[Coffee-organizers] Hello Lovely People

[Sandy Ordonez]

Hello Lovely Coffee Organizers!

I can't believe we are doing this!!! The reception has been amazing!!

COFFEE IS GOING TO BE SOO GOOD!! THERE IS SO MUCH ENERGY! CAN I GET
THREE CLAPS FOR HOW FREAKING KICK-ASS YOU ALL ARE!!!!

I'll be updating you all with more information once other cities
confirm. Currently, we have: Amsterdam, Abuja,  London, Ciudad de
Mexico, New York, Santiago de Chile. Waiting on Taipei, Tokyo and
Myanmar. BUT just remember:

 |\_/|      ****************************    (\_/)
 / @ @ \     *                         *   (='.'=)
( > º < )    *    SEPTEMBER 19 is our  *   (")_(")
 `>>x<<´     *      first Meetup!!     *
 /  O  \     *                         *
           ****************************

In the meantime, highly recommend you all should be:

* Securing a local crew and setting up a meeting with them.
* Securing a venue for September AND picking the programming
(FYI New York is going to have "Trends in Surveillance & Censorship")

* Creating an announce-only local mailing list for your  city, so you
can just announce what is happening every month (and other local events
of interest).

I can help you with anything you need help with, so just give a shout
out for anything at all.

Lastly, once the last cities are confirmed, I'll ping  everyone to start
introducing themselves on this list! Y'all are seriously going to love
each other. There are so many awesome profiles leading each city!!!

(((much glitter and hugs)))

Sandy

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ALSO, here is some information based on some questions I'm getting:


** Why an Organizers' mailing list? ***

The threats we face cross many borders, so we need to be up-to-date on
what is going on each other's communities. This is where we can increase
communications between cities. As you grow your organizing crew, send me
their emails and I can add them.

*** Is this TA3m ***

Some of you may remember TA3m - monthly meetups that were structured
similar to Coffee. You should think of Coffee as a rebirth - we took
everything we learned through TA3M and making a much better network.

*** How is it different then? ***

* Will have more focus a more on the intersection of technology AND
social activism/human rights/journalism. We can continue having geeky
topics, as they pertain to protecting humans, and making our communities
better.

* Diversity: We will work hard at making sure that organizing teams are
diverse, and especially include folks from the most at-risk groups in
their city. NOTE: -----> It takes time to build diversity, so don't
expect for this to happen over night. (FYI, the IFF Team can  help  you
with this too!)

* Be Allies: In addition, each city should ensure that reps from the
most at-risk communities in their city, have a leading voice determining
the programming and also the culture of the local Coffee hub.

* Better support! We are also investigating how to provide better
support for local cities. For example, a desire  under TA3M  was to find
ways to support travel of  organizers from one city to another,
especially if problems faced are similar. So this for  example, this
will be something a bunch of us will work on!!!

*** One Hour Kick-Off Meeting ***
I'm trying to organize an hour kick-off meeting with everyone!!! Check
your inbox for an email!!!