[Imc-communication] [Imc] question regarding UCIMC

[Mike Lehman]

Hello Wietse,
I wanted to add to Brian's comments.

Grants are a minor portion of UC IMC's finances. We make a practice of 
not applying for grants that would come with restrictions or purposes 
that would conflict with Indymedia principles. Since any grant will be 
only a small part of our operating funds, loss of any particular grant 
would have limited impact. Generally, you either qualify for a grant or 
you don't. Granters typically do not impose additional conditions during 
the life of a grant.

It is possible that we might apply to renew a grant and find that 
someone might try to pressure us in a way that violates Indymedia 
principles, although this has never happened. I can assure you that our 
reaction to that would be similar our reactions to some of the more 
gratuitous comments from a few people in the network recently that 
implicitly attack UC IMC's autonomy in various ways. In other words, 
there would likely be a strongly negative reaction by UC IMC to such an 
outside imposition that is in violation of Indymedia principles. In sum, 
our strategy is to avoid dependence generally, whether it is from 
granters, donors, ill-informed comments, or a landlord.

BTW, all IMCs are dependent on those who support them in a variety of 
ways. Whether such support is cash, grants, loans, in-kind donations, or 
anything else, it is an issue for every IMC to be vigilant over and one 
that UC IMC is very familiar with. In fact, the purchase of our building 
last year was specifically to avoid being at the mercy of others in what 
we do in our building.

What counts for any IMC, no matter how it obtains the resources needed 
to operate, is maintaining the open consensus process that all IMCs are 
expected to have so that what an IMC does is open and above board. I 
think one reason we attract criticisms at certain points is exactly for 
that reason, that we are open and honest about what we're doing, even if 
it seems like there are a few people who nonetheless make a persistent 
practice of misinterpreting our work. We're well aware others may 
disagree with us. That is your right. But the decisions made here are 
fully compliant with Indymedia principles, are made to continue in 
keeping with those principles, do not violate any existing Indymedia 
network consensus, and are out in the open, where they can be reviewed.
Mike Lehman

Notts IMC wrote:
> Hiya,
>
> I have been following the discussion about the paid UCIMC workers on the
> imc-communication email list for a while now. I've just read the following
> article:
>
> Urbana Independent Media Center Awarded $30,000 Grant From The Illinois
> Arts Council - http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/148743/index.php
>
> My question is to what degree the Urbana Independent Media Center relies
> on funding coming in from outside funders. If funding would be rejected,
> could the project carry on with its work? After all, that seems to make it
> an INDEPENDENT media centre, meaning you are not dependent on something or
> someone to be able to run the project.
>
> See Wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/independent
>
> Wietse, UK IMC
>
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