Who is this directed at and what are your goals?
What is the "bit of background knowledge"?
Draft info pack, comments please!
The pamphlet is intended for people who have just joined the group, people who have a background in unionism or politics and anyone else who might want some more background info before joining.
The purpose is to get people to join our branch!
Going to produce some shorter I.U / workplace specific pamphlets to give to people who have not heard of us. Or perhaps use simular leaflets produced by other branches.
Bits of "You are the Union" are in there somewhere.
Going to do a little work to the annotated pre-amble bit. After all agreement and understanding of it is one of the conditions of membership!
I totally agree with you stripey, at the same time that's exactly why I liked the annotated preamble bit, our radicalism has been used recently in anti union materials, I don't think the answer is to hide the radicalism. Rather we need better ways to explain it, make it seem not so out there, and to basically innoculate members right from the start from the red baiting.
Also I would take your comments one step further and say the mark of the quality of one's revolutionary ideals is in their effectiveness and dependability in action.
Well put, EdWob. DP this is really solid, man. I may hijack it and Americanize it if you wouldn't object. Either way, I'm excited to check out the finished product. Once my time frees up (haha) I may see if you want to collaborate with me on some introductory literature.
I dunno if Stripey is up for it but maybe that is a good project to consider for Canada too. I was also thinking it would be really great if we had a basic 'kit' for organizing campaigns, with a sample flyer, some innoculation material, a basic 'how to talk union'. A intro to the IWW package would be a really good addition to this.
We have a welcome pack (One Big Welcome to the One Big Union) consisting of:
A membership form
A record of membership
A sheet for the member to keep with contact information for the delegate as well as their membership number and IU
A red card
A button
The constitution of the IWW
One Big Union (the booklet, not the newsletter; there is debate whether this is a good thing to give to new members at all. I would personally rather replace it with rusty's rules of order)
You are the Union (with Canadian legal info by FW JH)
A cartoon I made called "making a proposal" which I distributed at GA but not really elsewhere outside the branch
The "life of a motion" diagram from Rusty's Rules of order (the one with the nice pictures)
Alphabet Soup (IWW glossary)
A couple of generic GMB pamphlets (give them to your friends!)
A map of the meeting location with directions, also the times of meetings and dates
Explanation of the website and the mailing list
A list of active projects, what they do and what help they require (in progress... I don't know how useful or complete this will ever become so I don't know if it will continue)
All this goes into an envelope. So when you go to sign someone up you aren't fumbling trying to find all the bits.
(Also included is a checklist with all the items on it so when you're packing the envelope you can be sure... it's confusing and there's a lot of stuff!)
I'd be happy to collaborate on developing this further and sharing it with other branches.
Once the website is done... The website (iww.ca) will let us do this sort of thing much, much easier. (I have a plan. 
)
PS please tell me when you have had your elections and you know who your official web person is going to be.
PPS EW I will reply to your email after tomorrow's strategy meeting. Maybe not right after. But in a couple of days. Because I will have more to say then.
(Not that I don't have lots to say about anything, any time, any place. ha)
Anyone can do what they want with that annotated preamble, once it's properly finished.
There's a link to another annotated thing at the bottom of my document.
An understanding / agreement of the preamble is a requirement of membership, so I think this text could be well useful..
An idea I've had for another pamphlet is "Abolish the wages system: the system of wage labour and what might replace it"
The Socialist Party of Great Britain have an excellent but slightly dated pamphlet called Trade Unions, which deals with the sort of issues broached in the preamble. It ends up disappearing off on one about the SPGB at the end but I think it could be adapted for keener members and it's not half bad at avoiding sounding scarily "political".
Stripey wrote:
huh?
Oh, I was assuming the e-mail regarded some aspect of the current conversation. Re-reading your post (it was late, i was study-wary), it probably didn't. But take it as a compliment, I'm really interested in writing some introductory literature and was enjoying bouncing ideas back and forth.
ftony wrote:
booeyschewy wrote:
whoa this is too productive and useful!cue revol please. let's get this back to a libcom-esque discussion please.
fuck you, reformist cunt.
Oh look you said something approaching partisan, oh wait it was just a shit joke, nothing to see here.
Seriously you whinge about me commenting on your shitty lil class collaborationist dress up union and then when I don't youse have to mention this absence, it's almost like if I didn't exist you'd have had to invent me.
leftists fuckwits.
Revol68 wrote:
Seriously you whinge about me commenting on your shitty lil class collaborationist dress up union and then when I don't youse have to mention this absence, it's almost like if I didn't exist you'd have had to invent me.
This sounds like it coulda come off of the lyric sheet of an Eminem record 
all the best.
gregg.
This.. http://theoryandpractice.org.uk/IWW.htm
..is a draft copy of an info pack we might be giving out to people who have an interest in the IWW and also have a bit of background knowledge.
It's mostly made from stuff ripped from various IWW websites, though some of the commentry on the preamble is mine.
Solid!