[Imc-g8-2005] IMC London on Edinburgh Media Centre

[mini mouse]

Hi

IMC London met tonight and touched on the matter of how to manage the 
media centre in Edinburgh. Here'a few early (if late!) thoughts we'd 
like to circulate and get feedback on.

We need to decide what and who the centre is for. It's not for cops, 
corporate journos, people wanting to crash or folks checking their 
e-mail, so how do we control who comes and goes?

Taking the last one first, the cafe downstairs will have wifi, so 
anyone with an enabled laptop's OK. Unless there's any objection from 
the cafe people we think we should have half a dozen or so desktop 
machines specifically set aside in there for this purpose, if only to 
be able to direct people there away from the media centre.

Once people know it's a friendly space we're likely to find them 
turning up asking for information (where can I crash, how to get to 
Auchtermuchty etc) so there should be an infopoint to intercept these 
questions. Maybe we can get some maps and flyers from Dissent and 
others, perhaps even invite them to run/help run the infopoint.

Then there's the gateway to the media centre (upstairs). Who gets in?

As well as regular independent journos etc., we expect (and are 
inviting) people with stories off the street. So we don't want too 
rigid a system of entry. However they'll probably only drop in the 
once, so if we can offer them a dedicated area near the front maybe 
we don't need to know too much about them. We'd suggest placing the 
picture desk here as well, so anyone can get their pictures easily 
published.

With a little planning we could set this up as in inward facing three 
sides of a square, so there's no easy path to wander off round the 
rest of the centre.

However anyone entering needs to pass a permanently manned Welcome 
Desk. How do they know who can come in?

Suggestions included a list of pre-registered people (IMCs should 
contact (who?) and flag in advance how many people they expect to 
come from their kollective). This would give us a pool of trusted 
people who could vouch for anyone else who subsequently claimed to be 
part of them.

After being accepted once, visitors could be issued with a laminated 
pass or an inconspicuous (custom made) badge to speed future access.

People having not "pre-registered" could be asked to fill in and sign 
a declaration of intent, stating where they would be posting their 
reports.

Additionally maybe IMCers could discretely monitor the room, keeping 
an eye on what was being published and where. (Anyone thinking this 
is sounding a bit Big Brotherish please make counter suggestions. 
None of this is written in stone :-)

It became obvious there were certain tasks that would have to be done 
without fail, like opening and locking up, manning the welcome desk 
and so on. We should start now to organise a rota, and, whilst 
keeping these essential tasks to a minimum, think about what they 
might be. Additionally we should have definitive management meetings 
on Thursday 30th June and Tuesday 5th to make sure these roles are 
fully covered.

One point we were all pretty much in agreement on was that NOTHING IS 
TO BE LEFT UNATTENDED IN THE MEDIA CENTRE. Apart from personal safety 
it leaves too much freedom for stuff to be planted prior to a raid. 
Anything breaking this rule gets dumped into the street.

Meetings: We're supposed to be news gatherers so what better way than 
to invite organisers of actions to daily breakfast meetings. Everyone 
wants breakfast, there's a great cafe downstairs and peeps are out 
reporting later in the day.

This doesn't cover all the bases but it's a start. One thing that 
might be good is to compile a list of people going to Edinburgh who 
could help run this place, even if they can only commit a few hours 
out of the two weeks. Until we get something better set up, please 
mail me (mini_mouse AT riseup.net) and I'll start a list.

PLEASE DO MAIL ME NOW IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HELP!!!

mini_mouse