Program and Culture Working Group Notes August 24, 2009

From USSF 2010 Wiki

August 24, 2009

Notes from Cultural Committee Meeting

On the Call:

Oya (facilitator)

Rishi

Kiran

Walda

Adrienne

Jerome

Jacqui

Alicia

Rose

Roopa (notetaker)

Update From Consulta and Track Subgroup Rishi, Alicia and Raquel

Process been feeling a little rushed but we got this: a lot going on, fire under feet, gotta get it up right away so folks have it in time for the wkshp form, moving forward fast missed Adrienne’s feedback along the way we been working offline together, coming up with tracks and consulta forms finalizing language and sent it to mpc today for feedback

Publishing in Lefturn is a powerful step but its meant an accelerated pace: tryna prioritize having it be printed in at least one mag, leftturn which is cool but pushing deadline, bcuz extra step required, if we’re going to print it, we have to design it on our own, design action cool, but its an extra step so we are waiting for feedback on language from mpc, then translation into Spanish, designed to leftturn, then to tech folks

We’ve discovered that it doesn’t need to be as linear a process as we thought: so we’ve met with tech with rough cut, they get the content, they’ve started designing, language access has started rough translation, design action already going off rough tech gonna be ready to online by thurs/fri

End of week, consulta should be up and ready: barring any dramatic content changes to the consulta

We gotta take into account Adrienne’s feedback re: differentiation between skill based wkshps and issue based wkshps Adrienne: asking if yall had talked about it and decided not to have it in this round, issue/framework/analysis wkshp AND hard skill based wkshps Rish: there is a decision to be made around is it useful to frame the wkshps that way vs. feeding through and differentiating ourselves as they come in. if its former, we can do this through the consulta process. if it’s the latter, we can differentiate as we feed through the workshop proposal forms. Adrienne: I would love for it to still go through consulta process, did feel like it was important to move towards gathering and less from conference feeling. Might just be a write up around intention. not just talking at each other, but to share skills, and have foundational political conversation Walda: References older forms to say sharing skills is clearly our intent across the board Rishi: unless theres a concrete suggestion on how to re-write the track, we should reference it and explain that we want this intention, then have there be a category on wkshp proposal form, so people can choose one or the other Alicia: Is the skills based stuff not well enough reflected in the resistance strategies track? Slipped off radar, but we can highlight it more and more specific. Adrienne: Great to have it be part of the resistance strategy. space where people walk away learning how to create radio stations, puppets…so yes, could fit perfectly there. Rishi: good catch, concrete decision: Jerome: what about cultural workshops, did yall do what you said youd do Alicia: reads from material Jerome: sounds good

[DECISION: Incorporate Adrienne’s feedback re: skills sharing intention/gathering intention into the Resistance Strategy]

Online Forms, Subgroup Kiran, Walda

Kiran: We looked at the form from 2007, we’ve taken that one form and split it into four different forms:

Form 1: for 2 hour wkshp session Form 2: for 2 part wkshp session, 4 hours total (2 sponsoring orgs) Form 3: for aritists Form 4: for mini-assembly (4 or more sponsoring orgs)

Kiran: folks can click on the one form appropriate to them meeting with tech this thurs, we are pulling out language part of description, special needs, av needs out to be their own field so they can be really defined. putting rough draft together for meeting on friday want to send to rishi and oya to get feedback conference proposals: looking to condense it a bit, want to include the tracks in the proposal form, scrap key words and just put in tracks this time around one submission for each org, collaborate on more

Walda: film festival, can send that to us, no need to reinvent the wheel, don’t want to put out the word too soon, overwhelming, there will be 100’s of films, suggests we push back deadline for film

Kiran: deadline to submit workshop proposals march 1. better for us to have an extra 2wks. given that we have diff types of forms, etc. @ Adrienne: incorporating your idea of letting people to self id going to ask tech on fri, possible to auto feed films into a database so we can read thru them easier, said it would be cool, but lets work out the deets

Rishi: they told us we could get the tech stuff to them a lil late (wkshps) so we might not be done for a while, can get you the language to have the wkshp form up by mid oct.

