Changes at "Planning Meeting - 2025-02-06"

Planning for 150-200 people (last one had 50 people)

Budget

Keynote address: Anthony Cook (Georgetown) - working to build a network of cooperative grocery stores in underserved communities in DC; can talk about how to creatively finance this good work 

Roll call - round robin introductions to get a sense of who we are together 

Community assembly to establish some discussions - could we do Mentimeter? Or roundtable facilitated conversations? Potential ways to use Decidim? 

Afternoon session is fairly open - last time, did sharing stories, a panel, and then social hour (at a local spot)

Organizations tabling throughout the duration of the event

Sunday is workshops and sessions → coming back together for a sort of what’s next conversation  

Core team at GMU is Eleanor, Sara Aftab (20 hours/week), Ben (lead professor), Katharine Rupp (administrator, logistics management)

Booked space at Merter and Horizon halls 

Admin and finance 

Media - have a draft digital flyer 

Staff/volunteers (GMU interns will be supporting a lot of this)

Invitation/outreach

Logistics (need a lot of support)

Trying to get registration together – Ben wants to move DNOVA/NSS infrastructure to Action Network 

Jeff: don’t just want people to come together and talk; could Sunday be a VASEN conversation? Sunday should be when we get work done (not just going from session to session).

Nairuti: getting people to participate in live campaigns on the second day

Jeff: would be helpful for SECOSOL to be in conversation with BCI; getting coop community together to visualize a plan 

Nairuti: sector-specific conversations on Day 2 based on the DNOVA landscape scan that GMU peeps did; following up on the land/labor/capital conversation on the first day 

Jeff: need to get back in touch with BCI; how do we get all the cleaning coops to cooperate and be able to access contracts within anchor institutions (like public schools, for example)

Johanna: at the USFWC conference in Chicago, women I went with shared that the first day of panels/speakers was going over their head - felt too academic; what did work was a show of our experience of going through the incubator and then feeling abandoned by them, struggles with finding help for taxes, etc. (theater of the oppressed); storytelling felt much more culturally appropriate

Eleanor: that’ll be a tension no matter what, but getting to know each other can build a bridge; working together needs to be built on trust (misconception that this region is just a place where people work); people with similar interests to come together or people who don’t know each other? 

Jeff: motivation of Madre Tierra has been housing for those who have survived domestic abuse; ongoing relationships of trust/interdependence = how you build community

Nairuti: need to get clear on audience, because that will shape the program; my preference is for community residents (not just the nonprofit peeps and academics/funders) 

Pat: we’re all about building relationships; to build power, there needs to be education to get people on the same page; to grow the community = opportunities to work together; VOICE as a part of IAL (Saul Alinsky); over the last year, have been learned about the power of allies; relationships + stories + allies 

Pat: Michele Winters for CLTs (as a mechanism for people to be homeowners) 

Eleanor: should be broader than coops / SE; ecology comes to mind; database is also out of date; like the idea of starting to build an invitation list off the database; remember this is just where we’re building from (can grow in two years, and so forth)

Nairuti: need to get clear on audience and socialize that with Ben

Pat: VOICE is planning a two-day NoVA Labor Federation; what are the goals?

Jeff: I want to leave this conference with a wider group of SE activists with whom SECOSOL/NoVA Web Development is working.

Nairuti: When participants leave the summit, how do you want them to feel? What do you want them to do? 

Pat: commitments people should make at the end 

Let’s start using Decidim for these meetings moving forward…

Eleanor to share documents (planning spreadsheet, program, etc.) 

Eleanor to invite Yolanda to be a part of this process 

Jeff to email Ben and ask him to be a part of this process 

Eleanor to share this two-day concept with Ben and what are the goals 

Eleanor to add “evaluation” (one on Sunday and one six months later)