[mgj-discuss] Minutes of MGJ general meeting - 5/4/2005

[Lia Gilles]

quick correction on the location of the social this sat. it was written
in the notes as "Place: GWU quad on H St. next to Marvin Center."

the real location is inside the marvin center on the third floor
balcony. The Marvin Center is on 800 21st Street.

thanks and hope to see people there =)

lia

----- Original Message -----
From: "basav at igc.org" <basav at igc.org>
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2005 6:54 pm
Subject: [mgj-discuss] Minutes of MGJ general meeting - 5/4/2005

> MGJ General Meeting
> 5/4/2005
> 
> A. Reportbacks and Discussion
> 
> 1. Fundraising: 
> 
> Working on a houseparty fundraiser with *suggested donation* at the 
> door,music (may be live if we can get someone to perform for free), 
> and drinks.
> Need to keep costs low so we can make $$. 
> 
> Suggested date: Friday June 10. Since it's the weekend before 
> Biodemocracy,we should have materials promoting Biodemocracy as 
> well, and a fun
> "vegetable theme".
> 
> Place options:
> ·	Andy looking at possibility of his house.
> ·	Katy looking into possibility of her brother's house.
> ·	Tia looking into possibility of basement of Larry's Lounge (18th 
> and T
> St.).
> 
> 2. Biodemocracy
> June 18-21 protest against biotech industry annual conference in
> Philadelphia. MGJ wants to participate. Organizers in Philly have 
> asked us
> to help with:
> ·	Local teach-in. We consensed to do this at the last meeting.
> ·	Teach-in in Philly. Unclear what kind of help they need with 
> that. Tia
> will talk to them on a conference call on Tuesday and determine 
> what help
> they need, and we'll discuss at next meeting based on this 
> information.·	Local solidarity action on June 21. At the last 
> meeting, we had expressed
> some misgivings. At this meeting, we decided to do small-scale 
> media stunt
> type event.
> A biodemocracy working group has formed, with Chris, Julia, Tia, 
> Larissa,Catherine, Keith, and Basav. Details on local teach-in and 
> local solidarity
> action will be discussed at working group meeting. (See WG 
> announcementsbelow.)
> 
> 3. Z Magazine and Spark articles:
> Hope working on Z Magazine article reporting on mobilization (due 
> Tuesday,possibly later). Basav and Zein El-Amine have already 
> submitted article on
> global-local connections to Spark.
> 
> 4. Local-Global Strategy Group
> There's interest in showing the documentary film "Thirst" as a 
> follow-up
> event to the teach-in. Michelle Tingling-Clemmons, a local 
> environmentaljustice activist, has agreed to lead the discussion 
> after the film. Next
> steps for the group are not decided, but are likely to include more
> awareness-raising efforts.
> 
> 5. Student activism celebration
> We are doing this jointly with DAWN. 
> Date: Saturday May 7
> Time: 5 - 7 pm
> Place: GWU quad on H St. next to Marvin Center.
> We'll definitely have students from GWU, Georgetown, Howard. Not 
> sure of
> other campuses (AU, UDC, UMD, etc.)
> Language for the statement of appreciation for Georgetown Living Wage
> Campaign was refined during the meeting, and will be refined 
> further over
> e-mail by Chris, Tia, and other interested people. Contact Chris at 
> <chrisat ceo4u dot com> if you are interested in being involved in 
> finalizing the
> language.
> 
> 6. June 1st - Wolf Out, Wolf In!
> June 1 will be the official first day of the reign of Wolfowitz as
> President of the World Bank. Several NGOs are talking about doing 
> somethingtheatrical/media-stunt-like on the lines of the One-Horse 
> Race event.
> Next conference call on this will be on Tuesday, May 10, at 9 am. 
> Juliawill represent MGJ. If you have any ideas, send them to her at 
> <juliazoneat aol dot com>.
> 
> 7. Tax the Bank
> 
> The basics: WB, IMF, and Interamerican Development Bank own $1.4 
> billion of
> property in Washington DC and pay $0 in property taxes.
> They make $4 billion in annual profits and pay $0 in corporate revenue
> taxes.
> Foreign nationals working at the institutions don't pay income 
> taxes to the
> city (even though they're among the highest-paid "public servants" 
> in the
> area, they certainly make more money than most Federal Govt. 
> officials).But foreign nationals working as janitors, security 
> guards, etc. at the
> institutions do pay income taxes, because they are technically 
> contractemployees, not direct employees. (And they don't make a 
> living wage.)
> 
> Well, we're outraged and we want to do something about it!
> 
> The idea is to get the WB/IMF/IDB to pay Payments in Lieu of Taxes 
> (PILOTs).
> Our (long) discussion about it is summarized below:
> ·	Soren/50 Years have been trying to get a Tax the Bank campaign 
> off the
> ground for years but weren't able to. No group had the energy to 
> bottomlinethe project.
> ·	While that is an important caveat, now there IS a group willing to
> bottomline the project, namely MGJ.
> ·	The earlier incarnation of the Tax the Bank coalition came up 
> with very
> useful research, such as the numbers cited above on property taxes 
> etc.,and a breakdown for how much could be raised for specific 
> things like
> schools, health care, housing, etc. through PILOTs. So we have a 
> base of
> research to build on.
> ·	Need to strategize about how MGJ will approach community groups 
> in DC.
