[New-imc] MILWAUKEE-IMC (please take a look -- membership criteria responses)

[Jay]

IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA - DRAFT 
Each IMC and Global Working Group is expected to: 

a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of 
Unity, 
 
Milwaukee IMC members discussed the points of unity, and are in agreement
with them.

b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a functional IMC, 

Members: 
Brian 
Mileka 
Tiffany 
Chris 
Ariane 
Monte 
Drew 
Steve 
-There are several other individuals who will work with us as time in their
schedule allows. 

c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary 
"ownership" of an IMC), 

We have discussed this at length, actually, and will handle the meetings
when we come to them. We wholeheartedly agree that Milwaukee IMC is
independent, and not a press agency/PR service for any group, left, right
or otherwise. Currently, meetings are being held at Tiffany's house, and as
the IMC grows and people become interested and we're known in the
community, we'll decide best where/how to hold the meetings, depending on
local support and opposition. 

d. Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement of 
 Purpose. 
Network Mission Statement may be adopted or used on an interim basis, 

Mission Statement: Milwaukee IMC strives to provide fair, honest and
accurate coverage of events and issues locally, regionally, nationally and
internationally that have, to date, been largely ignored by local
mainstream, profit-based press. We will work toward providing an open forum
and informative resource for all individuals accessing the indymedia
Milwaukee site. 

e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and
functions through democratic process, and with full transparency, 

-All feature story ideas should be presented to the group at Editorial
meetings, or in an online forum in which all members of the IMC areable to
discuss the idea and take action regarding it. 

-All stories should serve the mission statement. 

-All stories should follow basic journalistic principles: timeliness,
service to readership, balance, accuracy, honesty. 

-Milwaukee IMC can and will accept monetary contributions from members or
readers after making both members and readers aware that any monies given
are donations toward the overall goals of Milwaukee IMC /NIMC, and will not
guarantee coverage of an event, issue or person nor will it affect they
type of article produced regarding any event or issue in which donors are
involved. Donors will be notified that to date, monies donated are not tax
deductible. 

-Milwaukee IMC recognizes the vital information and communication functions
that non-newswriting serves, and will therefore publish features and
opinions on its site, however, only news and news features will run in the
center column, in keeping with the ideals of Indymedia and mission
statement of Milwaukee IMC. 

-Milwaukee IMC will provide contact information to the public for each of
its writers/editors on a case-by-case basis, provided such information will
not endanger the writer or the writer's sources, physically or legally. In
summation, Milwaukee IMC believes that the press is an open forum for the
public, and the best way to encourage open dialogue is to show
accountability to your work by putting your name on it. However, should the
writer be covering an issue in which the coverage indicates potentially
illegal activity, or in which the writer is using very sensitive
sources/source material that could put the writer in jeopardy with the law
or local/national "authorities," the writer may choose to publish the story
anonymously or under pen name, and Milwaukee IMC respects that right.

-Milwaukee IMC publishes articles that may be re-printed elsewhere. If an
IMC writer wishes, he/she may request that persons wishing to re-print the
article contact him/her prior to doing so. This option will be on a
story-by-story basis. 

-Milwaukee IMC recognizes that objectivity in reporting requires a certain
detachment from issues or events being covered. Therefore, it is suggested
that IMC Milwaukee journalists covering protests or campaigns not be
actively involved in the protests or campaigns, and likewise, it is
suggested that Milwaukee IMC journalists not write articles about protests,
events or campaigns in which they are actively involved. 

-Milwaukee IMC recognizes that democracy in any organization is vital to
that organization's survival, and in keeping with that philosophy, the
tenets in this Editorial Policy may be changed or revised if the group
comes to majority vote regarding the tenet(s) under question. 

 f. Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC 
Editorial Policy

-Milwaukee IMC supports open publishing and open posting. 
In order to resolve open publishing issues experienced by NIMC and other
local IMCs, Milwaukee will adopt a registration system, in which if users
wish to post or upload information, they will have to register with our
system, using a screen name and a password. We will not moderate posts, but
in the event that harassment, threats, or other issues of extremity are
made by posters, we will use their registration information to take action,
so as to promote a non-hostile, open publishing forum for everyone. All
users will be accepted once they have accepted our Terms of Service
agreement, which essentially says: you are responsible for the information
posted, and if the info posted requires to to site its source, you'd better
do so. Milwaukee IMC will place on its site a disclaimer which states that
views posted do not necessarily reflect those held my Milwaukee IMC or NIMC
memebers. We recognize that in certain cases, anonymity is important, and
in those cases, site users will be directed to email an IMC member, who
will then post the information for the user without revealing the user's
identity. 

 g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus 
principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes, 

All policies and decisions are based upon majority vote and all people
working with Milwaukee IMC have the right to bring concerns and questions
to the group for discussion, and all Milwaukee IMC members have a
responsibility to listen to each member’s questions and concerns and
participate in open dialogue to resolve such issues/concerns.

Clarification:
We discussed this at length as well, as each of us is very different
socio-politically. We've got an anarchist, a reporter activist, a few
people who are involved just because they support free speech, and some
undecided, etc. I myself am a straight up journalist who thinks corporate
media and the ideals that go with them (consumer culture, globalization,
etc) are really destroying and oppressing all sorts of people because mass
media lies. Anyway, point being, we all have different ways of handling
this, and essentially, we think that open dialogue is key, and have had
instances already where there's been issues not agreed upon, and we've
worked through them. We're not following Robert's Rules, or what have you;
the majority vote is a stop-gap measure basically put in place to ensure
that at some point, after long, long discussion, we come to some sort of a
consensus so we can move on. Everyone at Milwaukee IMC has equal right and
responsibility to speak and to listen, and after all voices wishing to be hea
rd are heard, we'll make some sort of collective decision regarding
whatever issue it is we're dealing with.

h. Have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in the global 
decision-making process and meetings as a rotating liaison/representative, 
with a clear understanding of the responsibilities that come with this 
role, 

Yes.  Tiffany will do this for now.  

i. Participate in the key IMC Network Communication Methods that 
pertain to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute to
the work 
of the IMC. Assure that at least one person from your local IMC participates 
at any given time on the IMC-Communications list, 

Yes.  Tiffany is already on several IMC lists and will do this for now.  

 j. (NOT FINALIZED): Have no official affiliation with any political party, 
state or candidate for office (comments: but individual producers have 
freedom to do whatever they like and local IMCs can "feature" stories about 
various political parties and initiatives), 

We're unsure what you mean by "official" affiliation. We have an anarchist
who also works a bit with the local green party. Seeing as we have already
had a long discussion on NOT using indymedia as a platform for ANYBODY,
because we're independent, I don't think the involvement will negatively
impact coverage of events, because there's enough checks and balances
within our local group to ensure no one person will turn the site into
public relations. So, until you guys finalize this point, we don't feel as
though we can finalize this point, and when it comes up, we'd like to be
part of the dialogue that is created around that issue.

k. IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit enterprises. [We 
could add: The IMCN is committed to the decommercialization of information 
and will disassociate from any local IMC that decides to become a for 
profit media corporation.] 

Milwaukee IMC does not operate for profit. 

l. Display a local version of the IMC i logo on your website and  literature. 

Agreed.

m. Include the IMC Network current Cities List on your site, preferably on 
 the front page. 

Agreed.