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STLIMC Member Rights & Resonsibilities

Proposed STLIMC Member Rights/Responsibilities
Draft copied from Indybay.org. Please note that "collective" and "membership" are interchangeable.
Source: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/12/15/16659011.php

 

Responsibilities:

  1. Members must abide by our collective Code of Conduct (see below).
  2. Members must attend at least one general collective meeting per month. If unable to attend, communication to the collective is expected.
  3. Representing St. Louis Indymedia: Members must notify the collective before speaking on behalf of St. Louis Indymedia, e.g. when at a public event, screening, whatever. Confusion often arises when a member speaks about "Indymedia" or "St. Louis Indymedia" to someone who is unfamiliar with the distinctions between our individuals, our collective, and the global network. Often a member is assumed to be speaking for the entire St. Louis IMC collective, when instead their opinions are their own. When appropriate, members are encouraged to be explicit that any and all views expressed are personal in nature and do not represent the entire collective.
  4. Members should endeavor to participate in St. Louis IMC events.
  5. Members should participate in email discussions on the listservs.
  6. Members are expected to bring problems to the collective if they believe another member is not fulfilling his/her responsibilities and/or has violated our Principles of Unity / Code of Conduct.
Rights:
  1. Participation in collective decision-making;
  2. Access to St. Louis IMC space and equipment; and
  3. Access to knowledge that affects your participation in St. Louis IMC.
Code of Conduct:
  1. St. Louis IMC participants should be allowed to decide that they do not wish to receive private phone calls, emails, or IRC communications from other St. Louis IMC participants as it relates to SF Bay Area IMC work. This also extends to private conversations at St. Louis IMC events or meetings. The St. Louis IMC will not intervene in personal conflicts or relationships between members.
  2. All St. Louis IMC members should feel free from undue character attacks, where an "undue character attack" is defined as being words that don't address specific problematic behaviors or actions, but instead remain general and imply an inherent personality trait. Generally speaking, members should rest assured that, whether they or another member is in conflict over some behavior or action, it is that behavior or action that will be addressed.
  3. Lying about or withholding information that pertains to the entire collective will not be tolerated. St. Louis IMC members have a responsibility to be truthful and transparent to each other with regards to St. Louis IMC-related matters.

Process for Resolving Conflicts:

In the event of conflicts between members and allegations of misconduct and behavior that violates the Principles of Unity / Code of Conduct, the St. Louis IMC will use the following process to try to minimize the negative impact and find a mutually agreeable solution to the problem(s) at hand.

  1. A formal complaint/proposal within 14 days of the incident(s) coming up in a collective context. The specifics of the incident should be outlined, along with what the person writing the proposal sees as a reasonable solution. This should be done preferably via email so that members have some time to comment and brainstorm solutions.
  2. Discussion of the proposal will occur online and, if no agreement is arrived at, at a special members-only meeting that should take place no more than 14 days after the complaint/proposal was put forth.
  3. The special meeting should in no way be a trial, and people involved are expected to participate with the goal of finding a mutually agreeable solution to continue forward in the collective context.
Persons accused will have the opportunity to present their version of the event(s) in question, and members in attendance will be encouraged to help bring solutions to the fore of the conversation.

An attempt at consensus regarding a proposal to move forward will be made, though the person(s) involved in the dispute are not permitted to block. If consensus cannot be reached, compromise proposals are expected to be brought up, with each individual involved in the conflict expected to give up a little so that the group can gain and move forward.

Barring an internal resolution, professional mediation may be sought.

Which Decisions Are Delegated to Working Groups (aka Crews)
Working groups/crews are given much autonomy. Micromanaging what individuals and working groups do would create a mind-numbing bureaucracy which would destroy the St. Louis IMC. The editorial working group is trusted to mind the newswire, update the center column, and work out any differences regarding hiding, politics, and editorial inquiries from the world, the St. Louis IMC tech crew troubleshoots, upgrades, and fixes without asking the general collective about each specific item in question, and so on.

Generally speaking, working groups are expected to report back to the larger collective on a regular basis, pass along issues that it feels are better decided upon by the general collective, and overall operate under the St. Louis IMC Principles of Unity.

Which Decisions Are Made at General Meetings

Overall, the purpose of general St. Louis IMC meetings, including what decisions are to be made in them, is to discuss projects, problems, and issues that are organizational in scope. Basically, if in doubt, bring it up at the collective. Generally speaking, finance issues, general space issues, important decisions regarding the global IMC network, and collective process issues are those that the general collective must take on. Most of the action happens at the more frequent working group meetings, however.

Other IMCs' Codes of Conduct (for reference:)

 

Addendum to 8/12 Meeting Minutes

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 29, 2007 - 6:09pm.