> ·	Can start with some of the groups we are already working with on the
> Local-Global Strategy Group. There's interest in Tax the Bank on 
> the part
> of some of them at least. But the group as a whole will probably 
> stick to
> awareness-building and analysis-building rather than any specific 
> campaign.·	Basav's conversation with local environmental justice 
> activist Michelle
> Tingling Clemmons was very instructive. On her own, she mentioned 
> Tax the
> Bank as one of two key issues that make the film "Thirst" relevant 
> to DC.
> (The other issue is the creeping privatization of the DC Water and 
> SewerAuthority, which has very little direct oversight from City 
> Government even
> though it's on paper a public agency.) The fact that Michelle T-C 
> broughtit up on her own shows that there is awareness and interest 
> in this issue
> on the part of local activists.
> ·	It's critical to build a coalition of labor, women's groups, 
> immigrantorganizations, neighborhood groups, etc. to win something 
> like this.
> ·	To build such a coalition effectively, we need to figure out 
> differentlevels of involvement, so groups can support the campaign 
> at different
> levels depending on their capacity and interest.
> ·	Ideally, some groups in the coalition will feel ownership of the
> campaign, so it's not just a MGJ thing that they've added their 
> name to.
> ·	At the same time, it's important that MGJ play a key role in the
> campaign, since it's an important ongoing activity for us so we 
> don't just
> live from mobilization to mobilization. Also because it's a way for 
> us to
> make our work locally relevant.
> ·	Two years ago, the campaign made contact with Councillors Kathy 
> Pattersonand Phil Mendelson. Soren does not recall what their 
> response was. Would be
> useful to ask someone who might remember. (Roger Newell?)
> ·	We should also get in touch with Adrian Fenty, who is running for 
> mayor.·	Caveat: all the international organizations in DC are tax-
> exempt, so this
> could be a tough sell. We might get serious counter-lobbying by 
> everyonefrom the OAS to embassies, afraid that they may be next.
> 
> Decided to set up a Tax the Bank WG. Details of meeting in WG meeting
> announcements below.
> 
> 8. Archiving/institutional memory.
> Jazmin has a wonderful suggestion, reproduced in it's entirety 
> below for
> those not on the mgj-outreach listserve.
> 
> hellooo outreach!
> given that:
> one hopes that mgj will one day be unnecessary. in the meantime, a 
> littleorganizational growth would
> be beneficial, i think. a few people doing everything is 
> educational but i
> don't think it's the best way to
> go in terms of long term sustainability and effectiveness.
> and:
> a physical memory of mgj's happenings would be rewarding for us, 
> too, and
> interesting to people plugging in. a nice little tool for spreading 
> theword about mgj would be a scrapbook of what mgj has been up to. 
> we could
> include the flyer of an event, a synopsis, some pictures, and bust the
> thing out when appropriate should someone want to know more about 
> what mgj
> does. at events or when tabling. a web version would be good, too.
> i'm willing to collect various pieces and put the thing together, 
> ideallywith someone else's input, if anyone is interested.
> thoughts?
> -jaz
> 
> We all loved this idea, and will talk about it more in the retreat.
> 
> Also, Peter Hollin will come to an MGJ meeting one of these days to 
> talkabout the website.
> 
> 9. MGJ retreat!!!
> 
> ·	A straw poll was conducted to finalize the date -- June 4 and 5.
> ·	Location will be somewhere pretty and relaxing (and close by) 
> like the
> Shenandoah Valley!
> ·	Morrigan, Jon, (may be Kendra, Catherine?) are working on location.
> ·	Morrigan is compiling an agenda. Send her ideas at <phipco at 
> riseup dot
> net>.
> ·	Other details such as food etc. will need to be worked out.
> 
> B. Proposals
> Fundraising proposed a fundraising houseparty (details earlier). 
> Consensed.
> Date: most probably Friday June 10.
> 
> C. WG meetings.
> 
> 1. Biodemocracy WG
> Saturday 5/7, at 1 pm in the Asylum, 18th St. NW very close to 
> Columbia in
> Adams Morgan. Near several Metro stops (Columbia Heights and U 
> Street on
> Green Line, Woodley Park and Dupont Circle on Red Line). More info: 
> Tia(swettalthea at yahoo dot com).
> 
> 2. Tax the Bank WG
> Tuesday 5/10, at 7 pm. in 50 Years is Enough office (3628 12th St. 
> NE),near Brookland metro stop on Red Line. More info: Soren (soren 
> at igc dot
> org).
> 
> 3. Fundraising WG
> Immediately before general meeting. Wednesday 5/11, 6:30 pm, St. 
> Stephen'sChurch, 16th and Newton St. NW (near Columbia Heights 
> metro stop on Green
> Line). More info: Keith (kjohnson at riseup dot net)
> 
> 4. Next general meeting
> Wednesday 5/11, 7 pm, St. Stephen's Church, 16th and Newton St. NW 
> (nearColumbia Heights metro stop on Green Line).
> Catherine and Julia facilitate. More info: mgj at riseup dot net
> 
> 
> Finally, a disclaimer - for those who were at the meeting and don't
> remember seeing me (Basav) taking notes, and in fact, seem to 
> recall me
> facilitating -   you weren't dreaming. I was facilitating. I was 
> not taking
> notes. I'm just typing and sending out the notes that Catherine wrote!
> 
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