[imc-sheffield] [Imc-uk-network] [imc-leeds] Letter to network from IMC Leeds/Bradford

[Tony]

Hello Chris and JimDog

Firstly on Chris's point - what do you think Chris? - i would be 
interested in your opinion on this as you are more local than me  - 
what options do you think are possible? Would Sheffield gain by 
extending to South Yorkshire?

On the wider issues that Jim Dog raises - it sounds like a good idea 
to me and sounds like there is good energy to get the wider project 
going regionally there.

It brings up some good points about how the UK network can / is / 
isn't  working together - we have not really talked enough as a 
network about what is the best way for regional imc's to interact and 
build. Is "city based" the best way forward - would "county level" 
work better to involve smaller areas that struggle to set up separate 
nodes?
It might be good to talk to Bristol about how the South West / 
Bristol project worked - i am not up to date to how far that went but 
South West on its own did not last long as it was so wide it was hard 
to have meetings and get a local collective together. How is "South 
Coast" imc finding working? They have good reports coming in from 
Southhampton/Brighton/Plymouth/Worthing in the newswire.

What happens to areas that have no imc (apart from just using UK)? 
East Anglia / What can we do to help new local collectives to build 
in areas where there is little coverage?

On the IMC Yorkshire, IMC North-East and IMC Northern - i guess that 
depends on what contact you have with these areas - or if you feel 
you can tour these areas and build groups through talks etc
But it does make sense for South Yorkshire to be included in the 
discussion as it directly effects them.

Certainly on the 'uk contact / volunteer list' we often have people 
who ask to help out but get left out as there is no local collect to 
talk to.

It also links into the plan - that is agreed at the last two network 
meetings - but difficult (time wise) to implement of a new front page 
that aggregates local news better than now.

Anyway i ramble - good to hear there are moves to look at regional 
issues and there is a local autonomy angle to this which i respect - 
but it would be good to talk through the options where is effects 
others (which i am sure you are) and hopefully build on.

Cheers tony
not talking on behalf of London imc!


At 13:06 +0100 10/5/09, anargeek wrote:
>Hi
>
>If you are setting up a IMC Yorkshire it would be rather weird to
>exclude South Yourkshire...
>
>Chris
>
>On Sat 09-May-2009 at 08:01:30PM +0100, Jim Dog wrote:
>>
>>  To: imc-uk-network, imc-leeds, imc-york
>>
>>  Dear UK Indymedia Network,
>>
>>  Here at IMC Leeds/Bradford we've been finding that some people get
>>  confused by the existence of IMC York. They get confused because for
>>  people living or active in the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire (as
>>  well as County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland) York is
>>  geographically closer to them, but they can see from
>>  http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ that the site isn't in regular use.
>>
>>  We've asked around and it seems that there isn't an active collective in
>>  York at the moment. We've been talking about how we can improve things
>>  in a way that best serves activists and communities working for radical
>>  social change in our region. These discussions are still ongoing, but we
>>  have come up with some initial proposals on which we have consensus
>>  within our collective, and haven't heard objections to from elsewhere.
>>  We feel ready to propose these formally to the UK Network, so as to
>>  allow other people active in the UK to comment. We're doing this because
>>  we would like to achieve consensus on the changes within the wider UK
>>  network, although we also expect people from outside of our region to
>>  respect our desire for autonomy.
>>
>>  * PROPOSAL 1: THAT ALL SUBSCRIBERS TO MAILING LIST IMC-YORK ARE SENT A
>  > MESSAGE SUMMARISING THESE CHANGES AND INVITING THEM TO JOIN LIST
>>  IMC-LEEDS, THEN IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN IMC-YORK AND IMC-YORK-CONTACT
>>
>>  * PROPOSAL 2: THAT THE PUBLISH FUNCTION ON SITE
>>  http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ IS DISABLED
>>
>>  * PROPOSAL 3: THAT SITE http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ DISPLAYS A MESSAGE
>>  INVITING POSTERS TO USE SITE
>>  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/ INSTEAD
>>
>>  * PROPOSAL 4: THAT SITE
>>  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/ DISPLAYS A MESSAGE
>>  WELCOMING FORMER USERS OF SITE http://york.indymedia.org.uk/
>>
>>  * PROPOSAL 5: THAT THE IMC-LEEDS COLLECTIVE UNDERTAKES TO HOLD AT LEAST
>>  ALTERNATE MEETINGS IN AREAS OUTSIDE OF LEEDS, BUT CLOSER TO LEEDS THAN
>>  ANY OTHER IMC, TO ACTIVELY INVITE PARTICIPATION AND STIMULATE MEDIA
>>  ACTIVISM IN THE REGION
>>
>>  In light of of our diversification, and being the closest IMC for
>>  Newcastle, Durham, Scarborough and of course York; we will be
>>  considering changing the name of our collective in the future to better
>>  represent the area that we will provide coverage for. Possibilities that
>  > have been discussed include: IMC Yorkshire, IMC North-East and IMC
>  > Northern. This is because the region using our IMC has several large
>>  urban population centres, smaller towns and rural (former mining)
>>  communities. Naming the IMC after the city where most of our collective
>>  live (Leeds and Bradford) doesn't reflect the breadth of posters to the
>>  site or our aspiration to include and work with them more actively.
>>
>>  In the event of there being substantial opposition to any of these
>>  proposals, no action will be taken until the next IMC Leeds meeting. If
>>  no changes or only minor amendments are suggested, we will wait 7 days
>>  from the date of this email then check for consensus over a 24-hour
>>  period on the imc-leeds (NOT imc-uk-network) mailing list then hopefully
>>  enact the changes.
>>
>>  In Solidarity,
>>
>>  IMC Leeds/Bradford
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