Oxford Meeting 2010-03-29

Action points from this meeting

  • IAN to put up Crabgrass pages for the political statements and gatherings discussion
  • JON to communicate process questions minutes to process group
  • CARL to check the progress of Fortnight of Shame jobs by the weekend
  • GRAHAM to send out Friday round-up
  • GRAHAM e-mail the list re: next week’s FoS-themed meeting by tomorrow

Minutes

7pm-8.45pm, OARC, ~12 people

We didn’t have time to discuss the process proposal (postponed to future meeting) or the last question from the process group (see below).

Process questions

Questions from CC UK process group; they’re after responses by the next UK gathering.

Q1. How we organise

“To reduce the sheer number of proposals, the general guideline should be to accept proposals at UK gatherings only from regional groups”

Should we:

  • Accept it?
  • Amend it?
  • Reject it?
  • Defer choice to individuals?

Comments on the change:

  • Unmanageable to have such a large number of proposals
  • People not attending regular meetings could e-mail in their proposals
  • Makes gatherings more productive — “ironing out” can be done on a small scale
  • “Exceptions can be made” — who makes these & why?
  • Doesn’t go far enough; gatherings are too top-heavy. We could slim nat’l gatherings down to _e.g. 20 people
  • Be careful not to censor people — if people want to make a proposal and their group doesn’t want it, then they should be able to go ahead (jh)
  • UK-wide stuff is a crucial entry point; regionalisation is in process but not complete
  • Might be good to try it for e.g. 6 months and then assess how well it’s working
  • We should accept things that don’t go far enough and build on them
  • We shouldn’t re-invent the wheel if there’s already a model for non-hierarchical interoperation (i.e. spokes councils)

JON to submit these minutes to process group (jh)

Q2. Our political statement

The statements were read out

  • Jargon-filled
  • Too long
  • Need editing
  • What are these statements for? For us or for the public?
    • The history of the statements is to re-affirm CC’s radicalism
    • More intended for the network
  • Is there anything we really don’t like in there?
  • What are these replacing? Worry that it becomes a substitute for talking to people
  • We could summarise this discussion (and continue it on Crabgrass); we don’t have to do it here. Take it to the national gathering
    • We need clarification on what it’s for
    • Session was about “what are our politics” — was inherently internal
    • Remit not as clear as all that; we could feed this back

Statement 1

  • “Inclusivity” but clearly written for experienced activists
  • More open about what we think
  • Broader; doesn’t go straight in to climate change — presents it as a symptom

Statement 2

  • More about “what we are” rather than “what we are against”
  • Sounds NGO-y
  • More accessible
  • More inspiring
  • Better for public statements; people come to Climate Camp as they’re interested in Climate Change

IAN to put these statements on Crabgrass. Deadline for discussion 10th/11th April. Here’s the discussion

Q3. Skill sharing

  • Small group discussion on these questions?
    • Small group discussion can be long-winded
  • There’s a new working group to help regions — new pages on the website, advice, etc.
    • Could we have a working group to facilitate between regional and national levels

Small groups

The discussion here was moved to the ongoing skill share market place; the original list is available as a version of this page

Regional steps

  • We want someone in the skill sharing working group
  • Do we need this discussion to be in to process group before previously-suggested deadline
    • Could we not just give process group access to Crabgrass page?
    • Yes but a deadline is good; next week? (jh)
    • This isn’t a final document — they’ll allow changes
  • PROPOSAL to tell process group about this discussion and the 1-week deadline, CONSENSUS

Q5. UK Gatherings

  • Can we answer this question on Crabgrass?
    • How much energy do people have for actually contributing on CG?
    • We should be honest if we don’t (and won’t) have a firm answer
  • We should put these questions on CG along with the other one and have the same deadline of a week. Here’s the discussion

Working group updates

Fortnight of Shame

There is a detailed plan available; not much has happened in terms of progress as few people went to the Fortnight of Shame last week. Outstanding areas are:

  • Someone to make a film of the day
  • Entertainment / stage equipment (help)
  • Street theatre (help)
  • Tripod call-out (tat)
  • Tat-down coordinator
  • Banners & visuals
  • Food & fundraising (help)

Open meeting on the 7th March

Next meeting

  • Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday no good
  • Maybe someone could ’phone around to see how things are progressing?
  • This is pretty urgent; next meeting will be 4 days before Tarmageddon
  • People should continue discussion on the Crabgrass committee
  • CARL to check on progress later in the week

Working group feedback

Comms

Meeting this Thursday at 6pm on Crabgrass chat.

