Media Island Meeting Notes: May 3, 2010

Agenda:
Social Forum: Bus and Fundraising; May 21st event: Charlotte
flyer; Bike Smut; Funding / Bills; House needs: electrical;
Announcements

Present:
Chris, Jordon, Megan, Rick, Tucker, Michael, Olga, Charlotte, Carie,
Bruce, Rick, Tom, Michael, Nigel, David

Social Forum: Bus and
Fundraising

Bruce gave a description
of the U. S. Social Forum and the Allied Media Conference. The U. S.
Social Forum is a four day conference from the 22nd to the 26th in
Detroit. The Allied Media Conference happens from the 18th to the
22nd. Media Island is sponsoring the caravan and there are other
groups in Seattle and Bellingham. We will leave on the 13th of June
and return on the 30th of June. The trip will take five days. The
cost of the trip will be an estimated $ 300.00 per person. This
includes food. We are still working on housing while we are in
Detroit. There are plans in the works to make stops on the way,
which may include a visit to the Buffalo Field Campaign.
Scholarships may be available for people in need who are helping out.
We have not figured out the expenses of registration for the
conference. The student cost is $ 20.00 and the cost is $ 50.00
(sliding scale) for non-students. We are trying to make it as cheap
as possible for people. Charlotte talked about development of waiver
forms that people can sign to clarify liability issues for individual
on the caravan.

A question came up about
the itinerary. Tomorrow at Media Island at 8:00 P. M. is a meeting
about fundraising for the caravan. We discussed the organization of
food for the caravan. There is a mini kitchen on the bus. Rick's bus
can take 23 people. People should bring their own coolers with
personal food items. Once we get to Detroit, people tend to fan out
and food may not be as easy to organize. We discussed the Allied
Media Conference as a good context for development of social
activism. Bruce attended a meeting of a group at SPSCC and talked
about organizing ourselves while in Detroit.

Chris suggested scheduling
another meeting to work more on the details of organization of the
trip. There have been regional conference calls about the Forum. The
bus caravan has a WEB site: Freedom Caravan.wordpress.com

We discussed the People's
Assembly scheduled for May 8, 2010 and the possibility that they will
help with fundraising for the caravan.

We discussed logistics of
the caravan and ideas to organize the event.

May 21st Event

Charlotte presented on the
details of the benefit. Charlotte is producing a flyer and we
discussed the details for the flyer. The main focus will be the film,
coffee, tea, and desserts. We could use some chairs for the event. We
should check with Fertile Ground about their experience of lending
out chairs for Media Island events. Chris will talk with Fertile
Ground. If anyone has a line on more chairs that would be good.
Charlotte will indicate that the benefit is for Media Island and
LASO. Charlotte will e-mail the fllyer to Bruce and Rick. Charlotte
may also publish the flyer herself. We discussed distributing flyers
at the several events happening on May 8th, including Ralph Nader,
the People's Assembly, and other events. Charlotte estimates that
the flyer will be ready on Thursday. Chris will be in the box office
at the Capitol Theatre and if she has flyers she can hand them out to
people attending the Ellsburg film. Works in Progress will be doing
a bake sale at the theatre and they may be willing to hand out flyers
during their bake sale.

Bike Smut

Bike Smut is a selection
of films about a group of people who do performances with bicycles.
Their web site is bikesmut.org. They are looking for a film outlet
and Charlotte would like to have it seen at the Capitol Theatre. The
contact is Audrey Hemley to discuss rental of the theatre for an
event.

Bills / funding

Rick does not have a
financial report, but we are paid up on bills. SPEECH plans on
paying an installment on their rent. May 16th is the next SPEECH
board meeting.

Bruce is working on a
campus contract to have Rick present on the U. S. Social Forum on
campus.

House / electrical

We discussed chasing down
bad circuits in the house. We discussed any option to having Rick do
the work.

Announcements

Saturday, May 15th in the
basement of the Eagle's Hall for $ 3.00 is a dance party. The party
will be all night. Rick will try to get a special events permit for
the event.

FOR is having their annual
meeting on Monday, May 17th from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Traditions Fair
Trade Cafe.

At United Churches at 6:30
pm on Saturday, May 15th will be the film Kiterunner about growing up
in Kabul.