2006-09-20 Brainstorm Notes (Craig, Fred, Geoph)

RNC Brainstorm

Craig, Fred, Geoph = Informal Meeting 9/20/2006

Fred thinks if we commit to doing a quarterly column in CMag that it will help keep us on track ... gives us some kind of focus with a deadline for gathering contacts and reports from the various regions. It would stimulate us to reach out to others and encourage/draw out their participation.

Q: Who to list or not list ... who decides? Fred thinks the cmtee would, and would also decide what to run in the column or the sidebar. Craig: need some way of screening for crazies and for pseudo organizations that want to list for their own purposes but wouldn't likely be a very useful resource.

Fred: Any news would filter through us and we would put out the highlights. We might decide to list contact info for a group or we might opt to channel inquiries through our cmtee and back to them. What we'd include in the RegNet column would be handled similarly to the calendar section of the mag ... the individual listings would not be officially "endorsed" or anything like that, and we'd include a disclaimer.

Concern: There's a large concern in the FIC about who could be appointed as an FIC contact person, and what sort of screening and control would be involved in managing that. [Note that it's a common practice for other groups to list networked groups as non-affiliated resources that can be contacted.] Perhaps if we listed only groups (as opposed to individuals) some of this problem might be avoided. As an example, Coho-US has decided to use regional orgs to bring attention/energy that benefits the national org.

We want to empower the local organizers, that's how to build the movement. IONS is a good example of how publishing contact info for local nodes has helped grow the mother organization.

We should submit a RegNet ad for inclusion in the upcoming print edition of the communities directory. [Would also be useful to have a similar notice appear on web pages for the on-line directory.]

What about the housing co-op networks in BC and Toronto? The RegNet wiki already has listings of 23 "unqualified" orgs that we should explore and review ... which ones would qualify for our purposes? Once we figure that out, this info would then go onto the public website.

Craig went over with Geoph the 9/5-7/06 minutes posted on the wiki, explaining what various things meant. Geoph will edit for clarity.