, want to do it tomorrow.
Zoe: slacked of, Free Skool in Sant Cruz has not gotten back to me yet.
Dana
slinece
Erin: have confirmations from the welding guy, Joe, totally excited about it, calls me all the time, under the impression that we had money, he will talk to some places that he worked in in East bay and look on Craigslist for donations, gave me a list of supplies. My mom gave me the days she wants to teach a Homeclass.---a calss on how to buy a home. She wants people to free register to her, like call, not drop-in, 10-12 people mix. Je wants only 5 people per machine, has no machines, we need to find him a space, wants it to be drop in.
Anthony: Crucible wants people to pay 150 for use of machines unsupervised.
Zoe: Tinkers in uninterested and abusy,
Erin: will get back to Joe in a week, about finding him a space. I want to do a datime benefit, like an art show, talking to MomaBuzz about hosting it, like wine and jazz, talking to some benefits for the benefit show, some are ainto it. Clowns? on Bycicles don't know, Flux capacitor experimental. What is the music preference? Audrey session is into it, they are indie-rock, with a fiddle.There's also Moped, political band, Sign for stereo is experimental dont; think they will be good.
World Ground Meeting Report Back
Attended by: Danielle (big), Mike (big), Eden (small), Adan (small)
They expressed a desire for:
- community-based education
- extra attention to individual kids
- schooling where young children have groups of five-sex-seven actual parents rotate putting in one day a week. Each parent offers more specific subjects or skills, and more in-depth as necessary.
- for older kids, teaching hands on stuff, rather than abstract topics. They felt like there is a real lack of hands on skills. "High school was training us to do go to college, but we can't do things like make a meal, fix a clogged sinked, put two pieces of wood together so they'll stay."
- teaching culinary arts and butchary.
They wanted to know:
- how to find spaces to teach
- how to find people interested in this type of schooling (like-minded parents)
"We're young 22-23, so most of our friends don't have kids yet... if we could just find other parents..."
"We're trying to find different cooperative and communal situations... taking a trip this summer to figure out what we're trying to get... if we could find something in this general area.. that might be ideal.. since our family lives here.. but .. we had plans .. stuff happened.. and change..."
Things were learned:
Reading from a script really bores people. Don't do it! Just engage in direct dialog whenever possible.
- It's difficult for parents to communicate when distracted by their children. It's probably okay to have somebody play with kids as long as they're close by and in direct sight of parents.
- The one couple that showed up were the roughly the same demographics as most of us: white, subcultural, etc.
- Things would have been really hard if spanish-speaking people attended. We would probably have to break the discussion into two groups to make it work.
La Pena Meeting
Anders: weird bike poeple, went to a different neighborhood to get aways form
John: passed out flyers to people, two ladies exclaiming "anyone can teach!? well, tnat's absolute bullcrap!"
Erin: have access to good copy machines, limited and tem poraty use.
aAnthony: i flyered four blocks around la Pena in either direction, poles, businesses,
Erin: can make copies and bring tomorrow.
Anthony: 4-7 converging: 4:30 in front on la Pena tomorrow.
John: for flyering: LIQUoR stores and laundromats!got Johan to post the meeting announcement at "i'm pissed off about what's going on in Oakland" list.
Zoe and John at least are planning to be there, Anders and Kiran possibly, will wing it and bring whatever did last time. John says "esoteric" for no reason.will bring either the notes or the minutes.
JOHN TO PRINT THE MINUTES
Anders: if we have angry teachers coming, we will need to have a different atmosphere, speak about what we're doing. Jonh: on Thursday, meet 6:30 in front of La Pena, can use the cafe ( or Long Haul or the bar) for those who are coming to meeting on Wednesday.
Old Barrington Collective Members
Anthony: one emailed me about feeling alienated about not telling him what we are up to.
Erin: it's Your responsibility to show up to the meeting in a collective that is up to one's own involvement.
Anthony: There were some personal issues.
Anders: i figure that people are either busy or not interested.
John: Chris said that he would be interested in helping us out in 2 weeks.
Anthony: some of it were personal issues not related to co-op, but then the feeling that the BC was not a collective that checks on its members.
Erin: sometimes it's nice to have a call that says, " wish you could have been there"
Anders: there is a feeling that a person is uninterested in what the group is doing, we don't want to hassle them and make them come out of guilt. Just something that was bothering me.
Classes
John: not any classes confirmed.
Anders: will contact Josh about Liberation class?
Jpohn: Kiran said make sure You get a blurb about the teacher, just a little something, doesn't have to be credential. Have ti have the calendar in 12 days!!
Anthony: teachers?
