[New-imc] NEW HAMPSHIRE (internal decision deadline, Nov 1 -- 2:00 GMT)

[Jay]

Hi everyone,

Seems to me like things are rolling along with the New Hampshire (USA) 
IMC.  Below are their membership criteria, editorial policy, mission 
statement and answers to some extra questions.  Please take a look over the 
next three days and let us all know if you have any thoughts.


>IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA - Consensus reached 10/7/03
>Each IMC and Global Working Group is expected to:
>
>a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity,
>
>We have reached consensus that we do.
>
>
>b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a functional
>IMC,
>
>We currently have around 20 people working on this project from around the
>state.
>
>
>c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary
>"ownership" of an IMC),
>
>Meetings are open to all and this is communicated through both the website,
>flyers, and donated adds in the NH Gazette.
>
>
>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 have developed a Mission Statement.
>http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/new-imc/2003-October/004551.html
>
>
>e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and
>functions through democratic process, and with full transparency,
>
>We have established an editorial policy.  It is also published on the website
>under information/editorial policy.  Another copy is archived on new-imc at
>http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/new-imc/2003-October/004551.html
>
>
>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],
>
>We agree with the use of Open Publishing.
>
>
>g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus
>principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes,
>
>All decisions have been made using consensus principles.
>
>
>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,
>
>Art (awh at cisunix.unh.edu) is willing to do this.
>
>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.
>
>Art is also willing to do this as well as several other volunteers.
>
>
>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 agree that there should be no official affiliation with any political 
>party,
>state or candidate for office.
>
>
>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.]
>
>We agree!
>
>l. Display a ³local version² of the IMC ³i² logo on your website and
>literature.
>
>We agree.
>
>m. Include the IMC Network current ³Cities List² on your site, preferably on
>the front page.
>
>We agree.

***

The NH-IMC collective reached consensus on the following:

Mission Statement (Revised 9/28/03)
Editorial Policy on 9/22/03.

------------------------
IMC-NH Mission Statement
------------------------
         Real democracy depends on the free flow of information between 
free people.
Control of modern media means control of the futures of so many around the
world.
   We live in an era when our media is controlled by a handful of
corporations whose goal, rather than an informed public, is profit. With a
single-minded zeal, mainstream media pursues consumption over participation,
wealth over truth, commodity over community. Popular media has failed to
question the motives and efficacy of our global institutions. Our confidence
in the custodians of public opinion has been shaken.
   Independent media provides an unprecedented opportunity to reach not just
our neighbors, but the world. The mission of the New Hampshire Indymedia
collective is to provide a truly democratic forum for the individuals and
organizations working in the granite state. We aim to provide the medium, be
it online, video, radio, or print, for the free expression of everyone in
New Hampshire.
         We encourage the members of our community to become the 
media.  This way we
have the information we need to understand the world around us and make
informed choices about the policies that affect our lives.  We are here to
expose stories of corruption and injustice and document the struggles
against it.  We are here, too, to provide a censorship-free forum for
discussing political issues and collectively visualizing alternative social
structures.



------------------------
IMC-NH Editorial Policy
------------------------
Open Publishing:

The New Hampshire Indymedia newswire works on the principle of Open
Publishing, an essential element of the global Indymedia project that allows
anyone to self-publish their work on a globally accessible web site. People
are encouraged to "become the media."

We are committed to freedom from censorship. Some of us may not like the
content of certain posts or the ideology of the poster, but we nonetheless
recognize their right to post their views. This includes a wide range of
controversial views: conspiracy theories, racism, anti-abortion, property
destruction, etc. Ultimately, the comments allow people to respond to views
they take issue with.


Editorial Decisions

The Features page is reserved for posts that have been approved through
consensus by the editorial collective. These posts can come from either the
newswire or from the NH IMC collective.

The newswire is broken down into three sections: Local Intrest, Elsewhere,
and Otherpress sections. The editorial collective will move articles to the
appropriate section if they have been posted to the incorrect area.

The newswire plays a critical role in Open Publishing. Certain posts require
attention, therefore they will be handled using the following criteria.

*Hidden:
-Posts uploaded with technical problems
-Test posts

*Deleted
-Explicitly illegal pornographic images
-Product advertisements
-Duplicate posts or comments

*Posts requiring discussion brought to the editorial collective:
-They are to be dealt with on a case by case basis. If consensus is not
achieved with in the editorial collective to hide the post, then the post
remains unhidden.

*Moved to Otherpress:
-All reposted corporate media articles

Upon hiding/deleting a post, the member of the editorial collective who did
so will also add a comment explaining the basis upon which the decision to
hide/delete it was made.

In addition, all hidden posts and comments will continue to remain the
publicly accessible. The link to view all hidden posts is located at the
bottom of the Elsewhere newswire.

_______________________________________________
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New-imc at lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/new-imc



***

 From Art from the NH-IMC:

Below are some responses to the questions you have asked.  I've CC'd the nh-imc
list so that others in the group can be kept up to date on where we are at in
this process.

Thanks again,
-Art


 > -- You say you have a website up.  What is the URL? (maybe you listed it
 > already in your documents -- sorry if I missed it.)  Do you have some tech
 > people involved in the group?

The website is up and running, we are using Dada IMC .97.  The URL is
http://www.nhindymedia.org , you can also find the editorial policy and mission
statment under the info docs section.  We have a tech group that consists of
about 3-5 people each with knowledge in different areas to contribute.

We also have 3 lists currently active, imc-nh - faciliates general discussion
among all members of the collective, imc-nh-editorial and imc-nh-tech for
members and general questions to those groups.

 > -- Are most of your volunteers located in any particular city?  Or, are you
 > really sprinkled statewide?  If not, what plans do you have to reach out to
 > people who live too far away to come to meetings?

We have a mixture of people from around the state, however we still need to do
outreach into the more less populated areas of the state.  We originally
submitted requests to all of the known grassroots organizations in the state
plus ads were donated by the NH Gazette which were run for almost a month prior
to the first meeting and have continued, depending on which areas of the
collective we needed to strenghten.

Now that the site is up and we have established most of our core policies we
plan to get some materials printer, stickers, posters etc... and distribute
them throughout the state.

We have also hosted a couple of workshops in the Portsmouth and Durham areas to
show people how to use the site and get their media up.

 > -- What kind of diversity do you have among the people in the group? (age?
 > gender? economic situation? race? etc.)  If you're lacking on one or
 > another area, what plans do you have to change that?

The group has a very diverse mixture of people in terms of age, gender and
economic situation.  NH has a very sad percentage of minority citizens, only 4%
of NH is non-white.  So this will present a challenge to this group as it does
with other organizations throughout the state.  We are hoping that our
continued outreach will bring more awareness to this issue.

 > Like I said, this is all the basic stuff.  Also, have you been in touch
 > with any other IMCs in your area?  Seems like New England is a hotbed of
 > IMC activity!

Our site is hosted out of Maine on the same server as Vermont, and Maine IMC.
Our tech group has worked with Vermonts tech group to initially get the site up
and running and still talk to work out bugs.