Western Mass Social Forum General Planning Meeting, 8/11/06

by Nan Wiegersma

We met at 6: PM at Café El Mercado, 413 Main St. in Holyoke. Our Host, Eduardo Suarez, very generously provided soft drinks and snacks for us there.

The first item on the agenda was a report of the location committee presented by Doug Renick. We are looking to book U. Mass for the middle of April, April 13-16, after booking is possible when the year opens at U. Mass. in September. Locations for plenary sessions, break-out sessions, and a party on Saturday night (the 14th) were discussed.

Doug suggested that Herter Hall looked good for break-outs. We decided that we would try to get Bowker Auditorium for an initial plenary on Friday night and a final session on Sunday afternoon. That location is much less expensive that the Student Union Ballroom. We should be able to get the space for a minimum price with student and faculty sponsorship. The Student Union Ballroom would cost $500 for the Saturday night concert and party.

The locations committee met with student government leaders. The head of the Student Government Association, Elvis Mendez, said that students would definitely connect with the Forum. He has offered to be a student sponsor. It was suggested that we request at least one student government leader to be part of our planning process.

A question arose about whether the Social Forum would conflict with "Kent State" action also being discussed for April. Eduardo suggested that these two events would complement each other and not conflict.

Yvonne Mendez brought up the question of "who is our audience". Do we expect some people from out of the area to attend? If so, we should get special deals for them at local hotels. We should contact the PVTA about free extended bus service in the area that weekend.

The idea that the Locations committee could now become the Transport and Accommodations Committee was expressed. Volunteers for this new, transformed, committee were: Yvonne Mendez, Doug Renick and Eduardo Suarez.

In the second half of the meeting, there was a long discussion of the proposed content of the forum. Emily presented the work of the Tracks committee in developing themes for the conference: political economy, culture/spirit, environment and sustainability, the commons, war militarism and peace, human rights and youth. She then presented an alternative or supplementary organization of tracts and sessions model by suggesting that we could use the method proposed by the African social forum being organized for 2007. This method is to go to each of the community groups that will be attending the conference and having them respond to a questionnaire about their work and from the responses, create sessions that will be useful for organizing and strategic purposes.

There was a discussion about how to get real people from ordinary walks of life involved in the conference. Maurice said that the sessions should be relevant to the real people who talk, for example, in the local barber shop.

Susan suggested that we need to focus on action and strategy for community groups and not just education The conference should result in the creation of some kind of lasting network that we will not be able to understand the specifics of until the end of the conference.

Eduardo suggested that there should be a track on race. Emily responded that the committee had discussed including race class gender and youth themes in all of the tracks. Eduardo responded that cultures are different and we hope to have several cultural groups involved in the Forum. He wants to caucus with other Latinos and there should be one or more sessions set aside for caucuses. There seemed to be consensus on this point.

Yvonne suggested that it was time for us to start to map out a plan for the conference with time periods, etc. We do not want so many tracks and sessions that there will be only about 5 people in each.

Maurice pointed out that for any continuing organization to come out of this conference, we would have to figure out how to hold community groups accountable for their own power politics. Accountability is the key to effective action because there is often a hierarchy in community organizations that reflects the society we live in. How can we hold these groups accountable? It was suggested that there would have to be a committee to oversea these issues in groups. The forum could be an "open space" where we could discuss options for how to do this.

There was further discussion of how some community groups victimize people and how we need to get our house in order to be able to work together. When do community groups act as a buffer for people and when do they take the part of local governments? Eduardo suggested that the results of the forum should not be prejudged, but that these issues should be dealt with.

As part of the process of discussion, it was suggested that there could be sessions that focus on real stories about successes and failures of community groups and the left in general. (This could tie in with the survey process suggested by the African World Social Forum. NW)

As a result of this discussion, the tracks committee was expanded: Eduardo, Maurice and Yvonne volunteered to be on the committee.

We also decide to have an interfaith service on Sunday morning. It was suggested that the Interfaith Coalition could organize this service.

Lastly, Shira reported from the fund raising committee that the artists had been recruited for the first of several fund raising evens - venue to be announced later.