[Januaryfirst] (very long) Notes from last meeting - Jan. 15, 2014

Thu Jan 16 18:56:31 PST 2014

Facebook Event (DONE!) Here's the link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1450505608511037/

Please help spread the word! Also, feel free to make any changes to the
description and add a photo.

Karin

On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 6:41 PM, Gil <zapat3ro at gmail.com> wrote:

> Present: Dave, Teresa, Karin, Alexandra, Gil
>
> We mostly talked about our upcoming event, though we also touched on the
> need to clarify what we are going to tell people who want to become
> involved, what we do, etc.
>
> First, the details (which Karin can use for the invite if it helps):
>
> --------------
> *Chips+Salsa vs TPP*
> Let's learn about TPP, NAFTA, and how to make a free trade-killing salsa!
> Jan. 31, 2014, 6:30 PM
> Calvary Baptist Church (1803 East 1st Ave., between Commercial and
> Victoria)
>
> This will be our way of joining the Inter-Continental Day of Action
> against the TPP (tradejustice.ca/tpp/jan31). At the event we will feature
> a cooking lesson to learn how to make a tasty, free trade-killing salsa,
> and learn from a brief presentation about NAFTA, TPP, free trade and what
> we can do to join communities in resistance across the world.
>
> Bring an avocado and/or tomato to make sure we have enough! We'll provide
> the rest, but donations are welcomed.
> --------------
>
> Now, the notes:
>
> For the chefs, we proposed that Raul and Simon could hopefully do that
> part, but Raul will be out of town! We're still trying to confirm if Simon
> is available. Anyone want to volunteer? This portion of the event will
> touch on some of these points (suggestions of course welcomed!):
>
>    - labour issues
>    - culture (stereotypes, homogenization, etc)
>    - who benefits from exports and imports? (avocados from mexico being
>    controlled by drug cartels, etc.)
>    - energy required to mass-produce "local" crops (tomatoes in massive
>    greenhouses, etc.)
>    - availability of seasonal produce year-round (aka disconnection to
>    nature, local reality)
>    - health, gmos (corn chips from the US?)
>    - displacement, migration (temporary agriculture workers in Canada,
>    etc)
>    - 1st nations issues (touches on everything, but can mention NAFTA's
>    changes to mexican constitution, patenting of traditional knowledge, etc)
>
> Then the presentation that Karin and Harjap have will be adapted
> and facilitated by them too :-) They will focus on a bit more broad
> context of free trade, resistance, and lead us into an open dialogue of
> what to do about these issues.
>
> At then, adapting the idea of having a big drawing of a human body and
> asking people to put 3 post-its on it, one each on the head (what you
> learned), the heart (what you felt), and the feet (what are you going to
> do), we'll have small sheets of paper which people can fill in in the same
> manner, but that's also where they will leave us their email/phone and
> comments. This way, we sort of pressure people to put a name to their
> ideas, and, hopefully, to give us not only their contact info, but also
> ideas of what we could ask them to do with us. Just a bit of pressure! We
> don't want to force them, but also we don't want them to take off and
> forget about this :-)
>
> Just before having the dialogue though, we'd present what the Jan. 1st
> collective is and stands for, remind people to join our list, and invite
> them to invite us to come give a presentation or organize a potluck with
> groups/people they know who might want that.
>
> As far as "what the Jan. 1st collective is and stands for" we can revisit
> some documents on the shared drive (Aaron wrote a very good one for the
> Mosaic event), and add these ideas, which we discussed throughout the
> meeting:
>
>    - We want to facilitate a process that strengthens people's
>    participation and action in issues  we talk about. This would be primarily
>    with people who are "floating around" our work, such as those in our list,
>    those who come to our events, etc.
>    - We want to offer/create spaces and opportunities for people to be
>    able to build a deeper understanding and "connect the dots" between issues,
>    complex struggles, etc.
>       - On this note, we though we can recover the idea of sort of being
>       an umbrella, and have a defined model of explaining/understanding the issue
>       of "trade" so we can have different "channels" through which we can funnel
>       people. For example, one of these channels can be "health", and if people
>       show an interest on that aspect, we can "refer" them to volunteer or become
>       active with people already working on these issues, such as sanctuary
>       health. Or if they are interested in resource extraction, they can link up
>       with the mining justice alliance, etc.
>    - Offer a space to deepen the connections with groups/orgs with a
>    similar analysis as ours. For this we are starting to develop a model based
>    on potlucks, where we organize more "intimate" potlucks which include a
>    more focused discussion on particular issues. This hopefully allows us to
>    create a relatively loose framework to "hang out", but also a bit of
>    clarity to discuss deeper issues/ideas and really get to know each other.
>    - We are structuring our work, including out methodology, to be able
>    to offer "kits" such as a package for people to offer/host their own
>    "chips+salsa vs free trade event", which would be a sort of lesson plan,
>    with the salsa recipe, the guide of points for the chefs to talk about, the
>    slides for the presentation, and questions to lead the dialogue, etc.
>
> As far as the more "targeted" potlucks to strengthen relationships with
> groups, we decided to follow up with Rising Tide and check when they would
> be available. We threw around the idea of focusing this potluck on Miguel
> Alvarez's presentation at our event at YWCA (his 5 points). So we need to
> get a copy of his presentation, circulate it to read it and use it to chat
> about it at the potluck.
>
> *Tasks:*
> Dave will look into availability for the space, since we moved the date.
> (DONE!)
> Karin will create a Facebook event and adapt the presentation slideshow
> Gil will send these notes (DONE!), make a graphic for the web
> announcement, and ask Miguel Alvarez if he can send us notes from his
> presentation at the YWCA event. Also look into translation.
> Teresa will ask Rising Tide when would be a good date to have a potluck
> with them
> Karin and Harjap will facilitate workshop
> ??? (maybe Simon) will be the chefs
> ??? will get the following ingredients (We'll provide for around 20
> people, and the rest will be provided by whatever people bring. We'll split
> the bill even and each pay that, unless we come up with something else):
>
>    - tomatoes (on the vine or roma) x 20
>    - onions x 1 sack (at least 6 small ones)
>    - cilantro x 4 bunches
>    - avocados x 8 (we can get them a few days early and ripen them by
>    leaving them wrapped with newspaper)
>    - limes x 10
>    - chips x 6 bags
>    - salt
>    - garlic & dried jalapeños provided by cipovan
>
> *Random thought of the night:* Similar to how we're trying to shift away
> from particular free trade agreements and focus on "the big picture", the
> Zapatistas reacted to NAFTA back in 1994 and used it as an excuse to
> explain their uprising, but "moved on" from that to focus relatively
> quickly onto the "real" task at hand: building autonomy within communities.
> Even though it's pretty arrogant to comparing us to the Zapatistas :-p that
> sort of sounds pretty cool for how we're framing our work so far!
>
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>
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