Community engagement

No meeting set for the immediate future

Announcements

  • Non-political film-night fundraiser for Fortnight of Shame on Thursday 8th April: tell your friends!

Next TVCA meeting

  • Community centre closed next Monday for Easter
  • We could have a “Fortnight of Shame special” meeting
    • It’s important that there’s progress by then
    • We should get as many people as possible along
  • Next meeting TUESDAY 6th April, 7pm in OARC
  • GRAHAM to e-mail the list about this meeting by tomorrow

Agenda

Action points from last meeting

Action points from the last meeting:

What Who Progress / Notes
Read process questions Everyone ?
Think about meeting issues Beccy, Steffan, Danny ?

Process Questions

At last week’s meeting, we ran out of time to talk about the questions from the process group. The questions are up for discussion on Crabgrass.

Q1. How we organise

“A fourth proposal was postponed until the next gathering. What are your region/local group’s thoughts on the proposal:”

To support wider dialogue, proposals for the national gathering are brought predominantly by regional groups or working groups, as opposed to individuals. Exceptions can be made from time to time.

“Any other proposals on how we organise our UK and regional process would be welcome.”

Q2. Our political statement

“A working group has produced two drafts of a political statement for the Camp. The aim of this is to bring together the fundamental political positions that unite us as well as outlining the areas of diversity within the network.”

“We are asking for feedback on these statements from regional groups, with proposed additions and amendments, in the hope that a final statement will be agreed at the April UK Gathering. We’ve put the text from the working group as an appendix to this document.”

Q3. Skill-sharing

  • What skills already exist within your regional group?
  • What skills do you feel your regional group needs to develop more?
  • What steps can be taken on a regional level, and how can the wider UK Climate Camp network best support your group?

Q4. Process group

  • Does your regional group have participants in the process group?
  • If not, who’s up for joining?

Q5. UK gatherings

  • What do people think are the most urgent themes/issues that need to be addressed at the next UK gathering in April? (Eg: Strategy, Politics, organisation, activities, etc)
  • More generally, what purpose(s) do people see UK gatherings having in the long term? (Eg: Planning UK-wide projects, co-coordinating regional activity, skill-sharing, etc)

Q6 and Q7 were resolved last week.

Update from Working Groups

Fortnight of Shame

Meeting last Wednesday; minutes on Crabgrass. Job list still on Crabgrass, now with a full-ish description of each task.

Community Engagement

Well-attended meeting last Tuesday: talked about overall strategy for community engagement and the Temple Cowley Pools. We need to sort out a time for the next meeting (was going to be tomorrow, but there’s a clash).

Comms

Had a short meeting last Thursday. Brief updates:

  • We’ll be talking about the TVCA website at the next TVCA meeting — we’ll have some proposals and ask for feedback
  • Videos showing how to use Crabgrass are being made; one Crabcast is available now.
  • We’re meeting again on Thursday: 6pm on Crabgrass chat

Feedback from the Strategy Day

The feedback is interesting, and should be noted in a meeting to help us plan better events in the future.

Meetings proposal

A proposal/discussion point has emerged from looking at TVCA meetings.

 
turnip12345
2010-04-02

“JON to communicate proposals proposal to proces”

I’m not sure why I’m down for this. I didn’t say I would submit to process, I just said that I thought an acceptable way to communicate our thoughts to process was to send them the bit of the minutes about that question…
 
   
c
2010-04-02

@Jon sorry the summary is quite incoherent; if you look at the part of the minutes that deals with this, it was minuted that you’d be sending these minutes to the process account. Apologies if this is incorrect but I have a strong memory of you suggesting that you’d email them.