[sudo-discuss] membership reboot?

[Danny Spitzberg]

Hey all,


A few clarifications




1

My original inquiry was asking if there was any discussion around Sudo  membership outreach, recruitment, retention, etc. Is there? Either way, I brought the Hub example as a step in a process that was unambiguous and self-explanatory for the uninitiated and unfamiliar. 




2

I very strongly doubt the HUB folk coopted or copy+v'd anything from Sudo; these folks have experience in anti-oppressive action from which their membership and so-called social contract ideas materialized in words. What's more, reading their language was refreshing for me; re-reading the Sudo articles required previous knowledge and understanding, and I only ever found it because I once overheard someone say back in 2012 "one of the membership requirements is essentially that you have to go and find the membership requirements."





3

The Hub Oakland may in many ways be viewed as a kinder face of top-down oppressive extractive hierarchy and what have you. Many, many initiatives appear opaque from the outside or at a distance. However, they are open and eager to explain the nature of their service as accountable to their members. As well, they are run almost entirely by female POC Oakland citizens, and they marshal a great deal of radical action in their work. I also learned today that they are proactively providing 100 memberships to community members that lack the means to afford it. Those facts speak to the various race and class and gender and otherness concerns, at least somewhat.





4

The crowdfunding effort was, like any good fundraising effort, a boom made possible by several years pre-public campaigning to reach hundreds of Oakaland citizens and would-be potential stakeholders. As that effort grew, the credible promise that they would deliver resources and assets to te community attracted significant pledges, which became donations when the campaign was announced publicly.




5

All I'm saying here is, there may be something to learn by comparative analysis. I certainly do not want to imply any proposal for organizational affiliation. I do however believe earnest and curious inquiry into their success might be valuable.




6

I remain curious about the possibilities for Sudo might explore around more proactive inclusiveness regarding membership while holding its principles 




Danny

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:16 PM, Vicky Knox <vknoxsironi at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Eddan! :]
> Oh yeah! I forgot the one thing that underlies everything I said in my last
> email: I too am concerned about cooptation! Is anyone interested in using
> Oakland Wiki to publish their concerns by doing research and/or writing for
> perspective articles such as Emerging Tech Hub <
> http://oaklandwiki.org/Emerging_Tech_Hub>? Or maybe you would like to
> expand the current HUB article <oaklandwiki.org/Impact_Hub_Oakland> to
> include their price or anything other relevant information? Please let me
> know!
> If you wanna meet in person to edit or talk best practices, I'm sort of
> flexible and ALSO we'll be having our next Oakland Wiki meeting this
> Thursday at 7pm at Sudo Room!
> 2014-03-26 18:47 GMT-07:00 eddan.com <eddan at sudoroom.tv>:
>> Most definitely not offended by your intersectionality. Indeed, I
>> celebrate it.
>>
>>
>> sent from eddan.com
>>
>> On Mar 26, 2014, at 6:10 PM, Vicky Knox <vknoxsironi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I sympathize with Eddan's concerns that it is in the logic of open
>> knowledge systems to celebrate the [CTRL]+[c]/[CTRL]+[v] of said systems.
>> That said, I think that talking about there being more POC and women in the
>> Hub than in Sudo Room isn't a fair assessment because said assessment
>> doesn't touch on Yar's concerns of specifically *class*/*economic*
>> exclusion. If we are going to talk about diversity and inclusion we need to
>> talk intersectionally. (Not to offend you, Eddan. I think it's important to
>> bring up this point since it hasn't been brought up yet.)
>>
>> HEY!! LOOK! There's this Oakland Wiki article on the Signature Development
>> Group that has questions that need your answering!! <
>> http://oaklandwiki.org/Signature_Development_Group> :D :D
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> sudo-discuss mailing list
>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>
>>
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