Category: Meeting Notes

Good afternoon comrades,
The fourth meeting was the first of several of our weekly meetings that we will be having for the duration of the drafting process of our constitution. It was an anemic turnout, but there were many taking notes for those who couldn’t make it and there are still more new members showing up every meeting.

We started off by touching base with Kate and the rest of the gang because they went out onto the riverwalk to look for spots for guerilla gardening. There are a lot of houseless folks who frequent that area, so it would be a good place to plant fruits and veg that are resilient and do well in the New Jersey climate as well as require as little maintenance as possible.

Then we presented a first draft of a mission statement by David. We went around the circle and had people read one of each of the 7 points. I’ll get a copy of the file and send in a follow-up email since David’s currently at work. If you have any ideas to add to the, currently, 7-point program, just drop this email a line.

The bulk of the meeting was then spent discussing the structure of the Central Committee. We passed votes on establishing three positions: two General Secretaries, a two member Treasury, and one Outreach Officer. Lindsay and I were nominated to be general secretaries, Arly was nominated for Outreach Officer. The treasury positions are still open for nomination. Since Arly accepted her nomination and she was unopposed, we did not have to bring it to vote, and she is now officially our Outreach Officer! Congratulations!

We also decided to have a chair and co-chair for each other committee. Nominations for these committees are as follows:
Theory & Education: Matt, David, LiamMutual Aid: Kate, TrinaLabor: Chris, David
The final vote for the night was us agreeing on simple majorities when it came to the appropriation of funds for projects, regardless of what committee is in charge of the project.

What is to become the Mutual Aid Committee is meeting for the first time ever TOMORROW at 25 High Street at 12PM! If you can make it, please do. Next week’s meeting is at the same place, same day, and same time as yesterday’s. There will be a lot of votes proposed, so be sure not to miss it! Also, we had some ideas for a logo specific to the group. Here’s an amalgamation of the different proposals so far:

Red salute,Nishad

Good afternoon comrades,
We had another productive meeting this past Sunday! We were able to establish a few soft requirements for the early stages of the membership process in our constitution. Through popular vote, we were able to establish the following as our requirements for membership:

• An active member is a member of CJS who is granted voting privileges. Votes can be given for yes/no/abstain. Abstention does not count toward final vote counts in establishing either simple or qualified majority.
• Active membership is voted upon at meetings after an observing member meets the following criteria:

1. 50% meeting attendance, or at least once a month(whichever is less).
2. is a member of at least one committee or commission.

Additionally, it is important for prospective active members to strive to be ideologically consistent and be vouched for by an existing active member. The ideological consistency bit is something that will ultimately become the work of our Committee of Theory and Education, one of the five Committees that we voted upon.

The five core committees that we voted upon as part of the body that makes up our organization are as follows:

• Central Committee(does the administrative work of handling emails, social media and group paperwork)
• Labor Relations(the primary contact for unionizing workplaces)
• Theory and Education(does the work of contextualizing Marxist ideology for popular consumption – both to spread awareness of radical leftist politics and to guide our work as a group)
• Mutual Aid(does the work of collectivizing our talents and resources to make change in the society we live in so that it may one day look like the society we want to live in)
• Outreach(pushes initiatives to recruit new members)

We established that there will be a few commissions that are established temporarily to accomplish a goal that is time sensitive and will not act as a permanent structure within the body of the group. An example of this would be to set up a commission to aid in the fight for the Lincoln Annex School.

Finally, we decided to have weekly meetings until we are able to finish the drafting process of our constitution. Therefore, our next meeting is this upcoming Sunday, July 19th. We will be discussing the roles of each committee with a primary focus on the Central Committee, and we will be voting on leadership and other roles for the committees as well.

Please write down any ideas you might have and bring them to the meeting! It’s important that one writes everything down ahead of time in order to organize one’s thoughts before presenting them. We are trying to accomplish something monumental and we only have so much time to do it, so it’s important that we make the best possible use of that time.

Once again, the meeting is Sunday, July 19th at 8PM. Same place as last time. Also remember to bring items for the Food Pantry!

Red salute,Nishad.

Good afternoon comrades!

I think we can all agree that we had a pretty productive meeting on Sunday! We discussed capitalism, we set out an agenda for the next meeting, we discussed the next steps in our aiding the fight for the Lincoln Annex School, and we set up our official CJS food pantry! 
For the next meeting, Sunday July 12th at 8PM, we are going to be discussing what our official constitution will consist of. Please come with notes and ideas about how we should organize the group moving forward. This is going to be a gradual process, so don’t expect that we’ll just be able to share ideas, vote, and then call it a day. This is going to be an important guiding document, so this should be a gradual process with lots of deliberation.

Additionally, we are going to be talking about how we can throw our weight behind and support the fight for the Lincoln Annex School. Something we can do in the immediate future is attend the rally they’re having at the school TOMORROW (July 1st) at 4PM! Address is 165 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ. There we can meet with some of the organizers of the rally and members of the 5th and 6th Ward Neighborhood Association.

Finally, we donated a bunch of stuff to the CJS Food Pantry. We have to pool our resources together in order to make our projects work – and this is just one of the first steps we are taking in order to do so. Our third congress and beginning of the constitution drafting process will also serve as a food drive – so please bring canned and/or non-perishables to contribute. We’ve even got some appliances for people that need them. This isn’t just for needy people, but also for members who fall on hard times, as well as to eventually exist as assistance for workers during the general strike.

So here’s a rough agenda:TOMORROW 7/1 – Attend Lincoln Annex School Rally at 4PM
SUNDAY 7/12 – Meeting: Draft constitution, Food drive, and discussing future actions to aid the movement to save the Lincoln Annex School
I can’t wait to see your faces again!

Red salute,
Nishad