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29-September-06

Conference-call-prep

Hi everyone,

It looks like this friday the 29th at 1pm will work out for everyone for the WSF Kenya confernece call. Sphinx, please do welcome C.T. to the conversation as well.

The new conference call number is:(605)990-0400 access code:1084842#

talk to you all soon. thanks- siyade

[Hide Quoted Text]

 Friday the 29th at 1pm is good for me.

 I also think it will be a great idea to get this Conference call this
 month
 (29th) so that we could try to get a conference call every month.

 Siyade, are we going to use the same phone number we used last time or
 would you
 send around the number to be used this time by mail?

 One more thing, I hope everyone here is OK if C.T.Butler joins the
 Conference
 call. C.T has been involved for years in "train the trainers" workshops on
 Formal (structured) Consensus (www.consensus.net). And I talked C.T
 into coming
 to Kenya to run similar workshops at the indymedia space. His material
 is one of
 the reference documents on consensus in indymedia.

 Talk to you on Friday then.
 Sphinx

MINUTES OF CONFERENCE:

Conference Call 9/29/06 Re: convergence LPFM radio station at WSF Nairobi in January 07 People present: Sphinx, Petri, Hannah, Siyade, Jay, Chris

Chris: Are these conference calls free for people in Africa? If not is it

possible to explore options for conferencing that they could afford?

—Sphinx: Possibly Skype [at end of call, Siyade said she will research this].

—Hannah: So this call is for brainstorming, with attention to logistics and funding.

—Chris: Has emailed Judith about her wanting to contribute any information

to this call and was not able to check email before this call to see if she

sent us anything. My sense is that she has not been able to get any agreement

from the administration. Also another Maseno Communications professor

Charles Juma has joined the IMC Africa list and wants to become involved.

—Siyade: Someone from Prometheus should subscribe to the imc-africa list.

[Sphinx will put all Prometheus people on the list (Hannah, Siyade, Petri)].

—Hannah: Could Sphinx give us an update on what's been discussed on the imc-africa list?

—Sphinx: Jon from indymedia Kenya will coordinate for the convergence radio

station. He has a meeting with Grace and Oloo. Jon is trying to see if WSF

can provide space for the station within its main area. Additionally, he has

identified a guest house not far away that could be used to house people and

for some work. Someone else is working on fundraising for tickets.

-Jay: Recommends working on securing both spaces since the WSF may not make

final decisions on allocation of space for awhile yet and there needs to be some space secured.

—Sphinx: CT Butler (from Food Not Bombs), who is involved with consensus

training, is interested in doing training at the WSF.

—Hannah: Has there been a discussion on the imc-africa list about the kinds

of workshops planned or desired? Prometheus needs to receive this

information as it develops. Also if there is any information about the

logistics of the proposed guest house please forward to Prometheus.

—Chris: Has anyone reported on the legal requirements for LPFM transmission in Kenya?

—Sphinx: I asked Judith and Charles to research this information but they

have not gotten back to me yet. Also two other people have been asked.

Another person has volunteered to be a Swahili translator and he too was asked to help with this.

—Hannah: AMARC global may have some of those documents.

—Petri: I will try to get that information up on the computer now.

Ordinarily we'd have support from AMARC Africa but it (AMARC Africa) recently closed.

 Petri will be at the upcoming AMARC conference in  Jordan and will 

try to establish contacts with folks currently working in Africa.

—Sphinx and others: Brief discussion of the kinds of quarrels and issues

that have come up to cause splintering and loss of cohesion at AMARC Africa.

—Sphinx: A few people have written to the imc-africa list stating that they

want to come to Nairobi and need transportation support.

—Jay: Also there's been enthusiasm expressed that there would be LPFM radio at the WSF Nairobi..

—Sphinx: A woman in Germany (Daphne?) offered to gather equipment to donate to the event in Nairobi.

—Hannah: She should get in touch with Prometheus ASAP about equipment.

—Jay: The parts list provided by Prometheus was great. And we still are in

budget (about $5000). We haven't started fundraising for that yet as we're

waiting for some numbers from Jon in Kenya.

—Hannah: What's happening with conversations between Petri and Chris vis a vis Antioch?

—Chris Steve Lawry, the new president at Antioch College, was the head of

the Ford Foundation in Cairo before coming to Antioch. Petri and Chris are

trying to set up a conversation with him that would lay the groundwork for a

future project but more specifically in the short term support travel expenses for WSF Nairobi.

—Petri: Prometheus gets numerous requests for international work. Petri has

spoken with some people at the Ford Foundation about possible funding for a

future project that would involve students, possibly from Antioch, that would

work with Prometheus on such projects.

