[IMC-bristol] Indymedia UK meeting

[Tony]

Hello

Some time ago i wrote to you about a UK wide Indymedia meeting in 
Manchester (MERCi centre) on the weekend of 14th/15th September. You 
are very welcome and along with training, discusions etc we hope this 
will be an oportunity for individuals from various cities to meet up 
and form local IMC collectives outside of London, which will add to 
the possibilities and strength of the UK site.

Below is the start of a discussion about the agenda for the weekend - 
this discussion will take place on the imc-uk-network list

To mail to this list: imc-uk-network@lists.indymedia.org

To join this list (low traffic only about this meeting) go to:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-network
At the same location you can also read the archives so far...

If you plan to go please inform this list so we can prepare for 
numbers, and we hope to see you there.

cheers tony
one of imc uk network

==============================

Some people from the collective in London had a session on the conference.
We tried to find a flexible framework to accommodate things like the 
need of local groups to meet separately and new working groups that 
might emerge during the meetings. that's why we have these really 
long lunchbreaks. Please fill in... here's what we came up with, see 
what you think about it. Please add, change, fill in...

LOGISTICS

LOCATION
The indymedia uk network meeting will take place at MERCI, an 
alternative project. It's booked for Saturday, 12 to 8pm, Sunday 10 
to 4/5 pm. We have access to the kitchen (vegetarian policy) and some 
computers, probably the internet, and we have to clean up b4 we 
leave. And we need to leave a donation.

Info on the location and how to get there is available on
http://www.bridge-5.org/map.htm

SLEEPING
The Merci people say that we can't sleep in their center - so 
everybody will have to try and contact as many pp in Manchester as 
possible - hopefully we can find some spare sofas or floors in 
friendly houses...
It would be nice if pp on this list would find more sleeping spaces 
than they actually need, I guess there will be some pp who come to 
the meeting without having made arrangements...
So here's a call to the Manchester people - do you know anyone?
(oh, about lifts back to London - unlikely, we only have one old car 
between all of us...)

FOOD
We can cook our own food, provided that someone does the shopping. 
Any  volunteers (with cars?) who could bring some rice/couscous/pasta 
and veg and chocolate and beer and so on? Or should we split tasks - 
one group does sat lunch, one sun lunch, one snacks, one drinks?

IT-INFRASTRUCTURE
looks as if we can use the MERCI facilities. Javier will give an 
update of things needed soon. laptops are useful in any case.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
We need a location for saturday night. A social center to chill out, 
maybe show some videos, would be nice - any suggestions? Or at least 
a pub, or a cheap restaurant where we can book tables in advance - it 
would be good to have a place where we can be together, instead of 
splitting up in loads of small groups. How many people will come? no 
idea. 30-50? I guess about 8 from London. Maybe more.

TIME TABLE
We've tried to make a rough time-table. It goes very much along the 
lines of Fran's suggestion: a mix between plenary sessions and 
smaller working groups, with time in between for eating together and 
socialising.
The times are rather generous, experience shows that meetings always 
start late.
We tried to find a flexible framework to accommodate things like the 
need of local groups to meet separately and new working groups that 
might emerge during the meetings. that's why we have these really 
long lunchbreaks. Please fill in...

SATURDAY - HANDS-ON NITTY GRITTY, BASIC PRACTICAL STUFF FOR NETWORK 
COLLABORATION

12.00-12.30 - Logistics about the Locations, Intro to Indy, general 
stuff (some pp are working on it)
12.30-13.30 - Intro round for groups and individuals with a view to 
uk-wide collaboration - info on emerging and existing websites and 
sections and their objectives, always linked to how each can 
contribute to another resp what sort of collaboration they'd like.
13.30-15.00 - break - for cooking, eating, socialising, talking to 
the people we've just met... informal communication
15.00-15.30 - intro to workshops, what's on offer, resources, etc
15.30-17.00 - several parallel workshops
17.00-17.30 - break, coffee, tea, opportunity to catch up with others 
from the various local groups
17.30-19.00 - several parallel workshops
19.00-20.00  - general catch up, raised questions, emerged projects etc.

after 20.00 - food, party...

The workshops on sat would be v practical, things that everybody 
needs to run an imc site, wether they run their own indy site/section 
or contribute to another. putting up features, "cleaning the 
newswire", updating the calendar, list admin, site admin, what 
software do you need on your comp, basic html, overview of how it all 
links together...
Andi has put documentations together and will come up with some more 
specific proposals.

SUNDAY - CONTENTS AND DISCUSSIONS
10-11.30 - We thought that after all the practical stuff, it would be 
nice to have a more general discussion. By that time we will all know 
what sort of work the site involves, so we would have a basis. One 
theme that is coming up again and again in many of the euro imcs is 
the question of "Potentials and Limitations of Open Publishing". This 
is about how to deal with the newswire - wanting an open posting 
system, and at the same time not wanting to put all that work into a 
site that's full of racist shit, for expl. Fran said that this 
discussion was very heated in scotland, I can confirm that for 
London, also that it could go on forever. But in our prep. session, 
we thought that this issue is so important that it's worth to start a 
debate about it once we are together face to face.  It's a challenge 
- but on the basis of everyone's genuine wish to work together, and 
respect for each other, it should be worth the effort.
11.30 - 12.00 - break for extended arguments, reconciliations etc
12.00 - 13.30 - more content- and process oriented workshops. Three ideas:
		- working on the editorial guidelines
		- how to get up a feature - proposal, writing, 
providing links, how to make it short yet informative etc
		- global networking - the imc-project relies on the 
global networking, so every imc has a responsibility to participate 
in the global lists. there are many of them, it's a lot of work, but 
also very rewarding and full of really exciting projects.
		- maybe someone wants to do a workshop here on "how 
to set up a new imc"? I don't know which issues scotland is presently 
discussing, but could your "scottish meeting" maybe be interesting 
for other start-ups, too?
13.30 - 15.30 - long lunch break, cooking, time for extra meetings of 
new working groups, or local groups?
15.30 - 16.30 - final big session, vision for months to come
16.30 - 17.00 - high-speed-cleaning!!