Sunday, 1 December 2013

SLLU minutes of meeting 28 Nov 2013

A small and short meeting of SLLU volunteers took place on 28th November.  

Tasks to be carried out were volunteered for and a date and time were decided for the next meeting.
Below is a summary and edited highlights of what was spoken about and decided.
Disappointment was expressed at the recent seeming lack of interest in Femnet, which at one stage was the most active aspect of SLLU.   

The SL  OWS, not unlike the rudderless rl occupy movements, has disintegrated.  It had been popular and meetings had been lively, though because of the politically naive, at times had fallen apart into ridiculous conspiracy theory.

All present felt that SLLU should continue, though Plot expressed that he would not be able to organise in the way he has in the past as it took up a lot of time and his RL political and personal life is busy.  He explained he is an organiser of the SSP and heavily involved in the Scottish Independence movement which is working towards a Yes vote in next September’s referendum.
Plot said that if SLLU were to continue in a smaller capacity - we need to discuss (in the coming weeks) its form, and how much of this land is needed etc

Agnes suggested we could probably sell some land.

 [13:08] Plot Tracer: i have had offers over the month to sell it - but held off until i could get some time in here
[13:08] Plot Tracer: and it is also the use of the remaining land we should think of
[13:08] Corwen Foulsbane: I could move my gallery and theatre here if that helps generate more activity

 [13:09] Plot Tracer: but we need more "donated tier"
 [13:09] Wilma Mankiller: I say we sell some of the land and keep this area here and the stage area
 [13:09] Wilma Mankiller: we have donated tier for that?

[13:09] Corwen Foulsbane: Ok. Honestly I have never quite understood how SLLU finances work ;-P
[13:10] Plot Tracer: well - i'll tell you how they work. :D
-           Plot Tracer: people donate money.  we use it to buy land - and keep at least £30000 in reserve for emergencies such as when we fought the french front national and managed to buy land beside them in order to lag them etc
-           Plot Tracer: land is group owned.  the Unity hub group is the land group
-           people donate tier  - extra tier not used by their paid accounts
-           one member is donating a huge amount of what we have here
-          and some, like me, is donating 500 sq mtres
[13:12] Corwen Foulsbane: So as activity goes down, inevitably the donations fall

[13:12] Plot Tracer: money doesnt matter regarding land
-           we keep what we have so long as people donate their tier
-           the beauty of sllu land is that it truly is group owned.  it is not "owned" or controlled by a landlord etc
[13:14] Corwen Foulsbane: And spare tier comes with having a premium account, yes?
[13:14] Wilma Mankiller: yes
[13:14] Plot Tracer: what really slows stuff down (and this is me speaking as a founder and someone who since 2006 has been doing this) is when we do not recruit new members
-           though we run the land in a way that even those without  premium accounts can build and make homes here etc
 [13:15] Wilma Mankiller: I tried to make people come here by DJ`ing but [few] showed up
[13:16] Plot Tracer: well - events need advertising.  that is what i spendt a huge amount of my sl time doing.  advertising/ spamming other activist groups/ putting events up on the sl events board etc

[13:15] Plot Tracer: so Corwen - - regardless of you having a premium acc, you could have your theatre here free
[13:15] Corwen Foulsbane: Well as I immediately see things, I think there's two things we have to do in the short term
-           Firstly, we probably should sell some land and we can always buy again as we build up once more
-           Secondly, maybe some kind of interim committee to get recruitment on the go, etc
-           And give the group some direction again
[13:17] Wilma Mankiller: there is one issue though, the land, especially around the stage area is causing a lot of troubles for people, lag etc due to too many running scripts
[13:18] Plot Tracer: that problem is one that seems to dog us here.  is there anyway you could look into that agnes - and get it fixed?
[13:18] Wilma Mankiller: I looked into it, contacted LL, they said it was because of too many scripts running
-          idk if anyone removed their scripts
[13:19] josjoha: maybe it's needed to return a lot of objects and rebuild
[13:19] josjoha: the stage area
[13:19] Wilma Mankiller: might be an idea
[13:20] josjoha: or create a parcel and set it no-scripts


