Unity–Struggle–Unity

THE PEOPLE NEED A PRESS!

Editorial Board Minutes 8-28-23

Call to Order

An Editorial meeting of the Board of Unity–Struggle–Unity was held at 8-28-23 on Teams. It began at 1:47 PM EST and was presided over by J. Kats with the same as secretary.

Reports

A report on Serj’s contact w/ Mazal regarding Errors was delivered by Cde. Serj.

Serj reached out to Mazal and reported that Mazal seemed like she was doing well. Did not ask about Errors because they were more interested in making sure Mazal was doing OK.

A report on who is still involved with the CPUSA MAP project was delivered by Cde. Serj. Still not delivered. 

A report on Serj’s creation of a document to track analytical positions was delivered by Cde. Serj. Still not delivered.

A report on printing in Canada was delivered by Cde. Pariah.

There is a company that has been identified. Little Rock Printing in Calgary. Pariah will order a batch of 50 or 100 on newspaper paper. J. Kats to send the template to Pariah. Pariah will go down tomorrow to check — it sounds like this will be in broadsheet size. Pariah to check with Canadian comrades, including Chunka Luta.

Attendees

Voting members in attendance: J. Kats, Pariah

Guests in attendance: Rabbit (after 1:50)

Members not in attendance: Serj

Proposed Agenda

  • OLD BUSINESS
  • NEW BUSINESS
    • Requiring two different editors to review an article
    • Weekly editorial direction – Roundtable
      • Rikers Island (Kats – writing complete)
      • Maui fires (Rachel)
      • Canada fires (Pariah)
      • Rent control (Rabbit)
      • Rootin’ Tootin’ Astroturfin’ (Serj) – status?
    • Editorial shortfalls
      • Vinz, Rabbit
    • Art requests for Andi
    • Update on print edition appearance

Running minutes

  • OLD BUSINESS
    • Bylaws simplification
      • J. Kats asks if Pariah had a chance to read the full simplification plan
      • Yes
      • We have already approved up to Article III, starting w/ Article IV
      • Can vote next time Serj is available
    • Training program
      • J. Kats a handbook for laying out newspapers and downloaded style books; Will look through Strunk and White and a journalist handbook
      • People mostly need to be trained to write concisely and the Clarion needs to adopt a kind of style and voice
      • Tabled
    • J. Kats strikes printing item with no objection
    • Test Reader role
      • Tabled
    • Document for analytical points
      • Serj wanted to have an in-depth discussion about the analytical points but is not present
      • Tabled
  • NEW BUSINESS
    • Requiring two different editors to review
      • J. Kats thinks that two editors who are not the editor who wrote the article
      • Pariah agrees, says the copy editor and executive editor should be different people
      • This is to maximize eyes
      • Soff had been copy-editing. Need to check
    • Weekly roundtable
      • Pariah to review Rikers Island today or tomorrow
      • J. Kats checked in with Rachel about Maui Fires – about halfway done, coming together
      • Canada Fires – that will be done this week
      • Pariah has book review of Night Vision
      • Rabbit – Rent Control – basically done, will finish it today; Pariah will review
      • Rootin’ Tootin’ Astroturfin’ – Serj not present
      • J. Kats will look for something current
    • Editorial Shortfalls
      • Vinz’s article
        • Pariah: I certainly under-edited
        • Comments were left asking for more rigor and revision but after Vinz edited it a second time, didn’t push further into developing the concepts in a more clear way
        • J. Kats also edits this way
        • Pariah has felt pressure to be posting regularly
        • J. Kats: Don’t think that we can expect that this will be error-free; don’t think it will be theoretically 100% correct. Try to reach a minimum level of content
        • Pariah: “dialectics” for new people makes their eyes gloss over
      • Rabbit’s article
        • Pariah corrected factual errors
    • Art requests for Andi
      • J. Kats: we have the space and the need, we need to have some ideas
      • Short three-panel or four-panel comics or Marxist jokes to illustrate simple concepts – we can solicit someone to come up with stuff for Andi to draw
    • Redesign on the print edition
      • J. Kats walks back prior position of trying to make an “old-timey” newspaper and use modern design elements
      • Pariah: almost everyone I’ve given one to thinks its a funny anachronism or incredibly dense
      • J. Kats: suggest infographics
      • Pariah self-teaching WordPress to put more pictures in the articles themselves
      • Change the main website back into “recent articles” instead of the current events column

Action Items

  • J. Kats to make Current Events on the front page into “Recent Articles” and generally clean up some of the web appearance
  • Encourage Serj to self-criticize re: attending meetings Post-meeting update: timezone confusion resulted in this last missed meeting, precipitated by J. Kats incorrect calculation of time difference
  • Saturday or Sunday Pressorg

Adjournment

Pariah moved that the meeting be adjourned, and this was agreed upon at 2:18 PM EST.