CPSL Meeting Types – Definitions & Speaking Rights

I'm aware that this may provoke some controversy, but I think we need to begin considering how to best manage our time together in meetings that our CPSL sets up. Although in my experience so far, we have only held Open General Membership Meetings (OGMMs), I think we need to define the different categories of meetings we are likely to convene in the short to medium term, and consider how we conduct those meetings so that everybody who attends knows what to expect. So here's my first stab at doing so: three categories, ranged in the order of most public to most private.

Open Public Gathering – OPG – on a specific topic, eg: "Military Dictatorships – What Good is Solidarity?"
> Attendees – Open to all residents of Second Life interested in discussing the subject at hand.
> Frequency – Indeterminate; a matter on which we need to decide.
> Publicity – Announced by a post on Second Shift, listed in SL Events, promoted by comrades through groups to which they belong, via Group Notice and Group IMs, and any other channels we feel are appropriate.
> Agenda – Determined in advance; the title of the OPG will be part of the advanced publicity.
> Speakers – Introductory speakers determined in advance; in the following discussion, everybody gets an equal right to talk uninterrupted for an equal amount of time, provided we all stick to addressing the issue at hand; we set the boundaries of the discussion in advance, and reserve the right to re-focus a speaker who wanders too far outside those boundaries, but we rely on there being sufficient communists willing to speak to fly the red flag for our communist ideas, rather than get 'the fix' in by a biased chairperson choosing to favour 'our comrades' over 'that other lot'.
> Identification – Before we arrive at the meeting, we make our current active group either Communist Party or Communist Group, so the appropriate group title shows above our names.
> Introduction – As the meeting begins, we remind everyone of our OPG protocol, and ask them to choose to activate a group to which they belong, and with which they'd like others at the gathering to associate them.


Open General Membership Meeting – OGMM
> Attendees – Open to the membership of the Communist Party and the Communist Group, with other folks welcome to attend.
> Frequency – Currently happening weekly at 11:00am PST (19:00 GMT) in the CPSL HQ Garden Campfire Gathering Area.
> Publicity – Announced by a post on Second Shift, with comrades encouraged to use the announcement post as a 'Sign Up Sheet' – you register that you WILL be attending the forthcoming meeting by adding a comment to that post (or giving your apologies for non-attendance in advance, so we know you want to come but won't be able to make it).
> Agenda – No rigidly defined agenda, unless agreed in advance at a previous OGMM.
> Speakers – Speaking rights for folks who arrive as members of the of the Communist Party or the Communist Group; other folks welcome to listen in as observers, and to join in any post-meeting discussions.
> Identification – Before we arrive at the meeting, we make our current active group either Communist Party or Communist Group, so the appropriate group title shows above our names.
> Introduction – As the meeting begins, we remind everyone of our OGMM protocol.


Closed Internal Party Meeting – CIPM
> Attendees – Open only to members of the Communist Party; this would be the only category of meeting where we would consider using the technical restrictions of land access permissions to only permit Communist Party members to attend.
> Frequency – Indeterminate; a matter on which we need to decide.
> Publicity – Announced by Group Notice to the Communist Party.
> Agenda – Indeterminate; a matter on which we need to decide.
> Speakers – All Communist Party members present may speak.
> Identification – Before we arrive at the meeting, we make our current active group the Communist Party.
> Introduction – As the meeting begins, we remind everyone of our CIPM protocol.


This is my no means an attempt to 'set in stone' a procedural dogma. Rather it's the starting point for a discussion about this issue, on which I hope we'll hear plenty of opinions, and arrive at some point at an initial agreement on how we conduct our meetings. And since such agreements are not procedural dogma either, I hope and trust we will revisit this issue and revise our agreements in the light of our collective experience, as and when necessary. Such agreements are not of indefinite duration, but a flexible democratic process that we can change over time to best suit the needs of our Party.

So if you're outraged at such formalism, disagree with some or all of the above, moved to join in this discussion or determined to express yourself for any other reason, then do add a comment below this post.

In Solidarity,

Dalinian Bing