[IMC-York] Letter to network from IMC Leeds/Bradford

[Jim Dog]

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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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