Present: Possum, Jeff, Rob, Chris B. Alan.

Agenda:

1. Class updates
2. Email
3. Bookfair Table
4. Course Proposals
5. Invisible Hierarchies

1. We assembled in the side room at This Ain't the Rosedale Library Bookstore on Church Street. Few of us were there on account of the long holiday weekend. Chris gave us an update on his class, History of Social Elites, commenting that it is going very well but fewer people came are enrolled. We decided that the website should indicate which classes still have "open enrollment" after they start.
2. Email. Paula mentioned earlier that she was having some difficulty with email on account that her home computer is down. We discussed how important it is to send out reminders of meetings, etc. and to make sure that class participants and other interested people make it on to our general mailing list.
3. Bookfair table. Anarchist U will have a half-table at this years Anarchist Bookfair in Toronto (at the 519 Church Street Community Centre). Rob and Chris to coordinate staffing of bookfair table. Others who are interested to come by and help out please email Rob or Chris B.
4. There are no course proposals on offer yet! We discussed that the next meeting in November is an important one where we need to talk about future courses for January Winter 2005 section. Jeff mentioned that he would be interested in doing research on alternative / anarchist economics, with the idea of helping out with offering a course. We suggested that he get in touch with Jazleen of OPIRG/Uof T who is also intersted in offering a course in Parecon (Participatory economics) or alternative economics.
5. Invisible Hierarchies. Possum suggested that we discuss the recognition of and the prevention of possible hierarchies developing in the collective. Briefly Possum explained that individuals with greater experience in the collective would have greater power over decisions, and that skills and experience tends to get concentrated in certain individuals due to their repetition of activities. The idea is to prevent crisis and to begin to think about our internal dynamics in order to be aware of such tendencies. Rob mentioned that skills sharing and learning is imporatant so a greater number of people can have the opportunity to develop facitilitation skills, for example. We also mentioned that discussions about "guiding" philosophy and consensus decision making have not been attended to as much now as in the past. For example, Luis began meetings with a brief description of consensus decision making, in order for other participants to learn and ask questions, etc. We decided to pursue this question further at a future meeting when more people are present. Chris mentioned that he knew someone named Norman Taylor who has a lot of experience with leading workshops on collectives if we thought we needed this.

NEXT MEETING IS IMPORTANT FOR NEW COURSE PROPOSALS!

NEXT MEETING: 7 NOVEMBER 2004, 6 pm