Zoe: need to get other people to teach, not us.
John: let's transfer wah into action.
Anders: people talk of diversity as "people who are not like us". People you intereact with daily are the ones who would be involved in the project, need to have a complicated daily life with various.Free Skool is amzing and interesting, i want to use it into conversation with people i don;t neceserily interact with daily.
Jphn: talked to people who are not us, got a lot of rejections, all actually. Thjey say they want something more structured. We are new to this, we might revert to our old ways,a lot of people are wait-and-seers, they will help out if we get something going. This is not a subculturish project. needs to happen incrementally, then will pick up, if we keep working at it.
John: maybe You should not tell them this is a new idea but, "hey, we already have this going! wanna teach?" next semester we would be in a similar situation, we'd be in need of teachers, students and classes.
Anthony: it;s a paradigm shift from "it's strating" to "it's started!",
Anders: people want to see something real, there is nothing that already exists. 3 mos from now we might have something like a Santa Cruz Free Skool Calendar.
Zoe: we should learn something from jamaica plains clsoing, they could not break out of their pattern, could not get it to where they are going.,
Anders: pif we become this summer a crazy 20-something subculture radical group, people will not relate to this who don't.
Anthoiny: contacted Sapz space, they have 3 computers upstairs, will put in 3 more, Flowershop will put computers into Spaz warehouse, we might have 10-15 computers at spaz port if they are willing to facilitate/host, the palce is very subculture, might be alienating to lots of people.
Anthony: i could go to Spaz port and talk to them
John: should we go back to the same people that rejected me the first time or were uncertain and tried to push it more, not be standoffish.
Anthony: i got a lot of people talking to me about it when i wore a Free Skool shirt. it's a non-intrusive way to approach.
John lists confirmed classes.
Locations
Anthony: really subcultural locations--long Haul 6-9 on Monday.
Zoe: my locations want specifics, 3 of them want more info.
John: someone today suggested Oakland Museum rooftop garden, using public spaces and then telling them waht we are there for if they ask. Anthony: public school multi-purpose rooms want insurance paperwork, pretty stndard procedure. Libraries are only free meeting spaces for 501(3)k
Caitlin: can we get someone to sponsor us, Cooperative roots or Long Haul or Nascent?
ANTHONY WILL TALK TO THEM
Dana: agreed to contact libraries, Oakland an Public, about space.
Anthony: will ask Spaz Port about space for classes.
Zoe: Laney? Merrit is out of the way?
john: last week we made a list of places to ask, didn't comb them.
Anders: we might not have enough space, we should distribute and find spaces for classes we already have.
Anthony: I will call the Crucible and ask. Launchpad?
Erin: need to find him equipment, so he can know which book to get.
Caitlin: i know a guy who welds, i'll ask him.
Erin: he will find other stuff, will try to get donations, we just need to get the welder.
Anders: i'll see about university extras.
John and Zoe will work on a paper to send to community centers.
Anders: we need to get locations next weekend.
Pretty consensus for number of classes, if all those that are confirmed actually take off...
Anders: we failed to engage the community, in some ways, maybe after we actually start.
Caitlin: it;s a procces, a dialogue.
Anthony: it's gonna grow unless people give up. Have a 2-hour mark when we feel a slumpl, but we made conneections with Sol, and that family from World Grounds, and Richmond Free Skool. There's something we did.
Calendar
Zoe sent emails to Santa Cruz people, Anders will call his friend.
Kiran is writing the calendar.
Anthony: we need to confirm " this is Your class, you are teaching here, at this time"
Zoe: would anyone be willing to get reading materials for Radical History of East Bay...Anthony speaks about the Diggers. Want people to come and speak about history.
ANders: might gat in on their scams of copies.
Benefit show/Fundraising
Erin: will contact Moped and Flowershop, tell them it;s at the flowershop.
Anthony: need to know who's performing, so i can put them on a flyer. Will ask Miguel from Rom.Someone from berkeley art museum offered memberships to raffle to them.
Erin: Mama Buzz does the art shows alreadt, they do special events, don't need that many artist, could use more. have different artists put their stuff up, we can schedule a day in advance, various artists. Was thinking on a Sunday. if they don't have it, we can just do the music and sell things, display art somehow else.
Anthony: 382 Bayshore, Flowershop Satellite, members of flowershop.
Erin: flux capacitor may be busy that day.
Anthony: it fits 100-150, dancing,
Erin: are we getting donations of food or whatever for the fundraisers?
Anthony: pizza from Cheeseboard, Kiran has a car, need help with setting up. Could take t-shirts and Zines? They sold drinks for their events, if we could get donated wine, i'm sure they would not mind.
