Minutes - exec
meeting of 28/03/07
Present: Dave Isaacson, James Turley, Jamie Tedford, Ben Lewis, Laurie
McCauley (exec members); Emily Bransom, David Sabbagh, Becky ????
(observers).
Apologies: Tina Becker.
Preliminary
Laurie is our recently co-opted 6th exec member, and introduced himself.
NUS conference
Ben noted that our intervention had, on the whole, been poor. Our
efforts had been hampered by an over-reliance on the Executive instead
of the CS membership as a whole, and for the most part an
unusually small contingent from that executive.
Dave, commenting on his second NUS conference intervention, commented
that it had been much easier than last year's, nonetheless - this was
due to more hands on deck (although still not enough). However,
next time we must strive to get more than one delegate elected - this
will mean comrades keeping track of their own unis' processes for doing
so
Ben suggested renting a flat for the whole week, which we could use as
a base for printing materials and such - this, however, would be
contingent on getting a large enough delegation to cover the outlay.
Becky made various suggestions, including approaching black students'
groups and so on. Others agreed that co-ordinating with other groups
would allow more effective interventions. Dave suggested writing
up a dossier of material on NUS conference and how to intervene
successfully to avoid repeating the same mistakes - information such as
the locations of nearby print shops and so on would come in handy.
Ben, finally, noted that the world of student politics is a complicated
and dirty one, and it was crucial for comrades to keep on the
pulse. There was some confusion this year, for example, over what
position the AWL's candidate Dan Randall would take on "Troops Out Now!"
HOPI
It was decided, in addition to the launch meeting in Sheffield, to
co-ordinate others in Leeds and possibly Manchester - Emily to look
into Manchester. It is a priority to arrange the Sheffield date
with Yassamine Mather asap.
Website
Laurie explained that he has a contact who could create a new website,
and host it if necessary. It was agreed that some sort of
client-side update system was a necessity (eg. a blog setup) so things
can be uploaded by the whole exec.It was also agreed to clarify current
hosting arrangements, to see if Laurie's contact may be a better host.
Also agreed that more content is needed.
Communist Student
University
Ben confirmed that he will again be able to arrange a free room in
Sheffield Arts Tower.
It was suggested that a "suggested donation" would be better than a
named compulsory door charge.
The four sessions were outlined:
A debate on youth work with other groups - between comrades from CS,
SWP/Respect (possibly Sam Durk) and AWL/ENS (Dan Randall). Dave
to ring up these groups/people.
A lecture by Yassamine Mather on the 1979 Iranian revolution
A debate, connected to the Campaign for a Marxist Party, on the Marxist
programme - suggested top speakers Mike MacNair from the CPGB and Barry
Biddulph from the DSA and Sheffield CMP.
A lecture by Hillel Ticktin on the USSR.
Dave suggested, for future events, that we might attempt to invite more
widely celebrated academics, such as Terry Eagleton. He noted
that Eagleton and Slavoj Zizek were regularly to be seen at the SWP's
"Marxism" conference.
Chris to do a leaflet.
Finance
Jamie noted that our bank account currently has £50, with
£47 having been collected over the Conference. This did not
take into account the costs of producing Communist Student.
Jamie to create new bank account - suggested at more "left" banks such
as Co-operative and Unity.
All exec members to start up standing orders when this is done.
Communist Student
Laurie suggested having a regular deadline for producing material, and
putting out a PDF file of a publication when it wasn't required in a
hard copy - the "presence" afforded by a regular publication was useful.
The debate over how to get more material produced threw up the issue of
how seldom the membership meet - it was agreed that there should be
some kind of schedule of aggregates to enable comrades to become more
involved.
May Day
It was suggested by Dave that we send a contingent to Chesterfield May
Day - Lee Rock to register us officially for this.
PCS elections
Sheffield comrades to get involved in the campaigns.