Motion Submission for 26th of July

Cheers for this. I'd like to add that I don't think this should be considered the only avenue for submitting ideas, there's been substantial conversation in the other thread and that should count as some form of 'motion'

It should also be clear that we can amend motions, so if someone has an idea which can improve a motion, it can be added.

Also, I'm happy for this to be the current format for this meeting, but if people have alternatives for a structure, I'd like to hear it. I don't understand the notes/believes/mandates structure however, I will attempt to adapt my posts accordingly for this meeting.

1st motion - I'd like to put forward that there be some clarification on the site as to how Slaney St is a democratic cooperative, as a small summary.

Notes - That the Slaney Street website has little information about the nature of its democracy
Believes - That Slaney Street should be a vessel for information regarding the benefits of democratic ownership, for the sake of its membership and the wider public generally.
Mandates - That the website has included a more detailed subsection titled 'democracy' or similar explaining how our decisions are made and why they are made this way

2nd motion- Rotas for newspaper .distribution -
From what I can tell, the process for distributing papers is very ad hoc. I'd like there to be a more structured process for people to collect and distribute papers, so we can keep track of what is done and how much needs doing, and ensure that we are getting coverage.

My suggestions are, we set up an online rota in some form, and that we have online amendable maps of where we should distribute to and where has been covered. If someone wants to deliver a lot of papers, we have a way to arrange deliveries of large numbers of papers to their address.

This means that in my instance, I can have a few bundles of papers dropped off at my house, with which I can cover a large section of pershore road/stirchley, mark it off on a map as (SS 5th ed) or something, and put information of how many papers I've delivered to others online so there is no overlap, people know what I've done and we all know how many more papers need delivering. If there is already a system in place, it should be made clear. If not, we should create some kind of subforum specifically for newspaper deliveries and rotas so we can create this structure.

For the sake of the motion -
This group notes - that Slaney Street currently has no readily apparent organised structure for the distribution of its papers
Believes - that Slaney Street should be clear, organised and successful at ensuring its papers are delivered and not wasted
Mandates - That members create and vote to implement online sign up sheets for paper deliveries and distribution, maps which indicate delivery coverage, and methods of ensuring newspaper distributors are able to easily access papers for delivery, and that to facilitate this process, a new subforum be created for the online Loomio group dedicated to this.

3rd motion - People voluntarily bring a few nice bits of food and drink to meetings, preferably non alcoholic.

Notes - Meetings are boring
Believes - Meetings with food and drinks are less boring
Mandates - Members voluntarily bring small amounts food and non alcoholic drinks to meetings for members to share.

You probably don't need a motion for the last one, but eh.

Motion 4 - Securing local news and content

From what I can tell, while slaney street has some excellent contributors, I feel it needs more content relevant specifically to Birmingham. It definitely doesn't feel local to me as a resident, more an academic or political journal based in Birmingham at times.

This motion notes: That slaney street has limited types of contribution.
Believes - That slaney street should be proactive in its efforts to draw in different voices from communities all over birmingham, in order to expand membership and exposure of its ideas.
Mandates - Discussion of implementation for methods to increase contributions particularly from community groups and local information sources and journalists, and that members distribute advertisements in local community boards, library pinboards, shop windows and elsewhere.

Also, someone needs to tag everyone on the forum that this motion thing is happening, and perhaps an email should be sent out as well? Depending upon the kind of meeting this is, I don't want people to think they weren't able to put their ideas forward because they missed it.

@ashleighfield @ben13 @bobwhitehead @callumcant @daniellindley @darcyluke @dorter @emilyfarmer @hannahlemming @helena @jolyonjones @johnenglish @mumitm @natashaturner @nick4 @rachelobrien @robert2 @rufussilverleaf @seanfarmelo @karamoses @kellyrogers see the above please consider submitting motions.

http://www.slaneystreet.com/2014/07/02/slaney-street-members-planing-meeting/ just to remind everyone we have a meeting tomorrow at 2pm @ashleighfield @ben13 @bobwhitehead @callumcant @daniellindley @darcyluke @dorter @emilyfarmer @hannahlemming @helena @jolyonjones @johnenglish @mumitm @natashaturner @nick4 @rachelobrien @robert2 @rufussilverleaf @seanfarmelo @karamoses @kellyrogers

Please accept my apologies I will be attending the Gaza demonstration

I didn't realise it was today beause I'm a fool sorry, I'll holfully be there but I'll probaly be late. So please have my apologies.

As everyone knows I am out of the country and dealing with personal issues so won't be able to attend the meeting .

i do want to flag once again that there needs to be some roles defined asap because there have been several instances of articles being submitted to us, or other inquiries, and no one responding for days. SO hopefully we can have a few people taking on the role of checking the email regularly and responding to requests.

I have been doing so when i can, but because it is ridiculously difficult for me to post things on our website (i think, given that others seem to do in an hour what takes me 5) it can't be just me.

also, if there is any motion for accepting or adopting interim editorial board members (i don't know if this is happen, or can happen, but i know it was discussed that we need more people), then i would like to nominate @jolyonjones , as someone who not only has a lotof media and organizing skills but has demonstrated a comitment to Slaney Street as deep asany of us, through his writing for us as well as his promotion of the project overall. I haven't talked to him about this so it may be in poor form, but i do quite think it would help.

I hope it goes well