[Imc-oxford] Public Meeting

[owen at riseup.net]

I think the notes Jack wrote are useful.

--conflict
I don't really think there should be any question of trying to hide the
fact that there is conflict within the national indymedia 'collective'.
However, there is for me a question of how much time we might want to
spend discussing it, depending on the chosen emphasis of the meeting.

--technical language
Some parts of the notes are written in a way that a newer or
less-technically-confident person might find difficult to understand.
Depending on the audience, it might be useful for some of them to be
explained in a more basic way. But I think notes written in this way are
more useful than no notes at all. However, we should remember to explain
things in a nontechie-friendly way at the meeting as much as possible.

--offlist/onlist
If there are some aspects of this that people would rather discuss
off-list, then I'm OK with that, especially at this stage when only a
handful of people are involved anyway. But I'm concerned that offlist
doesn't become the default and is only used when there's a good reason.

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Eileen said:
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This meeting is not about trying to relaunch Oxford Indymedia in the local
area - that would require a separate meeting and a different approach.
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For me this depends on who turns up. If the majority of people there are
new people with lots of energy for rebuilding a local IMC then I'd prefer
to take the opportunity to focus on that. But if (as I suspect) it's
mainly people who already have some experience and/or knowledge of
indymedia, then it makes more sense to focus on the network issues.

Hope that helps,

Owen the blue transparent alarm clock


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Jack said:
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Hi,

I've drafted an agenda, and pulled together some notes, as I said I
would; but I've been asked not to post the draft agenda I wrote, because
it contains references to some slightly technical matters; and because
"it suggests a bit of potential conflict". Actually I don't think my
draft agenda does contain anything like that; so it must be the notes
that are the subject of the objection. I tried quite hard not to make
the notes scary, and I don't actually think they are scary; but I guess
in the light of the objection, I clearly should have tried harder.

So I'm hearing that my fellow volunteers prefer that I don't publish
either a substantial draft agenda, or these briefing notes.

I don't really know how to proceed. If I try to raise the issues that
concern me at the Public Meeting without providing a chance for people
to check the facts and form their own view in advance, I'm afraid I'm
going to sound like a conspiraloon. I feel very uncomfortable about that
prospect; nobody needs another Indymedia conspiraloon.

I perfectly understand the custom of setting the final agenda at the
meeting itself, and I support that practice. It is not my intention to
try to control the agenda. But I feel that posting a completely anodyne
draft agenda (History of Indymedia, Where do we want OxIMC to go) would
do a disservice to the meeting; in fact I think it would be disingenuous.

Meanwhile I've also been asked to move discussion of the plans for the
meeting to this public venue (the list), rather than on the private
cc-list where it started.

So here I am; I seek the list's guidance.

-- 
MrD.
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