mag net annual report 2011

2011 MAG-Net ANNUAL ANCHORS MEETING REPORT

The Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), a project of the Center for Media Justice, is a local-to-local advocacy network of grassroots community organizations working together for media change to end poverty, elimi-nate racism, and ensure human rights. With over 100 member groups nationwide, regional chapters, an online action network, a media justice learning community, a strategic action fund, and collaborative campaigns, MAG-Net is advancing an exciting new vision for media justice.

MAG-Net’s media justice, policy, and campaign priorities are guided by the Leadership Team, which is cur-rently made up of the nine regional anchor organization representing the MAG-Net chapters in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Illinois, and Washington. Our regional anchor organizations each maintain a base of members and/or volunteers in their regions who have committed to building an alliance for media justice. They govern the network through participation in working groups, leadership calls, chapter convenings, organizing and advocacy campaigns, membership recruitment, and an annual gathering. They provide leadership for members of their regional MAG-Net chapters.

MAG-NetTHE MEDIA ACTION GRASSROOTS NETWORK

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Hosted by regional anchor Main Street Project, MAG-Net’s Leadership Team held its fourth annual meeting on June 13-15, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The purpose of the convening was to 1) evaluate the network’s activities from July 2010 through June 2011, 2) develop and approve a network strategy for July 2011 through June 2012, and 3) continue to develop shared cam-paign goals, strategies, and tactics.

Leadership Team Meeting Participants (Anchor Representatives of Regional Chapters)

Amber Cortes, Reclaim the Media (Seattle, Washington)Andrea Quijada, Media Literacy Project (Albuquerque, New Mexico) Bryan Mercer and Mica Root, Media Mobilizing Project (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)Carlos Pareja, People’s Production House (New York, New York)DeAnne Cuellar and Leticia Medina, Media Justice League (San Antonio, Texas)Nick Szuberla, Thousand Kites (Whitesburg, Kentucky)Nora Ferrell and Diana Pando, Community Media Workshop (Chicago, Illinois) Steven Renderos and Danielle Mkali, Main Street Project (Minneapolis, Minnesota)Tracy Rosenberg, Media Alliance (Oakland, California)

Center for Media Justice Staff Participantsamalia deloney, Media Justice Field DirectorBetty Yu, National Organizer/MAG-Net CoordinatorKarlos Gauna Schmieder, Director of Communications ProgramsOshen Turman, Program Assistant

Summary of Meeting OutcomesStrengthened relationships and connections amongst anchors Evaluated activities of prior fiscal year and assessed strengths and weaknesses of the networkShared understanding of the network strategy and policy priorities for the coming yearVoted to implement the 2011-2012 MAG-Net Program Plan and Policy Priorities, execute local-to-national campaigns, and make grants from the Strategic Action and Research Fund Identified new local-to-national campaign goals, targets, key constituencies, and collaborative strategies and tacticsDocumented feedback and recommendations for CMJ’s network management and coordination workDeepened understanding of alliance building, cultural organizing, and chapter development principles

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2011 ANNUAL ANCHORS MEETING REPORT

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Approved 2011-2012 MAG-Net Program Plan and Policy Priorities Betty Yu, CMJ’s National Organizer, presented the 2011-2012 MAG-Net Program Proposal for network policy, alliance building, and resource priorities; membership recruitment and services; and network structure and gover-nance. The Leadership Team approved the following:

1. Implement a Membership Dues Fee StructureIn 2010, the Leadership Team approved a three-year plan to institute annual membership dues of $50 to $150. CMJ will provide the administrative and operational infrastructure to establish an annual membership program that will include collecting fees, setting up an online payment system, distributing renewal notices, and tracking dues paid. In September 2011, the National Organizer will announce the membership dues initiative to the entire MAG-Net membership. The membership dues will be as follows: Regional Anchor Members, $100; Regional Members, $75; General Members, $50. By the end of January 2012, all members will be dues-paying. Groups that are experiencing economic hardship can pay a sliding-scale fee subject to the approval of the Leadership Team. All dues will go back into the Strategic Action and Research Fund (SARF), a micro-grant program that supports implementation of specific local tactics, the production of cultural products, community-driven research projects, and local actions that advance the goals of a MAG-Net’s joint national campaigns. All MAG-Net members are eligible for a SARF grant.

