There: Tim, Mike, Ryan, Rachel G, Enda, Possum Minutes: Enda

The meeting began a realization that made everyone feel better – the sessions at the visioning meeting don't have to result in solutions for each topic, but should instead be see as beginning an internal process around each. In other words, while it would be nice to have racism solved by 5pm the Saturday of our visioning meeting, a more modest goal like beginning the process of diversifying ourselves took a lot of pressure off the planning. A related realization was that the goal is not for everyone to come to some agreement over the course of the session (although that would be great), but to begin processes that deal with each one of the topics/problems/areas we would like to engage with.

People came to the conclusion that the visioning meeting ought to be over one day. The potential dates chosen were June 9th or June 16th. The latter would mean that we would have a GM the next day (Sunday the 17th).

We developed a rough schedule that moves from what the AFU has been to what we might like it to be. All of these sessions will be facilitated, and we will go about finding facilitators for them as soon as they are approved. (the sessions don't have official titles yet so please take them as indicators rather than a fixed notion of what will happen within them).

10:00-10:45: History of the AFU

10:45-11:00: Break (if we have the time)

11:00-12:00 Why are we here?

12:00-1:00 Eats

1:00-3:00 Diversifying the AFU (facilitated by Sharmeen)

3:00-5:00 Where we would like to go

The first session will more be along the lines of a presentation which gives some historical context for the AFU: when it started, the kinds of stuff it has done, its changes, etc. There was also a suggestion that this session could cover the ways in which decisions have been made in the group.

The second session (after a potential break) would be a 1hr long check-in where participants could talk about why they are there, why they would like to be involved, etc.

The third session was dedicated to one particular aspect of anti-oppression work the people at the meeting thought we should begin to confront at the visioning meeting. The idea is that we would ask Sharmeen Khan (her bio is at the bottom of the minutes) to come in for a 2 hr period and help us develop a strategy to diversify the composition of our group in its post-visioning period. While it's not much time, people at the meeting agreed this is only the beginning of a process. We would like to ask Sharmeen to put on a full day workshop that is more comprehensive not too long thereafter. We would pay her for both (Ryan and Enda will try and scrounge up some funds from 3903). Finally, if Sharmeen were ever interested in putting on a course at AFU we decided to try our best to convince her to do this.

The last session will be dedicated to a discussion of where we want the AFU to go. Here discussion would be of things like: should we have a statement (basis of unity, an unmanifesto, etc) that says what we do, what we wouldn't accept, etc, how we feel about the AFU's name, what kinds of areas we would like to put on courses in, what we would like the AFU to become generally.

• Am I remembering correctly that this is also where we were hoping to talk philosophically on the nature of consensus as it relates specifically to AFU as it is now and has been, how it's working, how it has, and how it might? -M

This kind of structure, and considering the time constraints, means we put off what everyone agreed was a much-needed discussion of procedural stuff at the AFU. This would include how to deal with course proposals, the website, how general meetings are going, etc. People decided that if this was not a part of the visioning day, the group should make a concerted attempt to try and begin dealing with them from this Sunday's GM.

The venue and the date of the visioning will be dependent on the acceptance of the proposed schedule by the folks at the GM on Sunday.

Sharmeen Khan's bio:

I have done anti-oppression and anti-racist organizing for close to ten years. I have given workshops for women centres, No One Is Illegal, the Bus Riders Union and the Edmonton Anarchist Bookfair. I strongly believe in tying oppression to the structures of capitalism and colonialism and how these relationships impact our organizations of struggle. I structure workshops to be participatory and aimed at the entire visioning of an organization - so leaving follow-up work and re-visiting certain issues is encouraged. I am currently the volunteer coordinator at CHRY 105.5 FM (a campus-community radio station up at York University) and am doing an MA in communications and culture.

**Comrades! By decree of the committee, Visioning Meetings in now an un-word and it will now be refered to as The Visioning Process. Please consult the 11th edition Newspeak dictionary. All credit, royalties and trademarks to comrade unperson and who has never exisisted and will always continue to be an unperson.

• I believe you mean the 12th edition, Comrade. The current edition is the 12th. The current edition has always been the 12th. -M