April 2008 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at noon on Sunday, 27 April 2008 in the Lucy Parsons Center. With May Day right around the corner, we heard back from the regional antiwar conference held the previous day and planned a number events for the coming weeks and months. For more information, check out the full minutes below.
[edit] Agenda
- Introductions and agenda approval
- Antiwar
- Discuss April Iraq Moratorium event, see if it is worth continuing
- NEU Regional conference just ended -- any initiative coming out of there
- National Conference coming up this summer in Ohio -- carpool?
- May Day
- Rally and March on the Common, Thursday afternoon
- Contacted organizers with endorsement and offer of money, no response yet.
- Plan to table.
- Chris thinking of giving speech?
- Wake Up the Earth Festival in JP on Saturday
- Paid $35 tabling fee, but they want proof we're "non-profit"(!)
- SA Conference -- UMass Boston on Sunday, 4 May.
- Looks interesting
- Rally and March on the Common, Thursday afternoon
- Fundraising
- The eternal fundraising concert
- Any pointers from IWW fundraiser Saturday night
- Does Welfare Records work as a venue?
- Do we have a date confirmed with them?
- Need any more bands?
- Jerry Levy performs Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho, Saturday 31 May.
- A joint SP/Stop the Wars Coalition fundraiser.
- Matt has a flyer to distribute, and it rocks.
- The eternal fundraising concert
- Electoral
- Presidential campaign
- Have forms to get official write-in status in MA. Need four more electors, and need to get voter registration certificates certified.
- Consider sticker campaign, which would allow more active outreach than just sitting on write-in laurels.
- Prepare to collect signatures in Rhode Island, laying groundwork for summer petitioning period
- More new literature, full-page for easy distribution-- consider improvements
- Get list of registered socialists in MA
- 17 May -- petitioning day for Todd Vachon, CT Congressional candidate.
- Presidential campaign
- SP-New England Podcast and Media Exposure
- This discussion is going to be around the development and production of content to specific to SP-New England, and how to distribute it and get it out there for wider consumption. There have been several ideas on the SP-New England list, but having a discussion at the general meeting would be helpful.
- Mark True is putting together a proposed programming format for the podcast
- Some ideas so far:
- Podcast
- Streaming radio show
- YouTube video program
- Wider dissemination to other progressive journals (Boston Pheonix comes to mind)
- Possible Media Committee or Corresponding Secretary?
[edit] Minutes
- Introductions and agenda approval
- The meeting was attended by Matt A., Gabin C., Billie M., Chris P., and David S.
- Antiwar
- NEU regional conference passed three resolutions: (1) a call for a "nationally-coordinated" action in the Fall or Winter of 2008; (2) a statement on the connections between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; (3) support for Iraq Veterans Against the War and war resisters.
- We agreed to continue antiwar standouts -- the next will be Friday, 16 May. We pushed the start time up to 5 pm, and David committed to being the day-of contact.
- National Conference will take place 28-29 June in Cleveland, Ohio. Those interested in attending should register ASAP. Lots of logistics work (transportation, housing/camping) needs to be done. Will StWC be working on any of this?
- May Day
- Rally and March on the Common went well -- marched in feeder march and red/black bloc, Chris gave well-received speech, covered in the media
- Wake Up the Earth Festival in JP on Saturday was a little rained out, though it still had its moments, and we had no trouble tabling.
- Only Chris was able to make it to the SA Conference at UMass Boston on Sunday, 4 May, but apparently it went well.
- Fundraising
- The eternal fundraising concert
- Apparently flyering for the IWW fundraiser outside the Harvest stores had little-to-no effect. May be worth taking into consideration.
- Chris contacted Welfare Records, but hadn't yet heard back from them.
- Jerry Levy performs Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho, Saturday 31 May, 8 pm in Encuentro5!
- A joint SP/Stop the Wars Coalition fundraiser.
- Matt distributed a kickass flyer.
- The eternal fundraising concert
- Electoral
- Need four more electors to sign up, and all but two need to be certified. Should not be a burden.
- Matt will contact the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office to get the list of registered socialists in Massachusetts.
- 17 May is the petitioning day for Todd Vachon. Currently scheduled for 10 am to 3 pm in Vernon, CT. Carpool from Quincy with Chris -- should leave around 8 am?
- David mentioned hearing from a fellow in Rhode Island who was thinking of running for State Senate as a Socialist, and might be interested in helping the SPRI get restarted (?). Chris suggested having Todd Vachon use his Candidate Power to help collect ballot access signatures in Rhode Island over the summer.
- Communications
- Matt proposed establishing an SP Boston coordination email list. Passed by acclamation, currently being constructed at coordinate (at) spboston (dot) org.
- Matt proposed improving the calendar of events on the SP Boston Web site, which is currently just a chronological listing.
- David recalled that the SPMA has a Gmail account, and therefore could set up a Google Calendar relatively easily. He set up a demo page, though objections were later raised to using Google as opposed to free software.
- Chris proposed getting a bona fide office somewhere, if it could be afforded. David mentioned that a desk+phone line at Encuentro5 might be only $10-$20 per month, and will contact Suren at e5 to discuss it.
- Other upcoming events
- Somebody proposed trying to hold the next informal get-together in the Lawrence area, so that Mark could make it and get the podcast/media project off the ground. David will raise the idea with Mark.
- Walk for Hunger -- missile manufacturer Raytheon is major sponsor. How to protest them without alienating walkers? Suggestion of chalking message along walk route. Gabin will contact Food Not Bombs to see if they would be interested in emphasizing their message of Food, Not Bombs.
- National Organizing Conference coming up in Ann Arbor, MI, 11-13 July. Also logistical work to be done for it...
- Podcast/media presentation tabled since main author couldn't give presentation about it.