SSF2005

What is it?

SSF2005 - a forum for all organisations, activists and citizens of the beautiful City of Sheffield who believe in equality, democracy and solidarity.

If this happens, it probably won't be until the Autumn. The summer is already filling up - the lead-up to the G8 and Peace in the Park will be taking much of the Social Forum's energies, especially the Speakeasy and other tents like NVDA and / or Youth Parliament.

But an Autumn indoor event could carry the momentum on from the Summer, and bring it all back home.

Suggested timeline

A proposal to split the process into two phases, but..

Before Phase 1

There is undoubtedly a strong idea here, which many people could be interested in getting on board with. They need to know! Even before the phase 1 outreach work we should have a large, well publicised and well organised public meeting to spread the idea. This should be known well in advance and even before the meeting those who want to push SSF2005 should get a proposal together. While that proposal should be open to change, it should contain enough content to put across a number of ideas:

• What was the SSF Launch like? Why was it good? Why was it bad? (i.e. get out the launch report)
• Why should we have SSF2005? Need to sell the idea on a number of levels (networking, action planning, exciting event), and have a clear idea how it would achieve those things.
• How will SSF2005 work? i.e. what will be the process, how will we get people involved, where will the money come from etc.

Phase 1: who wants to be on the SSF boat?

At the end of this we should have:

• A clear idea of which themes will be at the event, and which Sheffield groups will be leading them.
• A solid working group, hopefully including some union activity this time, a greater range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds being included, more involvement from Sheffield's student population and maybe an autonomous youth section too! Hence we have to take longer to persuade people...
• Once this is done, we can decide on a venue, based on the size, and a final date.

{Dan sez}] I got a vision of a possible structure after listening to how Gothenburg Social Forum did their thing. So, the first point above, about getting people to lead specific themes, is key to this. Here's how it might sound -

"For SSF2005, the SSF working group will take care of the nuts and bolts of organising the venue and the space. What we're asking of you is that you help us by organising your theme. This means working on what themes will be in the workshops, contacting groups you believe should take part, and nearer the time reminding them to come! We will be providing website space for the different themes, so that you have as much autonomy over your theme as possible. All we ask is that, at the end of phase 1, you let us know how many workshop spaces you think you'll need, and how many people want to take part."

This needs to be written better, but you get the idea. This means I'm also suggesting that we do the following:

• Ask that people actually sign up for the event, so we know numbers.
• We don't think about booking a venue until we know the size of the event at the end of phase 1.

This clear split means that we have a target to aim for, *after which* we can get down to planning the actual structure of it, and working out what size space we need.{end of Dan sez}

Phase 2: We've got the venue, now let's make it happen

• Workshops, films, speakers, party, music, food, culture. Bish bash bosh, SSF2005. Wicked.
• Leaving enough flexibility so that other latecomers are not excluded.

The Ethos of SSF2005

NOTE: This is a first draft by Dan, written quickly. Please treat it as such!

SSF 2005 will demonstrate:

• a commitment to transformatory and sustainable social change through collective, grassroots organisation, based on solidarity, equality, democracy, openness and respect for others.

• SSF2005 will demonstrate a rejection of top-down, hierarchical models of political organisation

(I stole/amended these first two points from Stu Hodkinson. Hope he doesn't mind! Remember - it's a starting point, and open to argument!)

Finances

Note: The following are Kev's ideas and do not represent decisions in any way, feel free to amend or add comments.

These suggestions are based on the following assumptions:

1. The 2005 event will be bigger than 2004.
2. We want to avoid individuals having to pay any expenses themselves - this tends to lead to those putting in most time also putting in most money. (It is better for individuals to donate freely, and into a central pot, so that donations are recognised and nobody feels that they have to pay particular costs.)
3. Charges for entry to the event are not acceptable.
4. No individuals will be paid wages or fees connected to the event.
5. Food will not be provided free of charge. This assumption is certainly wide open. (Dan: We could ask New Roots to cater again. They were fantastic last time. This time might be of a different scale, though.)

