To: imc-uk-network, imc-leeds, imc-york

Dear UK Indymedia Network,

Here at IMC Leeds/Bradford we’ve been finding that some people get confused by the existence of IMC York. They get confused because for people living or active in the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire (as well as County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland) York is geographically closer to them, but they can see from http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ that the site isn’t in regular use.

We’ve asked around and it seems that there isn’t an active collective in York at the moment. We’ve been talking about how we can improve things in a way that best serves activists and communities working for radical social change in our region. These discussions are still ongoing, but we have come up with some initial proposals on which we have consensus within our collective, and haven’t heard objections to from elsewhere. We feel ready to propose these formally to the UK Network, so as to allow other people active in the UK to comment. We’re doing this because we would like to achieve consensus on the changes within the wider UK network, although we also expect people from outside of our region to respect our desire for autonomy.

• PROPOSAL 1: THAT ALL SUBSCRIBERS TO MAILING LIST IMC-YORK ARE SENT A MESSAGE SUMMARISING THESE CHANGES AND INVITING THEM TO JOIN LIST IMC-LEEDS, THEN IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN IMC-YORK AND IMC-YORK-CONTACT

• PROPOSAL 2: THAT THE PUBLISH FUNCTION ON SITE http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ IS DISABLED

• PROPOSAL 3: THAT SITE http://york.indymedia.org.uk/ DISPLAYS A MESSAGE INVITING POSTERS TO USE SITE http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/ INSTEAD

• PROPOSAL 4: THAT SITE http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/ DISPLAYS A MESSAGE WELCOMING FORMER USERS OF SITE http://york.indymedia.org.uk/

• PROPOSAL 5: THAT THE IMC-LEEDS COLLECTIVE UNDERTAKES TO HOLD AT LEAST ALTERNATE MEETINGS IN AREAS OUTSIDE OF LEEDS, BUT CLOSER TO LEEDS THAN ANY OTHER IMC, TO ACTIVELY INVITE PARTICIPATION AND STIMULATE MEDIA ACTIVISM IN THE REGION

In light of of our diversification, and being the closest IMC for Newcastle, Durham, Scarborough and of course York; we will be considering changing the name of our collective in the future to better represent the area that we will provide coverage for. Possibilities that have been discussed include: IMC Yorkshire, IMC North-East and IMC Northern. This is because the region using our IMC has several large urban population centres, smaller towns and rural (former mining) communities. Naming the IMC after the city where most of our collective live (Leeds and Bradford) doesn’t reflect the breadth of posters to the site or our aspiration to include and work with them more actively.

In the event of there being substantial opposition to any of these proposals, no action will be taken until the next IMC Leeds meeting. If no changes or only minor amendments are suggested, we will wait 7 days from the date of this email then check for consensus over a 24-hour period on the imc-leeds (NOT imc-uk-network) mailing list then hopefully enact the changes.

In Solidarity,

IMC Leeds/Bradford