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Imc Toruń Membership Criteria for membership in Network of IMC's
by babel ryba on 2007-05-25 22:03, current version, textile

IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA – DRAFT

[THIS IS THE CURRENT [April 2001] DRAFT OF THE IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA. WE WILL SEND FUTURE DRAFTS AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE.]

Each IMC and Global Working Group is expected to:

  • a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC MissionStatement and PrinciplesOfUnity,
    • Yes
  • b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a functional IMC,
    • Yes: We have participated in indymedia since the start of IMC Poland four years ago. We have met locally face-to-face in open, public meetings in Toruń nearly every week since then, during the first year there were usually just 2-3 people in each meeting, and during the last two years, we were usually between 8 and 20 people at nearly every meeting. We have published about 130 articles concerning Toruń on the web pages of IMC PL. Not every article is about an action, but most are, and this means that we have done and published for the benefit of Toruń and other polish-speaking activists an action about twice every month. And now we even have a physical space together with other activists: LaLucha (See also)
  • c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary “ownership” of an IMC),
    • Yes: we have regular, open, public face-to-face meetings, at the moment at Infoshop (30 Podmurna Street) every Monday at 19:30 – nobody has a monopoly for proposing a meeting
  • d. Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement of Purpose. Network Mission Statement may be adopted or used on an interim basis,
  • e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and functions through democratic process, and with full transparency,
  • f. Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC Editorial Policy [editorial collective comments: “We did agree that the term “Open Publishing” was one that is still being defined by the Global Network Collective, and we would wait and see what the results were before rewriting this criteria],
    • Yes: We use not only open publishing, but also optional open editing, and full transparency of moderators’ interventions.
  • g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes,
  • h. Have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in the global decision-making process and meetings as a rotating liaison/representative, with a clear understanding of the responsibilities that come with this role,
    • See point i. Travel for face-to-face meetings even inside Poland are expensive for most activists, so international or intercontinental trips would only be possible if external funding is available, so it’s hard to propose a “spokesperson” for such a hypothetical possibility, which will only rarely be possible.
  • i. Participate in the key IMC Network Communication Methods that pertain to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute to the work of the IMC. Assure that at least one person from your local IMC participates at any given time on the IMC-Communication list,
    • imc-process: boud (until someone else volunteers)
    • imc-finance: magda
    • imc-communication: boud (until someone else volunteers)
  • j. (NOT FINALIZED:) Have no official affiliation with any political party, state or candidate for office (comments: but individual producers have freedom to do whatever they like and local IMCs can “feature” stories about various political parties and initiatives),
    • Yes
  • k. IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit enterprises. [We could add: The IMCN is committed to the decommercialization of information and will disassociate from any local IMC that decides to become a for profit media corporation.]
    • Yes
  • l. Display a ‘local version’ of the IMC ‘i’ logo on your website and literature.
    • Yes: we have it.
  • m. Include the IMC Network current ‘Cities List’ on your site, preferably on the front page.
    • Yes

NETWORK MEMBERSHIP

  1. Network Membership is open to any group that accepts the above criteria for membership. In the case of several requests from the same city or region, we will encourage them to meet and work together.
  2. Network Membership in the NIMC will be confirmed by the New IMC Working Group, which is accountable to IMC-Process and ultimately to the NIMC decision-making process.

DEFINING OUR TERMS:

For clarity and precision, we need to define our terms more carefully so there is less room for misunderstanding. Also explains how we as a culture (the IMC culture) use these terms.

  • NIMC = Network of Independent Media Centers
  • Open = means that diverse people and groups are welcome to attend and that no attempt is made to exclude people based on their sex, race, gender, class, age, ability or religion.
  • Official affiliation = still being worked on
  • IMC Network Communication Methods = international email lists, IRC discussions and logs, phone calls and conference calls, and face-to-face meetings.
  • Local version = acknowledges the many variations of the name and the logo that will occur depending on the language and culture of the local IMC.