Expenditure

Here are some rough guesses on how much the event might cost, these should be filled out and researched to form a proper budget.

Phase 1

(Will include getting in contact with particular individuals and groups, letter writing and possible setting up some introductory meetings.)

Stationery and photocopying: £20

Postage: £25

Phase 2

(i.e. final publicity and the actual event costs on the day.)

Posters: £95

Leaflets: £35

Programmes: £25

Venue hire: £150

Stationery: £15

Total = £365

Income

Some possibilities for raising income include:

1. Apply for funding from 'mainstream' funding organisations (see Fundraising).
2. Attempt to get funding from social justice oriented trust funds.
3. Attempt to attract union involvement and funding.
4. Charge social justice organisations to have stalls at the event.
5. Donations on the day.
6. Ask workshop holders to pay.
7. Sell amusing T-shirts or other fun propoganda.
8. Have a benefit gig prior to the event.
9. Try to persuade printers and venue owners to offer their services free of charge.

Related Issues

Ways of getting money can be contentious. Here are some early thoughts.

• Numbers 1-3 offer some potential for constraints on our agenda or actions. The one off payments from mainstream funding organisations or trusts can be free of strings. I'd actually be most worried about union funding as they may well want to be involved in the process. If they want to do so as equals then this is fantastic. If, however, we are dependent on them for significant funding they may want to control the agenda, as was seen at ESF2004.
• Numbers 4 and 5 seem the easiest ways to raise money. However, these sources provide income only after the majority of the spending will have been done. Donations at SSF Launch totalled £190 which included £50 from New Roots from food sales. Depending on how many we could fit in whatever venue, stalls could probably bring in £50 - £150. While 4 and 5 both involve asking your friends/allies/comrades for money, at least there is an impression that they are the ones who benefit. As long as nobody actually has to pay this shouldn't be seen as an imposition.
• Number 6 is the ESF model - seminars at ESF 2004 cost several hundred pounds each. Apart from the fact that it is probably a little optimistic to expect workshop leaders/key participants to pay for the priviledge of sharing their knowledge this practice potentially offends several important principles when enacted at the local level. The biggest problem is that it means that those who can afford it get on the agenda while those who can't don't. It also turns the SSF organisers into a service provider - if we wanted to provide conference facilities for money we could work for Posthouse Forte or whatever they're called. Finally, it devalues the enticing nature of the experience and knowledge that participants can offer - we ultimately end up 'selling' an audience.
• Numbers 7 and 8 seem like the most fun. The risk is, that they involve so much work that they distract from organising SSF2005 itself, and, of course, they both need a money input without garunteed returns. (Though it offers hope for the once touted 'anti-capitalist t-shirt company'.)

A final, rather boring thought, is that we should get a bank account. Which would force us to think about how we make financial decisions, who gets to spend money, and accurate bookkeeping - all of which have been a little ad hoc.

The List of Lists

For now this space is just a list of decisions to be made. However, it should be used to centralise all those 'things to do' lists that we'll create, so that anyone who has a spare hour or so knows where to come to find some useful things to do.

Decisions to be made

Who should we invite?

List of 2004 Launch participants and recent contacts.

List of organisations we want to invite.

How shall we fund it?

See above discussion.

Where we should hold it?

List of possible venues. This list needs expansion and updatings, we might also create a discussion page for deciding on the various pros and cons of using different spaces.

How we should 'sell' the event?

2004 Launch invitation letter text (pdf here).

Other SSF launch publicity.

Drafts for SSF 2005 publicity. We might create a discussion page for this, to discuss theme's or principles for publicity.

Documenting the process

Dan is keeping a [journal] that he began on the first day that SSF2005 was put up on the WIKI. The plan is to examine the issues, problems, controversies, joys and heartbreaks of trying to organise a local social forum, in a candid way.