[New-imc] Online form: Proposed new IMC! (imc Eas-Africa)

[sphinx]

Hello New-IMC!
I?m volunteering to help IMC-EAST Africa through the new-imc process.
They sent in their Application on Thu, 19 Jan 2006 06:26:59 -0800 (PST).

http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/new-imc/2006-January/0121-oz.html

Hello Joram and friends of IMC-East Africa; I?m sphinx from
indymedia-Ambazonia. I?m also active on imc-Africa working group and have
been involved before in imc-Germany, imc-process and of course new-imc.
I see from your application that your IMC is a huge project involving activists
from Uganda to Ethiopia and as far South as DR Congo. And five years of
outreach is definitely along time. Yet as you know Indymedia though being a
very exciting adventure   requires a lot of vigor and efforts for us to attain
our goal of community empowerment from a media standpoint.

The diversity of the make-up of your group as well as the diversity of the
outreach efforts as reported in your application does response to a lot of the
concerns that some people do have about new IMC groups. But the foremost
concern that lots of imc activists still have is about the sustainability of
IMCs as well as them really getting active in their communities and getting
their communities involved instead of being an elite group reporting for the
community, which is what we are trying to fight against; - ?to make everyone
be the media?. This means working even harder than you have done this far but
it will also mean a lot of fun and new experiences as you get active in this
global movement to revolutionaries media making. Indymedia is present in all
continents and by lots of indications the biggest voluntary organization in the
world.
Though you?ve been into out reach long I just wish to make assurance double
sure that you ( as a group) are set to roll as a full member of the indymedia
network, by asking that you take a moment and look at the following document if
you have not yet done so.
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImc

One think that will be good for the New-IMC working group is for you to give a
feel as to how your imc-group is functioning this far. Apart from your five
year out reach to groups; do you have meetings together with all the people
from all these countries meeting in one country?, how regular are such
meetings?
Do you hold open public meetings in all these countries?

It is definitely a good idea to get a regional imc going which will cut across
borders networking activists from different communities with different
experiences and ideas. But we do not yet have that kind of cross the borders
IMCs this far, so we do not grasp the practicability of how it will function
like an active group. What we do have are regional IMCs which are made from the
cooperation of local imcs to better improve on their individual local groups and
their work in the region:
Examples include Oceanic IMC and IMC Eastern Mediterranean (I think) or even
IMC-Africa which was intended to help cooperation and sharing of resources and
experiences amongst African IMCs. In that case it may not be a bad idea for you
guys to have the various groups in the various countries who can meet easily and
coordinate activities more easily to form individual local IMCs, and then have
all of these local imcs develop a tight cooperation modeled along the model of
oceanic that brings together imcs from; adelaide, aotearoa, brisbane, burma,
darwin, jakarta, melbourne, manila, perth, qc, sydney and tokelau. But knowing
the very different conditions in East Africa it may be that one may have to
start from a Big IMC-East Africa which will then help the growth of local IMCs
in the region. If there is anybody that knows that better, that person should
be you (IMC-East Africa), so you will in the end of the day have the final say
on what is best for the group(s).  By the way there is an IMC-Kenya which is
also in East Africa. It will surely be a good idea for you to hook up with them
(Oloo: newkenya at riseup.net, Kenyan at africamail.com, John: jonbwak at
yahoo.com Telephone: 254 720 79 23 90. Grace: gracewaita at yahoo.co.in
Telphone :254 733 825 416 ).

After filling the Application as you already did, and continuing with your
organizing as you have been doing, the next step is for you (As a group) to
response to the membership criteria one point after the other. Do not get
worried if you cannot answer all the questions precisely. Your answers are just
to help new-imc be able to evaluate how far you have come with your organizing
process. Here are the points:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/MembershipCriteria
Respond by stating the stand of your local group to each of the points.

 To help other activists around the world get a feel for activity within your
imc you can demand for an indymedia mailing list. Then other activists can
check your lists archives to see what kind of discussions are going on in your
group. If you want a mailing list please write back to new-imc to say you need
a mailing list (do not forget to copy me).
I see that your website (http://www.alluta.org ) is already quiet active and
getting hands on reporting the elections emergency.
 Good luck and looking forward to having you as a full member of the Independent
Media Center Network (Indymedia).
Sphinx.