[New-imc] [Imc-kam] Imc-Kamloops Application

[Deja]

IMC Kamloops Appliction to Join the IMCN

Intro
Kamloops IMC will serve an area of about 100,000 people in the central 
region of British Columbia and will be the third IMC in the province 
along with Vancouver and Victoria IMC's. We plan on developing a close 
relationship with these collectives.

We are is ready to join the IMCN. Having started organizing in August we 
have made great strides in the last two months. Due to a generous 
donation of server space and bandwidth from existere.com our site is 
online ( indymedia.existere.com )and will be ready to go live by the 
18th of October. We held our first fundraiser at the begining of October 
which has put some funds in the bank, and we have another planned for 
the end of the month. We have already begun a publicity campaign 
utilizing postering, press releases, media interviews and word of mouth 
networking with other social justice organizations in tne community. Our 
membership is steady and commited with connections to many local, 
provincial and national organizations covering a broad range of issues.

Mission Statement

The Independent Media Center is a global network of collectively run
media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate
tellings of truth. We are motivated by a love and inspiration for people
who work for a better world despite corporate media's distortions and
unwillingness to cover efforts to develop an egalitarian and sustainable
society.

The Kamloops Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization
committed to using media production and distribution as tools for
promoting social and economic justice in the South-Central Interior
region of British Columbia. We are dedicated to addressing issues that
the mainstream media neglects and we do not conceal our politics behind
misleading claims of objectivity. We will empower people to "become the
media" by providing democratic access to available technologies and
information.

Active Members Include
Brian
Local Kamloops Activist, involved in indymedia to augment the at best
incomplete, and at worst cases deliberately misleading corporate media.
have been involved in activist actions in kamloops previously, centering
around opposing the war.

Skylark
Full-time social justice advocate, focusing on supporting individual
advocacy & redistribution of resources. Winding down somewhat to take
care of my first baby. Eighteen months ago I took a "6 month sabbatical"
from contact with mainstream media. This made my life much better and I
have never gone back. I look forward to being able to encourage
marginalized people to tell their story without the facts becoming
bizarrely skewed in a widespread fear of the truth.

Deja
I have been involved with Indymedia off and on since 2001 when I acted
as the new-imc contact for the Victoria IMC. After that I worked on the
new-imc list sponsoring the Thunderbay, Ottawa and Winnipeg collectives
through the application process. I was involved in all aspects of the
day to day operations of the Victoria IMC for its first two years. I am
very excited about starting an IMC collective in my hometown of
Kamloops. I grew up in the media circles of this town, my step-dad being
a reporter at the local TV/Radio station here for over twenty years. I
saw first hand how even the most well intentioned reporters and editors
were completley unable to persue thier craft with the honesty, diligence
and integrity that we all expect from our 'free press'. It just isn't
possable within a profit seeking buisness environment. I can't wait to
start shaking things up around here!

Heather
I'm currently a social work student at my local university. I am also an
agent of social change and the IMC is one of the venues I use for that
change. I am thrilled to have this opportunity.

Pat
Local college student with a big interest in media, politics, society,
the environment, etc. I have been getting increasingly interested in
media and its effects on the public 'conciousness' and now I'm ready to
help build a local autonomous and democratic alternative. I am currently
involved with several other local groups including - the SSJS (Student
Social Justice Society, a progressive student group at the local
college), KSHIO (Kamloops Society for Health and Income Options, a local
Anti-Poverty organization), BCSEA (British Columbia Sustainable Energy
Association, a new energy focused environmental group). I would like to
help build a media infrastructure that allow groups such as these, as
well as all the rest of the 'media disenfrachised' individuals and
groups, both local and abroad, to have a fair chance to engage, educate,
and challenge the 'public mind' with the ideal destination being a more
fair and equitable future.

Other members who have been to two or more meetings: Timo, Krista, 
Amber, Tristan, Dick-y, Grant.

Kamloops IMC - Editorial Policy 1.0 - Activist Publishing

The Kamloops IMC Collective has decided to focus on ‘Activist
Publishing’, with an emphasis on local material that is relevant and
useful to our audience of progressive South-Central Interior social and
political activists.

Feature Guidelines:

In accordance with IMC Kamloops' overall mission, the online Newswire is
designed to empower individuals to become independent and civic
journalists by providing a direct forum for presenting media, including
text articles, audio and video recordings and photographs to the public
via the Internet.

Within that general framework, we specifically encourage individuals to
publish:

* Well-researched, accurate, timely articles
* Investigative reports exposing injustice
* Coverage of South-Centeral Interior regional issues
* Stories on events affecting underrepresented groups
* Stories on issues ignored by the mainstream media
* Stories on people or projects working towards social and economic justice
* Eyewitness accounts of progressive actions and demonstrations
* Media analysis
* Information on new forms of technology that promote social justice

Articles that fit within this framework will be considered for
publication as featured articles in the center column of the page by
the members of the collective. Some other considerations for posters
wishing to see their articles made into features might include uploading
an image, graphic or other related media links. Including some links to
other resources and related or corroborating information will make for a
well-rounded and interesting feature.

Additionally, all newswire articles may be rated by site users, and
articles that generate a rating above a particular threshold are
automatically considered for feature status. All features require the
approval of at least three members of the collective before they will
appear on the site and may be blocked by any member. If a feature is
blocked, the blocker is expected to explain their reasoning to the
collective by e-mailing the list. The collective should make every
attempt to contact the source of the feature article and work together
to address the concerns of the blocker.

