[Imc-lwg-work] Meta-proposal to get IMC-Finance Empowered:

[Richard Malter]

Hello everyone,

In London working group we will need some more time about this ammendment, 
minimum an extension of a week.

In the meantime some very relevant discussion has been going on in imc-process 
starting from this mail.
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-process/2002-April/003228.html
And then continuing with the subject line 
"Nothing else among us is more important than this, at this moment"

I gave in an earlier mail a draft of what the ammendment might look like, I 
paste it below.

Here is the logic i am using. First thing is that the idea about having local 
IMC liasons forming some kind of decision-making group is ideology - something 
like the (anarchist) concentric circle 'spokescouncil' model. And it is acting 
here on this discussion as an ideological 'anchor' to all discussion - bending 
all the discussion to continually reference this ideology and so be prejudiced 
towards it. But there is no need for us to do this.

If we start without prejudice then this is what we get: 

aa) To use an example, the logical situation is that those that build a house 
are the ones that work on the building of the house. Not someone in another 
street. The argument that 'everyone' is affected by the work of building the 
house and by the new finished house, is not that strong because: 'everyone' on 
the planet will be affected to a greater or a lesser degree, so the question 
you need to ask is: who is everyone - ie where do you draw the line? and the 
answer is: at the boundary of the *community* that the house is being built in. 
Then you have to ask: what defines the community - where is the boundary? and 
the answer is: that all the people in it do something to create and maintain 
the community. (Remember that a community is not a number of houses next to 
eachother - it is when the people in the houses actively cooperate with 
eachother to create their community).  So:

a) Finance Working Group will be making decisions that are network-wide in 
scope, and so it follows that anyone in the network must be able to choose to 
participate in the decision-making of the group.  
b) Indymedia, like any network/organization that cooperates, is greater than 
the sum of its parts.
c) You are part of this network if you do some _implementation_ work that helps 
create the network. Otherwise you may still be affiliated if you choose to be, 
but you are not actually contributing to the creating and sustaining of the 
network (see b).
d) Finance Working Group needs to be composed of people (individuals or groups) 
that are doing implementation work for the network.
e) there is then one key rule that needs to be part of the decision-making 
protocol in the group to ensure that there is never a ruling negating majority -
 because of 'spokescouncil' ideology [ie those that agree to the least rule], 
that we have experienced so much so far in Indymedia, that holds back so much 
real work, and causes enourmous amounts of frustration: - 

 *1) A decision can only be stopped if there is an objection that it would 
contradict any functional principle [agreed in the group's formatation 
proposal] and, or that it would endanger the existence of Finance Working Group.
 *2) If *1) does not apply, then a decision can only be blocked if some way to 
actually continue with the subject of the decision is proposed at the same time 
as the 'block', 
eg ammendments, substitution, improvements, alternative solution(s) etc.  

So *1 and *2 need to be added to the Draft 1.0 below.


Richard
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lwg
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------------------
Draft 1.0
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1) Basic Clause. Work for the network is some activity, that deliberately 
extends beyond the local IMC group's (geographical) work, for the purpose of 
contributing to/creating some aspect of the Indymedia network as a whole. 
  a) Definition of "work for the network". (I suggest local IMC groups nominate 
what their network work is/will be. If there is agreement amongst others in the 
Finance Working Group then that self-nomination of work is accepted.)

2) Provision for (newer, maybe first six months?) IMCs in more difficult 
situations, permanant or temporary. 

3) Status of individual from a local IMC. 
  a) [usual status] they are an empowered liason accountable to an IMC that 
does work [ie to a local IMC group that fullfils the Basic Clause] or
  b) [less common status] they do actual work in Finance Working Group *other* 
than just being involved in the decision-making process - eg facilitation, 
implementation, summary writing etc, as the contribution [fullfilment of Basic 
Clause] from their local IMC group.

------------------------end Draft