Notes Climatica Caravan Meeting
LARC, London 18 Oct 2004
Deciding
We need to decide a.s.a.p. if we will go for the caravan idea or not. But it's very much dependent on information we still need to obtain. We are giving ourselves two weeks to gather as much information as possible about the route, costs, safety etc. We all help gather the necessary information, while tasks in these minutes followed by [*___] have people especially focusing on that.
Deadline for gathering information is SUNDAY OCTOBER 30. Information should be posted on the climacaramba
lists.riseup.net list and/or gathered by the appointed responsible person.
One week later, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7 - UK time 7pm - EUROPE time 8pm, we will have a virtual meeting using a chat programme, to take some necessary decisions. Details about the chat will be posted later.
1. Update Global Conference
Asian PGA networks are more or less sorted regarding preparations and mobilisation in Asia for the conference but need assistance from Europe to raise funds for travel reimbursements from less privileged parts of the world. We had a small discussion concerning the worries that most people in Europe will be focused on the anti-G8 mobilisations and will not have much time to work on the caravan project nor join. Though acknowledging that this could become a potential problem for the conference itself, whether it will happen or not and/or be global or not, we chose to continue the discussion as if we would definitely have a conference to go to and we want to get there with a caravan. Anyway it's a good project idea, wether it's now for this conference or for what ever events we will converge at in the future.
[post-note: now following the discussions on the list that the WTO conference will be delayed and then possibly the PGA conference and the caravan as well, maybe the doubts about IF the conference etc will happen are not so valid anymore. more likely, we will be satisfied to do the G8 thing and then focus on Nepal, with both the caravan and the conference happening after G8.]
2. Route
Exiting Europe through Turkey, the caravan will pass through Iran-Pakistan-India, all this hopefully by train. From Delhi bus to Nepal/Katmandu.
In Europe, the idea is to start in Belgrade as a continuation and kick-off from the European PGA conference. Groups in Bulgaria have already expressed interest for the caravan to stop there for actions, before continuing to Turkey.
Before and around the take-off of the caravan, there can be actions/workshops/debates in countries in the south-eastern region of Europe (or elsewhere, as people wish), from where people will merge with the caravan as it departures.
3. Duration
We want to try to keep the caravan to a maximum of one month, including the days of the conference, as most people cannot take leave or be away for much longer than that. For people who have even less time, there is always the possibility to catch up with and join the caravan along the route.
In order to make most use of the caravan, we will make alternate stops with parts of the caravan. One group will stop somewhere while the rest continues to the next stop, where after the first group will travel to the next stop beyond that etc. From time to time the whole group will get together.
After the conference, we should arrange to take the quickest possible land route back, for those who'd like. In any case we should try to avoid flying ;-) !!
4. Transportation
The idea is to go by train, as far as possible. We need to check how possible it is to access and cross the different countries along the route, with a group of around 50 people.
We will make inquiries at travel agencies for train routes, costs and safety situations/measures [*A-e+K-t] and check Lonely Planet books/web sites/chats [*N-a] for people's experiences of traveling in that region.
We thought of getting bigger organisations to support the project in negotiations for cheap deals with train companies.
We can also get useful information on this from the groups in Asia [*T-u].
5. Preparations
We also need to know the costs of VISA for people from different European countries, as well as health insurances etc [*P-r]. (And vaccinations, which was thought about after the meeting.) VISA information can be obtained from the cultural attache of each country, or maybe at the travel agency [*everyone checks what visa is needed from ones home country and M-l check a bit more in general].
We can also get useful information on this from the groups in Asia [*T-u].
6. Contacts
We need contact with groups in the countries along the route - for action/workshops preparations and other programmes, local logistics and general networking. Together we probably cover a whole range of groups and issues, we just need to network them and get the picture together. Everyone checks their contacts to see if we have a least a basic network to start from and do not need to start from scratch (which could be the factor that determines whether we go for the project or not.) Contacts will be gathered by G-g: <renegadoblueyonder.co.uk>
7. Funding
To not loose time for important fundraising, we need to take a decision as soon as possible whether we are going to go ahead with this project or not. This will be dependent on the practical possibilities to travel with the caravan through the planned countries AND on how much effort and time people think they can and want to put into the project.
At the moment not everyone who attended the meeting were sure on how much they could devote to the project. But there are also all the people who are on the list but couldn't make it to London, who has expressed interest to work on the project. (And now when it looks as if the whole project will be delayed until after G8, maybe more people will have more time and we will make it happen :-) )
As we are running late it might be tight with finding funding. For some funders you need to send your applications WAY in advance. It was proposed that we should send pre-announcement letters to the funders we think we will apply for money from, just to let them know who we are, what we are, get an idea of the project and when we can be expected to submit our funding applications. establish contact! no one volunteered to do this, so it is not happening at the moment.