Andrew Seeder

For better or worse, meetings are a part of life. In the workplace, meetings can be inefficient, boring, and even tyrannical. But they don't have to be so bad. As part of project management, meetings are a good way to organize collaborative work, produce new ideas and concrete deliverables with clear next steps, and come to consensus. This workshop covers simple tools for effective meeting design and facilitation, such as group norms, agendas, time keeping, note taking, and discussion techniques to keep people on track. The workshop will have a question and answer session at the end.

https://wiki.hope.net/index.php?title=Effective\_Meeting\_Design\_workshop

This strategic action session follows-up from last year's "Community Technology for Solidarity Economies." This year's session is for anyone interested in activism through non-violent direct actions, such as boycotts, protests, advocacy, and political organizing. We explore how free software technology can empower organizers, with special emphasis on economic democracy initiatives. The session includes a presentation about which technology supports and which technology hinders direct actions. The session ends with an open conversation about how else organizers and technologists might support each other in the future. Please come ready to share ideas and best practices.

This strategic action session is for anyone interested in the solidarity economy and asset-based community development. We'll compare notes, network, and outline the ecosystem of services needed to support the operations of community land trusts, worker co-operatives, sharing networks, and other democratic economic initiatives. We'll also explore how free software technology can help activists organize and manage investments, alliances, and information resources. Hopefully both hardware and software solutions will be discussed. I'll facilitate the session and am open to the "unconference" style, where the content of the session is decided by whoever shows up. I'll prepare an overview of the topic, with an emphasis on designing tactics for people without a background in technology. Security, control, and sustainability will be core concepts.