07-21-2010

Icarus Conf Call
 
Christin
Will
Annie
Eric
Angel
 
will notes
christin facillitate
 
support@theicarusproject.net email box
volunteering question
 
website facilitation/moderation update?
 
 
website moderation --
will - moderation going well
angel - smooth transition, not sure how we know how well it's working - seems to have smoothed over some of the
overarching stuff going on
eric- so far seems to be fine, idea of moderation and guidelines is work in progress, be aware over six mos where things working, not working, etc., figure out what kind of moderation system works best.
christin - things have settled down on the forums seems, feel is different, good sign. talked with artemis who was banned
 
volunteering with icarus -- 
pointing people to the volunteer with icarus page
specific skills, then match them with person, asking people what their interests are
 
FJC report- 
Angel can help with this
annie partnering with
 
heads up - WRL - going over financials - reconsidering rental amount, angel will advise
 
Summer Blog Post - 
up on google docs, eric gathering edits and input
 
financial situation
sense of being frozen, no sense of what we're doing
putting another fundraising appeal in the blog post
personal outreach
high donor outreach
annie+will discussion for financial development
plan - reach out to 4 high donors with blog post update
emphasize each of us taking on 3 people to donate $300
chicken and egg - are we restructuring or continuing current ongoing 
will - make the summer email a focused on fundraising appeal
angel - not good to make big decisions in crisis/difficult moments - so not good to restructure project during $ crisis
better to address financial thing then think about restructuring, not restructure bc out of money
Christin - best to not make restructure decisions during crisis situation
eric - we've come close to this conversation but multiple times but we wait to last minute. even successful fundraise drive might
only get us 2-3 mos of stipends. wary of being in same place in oct. wary of going down crisis fundraising road, becomes trap.
angel - feels we are shifting to volunteer model. reason feels a priority to me is that it's personal - fairly homogenous, white upper middle
class privileged - idea that only people who can volunteer can do project automatically keeps the homogenous loop going
will - a proposal to go all volunteer wouldn't get consensus at this point
annie -- reality right now is we have to get out of this financial situation. in agreement about volunteer based implications. not a decision
we're freely making - we're technically volunteer now. some of us are struggling financially will 
will - focus on positive proposals about what to do right now
angel - bring someone in who what they do is fundraise. putting out appeal to people who work with nonprofits
doing financial stuff, someone to donate time to project to enfuse us with expertise on fundraising. none of 
us are fundraisers. we do have going for us as project people really like us.
ask allies in social justice community
will - like this idea, high donors might like focusing on this
christen - has annie's plan structure
annie - modify plan to include what angel said about get an outside person to help with $
angel - is everyone on board with this idea?
will - agree with icarus has that gap
angel - start with consulting person to donate effort first
angel - meeting with person this week.
eric- important to not lose larger discussion of resources and structure
angel - meeting with colleague about this next weds 2pm eastern
 
rewrite blog post / email to focus on fundraising and get out as soon as we can
put restructuring on next week's agenda
consensus on bringing in an ally from soc just community to get consulting help around finances
 
about $3,000 right now in account
everyone will get one final check for july work
that will take us down to around 1k$ total
some confusion about what last work period we'll get paid for was, but we clarified it by 
consensus on one final stipend check
note - $300/mo overhead with salsa $100/mo, 
(also $200/annual with may first web hosting was paid two mos ago)
 
 
 
 
 
4PM EST/ 1PM PST
 
NEW wonkavator
 
start of an agenda?:
- financial crisis (stipends, will's and my proposed "next steps", FJC semi-annual report due by end of July)
- summer blog post update
- restructuring conversation/next steps
 
hear ya'll there/then.