Luzula

In the last seven weeks, I have:

- held two introductory meetings for new union members,
- helped introduce a new online calendar system for booking the union meeting rooms,
- worked to prepare a union workshop day that unfortunately didn't happen,
- written minutes at a union members' meeting,
- prepared and chaired a union board meeting,
- prepared and chaired another union members' meeting,
- fixed a new router for union office,
- had dialogue with union auditors,
- talked with a small-town branch of the union near us which might need support from us,
- started to prepare for finding candidates for the board and various committees for the union next year,
- went to a weekend workshop on wood-living fungi (which knowledge I will later use to save forests),
- went to a information meeting with the county administration board as representative for environmental org,
- met with a forest company in a forest we're trying to save and they're trying to cut down,
- did October accounting for environmental org,
- checked out the local Extinction Rebellion group that's just starting in my town and offered my services if they need tree climbing skills for banner hanging,
- and many other small things and lots of emailing.

In the last five weeks, I have:
- attended and written minutes for a board meeting at the union,
- thrown away lots of old (uninteresting) documents at the union and sent other (interesting) documents off to an archive according to our archiving plan,
- sent out the August newsletter for the union,
- prepared and chaired a members' meeting for the union,
- helped prepare our local union's participation in the nationwide union congress in September,
- taken over the task of checking/answering email to the union board (and another board member will take over my task of being responsible for the minutes, but I expect she will need support in that),
- attended another forest inventory camp - this was a big one with about 50 people and I was a group leader,
- helped document inventory results from that camp,
- worked with the report from one of the other inventories I did this summer, including contact with a journalist who wants to do something on TV about it,
- helped with the documentation/afterwork from another inventory,
- prepared and held a workshop about forest and biodiversity for a meeting of women arborists this weekend,
- written an op-ed about how wrong one of the political parties are about forest issues (we have an election soon),
- done the July accounting and paid lots of bills for environmental org,
- eeeeemailed a lot.

In the last three weeks I have:
- attended and written minutes for a board meeting of the union,
- painted another banner, protesting planned infringements of the right to strike,
- put up the banner between treetops,
- attended a protest about same,
- written and sent out June newsletter for the union,
- attended and written minutes for another board meeting of the union, where we interviewed candidates for a paid position that will be free soon,
- contacted people who pay their union dues to the wrong bank account which is very annoying for the treasurer,
- recruited another person to the union board, yay! (we were only three before and one of us is taking a break),
- held an excursion about mosses on the UN International Day for Biological Diversity,
- done accounting and bill-paying for environmental org,
- planned for the forest inventories this summer,
- planned for but ultimately did not go to a meeting with a forest company about a contested forest area (because they were limiting the agenda in a way that would disadvantage us),
- donated fairly large chunks of money to Rainforest Rescue (German organization that organizes petitions and passes a lot of money along to worthwhile local projects), Agent Green (Romanian organization fighting for forests), and a local leftist book café which is having to move because of rent hikes.

The planned infringements of the right to strike are just infuriating, and probably against ILO conventions. : / People are not actually striking much at all, and yet it's painted as this big threat to the "Swedish model". There has been a long-time conflict at the docks in Gothenburg which is the excuse to push this through. It's true that the conflict has cost money for the company there, but it's because they've been doing lock-outs--the strikes have been very limited! And yet I do not see the government pushing to limit the right to do lock-outs. *sarcasm*

Have not written this up for three weeks, but hey, I had the flu. I am well now, though weak as a kitten--that was more than a month of being sick and just lying on the couch. My legs ache from just taking an ordinary walk! Well, if I lose it quickly I can hopefully gain it quickly again...

Anyway, in the last three weeks I have:
- Called new union members and held an introductory evening for them.
- Helped put up posters and stickers for May Day.
- Written and sent out the April newsletter for the union.
- Done accounting for January-February-March and a quarterly financial report for environmental organization.
- Written up a report from the annual meeting of environmental org.
- Put up stuff on the website of environmental org.
- Done preparatory work on the forest inventory trip I am organizing this summer.
- Eeeemailed a lot, as always.

In the last three weeks I have:

- Attended the annual meeting of the union, which was mostly constructive and conflict-free.
- Organized and attended the annual meeting of the university local branch of the union, where I got someone else to take the elected position I had. Woohoo, one less elected position! \o/
- Organized and attended a kick-off for the new union board and other elected people, along with people in various committees. It went very well and I felt we had a lot of energy! I and the rest of the board had to do a lot of the work of the election committe, but that kind of work is self-preservation if you're on a board. Yay, finding other people to do the work so you don't have to! For example, we have a great committee organizing the May Day march this year.
- Written and sent out the March email newsletter for the union.
- Called a bunch of union members who had been transferred from a small town branch near us, which has disbanded.
- Helped prepare for the annual meeting of environmental org, which is next weekend (it is the season of annual meetings).
- Begun to plan for a forest inventory trip for this summer.
- Given feedback on op-ed about forest issues.
- Eeeeemailed a lot.