John: put me down for cleanup, and Dana can help with setup.
Caitlin: where is the money going?
Erin: after clases are confirmed can make a wishlist, and get stuff that we can.
Zoe: don't believe that all the classes there will actually happen.
John: this is only for the paper calendar, for June-August, we can always add more things and release an amended calendar.
John: two unconfirmed classes, one-Kapoeira, another seems likely, will find out his time availability at some point. Anthony and Kiran are leaving for India June 18th for 3-4 weeks, Zoe gone some weeks in beginning and in august, Caitlin gone May 24 until early july and doesn't want to commit to anything until late august, john may 24 through june 13, Anders may be at the same time,
Zoe: how are we gonna implement the non-teacher-non-student?
Anthony: have a facilitator meeting.
Caitlin, we can say you are definitely expected to be there every week.
John: we don't think it will be in the non-teacher-non-student, will encourage student and facilitator meeting, some classes make no sense without teachers, everyone want to encourage people to make sense.
Erin:can make it public,
Caitlin:can have the first one to meet the facilitator, can be off calendar.
Anthony: fist meeting of Alternative education class.
What the Hell Are We Doing?!
Anthony and Zoe: how are we providing what Oakland is not?
Zoe: there is a ton of free classes for adults and kids.
Anders: We are trying t get away from the expert mentality, these are city classes, the point here is empowering ourselves to learn ourselves,not going to a building
Helen: not going to be any different during the semester, but in the transition
Anthony: BC is growing, trying to outreach to the community, and realizing the community is already doing them, but not in the way we want to.
Caitlin: Hopefully in the equivalent of the BC classes we would encourage people to create relationships, not just to go learn.
Erin: City of Oakland Parks and rec is providing community with classes, and here we are doing the community is giving class to the community, and are payed to do so.
Dana: in Columbus, Ohio, the teachers are people of the community and are paid are almost negligibly.
John: we spent a lot of time, we could just have done classes ourselves, target specific community, fulfill identity requirement of out free skool. Started out with axiom of not teaching classes, does make it weird, could have taught some and right now.
Anders: as i said, free to me is not about "no money", not because we have no money and are doing it. learning should not be about acquiring knoweledge as an object to have and put inside you. people who have been interested in free skool are concerned with knowledge and feeling of ignorance control our lives, the people who know more are more powerful. i feel that soemthing different is possible, could be the same subjects, matters how the relationships are between the people involved in it.i don't want to provide a community service, i want feel empowered by doing it with different people.
John: that;s exactly what i wanted to do, feel like somewhting has died in the process, when talking to people at their own level.
Zoe: with giving us with trying to instigate it, don't know how much we can follow the Anders model, it feels forced. others are started by parents or teachers, and i am neither.
Anthony: it seems strange to me too that this is in the interest of upper/middle class priviledged university-educated kids.
John: we're trying to shove like, cats into boxes.
Anders: we are so disempowered within the city life and just trying to survive, relying on institutions to provide education.
Anthony:I convinced one of my students to go to the library, and he looked at me as though i am ateacher and i am supposed to tell him what to do. He read Sports illustrated and was pretty satisfied. and they need to go through a total freedom before they can figure out who they are.
John: it's the kids that are straight A students who have aharder time, than the rebellious kids. It takes sometime to adjust from the way one has been brought up. Adults usually have had time when they have done that, Zoe: it;s an afterschool program, which is not school.
John: has to be a significant amount of time that kids should spend there if we want to do what we want to do. Younger kids have easier time to get acclimating than high school.
Dana: in Ohio we had a lot of outreach effort, showing an interest in community, took a lot of time and effort, wehn i was working for an arts non-profit.
Erin: You guys have me depressed, i had the idea that we would provide a space to teach kids, and they would pick and choose classes, which are not offered by Oakland, with its depleting resources. no one wants to teach kids.
John: i'm really hoping that Adam from "i'm really pissed with what's going on in Oakland" would produce some parents and teachers for the Thursday meeting.
Caitlin: there is definitely some real fear about educating kids in the community.
Erin: it feels unmotivated, are we still gonna keep doing it?
Everyone: YEah!
Erin: Hopefully after the semester is done we can get closer to the goal we had in mind.
Anthony: Maybe we all have somewaht different goals.
Citlin: we have nothing to be discouraged about: we have classes!
Anders: just cause we;ve spend a lot of time thinking about neighborhoods and all that, and we thought we could be more effective immediately.
John: we are all sharing in collective mold, we all think to much.
Zoe: I feel it's not productive or healthy to go along with everything and not ask these questions. hBut i want to do it with my full intentions, not half-assed.