Free University Planning Meeting Agenda
April 29, 2012
●Meeting organization (10)
○facilitation: Matthew
○stack: Russell
○time: Alyson
○notes: Jen
○Names that underlined are the bottomliners for those tasks
●Orientation to the Free University (25)
○flow of the day
○spaces (map)
■Chris will make it even more user-friendly
○rain (40% chance of light showers)
■Rain volunteers with a pile of ponchos?
■Morning decision time to blast rain contingency plan with midday adjustment time
■Rain equip our presence
■Clear plastic bags to encourage others either shield rain or pick up after themselves
■Come, rain or shine :)
●Volunteer (40)
○Volunteer coordination: Dominique, Rayya, Priya (early) + Chris (late)
■these people will strategize about the rain
○volunteers’ text loop (email if you wish to be part of the internal communication loop), Winter will send out instructions as to how this all works
○Info hub (costumes?)
■tables owned by madison conservancy, cannot monopolize
■island between 5th and Broadway is Dept of Transport area
■MSP is run by Park Conservancy
■either way, not really worthwhile to get into any sort of conflict with them
■reinforce boxes around your neck
■wearable info apron
■3 people over the course of the day
■have all the info
■schedule board
■can be a place for faculty to meet their students
■brain of the Free U
○Liaison with authorities
■if all copacetic, will also greet and play
■Dominque and Rayya will bottom-line figuring this out
■1 person: Carwil
○greeters
■5 people over the course of the day
■hold balloons for ease of orientation
○runners
■moving between info hubs, educators, and other
■Volunteer coordinators will flesh out the tasks of this role
○Food
■2 people from 9-3pm
■moving donated items
■storage (Graduate Center @34th & 5th)
■serving
■clean-up
○flow and time minders
■Volunteer coordinators will flesh out the tasks of this role
○film/documentation
■several people have volunteered on list to do this on the google form
○child minders
■2 people (staff of Children’s Environments Research Group) have volunteered although not many have requested their assistance
○volunteer tasks for people who have been off-site up until now
■arriving in 2 groups (10am, and 11am)
■possible roles: greeters, food, info “table”
○radical recess- Mark, Russell
■Soliciting 1 or 2 more people to do 1.5 hour shifts to orient the space (Costumes? dressing up like our favorite phys-ed teachers from our formative years--short shorts and tube socks, full out track suits in blinding neon colors, whistles, stop watches, head bands, shady looking mustaches, etc.).
■park rule that it is designated for “passive” play
■mindful that classes will be taking place nearby
■people doing the walk-through
○draft volunteer schedule
■Alyson will email all volunteers
●Material needs for the day (5)
○ponchos, trash bags, boxes, tables, duct tape, masking tape, gaffers tape, balloons (ordered), rope, water proof containers, cardboard dowls, large plastic tarps/plastic drop clothes, charcoal for art classes X2 boxes, 2 bouncy balls (gym class), soccer, frisbee, long jump rope, first aid kit X 2 (donated!), push carts, donated blankets (borrow from GC), costume identifier for volunteer, signs to direct ppl to info hub, food items, bathroom directions, chalk, pencils, pens, broad sheets, butcher paper, markers, cardstock for sign-making, towels for drying benches, maalox, umbrellas, etc...
○Dominique will manage a googledoc to figure out which items will be donated, which need to be purchased:
○Online:
●Info packet (5)
○should be finalized by tomorrow
○request for printing decentralization (500-900 programs - 10 double sided pages i.e. 20 faces)
○These people have volunteered to print and staple
■zoltan 100
■rayya 100
■priya 50 (+300?)
■manissa 50
■helia 100
■russel 50
■ian 50
■conor 100
■jen 100
■viral this out and ask ppl to bring some with them (especially Princeton!)
●Budget (15)
○Donated funds & in-kind
■Professional Staff Congress of CUNY $500
●cheque needs to be written out to one person
●Alyson has been entrusted with holding the funds from the PSC
■Occupy Wall Street $700
●budget revised!!
●will be sent back out to OWS for re-approval ASAP
●Jen and Chris will collect receipts and coordinate (see them at the info hub on Tuesday) to bring them to the Brooklyn Commons to get cash reimbursement
■Adjunct Project at the Graduate Center of CUNY as last nine of
■United New York - water granola bars
■OWS kitchen - quiche and muffins
■Murray’s Bagels
○Tally of what we’ve spent:
■signs and arts $31 (carly), $40 (sid), $150 (zoltan)
■balloons $86.62
■chalkboards $24.41
■zip car/truck $34.00
○what needs to be spent next:
○material needs are in the googledoc -- soliciting donors now (via twitter) and what remains
●#May2
○Trying to bring May 1st and 2nd together and also bring the Free University to the Brooklyn College campus
●Convergence (15)
○Columbia, NYU and others are planning to converge at MSP @3pm
■Radical recess area
○Coordinate universities and bring people together to rally and rouse the crowd
■Daniel will be the communication link
○MC to organize and introduce speakers
■A rep from each school
■Electa from CUNY
○limited time and resources
○Occupy May Day march logistics after 3pm
■Manissa and Russell volunteers to be bike scout with the volunteer text loop
●Press conference with OWS
○Zoltan will call to seek out a volunteer to be at the OWS May Day Press Conference on April 30th @11am
●Outreach (5) !!! DO IT !!!
○Press
○How to Make The Free University Go Viral: A guide to outreach
or
○Point of information:
■website
■twitter @FreeUnivNYC
■FB
■trailer
■poster
■flyers (1 pager of the Free U that Irene. Ian will print and Carwil will have them cut)
■text blasts
●Community agreement (10)
○explicitly state our ideals about how we aspire to conduct ourselves if we are engaging with the Free University
○suggest using something OWS safer spaces wrote
○combine it with the Code of Conduct developed for the Free U
○Manissa will take a look at amend and print
●Free University Debriefing (10)
○debrief and evaluation
○Sunday, May 6th @4pm New School 12 W. 13th St. Bark Room?
○Imani will book and confirm
●Free University Next Link in the chain meeting (10)
○continuation of this grand experiment
○Sunday, May 6th @6pm location to be announced on the website
●Announcements (10)
○Walk-through
■April 30th 4pm meet at Steward Statue (Broadway & 23rd)
○Signs, banners, props, making party!!!
■April 30th 6-8pm @Graduate Center, Rm 5109 Committee on Globalization and Social Change
■also at Madison Square Park on Tuesday