[Imc-g8-2005] [Convergence] Report back I0A meeting, 25/04

[Maqui]

Hello

Last night I went again to the Institute for Autonomy weekly meeting, 
just to catch up with folk in there, to show an imc friendly face :) and 
to make sure everything we discussed about having the G8 Media 
Convergence in there was still ok.

I brought up again the issues of accommodation, food and availability of 
several rooms for the working groups, and basically I got the same 
answers as before:

- Rooms: we can make use of up to 5 rooms for the meetings, and/or 
working groups. These are not massive but they fit quite well about 25-30 
people each sitting in a circle. There is the possibility of having a 
couple more if we need, but these would have to be cleaned up.

- Food/catering: although they said that they had not yet discussed this 
in their kitchen collective meeting, they assured me, once again, that 
they'll provide food during the convergence. This will be as follows: 
saturday lunch - 1pm. saturday dinner - 7pm, sunday lunch - 1pm. 

I also reminded them that, if they wanted, they could run a small bar on 
friday evening for the welcoming do. We agreed that they will charge for 
food, and all monies made from that will be for the IoA.

- Accommodation: it is still ok to house about 20 people in there. Even 
more if there's a big rush of people needing a crash. People living in 
the building are still ok with that.
They asked me how many people we expect, to which I said I didn't have a 
clue. I don't know how many people (if anyone) is already asking for a 
crash. I made a very loose estimate of "maybe about 10 people". Anyway, 
they would like to know more exact numbers at least some days in advance.

Finally, I assured them that on the last week before the Convergence, 
Indy folk would be turning up at the IoA and help setting up. I very much 
hope this is the case, and folk give a hand with this.

=======

Now, there's also a draw back. and I am not sure how to sort this. 
Basically, due to 'building security' reasons (no point to get into 
detail here) the back garden seems now to be out of limits. They had to 
block the access to it.

Also, the Indymedia marquee that was at Max's, is now, apparently, half 
missing! People used it for the Beyond ESF space during the ESF, and I 
was told yesterday that "we lost part of it". I asked how, and got a 
"dunno" for an answer. I didn't want to make a big issue of it then and 
there, but this slightly pisses me off. We had 3 marquees once, now we 
seem to have none!.

So, I don't know what to do about a plenary space. I reckon that the 
biggest two rooms can hold about 50-60 people each doing two concentric 
circles, and being quite cramped. All the rest are smaller.

I asked if there was any possibility at all to access the back garden 
should we have an avalanche of attendees. I was told that we could look 
into this, and maybe open the access to it temporarily if it ends up 
being really necessary. The thing is that they were planning to clean it 
up, but due to this new situation they have not done it, so I am not sure 
how messy it would be to try to do plenaries in there.

Anyway, I think it would probably be good if people had a look to the 
building, and see what ideas come up for holding plenary sessions. The 
people at the IoA are pretty open to whatever we need (as long as we help 
make it happen) and basically, the whole building has been reserved for 
the Media Convergence. Also, I almost forgot, they already have broadband 
too.

=====

Finally just to mention that I've made 800 copies of Planet's convergence 
flyers, and distributed them around .. mainly during this week's Middle 
East film festi that some Indy London folk have put together at RampArt. 
For those in London that still don't know about this see the programme 
here: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/static/cinema.html

I've also done some A3 posters, and there's a plan to show Yossarian's 
video invite for the convergence before every screening during the middle 
east film festival.

And , finally finally, Deano mentioned yesterday that the party/social in 
Rampart on sunday 15 "is definitely on". I guess he will tell us more 
here, but I've already seen a posting in the newswire: 
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/309784.html

It a quite good solution actually because the lot at the IoA would like 
to have another event in there on that evening too. I told them we would 
probably stop meetings at about 5(ish)

Ah! .. sunday the 15th is also the JayDay march in central London ... but 
I guess we will have to be good and stay indoors :-)

=====

ok, back to trying to catch up with a long list of unread emails!! :-)

soon

maqui