Icarus Community Conference Call
April 20, 2008--12noon (pacific)/3pm (eastern)

present: eris, bmad, zach, inel, jackrabbit, and allison

facilitation queen: bmad
note taker: eris (but please feel free to add....)
time keeper: inel

as people joined the call, talk of how to best approach the call-->
bmad: introduce yourself and where you're calling from.say your name and take a breath before you speak. step up, step back. active listening.

zach: like a circle. we are all part of the circle, enter center to speak, step back to circle when not speaking.

agenda proposals: check-in, RNC, upcoming conferences, gathering, WE update, discussion of icarus live (real world groups) versus online, and discussion of how radical politics fits into icarus/expectations of radical politics/are radical politics necessary?

inel: prioritize? check-in, RNC and gathering first? then see how much time is left?
eris: i second that.

Check-ins: Who you are, where you're calling from, how you're doing, background with icarus if you want, anything else that strikes you. try to keep to two minutes.

Eris: calling from New York but lives in minneapolis, visiting family for passover. had an amazing seder saturday night, trying to balance family time with huge homework load. in general doing well. sitting on beach with geese. been involved with icarus since 2003.

Inel: calling from asheville. Helped a friend plant their garden, excited to be involved in a garden besides my own. has been involved with the radical mental health collective in asheville since it's inception, 2+ years. interim OWL Collective member at icarus, has been part of WE.

Zach: calling from Philadelphia, not so feel-good or happy today. trying to figure out relationship between self and icarus, need non-Internet contact to figure that out.

Jackrabbit: Richmond, VA. at a children's museum with his kids, going to keep the call on mute except when speaking. group in Richmond is starting up. talking with Inel over the phone about starting a group has been really helpful. group is working at getting meetings focused, figuring out what it will look like.

Allison: Charlottesville, VA. first conference call. has been on site for a while, wants to form a local group.

Bmad: calling from Brooklyn, lives in both Brooklyn and San Francisco, as well as on the road a lot as a touring musician. has been involved with Icarus basically since its inception, done a lot of organizing, currently part of OWL collective, but will be stepping aside/down in May. Is composing original music for play, will be in rehearsals and performances through july. Has a chapter in a new book, did reading on friday and has one coming up on tuesday. very excited about it.

back to proposal: talk about RNC first

eris: Northstar Health Collective is handling all aspects of medical health support. They are excited to collaborate with TIP to take lead on offering emotional/trauma support. Currently there are few local MN people interested in directly organizing this. Want to know who else could support organizing this. There is a meeting 5/3 with other organizations involved in RNC planning where we should offer clarity make a decision to be involved or not. We need to organize who, what, where, when, how. Make contacts with local resources and collaborators. Find safer spaces locations. There is nothing currently in place for mental health support at RNC so what is needed is pretty broad right now. The RNC is scheduled September 1st-4th.
(see this thread for more info:
https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/fo.....highlight=)


Inel: one of my reactions to this is the potential connection to the gathering that has been discussed. didn't know if i had time/ability to do both. Minnesota has been suggested as place to have gathering; seems like it could be a great way for people to both gather and hang out and do RNC support planning/strategizing if they're interested.

Zach: Very against this idea. i do not want that. this is what i was referring to when i brought up what place radical politics has in icarus. i don't want the gathering to be a political space, i don't want to be forced into organizing. i don't want to protest the RNC. feel like you are saying that a gathering is insignificant or not necessary, but when politics comes in, it becomes important.

Inel: I'm sorry if that is what you took from what i said, that was not my intention. I was trying to say that holding the gathering in Minnesota would allow for both to happen at once, connected. no one should feel like they have to be involved in RNC support organizing.

Zach: that is not how it came across. this is what i have been talking about with radical politics and icarus. there is an assumption that because you are involved with icarus you are radical, and that is not fair or true.

Jackrabbit: Feel like I understand what Inel was trying to say, but also how Zach feels. Is more interested in a gathering than anything to do with RNC. would be interested in talking with Zach about gathering over the phone.

Zach: i can alter my thinking to understand what you're saying, but than i would be altering myself and i don't want to do that.

Inel: sounds like maybe there may need to be conference calls outside of the third sunday one to talk about RNC stuff.