—Sphinx: The equipment list that Petri sent is great. There was some

discussion on the imc-africa list and questions about specifically what kinds

of equipment are needed from local vendors.

—Petri: Mainly hardware type items--like plumbing pipe and wood, rope and

wire to put up the antenna, some audio gear like a CD player...because it's

good for people to become familiar with things that can be obtained locally

rather than it seeming like everything is coming from elsewhere.

—Sphinx: There's been discussion about making the radio station ready to

broadcast at the beginning of the conference, so starting work on it at least

a week before the conference begins. Sphinx would try to get to Nairobi

about 1 month before the conference opens.

—Petri: It certainly makes sense. We have some commitments at Prometheus

just before the WSF Nairobi, and so that work will affect who would be going

and when. Maybe 2 people from Prometheus would go, one for pre-work and

another later.

—Hannah: The limitations of the staff at Prometheus are real. We might want

to think about others who could be helpful, such as Erez Gudes who has worked

in Africa before.

—Sphinx: We'd like to start with the radio station on January 13. On the

issue of location, we want to get Maseno on board. And we need to figure out

what to do if Maseno doesn't come on

board.

—Chris: When I was in Kisumu I was in contact with some other groups who

were connected to Fransciscans who has been involved with community radio in

the past. Their current work (with micro-financing, HIV education) seems

impressive. I would contact them if it turned out that Maseno could not get

involved. However, I would want to be certain about Maseno's plans before

contacting these other folks.

—Sphinx: What was the situation like for Petri at the WSF in Caracas?

—Petri: There were already existing community radio stations in Caracas so

what I did was training rather than event radio. One thing to consider is

whether to purchase a transmitter there or bring it. It would require that

someone be there 2-4 days before putting up the transmitter, to navigate

markets, purchase items. There needs to be a few people on hand to help with

the basic set up--they could be skilled or unskilled. We'd need full access

to the place where the center could be, and we'd need to be able to basic

construction work--like sawing, etc.--and permission to use the roof or a

high place. We'd need to be certain that communications were

working. —Chris: Would it be helpful to make a list of basic tools you'd need--like

you mentioned a saw?

—Petri: We would bring the specialized tools, but often I've bought tools

locally, like a hand drill.

—Siyade: Are we leaning toward a school or other not-for-profit to host the

station? We've identified some grants but they must be

non-governmental.

—Sphinx: Explains that they ideally want the situation to model horizontal

organizing. There's an indymedia group reforming in Kenya, Oloo is involved

with the WSF and the radio station is now an additional focus for him, and we

still want to involve Maseno faculty and students and the school's premises

can be used.

—Siyade: The IREX Fund (please correct) grants up to $10,000 to media

projects in Africa.

—Sphinx: Regarding fundraising...Fabian is planning on going to a German

company that supported transportation for the conference in Dakar. A

deadline on asking people to submit requests for transportation support is

October 1. If we knew in advance who Prometheus was sending we could add

then to that proposal (this German company wants names and affiliations of

people they support).

—Petri: You can put 2 names down from Prometheus--Hannah and Siyade--and

we'll know later who exactly will go.

—Hannah: This is the most concrete conversation we've had, good.

—Jay: Has to leave the call.

—Chris: (to Jay) Are you planning of going to Nairobi?

—Jay: Not sure yet; won't know for certain for awhile.

—Chris: What doyou think is the latest we can wait to hear about Maseno

before needing to begin making other contacts?

—Sphinx: Reviews his communications with Judith and Charles...Sphinx's

recommendation is that they not rely on support from the administration but

rather set up a club,or work with students to set up a club at the school.

This student club could then receive the equipment from the WSF and make it

available to students and others at the school. We need to know this

information probably within the next 10-15 days. It's important that this was

of working with student clubs is understood as a way of facilitating broader

access to this equipment. It's not about any political agenda but rather

that interested people will be able to pursue access and training in

community radio through this club, ideally with the support of interested

students and faculty.

—Hannah: In our messaging at Prometheus, we don't put forth any ideas about

content except that we support participatory democracy through the use of

this equipment. OK, now what are the tasks that we've all agreed to take on?

—Hannah: Looking into getting people from Maseno and other parts of Africa

on the phone through Skype, or another service, and read through the archived imc- Africa list.

—Sphinx: Will sign Prometheus people onto the imc-africa list

—Chris: Will write up notes to this meeting and continue working on contact

between Steve Lawry at Antioch and Petri.

—Siyade: Will talk to Jay, look into legal requirements in east Africa,

talk to people like Erez who might be interested in going to Nairobi.

—Sphinx: It looks like this is a good time to talk...so next phone call in

two weeks on Friday early afternoon. END

notes taken by Chris