Present: [names]
Randy is in the UK until Sunday. The comments written after his name in these minutes were added by him before the meeting.

Agenda items:

• 1. Steering Committee would like to assist with WCN projects
• 2. Polden-Puckham grant for Autoholics Anonymous
• 3. Justin Hyatt as ICC staff member
• 4. Use of carfree_network list for project development

Announcements

AGENDA

1. Steering Committee would like to assist with WCN projects

Randy: The Steering Committee would like to spend less time on procedural/bureaucratic issues and more time actually steering the network. As they see it, the best way to do this is to get involved in WCN projects and help steer them along. Do you have ideas for this? I would suggest that their energy is needed especially with the decentralised 'projects under development' initiated or revived in Tabor: the Carfree Area Pilot Project, the Carfree Indymedia site, the CarReality.tv site and the Carfree Ecovillage Project. Another possibility is boosting subscriptions to the bulletin (especially the non-English versions) and then trying to restart the Spanish and Italian versions. Any other thoughts?

2. Polden-Puckham grant for Autoholics Anonymous

Christi: Good news! We just heard that the Polden-Puckham Charitable Trust (based in the UK) will be granting us 5,000 GBP for Autoholics Anonymous. We are now waiting for our fiscal sponsor, Transport 2000, to draw up a contract with us. The original budget applied for was for 9,300 GBP - mostly for the project coordinator's and other contractors' wages (outreach, media, etc.), but also some for advertising. In the grant acceptance letter, Polden-Puckham just says the funds must be used "for the project described."

Randy: I'd like to propose that I use that for working on Autoholics in the UK for the equivalent of full-time for five months, starting April 1. If we receive the grant for the Mobycon/Carfree Communities project, which I've proposed to work on, the start date would be no sooner than July and so this would not be greatly affected.

3. Justin Hyatt as ICC staff member

Randy: If we're using the Polden-Puckham grant to cover my wages from April-August+ 2007, then I propose that we hire Justin Hyatt with the money that I would have otherwise received from WCN core funds. (After March, I do not need any core wages in 2007.) Again, we should let him know ASAP about the possibility of him working with us. We prioritised him as our first choice for new staff member at an earlier meeting. I'd be happy to work with someone on a job description/list of roles for him. If we can accept him at this meeting, I would propose deciding a specific start date as well. We will need to have a Steering Committee member to replace me on April 1, so I would suggest that date.

4. Use of carfree_network list for project development

Randy: People have been noticing that discussion on the carfree_network list tends to go quiet during much of the year, and gets active whenever the decision of where to host the next conference is brought up. The list is supposed to be used for developing and seeking input on WCN projects (not just the conference). So I would strongly suggest that project coordinators make active use of the list. For example, we could be using it to seek themes for future issues of Carbusters, etc. To subscribe to the list, see www.worldcarfree.net/listservs/ (the list guidelines are there too). Could everyone in the office subscribe to the list? Any other thoughts on this?