Radical Reference Montreal meeting October 21, 2010

Agenda:

CBC interview
October 23 march: what needs to be done?
-patches
-flyers
-info package?
-phones/computers
Poster
Group decision making, esp re: interviews
QPIRG meeting report

1. We decided that it didn’t make sense for us to do the CBC radio interview at this time, and we informed the people who had contacted us.

2. Group decision-making. QPIRG working groups are supposed to function on consensus-based, non-hierarchical decision-making. Although we don’t have to work like this necessarily, we want to.

Can decisions made by e-mail?
If so, how?
-For small things, it’s ok (i.e., not affecting the group as whole)
-Defining time frames is essential
-If someone objects to an idea, a discussion will be required
-Phoning is ok!

A suggestion: Alanna will send out a message on the listserv saying that we would like to start defining membership in the group and how decisions are made. The next meeting will be dedicated to this topic, so everyone who is interested in having input on decisionmaking will need to attend (Doodle poll to be sent out by Alanna).

For the future, we should flesh out what “consensus-based” means. How is this actualized? What does it mean to be a member? The word “staffed” is not really an accurate description of us. Andrea will look into this. We can also talk about assigning particular tasks/roles/responsibilities.

3. Flyers for October 23. We now have French and English! Megan will fix the formatting with the logos and add the QPIRG logo (Robin will send it to her). We can do four per page (English on one side, French on the other). We will print out 100 sheets (2 sided). Robin and Alanna will take care of printing.

Robin will make patches for demo.

We will print out a few copies of the October 22 info as well as our “know your rights” info for our reference (Megan will print from Know Your Rights manual from the Canadian Civil Liberties Union). For the info pack: we need to have info about all the cases being remembered specifically--Alanna will add this.

Alanna, Robin, and Megan will all be at the demo. If we can’t answer questions right away, we’ll write them down. We’ll also informally record questions.

We have a few documents about the group that aren’t electronic--e.g., working group orientation packet. Robin will donate a binder to store them.

For discussion at next meeting: where do we want to post the URL for our website?

4. Poster:
Robin to finish graphics
Carolyn to finish formatting
Megan to print on October 29
Megan to set up on November 3. Megan or Alanna to tear down November 5, 4 pm.
We need to add the QPIRG logo as well.

5. QPIRG meeting report
One consideration: participating in film screening
Rights and responsibilities were discussed as well as facilities.
We will need to provide a written and oral report of our activities at the end of the year (AGM).
Advise QPIRG about events to be publicized on mailing list.
Provide flyers, etc. to be posted
Support the group-i.e., through fact-checking workshops
Financial policy: we need to spend the entire budget. Details about reimbursement are in full document.
We also discussed the current situation of attacks on QPIRG. We need to talk about how we can support QPIRG through our site. We need to add a note about being a working group on the site and add a logo.