The Other Press Section

To alleviate the problem of articles from other press sources being
reposted on this IMC site, this section allows users to link to
articles published elsewhere, and to contribute and read comments on
those pieces. Articles posted to the newswire that have been copied and
pasted from other sites on the internet will be moved to this section to
keep the newswire as a place for independent journalists to showcase
their work. If the article does not have a link to the original article
it may simply be hidden.

The 'IndyMedia' Category

The 'IndyMedia' category of the web site is the place to post your
comments and suggestions about the Kamloops IMC website itself, as well
as getting information on the Indymedia network of over 150 Independent
Media Centres around the world. Material you may wish to post to the
'Indymedia' Newswire includes:

* Comments on the maintenance of the site.
* Comments and discussion on the site editorial policy
* Notification of broken links and lost posts
* Suggestions for improvements to the site

Hidden Posts (The Soapbox)

The 'Hidden Posts' section of the Kamloops IMC web site will be
replaced by the 'Soapbox', an open publishing Newswire where material
that is not considered by the Kamloops IMC Collective as being of
general interest to our activist users is presented. Material that may
be moved into the Soapbox or hidden post section of the site include:

* 'Borderline' advertising or promotional material(i.e. events
charging admissions that are not clearly fundraisers, ecological
service businesses, etc.)
* Destabilization posts intended to undermine the usability of the newswire
* Spam and irrelevant cross-posted articles
* Political spam propaganda
* Religious spam propaganda
* Articles that have been copied and pasted from other media sites that
do not contain a link to the original article (see the other press
section above)
* Duplicate postings: two or more articles consisting of identical or
near-identical content
* Empty or incomprehensible postings
* Graphic or disturbing images without context (i.e. accompanying
article or comment)
* Oppressive posts that serve to inhibit rather than promote discussion,
but that are not 'Banned Material'

Since the hiding of a post is not an irreversible decision it does not
require the approval of other members of the collective. The decision
to hide a post is at the discretion of individual editors within the
collective working within the above mentioned guidelines. However, if
another member of the collective or the contributor of the article
chooses to challenge the editors' decision, the post should immediatly
be unhidden pending a decision by the collective as a whole at the
earliest reasonable date.

Banned Material (Posts that may be removed)

The following types of material are outside the range of acceptable
use, and may be deleted if posted to the Newswire as an article or
comment. This is the most extreme measure that we can take and should
only be used as a method of last resort. The decision to delete a post
must be consensed by the entire collective as this is an irreversable
decision, though it may be hidden pending the decision. The following
guidelines should be used to determine if a post should be considered
for deletion:

* Pornography and sexist/abuse posts
* Racist, anti-semitic, anti-islamic and other 'hate speech' posts
* Libel, slander, defamation and abusive personal attacks
* Death threats and threats of violence
* Bombmaking instructions and similar paramilitary information
* Posts by fascist and Nazi organizations and individuals
* Commercial advertising
* Anything fraudulently posted as IMC Kamloops
* Misinformation intended to disrupt activist actions and discussions
(i.e. false information regarding an event, with the intent to disrupt
the event)
* Posts where IMC Kamloops has received a ‘cease and desist´ letter from
an attorney

If possible, the poster of the banned material should be contacted with
an explanation of the reasoning of the collective and a link to the
editorial policy. Three or more posts of banned material by a poster may
result in a permanent ban of that poster. A permanently banned poster
will have their posts removed from the Newswire, irrespective of the
contents of any specific post.

IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA - DRAFT
Each IMC and Global Working Group is expected to:

a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity,
We have reviewed this and approved it without dissent.

b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a
functional IMC,
We have been averaging 10-15 members at each meeting.

c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary
"ownership" of an IMC),
We have our meeting times and place listed on the website.

d. Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement of
Purpose.
See above.

e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and
functions through democratic process, and with full transparency,
See above.

f. Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC
Editorial Policy [editorial collective comments: "We did agree that the
term "Open Publishing" was one that is still being defined by the Global
Network Collective, and we would wait and see what the results were
before rewriting this criteria],
We agree.

g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus
principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes,
We have disussed consensus and have been using it at our meetings.

h. Have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in the
global decision-making process and meetings as a rotating
liaison/representative, with a clear understanding of the
responsibilities that come with this role,
Deja is acting in this role pending network approval at which time we
will select a new liason.

i. Participate in the key IMC Network Communication Methods that pertain
to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute to the
work of the IMC. Assure that at least one person from your local IMC
participates at any given time on the IMC-Communications list,
Deja is on this list and has been for several years.

j. (NOT FINALIZED): Have no official affiliation with any political
party, state or candidate for office (comments: but individual producers
have freedom to do whatever they like and local IMCs can "feature"
stories about various political parties and initiatives),
We have no affiliations to any political partys.

k. IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit enterprises. [We
could add: The IMCN is committed to the decommercialization of
information and will disassociate from any local IMC that decides to
become a for profit media corporation.]
We are and intend to remain not-for-profit.

l. Display a ³local version² of the IMC ³i² logo on your website and
literature.
This is being designed as we speak.

m. Include the IMC Network current ³Cities List² on your site,
preferably on the front page.
This is already on the site, and is automatically updated.

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