Also I heard a great story from the negotiating committee of the union, which helps handle workplace conflicts. One of them had actually dressed up in a suit and pretended to be a lawyer. And they'd gotten away with it and won the conflict, too. I would not be cut out for that kind of stuff...luckily I have other strengths.

At this point I should just rename the meme to the Saturday meme instead...

Anyway, in the last two weeks I have:
- Worked on recruiting people for elected positions in the union. There's one person who I'm really hoping will say yes to being on the board...*crosses fingers*
- Nagged at people to sign various union meeting minutes.
- Wrote and sent out monthly email newsletter for the union.
- Organized annual meeting for university branch of union except that due to sickness and various other things we were too few for a quorum. Made Doodle to find other time.
- Given feedback on various texts for my environmental org.
- Eeemailed about various things.

It looks like this list is shorter than usual, but as always there are lots of things that seem too small to put on it, which are lumped into the email category.

Also, I have now learned the word "quorum"! I felt vaguely that it was maybe the word I needed, and lo, it was.

Hi, newcomers! I have some new people in my circle from dolorosa_12's post-Yuletide friending meme. Maybe I'll write up an intro post about me some other day? But today it's Friday and I haven't done this meme since (ahem) December 1.

The idea is that every Friday (or every other Friday, in my case) you write up the political action, in a broad sense, that you have taken. The idea is to hold yourself accountable, inspire other people, and feel that you have accomplished something.

Since December 1 I have:
- Attended and taken minutes at a union city-level members' meeting.
- Attended and taken minutes at a union board meeting.
- Chaired a union meeting at the university.
- Called new union members and then held an introductory meeting for them.
- Put together union email newsletter for December and January.
- Contributed to the union member magazine.
- Helped prepare a union conference in January.
- Helped handle an issue involving union office equipment. In short, it consists of: 1) a bad financial decision by the previous board (DO NOT lease things!!), 2) neglect by the previous union administrator, 3) a decision by the new board that turned out to be bad because it was based on faulty information. This whole thing wastes money and I hate it. /o\
- Occupied a threatened forest.
- Talked to people living near another threatened forest to see if we could help them.
- Contributed to and translated parts of a report about infractions against the FSC (an environmental forest certification).
- Got an op-ed criticizing a forest company published in a local newspaper.
- Put together the next newsletter of environmental organization (much longer than the union one).
- Prepared a lecture on biofuels, forest and climate, to be held next weekend.
- Wrote a grant proposal for doing inventories of threatened forests in the summer, and gave feedback on another proposal.
- Wrote another grant proposal about printing a second edition of a pamphlet about forest issues I wrote years ago.
- Eeeeemailed a lot in both organizations.

Whew. That was a lot, and I might've forgotten some things, too.

Oops, forgot this yesterday...anyway, in the last two weeks I have:

- Gone to a Kristallnacht memorial rally.
- Gone to a World Kobane Day rally (memorable for the Kurdish guy shouting "We need to kill the dominant man inside all of us! Long live the women's revolution!" in a really loud PA system so you could hear it all over the square. *g*)
- Organized a dinner for the elected officials in the union so we could get to know each other better.
- Held introductory meeting for new union members.
- Got an op-ed published about a current forest conflict, gave feedback on other texts about this issue, put up stuff on our website about it, and generally communicated a lot with other people about it.
- Gone to a weekend workshop about wood-living fungi (this is actually mostly for fun, but it's also for getting better at doing forest inventories, so I'm putting it here).
- Eeeemailed a lot, it never ends.

Oops, forgot this yesterday. In the last two weeks, I have:

- Prepared, attended, and taken minutes at a board meeting of the union.
- Gone to a dialogue meeting with the Forest Agency, together with representatives from two other environmental organizations.
- Called a forest company guy about a threatened forest, after first talking with people who know the area and also reading up on it.
- Put up stuff on the environmental org homepage.
- Tied together stuff from the large box of climbing equipment in my bedroom that belongs to the environmental org (that is, I made cowtails/lanyards and slings from a long coil of rope).
- Eeeeemailed a lot.

All right, let's see. In the past two weeks I have:

- Attended and written minutes for a members' meeting of the union.
- Represented the union at an organizing meeting for the upcoming counter-demonstration against the Nazi march in my city.
- Sent out extra union newsletter about the Nazi march and other things.
- Scouted the route of the Nazi march to see where there are good trees to hang banners in.
- Went to a tree climbing camp and also helped some peace activists hang a banner.
- Worked on an article about forest and climate issues.
- The eternal eeeemailing.