[13:18] Plot Tracer: re: 2 recruitment
-          we need to think about why we are recruiting
-           I sent out a few notices about it
 [13:19] Corwen Foulsbane: Yeah. I thought about putting an article on the Left Unity website (the English LU, that is) about what this group does, or could do
[13:19] Plot Tracer: ok - before we do that - how is this...
-           we organise a meeting once a fortnight.  now the meeting may be slow to begin with - perhaps just us talking about what we need to do
-           but then it can develop into perhaps, political chats, like we used to have - and start to make links to newer left groups etc  - and perhaps any of the strays from the older ones again
[13:21] Corwen Foulsbane: That sounds like a plan
[13:21] josjoha: fine with me
[13:21] Plot Tracer: ok
[13:22] Plot Tracer: for the next meeting, why dont we in our own time, take a look around here and come back with ideas of what parts of the land here we no longer need - and what we should conserve
[13:22] josjoha: maybe we can create some kind of political map, where various left directions have their positions on various issues mapped out (?)
[13:22] Plot Tracer: explain jos?
[13:23] josjoha: we have for example the marxists & the anarchists, and then have their positions on govermnent, trade, capitalism ? just thinking on this -- maybe it's not a good idea because it stresses the divisions
-           but i thought we need to find common ground so, a map seems handy then to find where all agree and then act on that

[13:22] Corwen Foulsbane: Like most people (I guess) my issue is going to be with finding a spare evening for an online meeting but at least if we know when it is then it's maybe easier to try and schedule for it
 [13:25] Plot Tracer: ok - we also need to identify key activists in sl nowadays as well
[13:25] Corwen FoulsbaneCorwen Foulsbane nods
[13:25] Plot Tracer: - not the "heroes" - but people -like Trill - who actually do stuff that is positive
-           if we make contacts, and offer help, and perhaps let them use these meetings as a sounding board for their ideasd- sllu will have purpose
[13:26] Wilma Mankiller: I suppose I could have my good friend Nadya put up some of her freebies here as a shop
[13:26] Plot Tracer: excellent! :D
[13:27] Wilma Mankiller: I think a bit of rebuilding would be good too
-           not too much, but a little
-           like moving the stage area away from the library
-           that one has a lot of scripts
[13:28] Plot Tracer: Agnes - can we give that to you to look at?
[13:28] Wilma Mankiller: ok
[13:28] josjoha: i'm wondering how we can have SL activity impact RL, maybe we could discuss various ruling class attacks that may be the same accross nations and see what we can do against those in RL politics/unions wherever ppl are
[13:28] Corwen Foulsbane: Good idea
[13:29] Plot Tracer: i agree jos - sllu has always had *some* rl implication/impact.
[13:29] josjoha: ultimately we need to impact RL
-           or even directly - networking, ideas, what's going on, it's all the same banks we fight i suppose
-          and the enemy has their councils and confabs ... they sure seem to make headway

[13:29] Plot Tracer: I think we need to rebuild first, before we can have this forum making a proper impact.
[13:29] Wilma Mankiller: I always thought it was RL impacting SL
[13:30] Plot Tracer: maybe agnes - but things like the front national - when we embarrassed them in the rl press etc; the rl ibm strike we held here that meant the sacking of the italian ceo and more recently, the rawa fundraiser... all impacted in rl
[13:31] josjoha: you are in a RL party, right plot ?
 [13:31] Plot Tracer: I am an organiser for the scottish socialist party
[13:31] josjoha: i'm in the labor union (FNV, committee for local politics city Groningen)
 [13:32] josjoha: we see that the ruling class wants to put ppl on unemployment benefits to work, without labor contract, 32 hours ... this is something we can discuss across borders using SL
-           SL should be a great cross-border platform for information sharing & ideas
-          lot of analysts expect some big economic crash or war or whatever, i think in case they're right we need SLLU to already be here

[13:33] Plot Tracer: agnes - you can look into the stage area?
[13:33] Wilma Mankiller: yes
[13:34] Plot Tracer: Jos - could you do a bit of sl research to see if there are any active left groups/ activists?
[13:34] josjoha: ok
[13:35] Plot Tracer: Corwen  can you look around the area and let us know at the next meeting where is the best place for your theatre?
[13:35] Plot Tracer: and agnes - perhaps you can ask your friend about placing a freebie shop
 [13:36] Wilma Mankiller: I can
[13:36] Corwen Foulsbane: Oh and are we all in the Facebook group if we need to talk outside SL?

Next Meeting

[13:38] Plot Tracer: would the 9th dec be ok for everyone?
 [13:41] josjoha: 9 dec 12 pm SLT
[13:41] Plot Tracer: ok - as Corwen says, we can be in touch on the facebook page - or via email - is that ok?
 [13:44] Plot Tracer: oh - as well as the sl tasks - lets bring one item each from rl we are working on/ been following - all perhaps explain in a few paragraphs to each other?
 [13:45] josjoha: maybe if we can mesh RL into here more, some RL ppl will find SL meetings more interesting too


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