2. Governance Structure for the 2011 Strategic Action and Research Fund In 2010, CMJ launched a Strategic Action and Research Fund to distribute rapid-response micro-grants to support timely and strategic actions, media and cultural products, and research projects that advance MAG-Net’s policy priorities. All MAG-Net members that have paid dues are eligible and encouraged to apply. The fund will prioritize projects and activities that target and are led by communities of color, working-class communities, and rural com-munities. CMJ has contributed seed funds of $10,000. Financial reports will be generated twice a year, for review by the Leadership Team. The proposed governance structure includes the following components:

Calls to Action/Requests for Proposals (RFPs) can be proposed by any MAG-Net Anchor, or by the Center for Media Justice, and approved by a quorum of the Leadership Team via email no more than 72 hours following receipt.

RFPs will be sent by CMJ to all MAG-Net members via the Unidos listserv; the first 20 proposals received will be eligible for review.

A panel made up of representatives from three policy partner organizations will review the proposals and make funding recommendations; CMJ will oversee the selection process.

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3. Policy Priorities for Fiscal Year 2011-2012MAG-Net’s proposed goals over the next 12 months are to influence state and local policy on five topics, with the goal of ensuring fair representation in media content and advancing a shared national agenda to:

through reform of the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline and Linkup programs at the state level, as well as informing the public about state eligibility requirements.

through state and local mapping, policy reforms, a dedicated local-to-local strategy to defeat the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and applied mechanisms at the state and local levels for wireless consumers to issue complaints.

through protecting the development of munici-pal systems and other alternatives that provide broadband to residents in rural communities and other areas where ISPs are limited.

through the implementation of a federal cap, the opening of an FCC docket, and a local-to-local strategy to win institutional reforms.

through partnership with Prometheus Radio Project on its Radio Summer campaign.

4. Launch Two-Year Local-to-Local Campaigns

In December 2010, the FCC passed rules that provide only the most minimal consumer protections to wireless users. These new rules created a segregated Internet, where wireless users are left with blocked and tiered ser-vice. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, Latin@s and blacks are more likely to access the web via their cell phones, where the content and the functionality of the Internet is limited.

MAG-Net will continue to build on our organizing work around these key phone, mobile device, and broadband policy issues: 1) opposing the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, 2) net neutrality protections (on both wired and wireless devices), 3) broadband access and adoption, and 4) Universal Service Fund reforms.

Lead Organizations:The Media Literacy Project (MLP) and People’s Production House (PPH) will be leading this campaign effort, with technical support from the Center for Media Justice.

Key Goals for 2011-2012:

Develop and distribute cell phone literacy toolkit/curriculum for MAG-Net members and other justice sectors to use in their organizing and education activities for wireless rights.

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Execute coordinated and timely joint strategic and opportunity-based actions that employ shared communica-tions frameworks to strengthen the communications impact of MAG-Net groups.

Collect stories from community members who are most affected by current policies.

Key Long-Term Goals:

Use local communities as laboratories for local economic models that demonstrate to government that com-munities have solutions.

Create best practices for effective state-based campaigns for cell phone and wireless protections that can be replicated in different states.

Encourage groups organizing around wireless/mobile protections to adopt the racial and economic justice-centered framework and policy demands of MAG-Net.

At a time when prisoners are increasingly housed in facilities hundreds of miles away from their home communi-ties, for many, telephones become the only way to stay in touch. Typically, states receive kickbacks (known as “commissions”) from the phone companies who receive contracts to provide phone service in prisons; this creates a clear conflict of interest and a situation in which there is no incentive to seek competitive bids. Unsurprisingly, the costs of such calls are well above market rates, often $6 per minute or more.

