activist notes

Equinomics Visioning Meeting [conclusions from the meeting available here]

Date: Friday May 16th and Saturday May 17th, 2008

Time: Friday 1 – 5 PM ; Saturday 10 AM – 4 PM

Location:University of Ottawa, Room 105 in Lamoureux Building (Faculty of Education Building at corner of J.J. Lussier and Marie Curie)

Campus Map: www.uottawa.ca/maps/maincampus.html

Participants: student organizers from the Canadian No Sweat and Fair Trade movements, Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian Labour Congress, La Siembra Co-operative, and Bob Thomson (Founder of Fair TradeMark Canada, which was succeeded by TransFair Canada in the mid-90s).

We have elected to have the Worker Rights Consortium participate in the next meeting, rather than this one. To use people’s time and our collective resources most efficiently and effectively, doing both didn’t seem to make sense since a WRC organizer would need to come from Washington, DC. Amanda Wilson, one of the catalysts of Equinomics, is on the WRC’s board and will report back to them on the visioning meeting.

Purpose of Visioning Meeting:The aim of this meeting is not to set in stone what Equinomics will be – that will be decided by those who decide to be members of Equinomics and will change over time. Rather, the purpose of the visioning meeting is to gather and share knowledge, experience and expertise with fellow activists and organizations. This information will feed into Equinomics’s founding meeting in October.

Tentative Agenda

Friday, May 16th

1:00 – 2:00 – Welcome and Overview of Equinomics

(where we’re coming from and where we want to go, overview of CSFTN and USAS Canada)

2:00 – 3:30 – Focusing and Prioritizing

(There are many issues we’d love to work on, what are our priorities and where do we begin)

3:30 – 5:00 – Constitution Building: Vision and Mission Statement

(what are we about, what are we not about, what are our goals and functions)

7:00 -10:00 – Social Time!

(BBQ and beer at Amanda’s house - location and directions provided in invite email. Food provided)

Saturday, May 17th

10:00 – 11:00 – Constitution Building: Structure

(based on people’s experience: what works, what doesn’t)

11:00 -12:00 – Constitution Building: Finances and Resources

(how are we going to support and sustain Equinomics?)

12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch (food provided)

1:00 – 4:00 – Planning Activist School, October 2008.

(The October meeting will be the founding meeting of Equinomics)