Radical Reference Montreal meeting notes
November 21, 2010
Present: Alanna, Andrea, Cassie, Megan, Vince
We reported on the successful workshop on internet skills with Re-Con last week. It went well and we hope to have similar opportunities in the future. The group was also very interested in getting help on some research questions, so we should hear from them in the future.
Reminders:
1. There will probably be a Geek Out meeting in December
2. We should think about a film to show during the QPIRG film screenings in the spring. Any ideas?
3. Andrea shared an email request from QPIRG-McGill about their media strategy. They are looking for supporters to write responses to attacks that are published in the campus newspapers. Supporters can also contribute testimonies to the website: http://qpirgmcgill.org/i-%E2%99%A5-qpirg/
4. The alternative libraries take requests for purchase: we can send some suggestions
Administrative stuff:
Megan has contacted QPIRG-Concordia about key list training...still waiting to hear back.
We briefly discussed the membership guidelines posted on the website: http://radrefmtl.wordpress.com/about/membership-guidelines/. Everything looks ok for now.
We discussed how to keep track of our budget and expenses. Vince will create a basic Google spreadsheet for recording purchases. Robin, as QPIRG liaison, will probably need to handle submitting requests for reimbursements. Megan and Alanna need to file their receipts. In the future it might be worthwhile to find a professional translator (either for free or paid from our budget).
Following recommendations from the meeting, Megan updated the Google document for the Virtual Reference Shelf. This is a work in progress, so please add your suggestions. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has been added.
We should look into whether other Rad Ref collectives have policies related to confidentiality and so on when they’re working with other groups. It would also be cool to send a shout out to the NYC collective since they’re nearby...we could meet up if anyone ever comes to Montreal or vice versa.
We talked a bit about the logistics of answering reference questions received by email. Robin is currently checking the email, so if a question is received, she will post it to the mailing list. Anyone who wants to answer it can send a message to the list claiming it. Of course, it’s always fine to ask for help! Robin can then give the answerer the password for the email account so that they can reply directly. Megan or someone else with editing rights can then post the question and answer to the website. This is definitely a clunky system, but we can reconsider if we start getting a lot of questions.
We plan to have another meeting before the end of the year to brainstorm preliminary outlines for fact-checking and research workshops. Megan will send a Doodle poll.
Making contacts and reaching out
Cassie will print out some more of the small flyers to leave around Concordia and the 2110 Centre For Gender Advocacy. She will also start a draft of a new larger poster using Robin’s image from the poster conference and some basic text.
Our key in making more contacts is to identify other groups’ needs and go from there in supporting their work. We’re going to start with groups that we’re already affiliated with or know. Megan will contact CURE. Andrea will contact the resource libraries. Robin and Andrea can contact QPIRG-McGill and QPIRG-Concordia (respectively) to get advice on how to reach the various working groups. Alanna will get in contact with various alternative media groups. Cassie will contact 2110. Vince will contact COCo Montreal. The goal of contacting these groups is to figure out how we might be able to help them and let them know what we can do. We can also try to get a link to our website from their pages. The relevant text about our group can be found on our flyers and other documents. We can track the responses received on the “groups to contact” Google doc.