[New-imc] arkansas indymedia response to membership criteria

[Squash Capitalism]

These are our responses to the Membership Criteria. All of these were 
consensed on December 21st 2002.

a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity,
--we agree with the IMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity
b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a functional
IMC,
--there are currently 24 individuals involved, along with several 
organizations, and that number is starting to grow rapidly. we have a core 
of about 12 dedicated members.
c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary
"ownership" of an IMC),
--all of our meetings will be announced on our site and on our calender as 
soon as it is set up, there are also many other channels we will go through 
to announce our meetings, and our meetings are always open to anyone.
d. Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement of Purpose.
Network Mission Statement may be adopted or used on an interim basis,
--we developed our local mission statement on 12-21-02 and have already 
submitted it to this list.
e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and
functions through democratic process, and with full transparency,
--we developed our editorial policy on 12-21-02 and i will submit it as soon 
as i finish typing this email
f. Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC Editorial
Policy [editorial collective comments: "We did agree that the term "Open
Publishing" was one that is still being defined by the Global Network
Collective, and we would wait and see what the results were before rewriting
this criteria],
--the collective had no problem agreeing to this point
g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus
principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes,
--all our collective's decisions are based on consensus
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,
--we have decided that i will be first spokesperson, for a two month period, 
and other people are ready and willing to fill this role after me.
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,
--we have several people interested in being as much a part of 
IMC-Communications as possible--people here are VERY excited about 
Indymedia.
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 all came to consensed that we will have no affiliation with any 
political party, etc.
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.]
--our collective is totally opposed to capitalism, and we will NEVER engage 
in any commercial enterprises.
l. Display a ³local version² of the IMC ³i² logo on your website and
literature.
--our current logo is up on our site at 
http://arkansasdada.bandwidthcoop.org/
m. Include the IMC Network current ³Cities List² on your site, preferably on
the front page.
--also currently on the site at http://arkansasdada.bandwidthcoop.org/





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