Staff Call Meeting Minutes August 9th, 2007

present: Will, Mads, Ashley, Sascha

long and fascinating check-ins about Zapatista encuentros and big mountains, and then

NY Community Trust – Sascha met with them. They want to give us $10,000 and then get other people to give us money. Want a reworked version of the Van Ameringen proposal that is more NYC-centric that they can use and take around to funders. Madigan asks: who funds them? Is it clean money? Will goes on activist cash and checks it out – yes, clean money, generic liberal causes etc. It seems like we can write the proposal to be more NYC centric, but use the materials created on a national scale. $ may also be useful in

Tightening up our relationship with Fountain House – we need a more concrete form for our presence there
    Will suggests monthly event (discussion, workshop, etc.). We could pay someone to organize it, or maybe get an intern? But who would supervise an intern.
    Seems like we may want to hire an intern/volunteer coordinator, and someone to oversee this monthly event
    Alicia has suggested: that we look at FH population, look at NYC needs, would it make sense to find someone who knows social service agencies in NY – move beyond just colleges in our organizing – then Sascha brings up organizing at schools beyond NYU with more diverse demographics – like LaGuardia – expanding the demographic of people who TIP reaches – the discussion scales way out – expanding educational materials, etc –
    Refocus: Will talks about very successful survivor/professional forums that have been organized recently at Freedom Center – required excellent facilitating – organized around hotbutton issues that no one is talking about, things like poverty, racism, and mental health –
    Suggestion: we have an Icarus person with excellent facilitating/organizing skills be the bottom-line organizer for these monthly events, and work in tandem with folks from Fountain House on planning specific events.

2 Questions/Projects to Resolve:
    writing the grant
    hiring the right person
Suggestion of Alex Samets, who has relationships at FH, and has expressed interest in being involved with that community again, and with national TIP. Madigan will approach her and propose ideas.
Discussion about Alicia sharing part of this role, but may not be the right person long term since she doesn't live in NYC and is planning to move to California some time in the next year.
Also interest in getting Sarah/Misled youth more involved – supporting them and co-organizing with them? Doing some TIP events at the new community space, particularly events that might be too radical for FH?
Conclusion: Mads will get in touch with Alicia, Alex, and Sarah, and ask where their interest lies, how much time they have available, etc. Alicia will hopefully join the next staff call at 3 pm Weds. We would like to hear what her ideas and interest are, and how long of a commitment she's interested in.

Ashley's transition
-    new liaison to the bookkeeper Jessie – temporarily, it will be Sascha
-    I've already archived and backed up all my Icarus files onto a portable hard drive so they can live in the office and be accessed by anyone who needs them
-    will check that all pertinent financial dates are up on the calendar, and clearly written out
-    re-ordering postcards – we're going to wait on that – may change language and company
-    need to train Alicia in some of the funder contact stuff
-    ***forgot to discuss at staff call: can we get TIP expenses off my personal credit card?***

Scheduling:
    Wed, August 15th, 3 pm, TIP staff call
    Fri, August 17th, 11 am, TIP staff meet at FH office – discuss mad pride week, postcards and mission statement, coming off guide, future visioning etc.