Irish Social Forum Co-operation and Solidarity Summit Group Meeting Minutes

national | public consultation / irish social forum | news report Friday October 17, 2003 17:44 by Mary Kinane - Comhlamh Trade Group and ISF Outreach mkisok at hotmail dot com

Minutes 16/10/03

Minutes of a meeting held on Thursday 16th October 2003 @ 7.30pm in the Comhlámh office, 10 Camden St. Dublin 2.

Minutes of a meeting held on Thursday 16th October 2003 @ 7.30pm in the Comhlámh office, 10 Camden St. Dublin 2.

Present:Mark O’Connor, Jean Somers, Joe Kelly, Niav Keating, Clare Lee, Christian Volkmann, Paul Dillon, Mark Grehan, Cian O’Callaghan, Finbar Dywer, Paul Butler, Liz Curry, Mary Kinane, Barry Finnegan, Deirdre de Burca
Apologies:Brendan Young, John Meehan
Chairperson:Joe Kelly
Minute-taker: Mary Kinane

1. Minutes of the last meeting
Minutes of the last meeting (11/10/03) were read. It was agreed to then go through all the practicality issues of the weekend.

2. Friday night
• Mark, John, Clare, Niav and Brendan will look after registration. Mark will take care of all money collected. Any cheques received to be paid into the TSB “Campaign for Tolerance and Choice” account, which is being used as a temporary account for the ISF.
• Opening will commence at 7.15 with Mary, followed by speaker on WSF (if available), speaker on ESF (Rory Hearne) and on ISF (Barry Finnegan) and Paul Dillon of the Students Union.
• Cian agreed to document the key points of the Peace and War plenary.
• Paul Butler will ensure guidelines for all chairs of plenaries and workshops will be made available.
• It was agreed that the group would meet from 3pm onwards on Friday to prepare. Brendan Young will bring the ISF boards and Barry will remind Pat Clafferty to bring the banner.
• Tea and coffee facilities will be available in the bar. There is a shop but no hot food will be available.

3. Saturday
• It was agreed to meet at 10am and each person will take a 2 ½ hour time slot to look after registration, logistics, etc. for the day. Paul Dillon and Mark Grehan will prepare identification stickers for all helpers.
• Mary will prepare titles of each workshop for the doors. Barry will prepare a wall chart.
• There is no roving microphone available.
• Re. the Planet before Profit plenary, George Marshall has had to cancel. Paul Butler confirmed he would chair the Equality plenary.
• Workshop No. 24 is being changed to 11am and will take place in the Arts Block. Information to be made available at registration.
• The group discussed the issue of groups looking for voluntary donations and it was agreed that no fundraising should take place in workshops. Fundraising can take place on a group’s stall/table only. Barry will take on to inform people of this. It was also agreed that all selling and leafleting would take place from a stationary position at stalls only and that the astral hall is not to be leafleted before or after plenaries. Barry will add these details to the guidelines being e-mailed out and it will be up to those helpers whose shift it is to ensure that these are adhered to.
• Clare has prepared a large information banner for the wall so that if there are extra issues, topics, etc. arising, people can use this banner as their information point.

4. Crèche facilities
There will be one room available as a crèche with two childcare workers (€20 p/hr x 2 x 8hrs = €160). This room is covered by public liability insurance.

5. ISF Programme
Clare and Niav have prepared the programme. There was some discussion around the pricing of photocopying (70c for the colour cover sheet) and that 250 programmes would cost within the region of €90. As there is a good possibility of accessing free photocopying, it was agreed to leave this task to Clare and Niav and to go for 400 copies.

6. Accommodation
Liz will have a notice at the registration desk for those seeking accommodation over the weekend and those who have accommodation to offer.

7. Fundraiser
There will be a fundraiser Saturday night in the UCD bar with DJs and a rap duo from 7pm onwards. Cover charge is €4. Mark Grehan is organising this.

8. Sunday morning
• PA and room hire for Mother Redcaps for both Sunday morning and last Tuesday’s table quiz will cost €150.
• The group will meet at 10am.
• Mark O’Connor will bring flipchart paper and the sound system for Sunday.
• Jean will facilitate the Sunday session.
• On the issue of flexibility of the programme and making proposals to discuss arising issues, it was noted that the timetable is quite restrictive. There is room for groups to have their own discussion around extra issues on the Saturday but we only have two hours on Sunday. Jean suggested rules of engagement for Sunday’s session and Barry agreed to do this. It is clarified in the programme that groups or individuals may make proposals for Sunday. In keeping with the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum, the ISF will not be called upon to vote on decisions. It can however facilitate the setting up of groups to organise around issues. (With regard to the international day of protest on Feb 15th, it was clarified that the ESF did not call this day - it was called by the movement of social movements and groups who met during the ESF summit). The ISF is a forum where suggestions can be made around further meetings, planning days, events, etc.
• Paul Butler will prepare an evaluation sheet for feedback from ISF participants.
• The meeting concluded with a round up of how everyone felt approaching the ISF summit weekend. Overall, the feeling was quite positive.