March 2008 Local Meeting
From SP Boston
The Socialist Party of Boston met at noon on Sunday, 30 March 2008 in the Lucy Parsons Center. Among the most important decisions made at the meeting, we scheduled a more informal get-together for 3 pm on Saturday, 12 April, agreed to plan an Iraq Moratorium antiwar demonstration on Friday, 18 April, and made some plans for May Day actions. For more information, check out the full minutes below.
[edit] Agenda
- Introductions and agenda approval
- Initiatives from the 29 March New England Regional Meeting and 1-2 March National Committee Meeting
- Nominate contact for anti-imperialism committee.
- 17 May -- CT petitioning festival for Todd Vachon
- Other upcoming events and actions
- Rescheduling fundraising concert -- we need a new date and venue
- SLAP Week of Action, 28 March through 4 April -- fair food event?
- NEU Regional Antiwar Conference at Tufts University, 25-26 April.
- IWW benefit for fired Harvest worker, 26 April
- May Day -- march and rally on the Common, Thursday 1 May. First planning meeting held a few days ago.
- Wake Up the Earth festival, Saturday 3 May in JP. $35 to table
- SA Conference, Sunday 4 May at UMass
- Open National Conference to Stop the War, 28-29 June in Cleveland, OH.
- National Organizing Conference, July in Ann Arbor, MI.
- Organizing educational events
- Informal get-together in April?
- Electoral campaigns
- Presidential campaign
- Fundraising success report
- Have forms to get official write-in status in MA, need a few more electors.
- 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
- Some new literature -- consider improvements
- Get list of registered socialists in MA
- Todd Vachon, CT Congressional candidate, needs help collecting signatures. Presented information about campaign at regional meeting.
- 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.
- Initiatives from the 29 March New England Regional Meeting and 1-2 March National Committee Meeting
- We were requested to nominate a representative for a new anti-imperialism committee, though we didn't have that much other information about it. We thought Chris F. might be interested, and since he wasn't present, we tabled the issue for the moment.
- Need to arrange carpooling to head down to CT on Saturday, 17 May and collect signatures for Congressional candidate Todd Vachon.
- SP Co-chair Jerry Levy offered to perform Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho as a fundraiser for any New England SP group. Matt arranged for this to be a joint fundraiser with the Stop the Wars Coalition, to take place on Saturday, 31 May.
- Other upcoming events and actions
- Chris will contact Welfare Records in Havervill to see about a mid-May date for the fundraising concert, and what it would cost.
- We scheduled an informal get-together for 3 pm on Saturday, 12 April at Java Jo's by the Forrest Hills station.
- We decided to hold an antiwar standout in Copley Square for the April Iraq Moratorium day on Friday, 18 April. David and Matt can't make that day, so Angela, Chris F. and Chris P. will be the day-of coordinators. Matt brought this up with the Stop the Wars Coalition, but they seemed to busy with planning the 25-26 April antiwar conference to help organize it.
- Chris announced a voter registration event on Saturday, 19 April on the Common, and proposed we check it out to encourage those there to register socialist.
- We endorsed the NEU antiwar conference at Tufts on 25-26 April and arranged to get a table there for $20.
- Matt distributed flyers for the 26 April IWW benefit for his fired coworker's family.
- We endorsed the May Day march and rally on the Common, though haven't heard back from organizers. We will have a table there, and Chris will look into giving a short speech during the rally.
- We sent in the $35 tabling fee for the Wake Up the Earth festival on Saturday 3 May in JP. Someone suggested organizing a red-black bloc in the WUtE parade.
- We will co-sponsor a performance of Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho by Jerry Levy with the Stop the Wars Coalition. Matt proposed that our share of the proceeds go to the SP's Bea Hermann travel fund.
- Matt also proposed we think about getting the Arts & Culture Commission reactivated so that it can help coordinate tours of performers like Jerry and Todd Vachon.
- Chris will look into the cost of renting a van to go to either or both the National Organizing Conference in Ann Arbor, MI on 11-13 July, or the National Conference to Stop the War in Cleveland, OH on 28-29 June.
- Electoral campaigns
- Presidential campaign
- Fundraising success -- raised nearly $10,000 by end of March, $2500 in latter half of month. How can that pace be kept up through the spring and summer?
- So far have eight of twelve electors necessary for MA write-in status, though only two voter registration certificates have been completed so far.
- David shared some new material for the presidential campaign, which was mailed out with the new bulletin after the meeting
- Matt will contact the MA Secretary of the Commonwealth Elections Division to get the list of registered socialists in MA
- Need to arrange carpooling to head down to CT on Saturday, 17 May and collect signatures for Congressional candidate Todd Vachon.
- Presidential campaign
- Podcast/media presentation tabled since main author couldn't give presentation about it.