Eris: i agree, i will definitely instigate that on the site. Could we please be cognizant of space and time that we are taking up (myself included) as we don't have a lot of time left?

Zach: I feel like there need to be whole conference calls about the gathering. I feel like there should be conference calls about the items i brought to the agenda, about real life connections and radical politics. i don't have the power to set up or call a conference call.

Eris: Unless i misunderstand things, this number could be used to set up other conference calls. you have as much authority as anyone else to instigate a conference call. i agree that

Inel: this number has been also used for the WE calls, but i asked will hall about it being used for other calls and he basically said no, that if people want to have other conference calls they could set up their own free number. bmad, do you know anything about this?

bmad: that is not my understanding at all. i think of this number as a space for icarus members to use for discussions of any sort they want to have. i encourage you to post about having other calls and using this number. i will talk to will for clarification about this.

Inel: time check, not much time left. do we want to move onto other topics? do we want to come up with items for next months agenda?

Jackrabbit: i need to check out. thanks everyone for being on the call, really appreciates talking with people in real/not online world. zach, private message me and we can set up time to talk on the phone about the gathering.

Allison: I would really like to hear more about the WE. don't know anything about it, and am interested in hearing anything about women in icarus.

Eris: I would also really like an update, but i'm worried there is not enough time to do it justice.

bmad: i woud be happy to update everyone. you could also private message me about it.

Inel: there is a very long thread on the site that would give you alot of explanation. but maybe madigan could give a little background?

madigan: the WE was inspired by the zapatista's women's encuentro, which i had the privilege of attending in january in chiapas. a space for women who have been actively involved in the organizational collective/aspect of icarus to talk and process and heal about issues of gender/dynamics/problems in icarus/OWL collective. a very intense, healing, necessary thing. inel, want to add anything?

Inel: WE coming to end of process, more tangible "results/outcomes" will be up in the next few weeks. feel free to pm me also.

allison: thanks, i will look for the thread. i am really interested in talking about women's roles in mental health organizing. am really interested in starting an icarus group here. richmond is too far away for me to get to. have been very involved with mental health advocacy, which can be very negative and soul sucking. i feel like icarus is more positive and affirming.

Inel: i would be happy to talk with you about our experience here in asheville about forming a support group. really excited about talking with other people doing this, hope that our experiences can help other groups trouble shoot and not repeat mistakes we made/trouble we had. feel free to pm me about that also.

Zach: maybe i should check out also. feeling that my agenda items were pushed aside. frustrated.

allison: i think its time for me to check out. thanks for being on the call everyone, this was great. i'm really excited about icarus, about forming a group. was really nice to talk to everyone.

eris: this was only my second time on a conference call, feeling a little confused about what the space is for, how to cover so much in such a short time.

bmad: i've always envisioned it as a space for people to check in, personally or about whats going on with local groups, broader issues. do we want to have a longer call next month? two hours? an hour and a half?

inel: there was a discussion about what the calls are/could be for a few months ago, there is a long thread on the site, in envisioning icarus, that might be helpful.

bmad: i will not be on the conference call next month or for a while, we should try to make sure that there is someone from the OWL collective, since it is going through transition.

inel: i feel like we should go up incrementally. jump from one to two hours seems like a lot, proposes we go to an hour and a half.

zach: i don't know why we should stop at an hour and a half. why not two hours? we've already gone for an hour and a half today.

bmad: i agree with inel that length of call should go up in an incremental, sustainable way. why don't we say that it will be an hour and a half, but say that if people want to stay on the call longer, they should.

eris: i agree

zach: i guess i should check out. i am trying to figure out how to deal with who i am and who/what icarus is. this is who i am. i need to figure out how they fit together.

inel: thanks so much for being on the call everyone. it was great. i am ready to be off the phone.

bmad: i am so grateful for everyone being on this call and for being a part of this community. we are building a movement and community with such diversity--diverse-ability--that is so inspiring and wonderful. reminder that i will be reading from the new book, along with kate bornstein, on tuesday at NYU at 7 pm. i've posted about it on my blog.

eris: i am going to have to think about and process how these calls work, the weirdness of the wonkevator. but am happy for everyone being on the call, it was good to talk to everyone.