Meeting Notes Oct. 5th
In attendance:
Danielle(facilitator), Peter(FNB), Jason, Suzy, and Leia(freegan.info), Sarah, Quinn, Dave, Thadeaus, Joe(IOH), Shane and Patty(ASL classes), Michael(notes), Margie, Francesca, Andrew
Reportbacks:
ABC: Letter writing dinners continue to happen every other tuesday and are going great; 15 to 20 peops strong every time! So, come out and support the troops...
(Demand Freedom for Our Political Prisoners and POWs!
Friday, October 10, 2008 @ 12 Noon Moving Agitational Picket 1st Ave. from 42nd to 47th Sts. Bring your banners, signs, noisemakers, drums, whistles, etc. Simultaneous delegation to United Nations for meeting inside UN Evening Concert to Benefit the Prisoners @ the Knitting Factory @ 74 Leonard St., NYC • 9 p.m. until . . .Featuring: Inmesyah Soul, Hassan Salaam, X-Vandals, Emperor, Rebel Diaz, The Wordstock Poetry Collective, Maroon Society, Gist the Essence, Collective Flow, United Front
Saturday, October 11, 2008 @ 12 Noon Rally at the Harlem State Office Building (Corner of 126th St. & A.C. Powell Blvd.) March through Harlem @ 1 p.m. Closing Rally in Morningside Park @ 3 p.m. Between 112th & 114th near Morningside Ave. entrances)
After School Program: The first day was this past friday 3-6pm. We're at it again! Familiar kids from last year we all know and love and a few eager new faces as well. We're always looking for volunteers and folks to spread the word. 123 ASP Fridays 3-6pm! Get in on radical education and cultural collaboration! Also, it would be really cool if FNB and or freegan.info wanted to donate/supply us with snacks for ASP
Bike Workshop: Was open again this past wednesday and saturday. bikeshop volunteers are gonna try and keep it open regularly again on wed. and sat., though they have much to discuss and it is a constant challenge under the current conditions. Help 'em out if you can.
*A man named Goran, occasional 123 patron and freegan.info affiliate, has come under accusation of using specifically racist and generally inappropriate language and behavior, i.e. things that have been/are/can be extremely hurtful. many opinions were voiced regarding tolerance levels of this, not shunning, educating, staying open, but also being practical and remembering when real action needs to take place around dealing with these issues. In the end, our stance (123) on these matters is stated in our orientation packet. We will not allow that kind of language and behavior at 123, which, according to Quinn, is not in question. In question is the level to which this behavior goes, which will be discussed in detail tonight in the freegan.info meeting at Suzy's Kitchen 7:30pm in manhattan, along with any action to take against Goran's presence at freegan.info sponsored events and functions.*
Black History Program: Finished the first of 2 sessions this past Sunday with a bonus field trip (i missed where you went) the program went really well and peops are excited for the second session sometime in the spring. Also, in cooperation with some other long standing organizations, teens that complete both sessions, through attendance, will have the opportunity to go to a really cool summer camp that's opening up next summer. (See Andrew or Danielle for complete details)
Misled Youth Printshop: Unfortunately, the printshop will be closed until our power is fully restored as it is just not practically possible to do it justice during this time of limited functionality.
In Our Hearts: they will remove the infoshop books and shelves. the lending library and their shelves can stay and probably the zine rack and maybe zines, if we would want them. IOH will leave a donation box for zines attached to the wall above the zine rack. (I would really like to revisit visions and process for having a really awesome and attractive radical lending library.) Basically, IOH barely uses the space now as it is, and thadeaus has stated that is more feasible to pay $100/month and occasionally host/sponsor IOH events at 123. They have a bunch of events and happenings all this month, so plug in if you can. One of which, will feature Broadcast Live, an anarchist hip-hop group that played 123 last year. They're playing a benefit at the John Bosch house on Oct 24th. check 'em out!
Food Not Bombs: Saturdays are still going strong. Getting more and more local involvement and continuing reachout. They've been having a surplus of food, in part due to donations from Trader Joe's. When they do, we reached consensus that they will be able to set up a table in front of 123 and begin distributing some of the food around 1pm then going to the park at 3. They will promo 123 as well and make sure to note that their program is only on saturdays. The FNB benefit for 123 this past friday was a success. A good time was had by all and folks raised $340 for 123, hooray! Would like to continue having these types of benefits.
Other Programs: Karate is still kicking Monday evenings at 5pm (excuse the cheesiness:), Spanish classes are still down due to electricity, Kalabash is slowly starting up again on saturdays, in part with FNB.
New Programs and Events:
Some eager new folks stopped in, Shane and Patty, who would like to set up an approx. 2 month long workshop teaching American Sign Language and discussing various related issues. Consensus was reached on having this program. Tentative time is Sunday early afternoons for approx. 1 hour, but dave will connect with someone from the neighborhood who was interested in organizing a similar program to see if these 3 folks can collaborate. Could start this month.
Ramona, a woman from the neighborhood, wants to start a dance class for kids. We reached consensus on this and dave will let her know. We decided on Mondays (this is the only time ramona has available) from 3-5pm or 7-8 or 9pm, either just before or just after Karate. We're hoping for 3-5 as it fits perfectly.
Someone from the neighborhood is interested in starting French and Creole classes. There is general interest; dave will find out more.
FNB would like to continue the momentum from the recent benefit and work to organize one similar every month. Francesca, Quinn, Thadeaus, Dave, Danielle, Sarah, and myself (michael) are all down to help make this happen.
Possible Post-Punk Kitchen and FNB collaborative brunch benefit! (with part of the proceeds benefitting 123!) Peter(FNB) will find out more details. Andrew mentioned that this might actually be too big an event for 123 to even accommodate. So, we'll keep this in mind.
Housekeeping:
Fiscal Sponsorship and Electricity: Francesca and i talked to Leia from wetlands and she says wetlands is really interested in helping us, so they're going through things trying to figure out how/if they can. This will be discussed at today's freegan.info meeting. She is being really awesome because she clearly really wants to help us out. In the vein of exploring all options, Francesca applied to Fractured Atlas for fiscal sponsorship with them. the lady said that at the latest we would get our response is by oct 15, but probably sooner, and that there's like a 99 percent chance we'll be accepted. So the only problem there is it's not NOW, but it will probably happen, in which case if we get other fiscal sponsorship that we like more we can say thanks but we already found someone else, and if we'd prefer to have FA then we can switch over (but still maybe take the first offer that comes so we can get the electricity on the fastest...) the other issue is that being fiscally sponsored means giving up a percentage of your donations. with FA it would be 10%. So, we will need to look at this more specifically and straighten out all the details and ramifications of this. Also, would other organizations, like FNB also then have to donate 10%? We are unable to answer these types of questions at the moment, but will continue looking into these matters and return with information as we uncover it.
Rent Payment/123 Funding: We made our rent on time this month and now have a surplus of $123, hooray! with IOH scaling back, we need to seriously revisit getting other organizations to utilize 123 and kick in on the rent. the amount we need to cover as 123 the whole is $625. We can now send out an updated plea for donations, along with a newsletter! We need to start a fundraising group; folks that are looking specifically at ways to raise money for 123. ideas already out there are the regular FNB jams, regular pancake breakfasts, and more avid promotion of 123 as an event space for peops in the neighborhood.
Outreach: Wednesday during the day, dave and i will be talking to other organizations in the area about 123. get in touch with dave if you'd like to join us. 718-844-9849
Propane? Andrew will get on this.
rAcing,
~m