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

[theinnercityhippy at riseup.net]

Hi Tony,

Thankyou for the considered response. I just wanted to quickly point out
for clarity that this letter was drafted by the leeds/bradford collective
as a whole although it was posted by myself to the lists. Hopefully we
will meet at the end of this period to discuss a response to any points
made to our proposal and will reply to all in due course :-)

In solidarity,

JimDog*

> 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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>>Also other list of similar interest Indymedia United Kollektives process:
>>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-process
>
> __
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