What is a social centre for?

by William Tue Dec 06, 2005 16:57

Bring along some food too if you like.

Nicholas of Myra Hall: salt of the earth

by firefox Thu Dec 08, 2005 13:30

Just some genuine questions/comments on this. Not trying to be smart or get one up on you.

- Havent you had this exact same meeting before nearly twelve months ago, asking what people want from a "social centre" space?
- Why is this meeting taking place in Nic of Myra and not at SS? Doesnt it make more sense to hold a meeting in the venue referred to, so people can see what way they can use it?
- If its not open to the public to drop into at any time, why is it called a 'social centre'?
- Whats the point in paying rent on a space that you cant even have this basic meeting in?
- Why not squat a building if all thats happening (or capable of happening due to space constraints) is meetings of small groups such as pro-choice, prisoners letter writing, and so on?

I've had no involvement with the space, but been hearing a lot of negative stuff about it on the grapevine (admittedly not always the most reliable source!), such as people showing up for meetings or workdays that didnt happen, no access to the building due to issues with keys, being moved around by the landlord, people wrecking the place during a party and not tidying up, the opening weekend being postponed at the last minute, it being cold and damp, no water, and so on.

As I said, not trying to be smart, just wondering what is going on with the place and why this meeting is happening when its supposedly all been hammered out long ago over the course of a year when the group didnt have a space. But I think there is a bit of a case of 'cant see the wood for the trees', i.e. having meetings in EENGO offices about looking for a space to have meetings, or having art and music nights in Myra's to fundraise for a place to host art and music nights. Is it just about control?

And no, I cant make the meeting to ask all these questions in person, dont live in Dublin.

by dara Fri Dec 09, 2005 03:10

Hey, following tonight's meeting, we decided that the layout of the discussion on saturday should be as such. It's being quite explicitly timetabled to try and get through a lot of stuff quite quickly.

Timetable:
1:30-2:00 Housekeeping
2:00-2:15 Introductions & brief history of Seomra Spraoi
2:15-2:30 Break into groups for discussion of
1) What do you want from a social centre?
2) What shared principles will the centre have?
2:30-2:45 Back into larger group to report back from these groups
2:45-3:30 Discuss what ideas from both 1) and 2) are shared and try to resolve any problems between conflicting principles.
Identify what working groups should be formed.
3:30-4:00 Lunch
4:00-4:40 People split into whichever working group they want to be part of and discuss the group’s internal organisation and how they will interact with other working groups
4:40-5:00 Report back from each working group on what they will be doing.

Explanation of the terms used:
Housekeeping: This is a discussion of the very simple technical details that need to be sorted out with the running of the space. It involves things such as: post to the centre, distribution of keys, and implementation of decisions that have already been made (no smoking etc.). the people most relevant to the discussion will be those who have had experiences with the difficulties that have arisen so far.

Principles: fairly clear. Basically, we’re a diverse group and we just have to recognise this and recognise what we have in common. Some principles that have been agreed upon so far are a belief in decentralised, autonomous organisation and the desire to have a space that is non-commercial.

Working Groups: the point of breaking into working groups at the non-meeting is so that we don’t have to try and macro-organise everything at a single Seomra Spraoi Meeting. It just means that we can be more efficient. Some of the working groups we identified as needing are: Library, Finance, Events (this includes the Art group that had formed previously), and Work. The Work working group just means a group that would identify and organise for the physical preparation and maintenance of the space, actually doing the work would still be everyone’s responsibility.

by dunk Fri Dec 09, 2005 17:29

links to rest of planets social centres and other bits and pieces
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72753&search_text=seomra%20spraoi

by Yerman Tue Dec 13, 2005 00:03

Any chance of some minutes on how this went?