Peoples Movement Assembly: How the overall program might look Walda and Rose were on the call Oya, you were very missed on the call

Walda: sent notes from Kentucky (“KY”) to our list multiple spaces that will be called pma starting on day 2, first wkshp day space to have pma consultations, convos, work that day doing work to bring forward the big pma on day 5 new thing that did not happen previously not much clarity right now on what that will look like sectoral, regional, already done work b4 ussf pma process is a b4, during, and follow up after social forum process fine tuning then of how these calls go out space starting on day 2 will be where people bring in what they have done one proposal: to try and come out from ussf and day 5 pma with a natl agenda for our movement. this hasn’t been fleshed out but put forward.

logistics: how much space do we have to give to pma for wkshp sessions

Rose: summed up well will continue to participate in pma process emerged: Detroit is touchtone, like NOLA, for the crisis in the country, our comm. is aware that Dtown is a microcosm and we seek to really lift up this piece, as part of natl agenda

Oya: should someone from Detroit be participating on those calls?

Walda and Rose: YES

when are the calls: thursdays…2 prpopsed next dates, 23 sept (g20 time), following week weds or thurs, we tryna see what works best, then decide. mainly weve been meeting on thurs.

Oya: I’ll participate in the PMA calls, at least till we get other Detroit reps on board

Walda: fred is on the calls

Oya: reflects concern that both urban and suburban should be repped, we BOTH should be a part of the call.

Jerome: came away from atl thinking about how to bring up the local issues

Oya: tryna encourage others in DLOC to partipate as well, like Elena...i’ll do it, until we can find someone to do that consistently.

Rose: there was a good report on the ky social forum and how the pma process unfolded there.

Oya: great process, people very engaged, didn’t want to stop, a beauiful process

Roopa: tours, not reinventing the wheel, making use of amc model….

Adrienne: tours being developed based on amc model? link to gardens to environmental justice, link community businesses to economic justice…

Oya: yes, we should take the cue from what amc did, cuz we have buses, same infrastructure as the Baptist convention, I will bring that to the Diane Feeley

Adrienne: how important is it to go to the pma process, call in, to ensure work on the ground is connected to this piece?

Oya: in ky, it brought everything together

Adrienne: curious, might already be processes going on locally that want to be lifted up, how do they engage these folks with the pma…how do we make use of the RTTC work in this process

oya: language is important and didn’t have a clue what pma was, or how inclusive it is, like a townhall mtng on speed. would u consider working with the pma?

Adrienne: I’m down to do a lot of diff peieces. But, have the pma folks had that convo on how the intersections are going to be connected?

Walda: We should be clear, we should be tryin to make it clear what the space is, whats happening. So, there is space to bring that question, those needs up. So, be part of different calls, be up in the process, there is room, and there is potential for these concerns and these questions to be shaping.

[RESPONSE: Folks should be a part of the calls/PMA process to help create intersections that need to be created.]

Report Back from DLOC: Logistics and Space

Oya: Navigating fireworks and workshops ALL downtown meeting with Diane Feeley at 1am (!!) ussf begins Tuesday fireworks starting weds (2nd day) 500,000-800,000 people to come downtown for fireworks, they start camping out the night b4, traffic horrific downtown is where most wkshps are

Oya: Concert Early Weds Afternoon, starting 1pm-2pm logistics: would be great idea to put on a concert early weds afternoon, folks gonna start pouring in round 3, so big concert by 1 or 2. they don’t recc having concerts late. pretty packed by 6. 3-5:30 good for various events, strolling musicians, bands.

we refer to maps and cutaway…. main ampitheater = main stage pyramid theater = second stage

Oya: We don’t have to share the hart plaza space, we have the entire space, which is tremendous! we have more options than we previously thought we have the space starting that monday….

Oya: Film festival, nothing hanging on walls, can put butcher paper up with 3m tape film festival either in wayne county comm. cobalt hall, we looking into that cant hang anything on walls but we can do something like put up butcher paper, 3M

Oya: Tours, 5000 bikes, gathering bikes, involving youth in rebuilding bikes, again, before, during, and after the USSF is our focus. tours on bus tours on bikes, trying to get 5000 bikes interactive art at hart plaza

Oya: Issues fireworks = extra security people do drink, will need hugs tuesday: opening march, opening ceremony weds: regional, local, detroit thurs: global fri: vision sat: pma

Oya; Diane’s assuming programming will go from 930pm-930pm but we have hart plaza for as long as we want childrens assembly will be in colbalt hall,

Kiran cobalt hall is all wheelchair accessible and has 74 rooms lots of accessibility

Oya: Diane doing tons of work on this. logisitics handling the food, and we want to make sure that food is culturally relevant food downstairs tents at wayne country comm. college, hoping to get their parking lots for the tents, not that far from hart plaza

[Kiran takes over on notes from here….]

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