Stop the Database State

Volunteers Needed

We need someone to contact more faith groups, local community groups etc. and invite ourselves to come and talk to them about the Database State and its implications.

We haven't sent out press releases for a while. Someone who has the time to write press releases, or to adapt releases sent by other groups, would really help raise the group's media profile. The NO2ID Campaigner's Handbook has some very useful tips on writing press releases, and you can see previous Manchester NO2ID releases.

Summary Of Actions

Dave to find out whether / when the Alternative Fresher's Fair is happening.

Gwyneth to sign student society paperwork.

Dave to provide Matt with sample constitution; Matt to set up bank account.

Steve to organise a broad-spectrum anti-ID meeting as part of the Convention of the Left during the Labour Party Conference in September.

Dave to see whether there's any life on the national Defy-ID mailing list.

Dave to organise a public meeting on ID cards during the Labour Party Conference, invite local MP John Leech and Phil Booth / Guy Herbert.

Dave to design and print off 50 copies of an A5 leaflet / poster for our next meeting, for people to distribute.

Dave to contact Matty Mitford about a meeting in Liverpool.

Barry to organise Dave speaking at Red Friday in Bolton, and at the Northern Anarchist Network in Burnley.

Dave to follow up on the Preston list and try to get a group started there.

Dave to contact Councillor Joe O'Neill.

Tom to finalise arrangements for the "Freed Up" Poetry Night.

Dave to investigate a presence at the Mega Mela.

Tom to investigate a presence at another Platt Fields festival.

Tom to chase Kevin about the gig organisation.

Dave to discuss student loans and contacting banks with the group co-ordinators' list.

Request For Assistance

May's minutes didn't get written up, due to a lack of time on Dave's part. Some people are volunteering to take on individual responsibilities which is great, but we could always use a little more help - if you can spare even a couple of hours a month, it'd be very useful for the group.

In particular, we need more people who are prepared to help out with preparing and sending press releases.

Recent Events

The Anarchist Bookfair was popular - we took many signatures and ran out of leaflets. Thanks in particular to Helen and Eddy for sorting out the stall, and also to Tom, Matt and Barry for helping.

Our monthly stall attracted lots of interest too. Thanks to Matt and Helen for organising the stall, and to Eileen and Barry for helping. Apologies if any names were missed!

Student Society

The paperwork for Students Against ID has been completed and two of three signatories secured; the paperwork should be in by the end of the week. We should still be able to organise a stall for Fresher's Fair in September.

Fresher's Fair 2008 takes place on Monday 22nd - Wednesday 24th September, from 10am to 4pm. This overlaps with the Labour Party Conference (20th-24th), which means that we can immediately promote our events around the Party Conference to the students, and invite them to come and join us. There may also be an Alternative Fresher's Fair, either during Fresher's Fair itself or shortly afterwards, which we should make the effort to attend.

It was suggested that, like last year's Amnesty screening, we should organise a screening of Taking Liberties early in the academic year.

Bank Account

Dave chased up Matty Mitford (NO2ID's local group co-ordinator) who has been working on a sample constitution for local NO2ID groups to set up bank accounts. This will be ready Real Soon Now.

Labour Party Conference

The Convention of the Left is running concurrently with the Labour Party Conference in September. Steve Durrant is giving a talk on civil liberties during the Convention. The group considered having a meeting where interested anti-ID campaigners could meet and network and plan. This would be much like the meeting at the Basement in September 2006 where NO2ID and Defy-ID groups and other campaigners met to share information and tactics. Steve has agreed to look into including this in the schedule.

We also discussed having a public meeting during the Labour Party Conference. Dave will look into this and liase with NO2ID HQ.

Broadening The Campaign

We discussed ways to make Manchester NO2ID more widespread and get a wider range of people involved in the campaign.

Faith groups were mentioned as one route; Dave pointed out that for a long time our flyers encouraged people to invite us to talk to their church, mosque, social group etc. and that we had no response. Steve suggested we be more proactive in contacting these groups. Dave mentioned that Rachel had agreed to contact the WI some time ago and wasn't sure how far this had got. Clare had offered to contact local union branches but we had decided to hold off on this until after our bank account was sorted.

It was suggested that we hold more events, over a wider area. Dave questioned whether we had the resources to do this and maintain our Manchester presence, since the regularity of our Manchester stalls seems to give us extra credibility. However, if people are prepared to take on the responsibility of organising and supporting extra events, it would doubtless be valuable for us.

Steve suggested putting up A5 posters advertising our meetings around town.Venues suggested included the Buddhist Centre, the Unicorn grocery, Affleck's, the Cornerhouse, the 8th Day, the Student's Unions, the Earth Cafe, Nexus, etc. Dave will print off 50 A5 posters for the next meeting, and people can take a handful and distribute them.

Dave will also print off copies of the latest NO2ID newsletter to distribute at our stalls and meetings.

Local Groups News

The Liverpool group is still quiet and has not yet organised any meetings or events. Dave will be on Liverpool local radio soon, and will talk to local groups co-ordinator Matty Mitford and the Liverpool people about organising a meeting to plug on-air.

Dave needs to chase up his visit a few months back to Preston - it seemed then that people were interested in the campaign but that nobody wanted to take on the mantle of co-ordinator.

Barry suggested that a group might be started in Bolton, and that Dave talk at the local socialist group's "Red Friday" meetings. Barry to organise this. Barry also invited Dave to speak to the Northern Anarchist Network in Burnley.

Councillor Joe O'Neill wants to campaign on civil liberties in Salford; Dave to contact him.

Lancaster are looking for a new co-ordinator. St. Helens has been quiet.

Upcoming Events

We have many events ahead of our next meeting. [These have already been posted at http://manchester.no2id.net - Dave]

Tom mentioned an upcoming festival in Platt Fields featuring Mr Scruff, I Am Kloot and other bands, and reminded Dave of the Mega Mela.