[CIMC-working] a short Chicago letter draft - tmf discussed on global lists

[Doug Morris]

Hi all,

I hope you all can take time to consider this:

Debates about the Tactical Media Fund (TMF) are now now starting on the 
global imc process lists.

See below for a way to introduce the Chicago letter on the tmf to the 
global process list (and finance list) and to state a current ongoing 
concern.

It seems better to share letter before Feb 9 (next meeting).  Like in a 
week...  Feb 3 or so.
I've tried to make the following bare bones...

In the last few days the topic of the tmf has sort of burst onto the global 
list with criticisms from the argentina and sf imcs:

SF INDYMEDIA'S THOUGHTS ON THE TACTICAL MEDIA FUND
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2003-January/004558.html

statment from the "down there" people (IMC Argentina)
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2003-January/004540.html
[spanish only]

I think there is a specific request from one of these collectives for 
opinions from other collectives.
So, it could be very helpful if our extended considerations are forwarded.

Note: While I am taking a break for 6 months or so from attending Chicago 
IMC meetings (Sundays are precious now for family reasons) and I am not a 
global liaison, I continue to follow the Chicago lists online and hope to 
help here and there with comments on local editorial and global network issues.

I believe Chicago IMC needs to take just a little editing effort (see 
below) and online consensus, to share with the network the rather largish 
amount work that was put into this tmf issue in discussions and writing...

Would someone like to edit the following or carry the general idea of 
introducing the Chicago IMC letter forward?  I probably can not find time 
to do further on this. See a draft below.

If not the following, I think Chicago imc should consider forwarding an 
intro to open letter we wrote.

The end of this note summarizes where some of our main opinions have been 
on this in a succinct way.  Note that this is shortish so that it can be 
translated into Spanish:

[Note: the Chicago tmf letter has been deleted from the imc-chicago list 
archives from Dec 2002 (it seems)...   Also, The imc-chicago list is now 
inundated with junk mail, perhaps because of the imc-arabia moniker for the 
list, should that be there?]
old link: 
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-chicago/2002-December/001049.html 

here is a new link:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-chicago/2003-January/001198.html 
]

Draft of intro and statement of continuing concern:

Chicago statement on Tactical Media Fund

Hi all,

The Chicago IMC collective sent a letter to the Tactical Media Fund (TMF) 
and Urbana-Champaign IMC collectives on On December 30, 2002 with a number 
of questions about the TMF:

Open letter to Urbana-Champaign IMC and TMF proposal creators
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-chicago/2003-January/001198.html
[Note: This is a copy of the original note.  The December 30 original does 
not appear in our list archives.]

The TMF statement to the Imc-finance list and some notes by individuals did 
speak about a lot of our concerns, though some of our concerns remain:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-finance/2003-January/001686.html

We appreciate the efforts of the TMF project to channel funds to various 
independent media and indymedia projects.

However, we remain concerned about:
         - OSI as a source of funds for indymedia projects
         - the lack of a call for and means for participation by indymedia 
participants and locals in the TMF process as it impacts indymedia, 
***especially since the TMF project is linked to funding a number of major 
indymedia projects***.

We think it is conceivable to work with independent grant making groups to 
support indymedia projects. But, we think that fund raising strategies and 
specific plans needs to be developed through an open collaborative 
discussion process between independent grant groups and indymedia networks 
and collectives.

We look forward to further dialog and the development of *various* network 
wide participatory grassroots fund raising strategies.

In Solidarity,
Chicago IMC