>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>>Without first creating large bases of committed organizers, or
>>"herding the cadre" as Doug puts it derogatorily, your anti-war
>>movement doesn't have enough thick-skinned & experienced individuals
>>who have time, energy, skills, knowledge, and commitment to go out on
>>their own and organize broader communities, rain or shine, come hail
>>or high water.
>
>The original letter posted was about the number of organizers shrinking,
>since the folks who were showing up at the original large meetings were
>mostly activist/organizers from constituencies across the city.
That some organizers didn't continue to attend coalition meetings doesn't necessarily mean that they stopped fighting against the war or dropped out of the anti-war movement. Those who came to initial meetings probably were those who already belonged to pre-existing organizations, which demanded work from them, aside from anti-war work. That we are fighting against the war doesn't mean that we can or should drop other things to be done, like union organizing, battling domestic violence, etc.! Besides, much anti-war work needs to be done aside from and independent of the coalition, through pre-existing social and political networks, each organizer exercising his or her judgment; joining a coalition isn't the same as joining a political party!
That said, how often do you need to attend large face-to-face meetings of organizers to keep the movement expanding and (more importantly) _why_? What's the purpose of large face-to-face meetings? Unless there are specific tasks that can only get accomplished or specific decisions that can only be made through such meetings, organizers may very well conclude that there are more important things to do than attending them, leaving routine business to the coordinating committee. The coordinating committee needs to clarify the purpose of face-to-face meetings to organizers first of all, if they want many to attend them.
Now, one of the tasks of the coordinating committee is to keep delegates/representatives/spokespersons/whatever you call them "within the loop," getting regular reports from each sector and disseminating them back to all delegates, so everyone will stay in touch. Having delegates attend regular meetings (once a month or once a quarter perhaps?) is one way of doing so. Holding conference phone calls is another. Creating a listserv is yet another. You can do all of them. If the coordinating committee in NYC has failed to do so, organizers in NYC unfortunately elected inexperienced individuals who don't know how to do their work. Is that the case?
BTW, what powers are delegated to the coordinating committee in NYC? Are they trusted to make most everyday decisions on their own? What kind of decision must be made by all organizers, not just by the coordinating committee? From the initial post, the organizational structure in NYC is not at all clear to me. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>