Jura Collective Meeting Minutes
Saturday 3 May 2008

Present:
Andrew, Eddie, James, Jason, Jeremy, Jim (second half), Katrina (second half), Luke, Nienke (second half), Sid.

New Members and Trusted Friends
•    The collective unanimously welcomed Luke as a trusted friend, and Katrina as a member to the collective.
•    Jim said he would like to become a member again soon, but not just yet.
•    James said that he was more of a trusted friend than a member at the moment.
•    The collective re-affirmed that everyone is welcome to participate in Jura to the fullest extent that they can – members and friends. The idea of the member/friend structure is to help people be involved in whatever way they can. Most of the time there is no difference between the two, since we operate on consensus. It’s only if there needs to be a formal vote that there is a difference – but that hardly ever happens. Non-members are also welcome to come to meetings, since these are open.

Mortgage, bank and fundraising
•    The mortgage became due in February 2008. After some negotiation, Australian Ethical Investment – our bank – have agreed that we will pay the entire amount remaining on the mortgage by February 2011. The remaining amount is $20,000. Until we pay it off we will continue to pay interest every month of approximately $187 per month.
•    There are also other costs due soon: $2,500 Insurance Bill, $1,500 to re-negotiate the mortgage.
•    WE NEED TO DUE SOME SERIOUS FUNDRAISING!
•    Our current finances are: Jura Books account $2,267, Jura Bills account: ?, ARI: $957, Library account: $1,000, Publishing Account: 1,200.
•    Fundraising ideas included: Films, gigs, getting and espresso machine and starting a café, spoken word, music, Food Not Bombs doing a joint fundraising event.
•    Should the fundraising drive include both the mortgage and the sustainability stuff (solar panels, water tank etc)? Would that make people more likely to contribute? Maybe give people a choice?
•    Perhaps aim to raise $30,000 for both things.
•    Sustainability would also lower costs. At the very least we need to ‘pick the low hanging fruit’ – ie make energy savings on fixing leaks and switching things off at night.
•    We’re confident we can do it – we can raise $30,000!
•    We need someone to do an energy audit.
•    We need a ‘donate now’ button on the website
•    We need a group of people to work out a proper fundraising plan.
>>Andrew, Eddie, Jason, Jeremy, and Luke volunteered to be the fundraising group.

Discussion about the draft plan

•    Everyone spent 10 minutes reading the new draft plan.
•    Discussion about men’s responsibility in relation to cleaning. New wording along the lines of “men need to be more conscious of the need to clean, and everyone needs to do a decent amount of cleaning”. We also need to establish some sort of roster.
•    There was discussion about the comment about the organising space/workers control centre. Suggested new wording: “The room at the back of Jura can be used for any purpose approved by the Jura collective. The name of the room can be anything that serves these purposes – for example the ‘Jura Food Co-op’ or the ‘Workers Control Centre’. The default name for the room (eg for use in general pamphlets about Jura) is the ‘organising space’.
>>Andrew will do a new draft of the plan and send it to the organise list, for final discussion. Last day for discussion is Wednesday the 14th. Then the plan will be sent out in the special announce email on about the 15th.

Stalls

•    Stall planned for Sunday 25th May at the Sydney Writers festival – Katrina, Luke, and maybe Fez.
•    Stall planned for Sunday 18th May at Norton St, outside the screening of Lucio at Palace Cinema – Jeremy and James.
•    Everyone should come to the screening of Lucio (1.45pm Sunday 18th May)! “There are plenty of anarchists in the world. Many have committed robbery or smuggling for their cause. Fewer have discussed strategies with Che Guevara or saved the skin of Eldridge Cleaver - the leader of the Black Panthers. There is only one who has done all that, and also brought to its knees the most powerful bank on the planet by forging travellers cheques, without missing a single day of work in his construction job. He is Lucio Urtubia, from a tiny village in Navarra in North of Spain. Lucio has been protagonist and witness to many of the historic events of the second half of the 20th century. His family was persecuted by Franco's regime, he was on the streets of Paris for the phenomenon of May of '68, he actively supported Castro's revolution, he helped thousands of exiled people by providing false documents to them… But without a doubt, his greatest triumph came in the second half of the seventies. The press called him "the good bandit", or the "Basque Zorro". He managed to swindle 25 million dollars”

Safe keys

•    It’s weird having the keys where they are now – reaching into Mark’s lap isn’t so good etc.
•    >>Sid will find somewhere new to put them. Jeremy will call people to let them know where they are.

Events calendar

•    Use the calendar near the desk to mark down events, bookings, shifts etc.

Working bee

•    Next working bee scheduled for Sat 17th

Shift roster

•    Need to find out about Thursday shifts. Jeremy will talk to Nick.

Safer spaces policy

•    Katrina read the draft safer spaces policy
•    People expressed appreciation to Katrina for writing the draft
•    There was discussion about calling the police, having a grievance committee or a couple of people delegated to be contacts.
>> Trini will re-write the safer spaces policy for discussion at the next collective meeting.

Camp for Climate Action Event

•    People want to do an event that raises awareness about the camp. Perhaps show a film about the camp that happened in the UK. Perhaps a talk. Talk to Food Not Bombs about doing Food.
•    Event will be on Saturday 14th June.

IT

•    How many computers do we want? Do we want the computer on the desk or out the back? Computer literacy needed.
•    People in the collective are keen to let the technical people make these sorts of decisions.
•    Andrew willing to help co-ordinate IT work with Simon and Cam.

Announcements

Black Rose is having a big community meeting to think about the project. All welcome. 1pm, Sunday 11th May.

Next meeting

12pm, Saturday 31st May