Strike Debt Meeting - 25 Feb 2013

= 25 Feb 2013 Strike Debt Meeting =

April 6th Planning
1. Venue: Joe has finished booking the Middle East. We are giving a $200 downpayment. 2. Music: three groups a.Licious, fairly firm. Kendra. b. DJ/VJ duo: Dj Dayglow. emailed but not response. c.Rick Berlin. Nickled and Dimed but not entire band. What name should we use for them? 3. Testimonies: Angela, Larry Peterson. Looking for one or maybe two more. Joe posted request on the online forum. We'll probably stick to a small number of personal stories. Perhaps four. We haven't found speakers yet; we'll try to nail this down at the next meeting. 4. Skits: Joe has three in mind. Brainstorming continuing. 5. Resources: Make a bookmark of the best resources we have found surrounging debt and managing our resources. 6. Food: We still need to contact Food Not Bombs. (Kendra, do you have the contact on that?) 7. Collaboration: Dollars and Cents. Kendra, any news? 8. Videography: Steve has confirmed that his friend, Morris Martin, will video the event. What are we going to do with the film once it is taped. Is Morris willing to edit and post it? Steve talked with Maurice Morales, re: video-recording the event. Maurice agreed. Maurice asked about lighting in the Middle east. Steve told him the club was generally dim. Maurice may want to shoot in black and white; it's easier to adjust the lighting that way. Ultimately, we'd like to have something on YouTube, that we can link from occupyboston.org. 9. Authors: Atleast one of the authors of "The Future of Higher Education" will be speaking. 10. OUTREACH: flyer made. (Anna, will send it out today.)

April 6th: Event Schedule: Saturday, April 6th from 2pm to 5pm at the Middle East in Cambridge. There is some controversy over please add your thoughts and edit. Part One: CONTENT: How we got here? Higher Education people speak. OR Open with people's testimonials. Part Two: Practical Advice: 1. Larry's talk on collection agencies. practical advice. legislation (set up a table with info) 2. Lawyer: Kendra, did you hear back? 3. End with pitch for next meeting? Direct Action? Part Three: HOW TO CREATE CHANGE: Ask if a NY jubilee person will speak. (Email sent but no response.) Event Schedule: Steve's Notes:

We discuss the overall shape of the event. We'd previously decided on three sections:


 * 1) How did we get here
 * 2) Where are we now
 * 3) What can we do now (or, where can we go from here)

There's rough agreement for ending on a positive note ("what can we do now"); we're still debating order for the beginning and middle of the event.

Dana's invited author Dan Clawson to speak. His presentation probably belongs in the "How did we get here" section.

Bankruptcy laws were put in place to aid commerce. Bankruptcy laws were altered specifically to exempt student loans. There's a group of senators who may introduce legislation to reverse this.

"There are several possible futures. Come work with us, and you can influence the future."

Part of April 6th should focus on bringing people into the movement, and getting them involved as debt strike activists.

We've invited OWS strike debt organizers to talk during the "what can we do now" section. That's inspiration and how to move forward.

Will there be tabling at the event? We're working on it. We've approached Dollars and Sense, and we're waiting to hear back from them. Are there other organizations who might be interested in tabling?

There's a twelve-step program called Debtors Anonymous. We could approach them, but we should learn more about their organization first. Here is a link for more information: http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/

What other outreach options do we have?

We can hand out copies of the Debt Resisters Operations Manual.

The April 6th event is supposed to be focused on Student Debt. But we could try to link different groups of debtors together.

Next Meeting
Let's schedule our next meeting for March 11th, 7pm at Community Church.