Lead Organizations:Thousand Kites will be leading this campaign effort with technical support from the Center for Media Justice. Thousand Kites has used performance, web, video, and radio to open a public space for currently and formerly incarcerated people, corrections officials, grassroots activists, and ordinary citizens to communicate and organize around the U.S. criminal justice system. Working together, we believe our organizations can leverage both our strengths and our differences to increase the impact of strategic communications and narrative organizing in the criminal justice and media justice sectors, as well as strengthen the collaboration between these two sectors for greater impact. Together we will be producing curriculum and action toolkits for the criminal justice and media justice sectors in narrative organizing, media production, and strategic communications.

Key Long-Term Goals:

Build a powerful local-to-national, cross-sector campaign to end the exorbitant phone charges on calls from prisons.

Develop an effective organized body of criminal justice, com-munications, and media justice leaders with shared vision and values to shape policies that protect the consumer and communication rights of prisoners and their families.

Encourage groups organizing in prison justice to adopt the framework and policy demands of media justice.

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CMJ will provide organizing plans, support fundraising efforts, create and distribute campaign materials and action kits, coor-dinate national presswork and press materials, and create opportunities for national action in support of the two local-to-local campaigns described. Lead organizations will construct web-based branding materials, build and engage a base, and determine and implement campaign strategy and related tactics. Funds raised for each campaign will go directly to each lead orga-nization, and not to CMJ.

5. Establish Working CommitteesAs indicated in our network governance structure (passed by the Leadership Team in January 2011), working committees may be formed out of the Leadership Team body. These committees

must consist of representatives from at least two anchor organizations, and are open for all MAG-Net members to join. Proposed working committee topics include earned income strategies and fundraising, membership recruit-ment, and campaigns.

The Leadership Team will establish at least three working committees coming out of the 2011 Annual MAG-Net meeting. This is a great opportunity to engage others in MAG-Net and our local organizing and campaign efforts. These committees and their members can change every year based on network priorities. Once approved, this will become part of the governance structure.

6. Implement Earned Income StrategiesThe Leadership Team will create and implement a shared earned income strategy, including development of a members-only skills and services online directory that lives on the MAG-Net site, peer exchanges to share best practices in earned income, and a working group that will devise and offer proposals to the Leadership Team on collaborative opportunities for earned income.

7. Implement Grassroots Fundraising StrategiesThe fundraising committee will create and implement a plan—subject to Leadership Team approval—to raise $5,000 in 2011-2012 via grassroots fundraising strategies including, but not limited to, online pitches sent by all MAG-Net anchors once a year, house parties, and cultural events.

8. Expand Network Scope and Effectiveness

This year, MAG-Net will establish three new chapters, located in Los Angeles, Boston, and a third location to be determined by the Leadership Team. The Network Coordinator will work with each newly established chapter to build out membership and engage new members in network activities.

MAG-Net will create new on- and off-line marketing materials, including an improved website with a hero feature, “meet the network” web profiles, and improved web design.

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MAG-Net will improve the infrastructure for collaborative project management and network communications. Innovations will include the use of Facebook to profile the work of members, the development of more timely and relevant content on MAG-Net website, improved listserv management, and an online newsletter to feature the work of leading MAG-Net members.

In the Coming MonthsIn the first quarter of 2011-2012, the Leadership Team will be finalizing the network’s local-to-national campaign strategy, timeline, and plans; kicking off working committee meetings; engaging in network-wide recruitment strat-egies and membership drives; and spearheading grassroots fundraising activities. Specific activities include:

Launching the fundraising working committee that will be open to all members to join starting in February 2012.

Activating our membership drive working group, which has tentatively set January 2012 as a membership drive month.

The launch of the Prison Phone Justice campaign in February 2012.

Learning community activities including dialogues, conversations, telestrategy calls and webinars on the Mobile Justice campaign, the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and wireless protection issues.

Development of a Los Angeles chapter, with a kickoff gathering planned for November.

mag net annual report 2011

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