IMC Midwest Regional Gathering Notes

UC-IMC Gathering Saturday Oct 20, 2001

10:00 AM Group Discussion on Developing Local IMCs (20 people present)

This session included a Problem Jostling exercise to identifying items for discussion or problems within local IMCs. Each attendee given three post-it notes and asked to write on each: a problem or need in their IMC or a false statement about their IMC to generate discussion of solutions. During the 20 min. alloted for the exercise, the post-it notes were placed on a wall accessible to everyone. The attendees organized the notes into logical groups of issue. The facilitator, with the help of participants, gave each group or issue a title which was recorded on a large dry-erase board. The issues listed:

1) Community Center (0)

2) Web site (4)

3) Vim / Energy (2)

4) Publishing policy (3)

5) Distribution (2)

6) Process / Internal operation (6)

7) Mission of news gathering (6)

8) Financial sustainability (3)

9) Outreach (5)

10) Publicity (0)

11) Other (2)

12) Diversity (6)

13) Insularity / Cliques (0)

14) Affiliation / Unionization (4)

Each attendee was then asked to vote by raising his or her hand for two of the issues. The numbers in parenthesis following each issue refers to the votes each issue received in order to prioritize and select discussion items. There was a proposal to cover Process / internal operation, Mission of news gathering, Diversity and Outreach. The proposal passed by consensus.

Process / Internal operation discussion

Post-it notes generating the following discussion were: