[mgj-discuss] Agenda for tonight's meeting; some thoughts

[Hope Chu]

Hi all,

Edward and I had some agenda items for tonight's meeting. 
 They are (in no particular order):

- March educational street theater events at anti-war 
group meetings
- Support action at Voices for Creative Nonviolence's Wed 
vigil in front of the IMF
- Possible April actions
- Fundraising show
- Sundry reportbacks

I would also like to express some thoughts that have been 
kicking around my head after two dispiriting and 
disappointing meetings.  Perhaps we'd like to dedicate 
some time in this meeting to discuss these.

The past two meetings have been very low attendance - and 
VERY low energy - despite the exciting things MGJ is 
taking on (ie March action and education, the sustainable 
organizing meeting), which has led me to question a couple 
of things.

1) The current direction of MGJ.  I had proposed this 
direct action and popular education workplan (the workplan 
formerly known as PEDAC) with the hopes of fulfilling some 
goals articulated in the summer strategy session, namely 
increasing participation/membership in MGJ.  I also hoped 
that PEDAC would function as an awareness raising tool for 
MGJ - to help turn out passionate, well-informed people in 
greater numbers for direct actions and mobilizations - and 
be helpful in a broader, movement-building context.  

I still think these are important goals, and tasks which 
are attainable through a PEDAC-like program.  HOWEVER, I 
sense a waning desire in the group and am beginning to 
think that we bit off a bit more than we could chew in 
consensing on PEDAC, for whatever reason.

2) One reason may be the overuse and ambiguity of the 
consensus process in MGJ.  I'm starting to get the feeling 
that consensus means "I have no objection to MGJ taking 
that on" rather than "Yes, I'd really like to commit time 
and energy to this."  The former would be fine were MGJ 
general meetings a board-like entity and if we had 
regular, paid staff to do the work.  It is NOT fine with 
MGJ structured as it is, with the work that MGJ gets done 
predicated on the commitment and interest of individual 
volunteers - most of whom are overworked and underpaid 
anyway.

3) Related to all of this is the movement of MGJ towards 
acting like an NGO, without NGO resources.  I'll be the 
first to say I'm definitely guilty in promoting this, but 
I'd like to also say that I think this came out of a 
desire to - most importantly - be bigger, break out of an 
existing routine, etc.  Perhaps adopting NGO tactics to 
achieve these goals were not wise for MGJ.  

Perhaps we need to accept that, given the nature of the 
organization, MGJ can only operate in a certain manner - 
ie low-growth, small actions, etc.  Perhaps, in the 
context of the current state and energy of the global 
justice movement, MGJ is - at this moment - an affinity 
group.

4) Therefore, I'd like to draw attention to the email that 
Morrigan sent out a couple of weeks ago, exploring more 
creative ways to hold meetings.  Perhaps we can have more 
internal education/skillshare type meetings - perhaps even 
at irregular intervals, as suggested by Morrigan, and as 
may be dictated by the fact that there are some Wed. 
coming up for which we couldn't get St Stephen's.  

I welcome your thoughts, comments, etc.

hope

Also, please tell me if you're going to be at tonight's 
meeting.  If it's just three of us staring each other in 
the face again, I've got episodes of Project Runway to 
watch.

----------------
Organizing and Communications Coordinator
50 Years Is Enough Network
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