Minutes from October 2nd General Meeting, Uprising Bookstore

Ava, Chris, Danielle, Ashar, Possum, Richard, Tony, Rob, Andre, Bill, Eric, Tim, Rob were present.

The meeting was facilitated by Ashar, minutes were taken by Richard.

Agenda

Several items were on the agenda, including:

1. Reportbacks from class facilitators present at meeting

2. class proposal

3. the role of a doorkeeper to help introduce newcomers at general meetings

4. issues with regard to meeting times and locations

5. access to web and individual postings

6. reimbursement of collective members for money spent on projects

Reportbacks from class facilitators

Tony reported that his class, the Bible for People Who Hate the Bible, will start at the end of October and that he would send his outline to Possum to post on the AnarchistU web site sometime this coming week. The course will be held at This Ain't the Rosedale Library for at least 6 weeks.

Richard reported that Anarchist Anthropology started on September 20th and had met twice. Attendance was good, between 12- 15 people showing up, with folks sharing food and good conversation.

Ashar reported that the Cultural Economy of Hip Hop was going well, with a small and spirited group of participants that were engaging in good conversation. Ashar is putting together a CD for the class and several people asked if he could make some extras for those that were not able to come to the class. He said he would.

Ashar reported that the Direct Action class was going well, with more people attending and engaging in spirited discussion about a range of topics on the theory and practice of direct action. As well, it was also reported there was a movie night tonight (Oct. 2nd) to view two films relating to the class.

Course proposal

Eric proposed a course for the winter semester entitled: Shamanism and Psychoanalysis : Means for Self- Empowerment vis a vis Society. The course proposed to look at topics in psychoanalysis and critique this method of 'therapy' in which through a variety of techniques people are normalized. From this critique, the course would look at the works of Wilhelm Reich and the development of alternative forms of psychanlysis, focussed primarily on the methods and teachings drawn from what was called 'shamanism'..including the use of drums, rythyms, dance, powerful medicines in order to gain further insight and knowledge of the self.

This course was quite well received by the collective members at the meeting. Overall, people thought the course was well organized, although there was some concern about the density of the material, especially since it was presented as an 8 week course.

Other questions and concerns included:

Whom do you want to attract to the course? Can one really help empower another? How will this course do so? There were also some comments on the powerful medicines that were to be talked about, and of course it was critical to warn people of their power. Other concerns included: an oversimplification of 'shamanism' in terms of utilizing a derivative form present in such modern phenomenon as the "New Age"...This kind of garbage is a new and insidious form of colonialism, in which the very ideas and practices of indigenous cultures are appropriated, re- packaged and sold as some form of enlightenment. Indeed, the practices and teachings of shaman widely vary between cultures, and collective members were interested to know what/ how material would be presented. It appeared that shamanic practices from South American cultures were to be used in the course.

Other comments and concerns addressed were focussed on the complexity of the field of psychoanalysis and how this would be dealt with. Can healing really take place through this method? What will be the context of presenting controversial (and obsolete) ideas of Freud and others, especially in light of feminist and queer critiques? It was also thought that the course should expand to 10 weeks so that MORE material could be covered in order to contextualized the material in the outline....including the range and variations of both psychoanalyses and shamanisms. These concerns related to overall course density.

The course was approved and Bill relayed the concerns of the collective to Eric.

Eric addressed these concerns by saying that the course would be a forum in which others in the class could contribute to aspects of the presentation of material. And that he would welcome individuals who could speak to the wide ranging nature of and complexity of both shamanism and psychoanalysis. Eric agreed to expand the course to 10 weeks.

Eric also said that he was trying to start a meeting of poets, artists, seekers, wanderers, etc. for music and discussion, drumming, and engagement at his place. It was not clear how often the meeting would take place.

Role of a doorkeeper

It was thought that a doorkeeper, a person in charge of introducing new members of the collective to others at the general meetings would be helpful in getting people known at meetings, as well it would allow the perspective of the collective to be introduced to that particular new member. Bill volunteered to be a doorkeeper for new members at upcoming meetings.

Meeting time and place

The issue of meeting time and place was brought to the attention of collective members. One member of the collective has not been able to make general meetings and was not happy with the way the meetings were being scheduled without consensus. Although it was noted that the individual could come to some Sunday meetings (after October??). However, it was decided that at some point, meetings would be held on a day other than Sunday. Indeed, the date for the next general meeting is Thursday November 3rd at 7 pm. The location of the meeting is yet to be decided due to concerns over space. The problem is that anarchistu does not have a meeting place that can be relied upon all of the time.

Web access and personal postings

Access to the web page has been fairly open. However, recently people cannot just sign up for a log in and password and post to the web page. No discussion took place on this policy change. However, there was a discussion of persons posting individual comments directly to the web page. It was decided that a discussion board would be created so that individuals with comments could post there, and that the web page itself would be oriented toward posts that were information, rather than personal opinion and rants. Also, overall organization of the web page is changing and specific questions should be directed to members of the web page working group.

Reimbursement of collective members

Members of the collective at the meeting supported reimbursement of memebers who had spent their own money on collective projects. There apparently was some mis- communication in terms of who is responsible for doing that at this time. Rob is the person to talk to, and can be contacted at the info@anarchistu email address. It is important that folks inform the collective about money they plan to spend on projects and that they expect reimbursement, as well as to try to bring all receipts for money spent. Money will be reimbursed as quickly as possible.

Overall, it was suggested that better communication between collective members is the key to solving problems, rather than just getting hostile to perceived slights. These 'slights' are more often a result of simple misunderstanding rather than a direct and personal insult. We all have lots of things going on in our lives. AnarchistU is an important part of creating a different world. We all believe in that, we are comrades not cometitors or opponents (sorry for editorializing here, folks).

The meeting was adjourned around 6:00 PM. PEACE OUT!