Minutes

Exec meeting 10th March 07, Online using audio-conferencing

Comrades, These notes are necessarily brief and will focus on what was practically suggested. Basically, we used my draft agenda and Dave's notes on this as a reference guide. All sorts of fuck-ups with sound etc. I suggest JT look into a (Mac-Compatible) voice software thing we could use in the future. Gaming geeks may remember TeamTalk or RogerWilco – I certainly do. Any ideas/suggestions on those programmes?

"Present" were JT, TB and BL. Jamie had too much work on, and I gave Laurie far too little notice of the change in time as I was busy stalling it up at King's. And I "arrived" late to the meeting. Apologies, comrades…

   1. Minutes

JT has resent the minutes from the meeting in Blackpool. BL to edit them and draft up/ask Jamie for the minutes from the CU exec meeting.

Agreed that we have to be careful what we publish. TB has set up a members section on the website that we should use for any "sensitive" info. BL to actually start chasing up people about whether they are members or not so we have a list of who we can send the P/W to.

DI to send notes for exec meeting of 25/02/07 to the exec list to be moderated and uploaded.

   2. CS ¾

Brief debate on this. Tina had the same response that Dave was having on Israel . So was I actually, so all in all not a bad issue. Best thing was that we had people writing for us who usually don't.

Tina and Ben expressed reservations about Headline "No To War, No to Repression" as it is not exactly cutting-edge either. WE should definitely run with Iran though, Ben suggested a headline directly related to the HOPI conference "Build the international opposition to war" (crap I know!) but you get the picture.

Agreed we must publicise our site etc on every page. Maybe a way of putting it into the layout?

Comrades expressed reservations about reports. They can be good, especially if something particularly interesting happens, but at these meetings, in all likelihood, nothing interesting will happen at all. JT suggested "play it by ear" type-approach.

I actually put myself forward to do Iran but now see that Dave put himself forward. That is fine by me. I could do something else on smoking and being 18, youth oppression etc…. The paper would look something like this:

Iran and box on conference – Dave

Environment – James Turley

Hip Hop Article on "The Coup" – John Jo

UCU debate – Guy in Leeds

Smoking etc – Laurie/Ben

CS Conference Box – Ben

In terms of other materials, I would suggest something Ted wrote a long time ago on sex. Any other ideas? We are looking a bit short because nothing much is going on….

WRITING DEADLINE: 1ST NOVEMBER!!!!!!!

   3. Interventions

We basically skipped this bit as things were getting quite frustrating. Basically agreed with Dave's suggestion. BL to chase people up for the different interventions….

   1. HOPI conference. We should go all out in getting all Csers plus many more to this. This has to be our no. 1 priority at the moment.
   2. 'Shared Planet 2007' – BL to chase comrades to try and get delegate status
   3. Fem Fightback/ENS gathering – London comrades plus Emily, Amy and Jo-Jo perhaps
   4. Socialism 2007. We have a fringe meeting
   5. CPGB aggregate. NEXT MEETING OF THE EXEC ON THIS WEEKEND!!!
   6. World Against War – STWC international conference (01/12/07 ). We should get London CS comrades to have a stall and leaflet for the following weekends Hopi conference.
   7. Stop the War AGM. Dave as delegate, BL and Nick Jones as CS delegates. Nina and John-Jo asked to come and attend as observers…..
   8. CMP conference. Fuck that. BL to book weekend away in the Caribbean and invite CSers along ;-)

   4. Our conference

BL to fix a date at the start of Feb and book a room in Sheffield. We can then start to prepare well politically and also build for it….

   5. Hopi

TB to put Dave's petition together

TB to make my stuff on Iran students into a leaflet

   6. Website

JT to become blog editor and commission writers

JT to add a materials section – get in touch with BL to upload all the old materials we have such as that from the elections

Laurie Mc to update the news section of the site to encompass the suggestions Dave made before

    7. Finance

We still do not have an account. Tina and Ben to do this next week.

TB to set up PayPal account and appeal on website

Jamie to draft email to comrades/supporters asking for a few quid a month

    8. Expanding materials

BL has been working with Mark F in the office to get other materials done. We are also looking to put together an education pack for comrades to work with. More on this to come…

NEXT MEETING 28th OCTOBER IN DIORAMA – early in the morning by the looks of it. We need a political discussion too comrades instead of just organising – shall I prepare something?

Comments please. Hope I have most of the stuff down.

Comradely,

B.E.K