[mgj-announce] notes from tuesday, 7/2's meeting

[christy pardew]

Tuesday, July 2nd MGJ meeting at st. stephen's NOTES:

what a surprise when we arrived at the meeting to find
no facilitator, no agenda and no air conditioning!
fortuneately, brant stepped up to the plate and
offered to help build an agenda and to facilitate. 
thank you, brant!

--AGENDA created

--quick INTRODUCTIONS (by the meeting's end, there
were 26 folks in attendance)

--recapping of discussions from last week's meeting
surrounding DATES of fall events

--REPORTBACKS:

*folks working on a provisional call to action
presented their work on a general call...some
discussion...concensus reached to go ahead and post
the call to action

*labor outreach:  this group met this week and
brainstormed groups active on the east coast and
groups active in local struggles, specifically dc jobs
with justice (dcjwj); tracy from dcjwj gave a quick
talk explaining jobs with justice
 
two proposals from the group:   1. that the working
group be given the power to draw up a description of
what mgj is about and to present it to the next dcjwj
meeting and that  2. mgj become a member of dc jobs
with justice by paying the $50 annual fee and by
committing to attend 5 meetings per year.........these
proposals are still on the table and were not fully
discussed last night

*arts outreach:  adam reported that nadine has been
talking to puppeteers and artists on the east coast
and he is working with a band who's offered to do a
free concert for mgj

*latin american solidarity outreach:  the latin
american solidarity committee (LASC) met this week and
is very excited about supporting the fall activities. 
they will work to minimize scheduling conflict during
the sept/oct days

*ngo outreach:  50 years is enough is planning
teach-in's with folks from the global south during the
month leading up to the meetings; rob will know more
next week after a big meeting

*general outreach:  last night this included at least
womyn's groups, people of color groups, students and 
community food security but many other groups that
folks have mentioned outreaching to fall under this
also...some folks met last week and someone
volunteered to make a leaflet/literature to start
advertising the fall events and explaining mgj, but
that person did not show up to the meeting

*ACC reportback:  Ryan passed around the ACC's call to
action for Oct. 1 in which they are calling for a
general strike and for direct action in the streets of
dc.  Ryan encouraged mgj to organize around oct. 1 as
we can come together and be more effective.  as the
acc, they want to dialogue and work together with mgj.

*5th demand working group:  the fifth demand was not
discussed last night in any detail, but folks can
contact mike at msysiuk at hotmail.com for more info

*fundraising:  casey passed around a sign-up sheet and
asked for help with fundraising. contact him if you're
interested in helping out

--after reportbacks, the group began a lengthy
DISCUSSION on where we are as mgj right now.  some
folks expressed concern about not yet forming working
groups outside of outreach, others spoke about wanting
to settle on a date for the fall, others spoke about
being realistic and actually doing the work of
outreach that we've been talking about for a month of
meetings now....there was a lot of discussion and a
lot of different viewpoints about what mgj's next
moves should be. we finally decided to move into
breakouts with our little remaining time

--BREAKOUTS

--next meetings and contacts for working groups:

GENERAL OUTREACH:
mon. 7/8, 7:30pm at CARECEN, 1459 columbia rd. nw
contact:  amy at prairiesmoke76 at yahoo.com or
301-891-3680
LABOR OUTREACH:
will not meet this week.
contact:  mark at mrickling at hotmail.com
5TH DEMAND WORKING GROUP:
mon. 7/8, 7:30pm at 3117 adam's mill rd. nw
contact:  mike at msysiuk at hotmail.com


NEXT MGJ MEETING:
wednesday, july 10 at 7:30 pm at st. stephen's 
(i think someone volunteered to facilitate but i
forgot to write it down in my notes!)

notetaker: christy

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