Addendum to the Minutes
StL-IMC General Meeting, 8/12/07
````````````````````````````````````````````````````

This amends the Minutes of the 8/12 meeting, accounting for an incident not reported in the approved published version -- which I prepared and posted via email on 8/21/07. Presented here are the new facts, with some background & comments in explanation.
in due diligence...
_scottie addison__

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

__8/12 Meeting Incident:

The Agenda for this first monthly meeting was set at the 7/31 'Launch' meeting: After a brief outline on ideas for setting up StL-IMC as a membership association, it was specifically agreed that SCA would bring this topic with further research to the 8/12 meeting, for more in-depth discussion.
In the interim, AmyCate S. contributed some on-line research, and SCA prepared a 1-page handout.

The Agenda was approved again at the outset of the 8/12 meeting, and the item on "Set-up: Association & Membership" came up about halfway through its course. With new people attending, SCA recapped the concept of a legal association, how it builds on the 'collective' structure of IMC's elsewhere and StL-IMC in the past, preserving democratic principles but creating stability for the future.

The advantages of being a legal entity were explained briefly -- including the ability to handle finances through a non-profit fiscal agent, define terms of cooperation, enter agreements, do business as a whole and interact with other organizations, etc. The focus then moved to the meaning of being a 'Member' -- the individual's primary choice to associate and how to participate, how affirmed members comprise the organization, and the rights & obligations they take on. Ben W. had prepared an interim member sign-up sheet, and we passed this around the table.

Suddenly Digger (Daniel Romano) interrupted the discussion, attacking SCA personally and in his motives -- asserting that he "always tries to run things his way", has made problems "all over town", raised "concerns over his involvement around CAMP & IMC in the past", etc.
SCA noted that this was an agreed discussion on the agenda, and tried to continue it, but Digger persisted in his tirade, demanding of others, "C'mon, back me up here...", directing more acrimony and insults at SCA. At no time did he address the content of the discussion, the worth or effects of forming a member association -- this was all about 'shooting the messenger', stirring up hysteria about SCA's character and opposition to his leading role in re-starting StL-IMC.

Other meeting participants were clearly discomfited by the outburst, but opted to avoid conflict during the meeting, so it was not dealt with. Instead the topic was diverted to broad speculations on "Consensus" and group decision-making, and it was agreed to talk about this at the next meeting. Meanwhile the 'Association' discussion on the current agenda was stopped and never completed. The sign-up sheet went around during the confusion... 7 of the 10 meeting participants signed on as StL-IMC Members, stating their crew & volunteer interests.

___Background & Comments (1st-person):

This incident in the 8/12 meeting is only understandable in light of history -- in part going back in my long relationship with Digger, but mainly this year and events around the IMC revival:

•• In January '07 StL-IMC was flat on its face... past crew were dispersed, the organization moribund, the website inactive, and Ben West was stuck tending the corpse. We traveled together to the Media Reform Conference in Memphis, talked it over and agreed to pick it up out of the dust.

As a start, a few of us met in February (Mark, Digger, Ben, SCA), with a stopgap idea on the table to shore up IMC editorial functions with by merging them Confluence. I opposed this, noting that IMC is not like a proprietary publication with a single point of view, politically or editorially -- it is a different, much broader media resource for the whole community, pluralistic in nature and calling for open participation in accord. I stood up for the independence of IMC, and the need to build a real media organization above any factional control.
This was the sense of the meeting, and we agreed to move ahead on this basis. However the outcome may have frustated Mr. Romano, who was most intent upon getting people to write for Confluence, and wanted to pull in IMC constituents ASAP.

•• So, Ben & I launched the 'StL-IMC ReBoot', handling all the work between us -- cranking up communications, new gear & ideas, and a series of public 'Brainstorms' to pull in new participation and wider views. We held 3 such events in March & April, and added informal discussions and research to the record, for common reference.

What came from these forums was a good survey of what stakeholders saw and wanted, and a good start on what we could do. We concurred that StL-IMC should foster grassroots journalism, found a strong desire for media & press training to built needed skills, and started work on this right away.
Through these months, Ben has secured a new server, introduced new 'Drupal' software to run the website, and initiated the 'ReBoot' site (http://reboot.stlimc.org) for testing & startup on the new model.
I have done all the gruntwork to build secure contact lists & reliable communications, and the heavy scribery to share the prospects openly and invite participation. All proceedings & ideas are squarely on the table, true due diligence -- and setting up the IMC-KDHX media training project was a breakthrough in cross-town cooperation. The ability to restore monthly meetings and even HAVE the August 12 Kickoff was built upon these months of preparation.

•• What transpired at the 8/12 meeting was not an isolated incident... it had direct precursors in recent IMC dealings, and obviously some bad backwash after the fact:

It was the 3rd meeting since March in which Digger has interrupted an agreed discussion, insulted my intentions & character, tried to railroad the agenda, and once he even stomped out in a tantrum. Each time, coincidentally, he has done this when we were trying to talk about How to Organize the IMC :-) It may suggest that he has some objection to this topic, or to ideas of re-forming StL-IMC as a membership association -- but his vitriol has been directed entirely at me personally, accusing me of trying to run the whole show and take it down a wrong road.
When I tried to talk to him later that night, he flipped me off and left. There were a few arched eyebrows, mostly avoidance... oh well. Then the following week, I helped set up the "3 Crew Councils" and put out a combined announcement to open the meetings, and encourage volunteers to join their Crew of choice. When Digger responded in a group eMail, sniping pointlessly at the PR copy, I FINALLY put up a half-line of wry retort in defense, with a short straight explanation... and people went through the roof, waving 'Codes of Conduct' in My face!

•• As a result of these events, I have withdrawn from St. Louis IMC, effective 8/23/07.
____________

My view: Displaced indignation arises in knee-jerk denial of real issues, disconnected from real facts, to the point of being bizarre. It is a preferred politically-correct posture because criticizing someone's style or decorum is much easier and more righteous than dealing with another's really nasty actions... the truth is too dirty and complicated.

The provocateur uses this aversion to become invisible, can create conflict openly because people don't want to look, and eventually pushes the target to react -- at which point the full force of the group's pent-up huffy rage bends that way, 'blaming the victim'. It is a tactic that has been used effectively by stalinists, repugnicans, cops, and school-yard bullies.

In the wake of this episode, I had to wonder:
'What the hell is wrong with these people?'
My pride aside -- this is a most dangerous dynamic to set loose in a working group, an ill wind if the mob can turn so fast, and personal initiative is subject to their short recall & retribution.

If this kind of movie even comes up, there is a problem.
If that's the way this group will be, I need no part of it.
Otherwise, raise the level of the game.

Respects,

_scottie addison__

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