Minutes of LSC meeting 25/9/07

Facilitator Adam

Adam opened the meeting by saying how ace last weeks events were and we all gave ourselves a well earned clap.

Some discussion of why some events were less well attended than others.

Film event brunch? for future events.

Social event for SFC group to unwind and regroup after stresses of opening.

Party

Peoples generosity was noticed. Nice poeple from Manchester. LSC group hiding in the kitchen, alledgedly! Temporary events licence about 21 quid and good idea in the future.

Drugs policy needs clarifying? Non-smoking needs clarifying with signs? Need for consistency within these policies.

Notice from NFN requesting the center considers the other ocupants of the building.

Oaxacca

Lots of help in setting it up. Very enjoyable. Call for monies owed for the film that wa on sale t be forthcoming, the expense of £8 in part to raise money for widows of the struggle. Request for context and Q&A to remove the relationship of consumers of 'pop-struggle'.

Conspiracies

It was brilliant and there are going to be more. Good showing.

Indimedia

Good turnout. 30 odd poeple. Lots that havn't been seen before and who have been back since.

Anarchist

Decent turn out. Matts doing more stuff with poeple who came and they are embarking on a co-learning thing.

Play

Very effecting. Really good RAN OUT OF CHAIRS! Playwrite/director liked the event, might be back. Chats afterwards about the issues thrown up after the play.

SSATW

Lots of kids. Raised some dosh from sale of soft drinks. Issues with chapperones from LSC. Only one LSC rep for the begining of the night. SSATW very organised and had their own health and safety officer! Place was clean the next day as well!!

BIG UP THE SSATW!!

Flm night

Turn out not brilliant. Need for some kind of feed back about what might be causing this. Might just be a case of Sundays might not be the best day for this event

Booking policy

Pricng structure- Deffinition of a funded group - 'They've got money' Groups that collect subs, fees ect. DECIDED A nonfunded group is "one without sugnificant resourses".

OPINIONS
-Member groups can be defined as:- those who attend the meetings with a review in 6 months. 'We know who we are'
-A request for this element to be shelved untill the discussion on membership.
-Groups politics should be the deciding factor on what constitutes a supporter group rather than the invlvement of the groups individuals within the center.
-It's reasonable to ask people for whip round donations.
-Some surprise from other social center workers who heard we were planing to charge groups who shared our aims.
-Policy would only ever be a guide lines not to be used inflexably
-Bookings policy to raise money to avoid more dodgy fund raising antics, important to make it work so we can afford stuff.
-Coin meter?
-Waiver must be available.

DECIDED Matt's policy for charges runs.

-concern about the potential for dicrepancies in charges between groups causing acrimony.

-Groups needent know what they are charged relevent to other groups

-No need to be fair

-necessity to ask groups whether they mind other groups being present in adjacent rooms.

-Issue of access to kitchen jfor one group and not one in the other room and whether this should be reflected in charge.

Anouncements

Dave looking for News Not Profit news letters. Last seen Sat morning. 500 missing

Oct 1st Faslane finishing 365 one year on from start. Call for participants in final demo from Liverpool.

We missed the freshers fair.

Suggestion for a Working Group for decorating. Request 'tagging area' for people to write on the wall.

Skill share on facilitation and consensus disicion making proposed by Maria H. to take place in the next 6 weeks.

Booking policy (exclusion policy)

Debate about the pros and cons of including political organisation like Trade Unions, and marginal political parties.

Anti cpitalists form a broad church which would include many of the groups members are concerned about.

concern about hierarchical groups using the space. Could simplify the criteria for inclusion. Might also aford people who are forced to operate within hierarchies the chance to see the other way things might work.

Need to prioritise the space available for groups who have no other options.

Need for grass roots rank and file trade unionist who are at odds with their hierarchy. the more conextions the better.

inclusion of hierarchical orgs endorses hierarchies and would cause the downfall of the SC. We are not excluding any individual only asking that if they come to the center they leave hierarchy behind.

Difficulty of known community group that operates as a hierarchy through the dominatin of one family within thier decision making processes. They need space and in every other respect fullfil our criteria, but they are part of a community that might not respect the right sof thier own members.

Comment on the ability of differing political groups who fall under the same broad umbrella to co-exist within the same forum as displayed in NFN bookshop.

Jerry called an imaginary group of feminists who might want ot use the space 'GIRLS'

Non hirarchical is the key element of the booking criteria.

Distinction between formal and informal hierarchies. Horizontal organisation might be a better way of expressing what we mean by non-hierarchical, as we concede that informal hierarchies are usual even within non-hierarchical groups.

Distincion beween community groups who organise hierarchically because they may not have had contact with horizontal organisations and meetings of organisations who are inherantly hierarchical and are unlikley to take note of nonhierarchcal ways of doing things.

Need for information exchange and trusting human relationships. Building trust between groups would be useful in Liverpool.

Need for outreach to other groups that we want to play with.

Just because we are asserting our right to control the use of the space does not mean that we will be excluding people lightly.

Trust between basically sympathetic groups or indeviduals who differ in key political points can be built over time and ways can be found to co-operate and work together.

People who participate within more than one group on of whom might not be welcome are not excluded.

Ideology not hierarchy is the key in this discussion.

If we are trying to support direct action and nonhierarchical ways of working, by not controlling or oppressiong other there is a need for a clear distinction between Anarchist priciples and representative politics parties and unions.

Non representative organisations who operate in a top down way are never gong to earn the trust of members of the group based on the historical relationshipswith these groups.

Not all organisation are devisive and some that were within Liverpool are local problems not endemic in those organisations nationally.

Working for ourselves and not for others should be our focus.

potential weakness in proposal because of the clause that states 'we do not demand explicit commitments to these principles form groups using the centre' Makes it difficult to exclude groups who are widley at odds with the objectives of the center.

Proposal for the removal of the statement in the previous point. and the addition of representative politics in the policy.

Those groups who have resourses or other options for meeting places should be declined. The rareity of consensus models makes it a responsibility of the social center to protect and promote this way of doing things.

Can we just nick it from another social center's website?

'We should be no different from the methodists!'

An attempt at consensus was made unsuccessfully due to the block placed by one member. Because of concerns of exclusivitey.

Sugestion to take the comment to rob the policy from other social centers policies as a useful way of moving through this stalemate. Pointed out by those who were involved in drafting the policy that this had already taken place.

Blocking member agreed to let the unamended policy stand with a view to think about things for a month

Request for members at the meeting and online to come up with alternative amendments that don't exclude indeviduals.

DECIDED - Finally consensus was acheived by removing the second to last paragraph.

OTHER BUSINESS

-Can we have more frequent meetings now that the center is running.

-Proposed Che event in two weeks. Motorcycle diaries, followed by discussion on Che the icon.

-Sun Oct 14th The Grey center first event in the LSC.

some chat about male violence.

Need for policy for crisis management during events.