At the last European conference of the PGA, we decided to postpone some decisions on organisational questions of PGA until the wintermeeting. One of the problems was that we did not find a new convenor (the group that organises the next conference)

The wintermeeting took place on the weekend of the 7th and the 8th of March, in the social centre 'les tanneries' in Dijon, France. This is a short overview of the decisions that were taken, if you are hungry for more take a look at the report that was made from the notes (see attachment).

New convenor

The DSM (another world is possible) coalition from (ex) yugoslavia proposed to be the new convenor and was accepted. They said they will need lots of help, infopoints should take on some of the work of calling out and networking for the conference.

DSM will organise a seminar in June on privatisation, which will be a test-case to see whether they are up for organising a conference. Groups active in PGA are invited to participate in the organisation of the seminar. We will also have our first preparation meeting of the conference just after the seminar. DSM says they cannot organise the conference before the autumn, which basically means it will not take place until April next year, when the temperatures begin to rise again.

Gender and PGA

There is a lack of importance given to the gender issue in the PGA network. In order to combat that it was decided to put more effort into it. Decisions include having one day of the next conference reserved for Gender, invite groups working on gender, have special spaces at the next conference where gender can be discussed and make a flyer making people aware of gendered social interaction. There is a gender working group coordinating some of the preparations, it can be contacted through the process list: <pga_europe_processsquat.net>

infopoints

The global action archive (www.globalaction.tk) is going to be the place where all infopoints can publish and share their materials, calls, ideas etc. Infopoints can get more info at: agpweblists.riseup.net. Since the convenors are not very experienced the infopoints will take over the role of networking, sending out calls and maintenance of email lists and websites.

Webteam

They maintain www.agp.org and www.globalaction.tk (both php), and manage the caravan99 email list. However they need lots of help, if you are interested you can contact them at: agpweblists.riseup.net They will be present at the skill sharing meeting in July in Esturias.

Process points

What was left undecided at the last conference in Leiden because of lack of time, most of the points concerned the support group. We decided that all the infopoints that want to do supportwork should be seen as the support group, now called the european process group. They will have an open meeting next conference and a skill sharing meeting before. We decided to delete all the other support group points that were left.

Global process

There was an update from the PGA in other regions and we decided it would be good to have periodical updates on the email lists on this. The European group working on global process will have an open meeting at the next conference.

The Escanda proposal

The Escanda collective has sent a proposal to organise two different gatherings in Esturias.

1. a meeting with all the PGA convenors around the globe 1-15 of July
2. a skill sharing meeting, as an intro to support work 4-6 and 11-13 of July.

We decided at the wintermeeting it was not the right time to have a proposal on a global convenors meeting, more discussion needs to be had on how to advance the global process.

G8 Evian

A small report back on how it is going with the organisation of the anti-G8 protests in Evian from 1-3 of june.