February 2007 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at noon on Sunday, 25 February 2007 in the Lucy Parsons Center. We organized for upcoming events such as the March 24 day of action against the war, and also addressed our finances and planning for the upcoming regional meeting (full minutes below).
[edit] Agenda
- Introductions and agenda approval
- Reports on recent events
- Finalize planning for New England Regional on April 21
- Other upcoming events and actions
- Status update on March 24, and upcoming work building up to it, including lead-up actions on March 9 and March 10.
- International Women's Day -- March 8.
- Fair Food Actions, especially Chicago in April
- May Day.
- See if there is interest in getting a group together to go to concerts by David Rovics, Utah Phillips, or Anti-Flag in March.
- Consider organizing additional campaigns such as counter-recruitment work, more regular fair food actions, or restarting the Democracy Commission.
- Finances report
- Current funds
- New bank account
- New treasurer
- Donation to the Campaign Clearinghouse's $2007 for 2007 drive
[edit] Minutes
- Introductions
- The meeting was attended by Matt A., Stefanie C., Billie M., Chris P., and David S.
- Thanks to Billie for hosting the meeting after the Lucy Parsons Center failed to open.
- Reports on recent events
- Matt reported that $100 dollars and a letter of solidarity had been sent to the strike fund of IWW IU 460, warehouse workers who were illegally fired in New York.
- Matt and David reported that there are new members in Worcester interested in forming a local. Chris suggested we could look into setting up a trip there, and another to Providence, to help locals get formed and get involved.
- Matt reported on some resolutions from the most recent NC meeting, including one on the dues-sharing system being amended to be more generous. States which comply with basic requirements, such as filing reports and keeping members in good standing, will now have 15% of their SPUSA dues returned to them for local organizing.
- Finalize planning for New England Regional on April 21
- We scheduled the next New England regional meeting for 10:30 am - 2 pm on Saturday, 21 April, and began developing an agenda.
- We agreed to hold it the AFSC building if possible, in a library branch or at UMass Boston otherwise. The importance of wheelchair accessibility was stressed.
- We will encourage written reports from locals so that we can move through local reports in good speed.
- We may try to have state groups break off into caucuses to take care of state-wide business.
- For the public session, Matt will look into to getting Marc Rodriguez to kick off the Boston response to the CIW's April actions in Chicago. Should this not work out, we will work with other fair food activists to plan an analogous event on our own.
- Other upcoming events and actions
- David summarized Boston-area events for International Women's Day, March 8, which are listed on the Current events page.
- David passed out stickers and flyers for the 3/24 demonstration on the Common and the 3/17 March on the Pentagon as well as lead-up events including the Escalate Peace party on March 9 and the Giant Human Peace Symbol on March 10.
- We discussed the anti-imperialist fourth of July picnics that have been held in Western Massachusetts in past years, and started looking forward to planning and attending the next one.
- We briefly addressed the upcoming national convention in the fall. Delegate numbers will be specified and chosen over the summer.
- Finances report
- Matt agreed to serve as treasurer and open a bank account with a reasonably progressive bank in his area.
- We have now broken even and started to gain money from our book sales, including those that were sold at this meeting.
- We held a collection for the Socialist National Committee's $2007 in 2007 fundraising drive, raising $240, with more to come.