One-Minute Cadre Recap: Recent Episodes

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Missed a meeting? Need a refresher? Here's everything you need to know about the Renters Union Nashville cadre meeting that took place on Tuesday, January 24th, 2023.

We started off the meeting by addressing any tensions or questions that had arisen within the time that we had last met. Some things that were brought up were:

• What’s our involvement with the canvassing at Hobson Flats apartment complex, run by Workers’ Dignity?

• How do we want to address the RDC committees that have shifted over to RUN committees? The cadre decided that RUN was not going to have official committees, only ad-hoc groups for specific tasks

• The consensus was that we will use WhatsApp for our Main RUN threads. Anyone who only uses signal (which is only a few people) can form their own thread on that app. This brought up the question of how do we keep those people connected?

… more discussion is needed to make a decision.

• Next, we went through a checklist of all that needs to completed by the first General meeting at the end of February.

• The Handbook seems to be close to completion. More time and consideration is needed on the Core Values Statement, printing and takeaway items for attendees. This last step will likely happen within the week leading up to that first general meeting.

• Since then, Benj has acquired the brown paper bags.

• The agendas for the general meetings are close to completion.

• And we discussed the outreach plan for this first general meeting - This includes social media blasts and updating RUN branded social accounts, physical fliers, emailing folks who expressed interest, sharing the tools to spread the word with fliers, and phone/text banking (tentatively set for Feb 19th)

• The last thing discussed was the frequency of cadre meetings up until this first general meeting. Everyone voted yes, and a poll was created on Whatsapp - 10 folks voted online, unanimous. Yes. We will be meeting tonight, Jan 31st.

• We wrapped the meeting with kudos and tensions,

• We want to limit repeated work by increasing communication, we addressed some small media tasks, and Gracie brought up a Community Care zoom call they attended and expressed that they would like to share it with the group

• we made roles for our next week's meeting and wrapped up.

Thanks for listening. Check out our Google Drive and Cadre Projects trello board for tasks and assets. Make sure to check out our whatsapp group for day to day announcements and events.

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Missed a few meetings? Need a refresher? Here’s everything you need to know about the RUN Cadre Meetings that took place on January 14th and January 17th, 2023.

At an all-day retreat on January 14, 2023, the cadre decided on a name for the union… Renters’ Union Nashville or RUN, for short! We also finalized the date time and location of our first public union meeting. February 23rd at 6pm at the East Nashville Public Library. After making these important decisions, we dug into the hard work of crafting the first public meeting agenda. The cadre decided to adapt the TUF, Tenant Union Flatbush, meeting agenda to our needs.

With an agenda almost done, we discussed how to run the meeting effectively and keep us on track with the agenda. We brainstormed all the responsibilities that are important before, during, and after every public meeting. That brainstorming resulted in the suggestion of a few crucial roles to take on these responsibilities. Finally, we discussed our relationship to DSA and the tension of organizing outside of DSA while making sure our critiques of DSA are not in bad faith. Marge and Greg attended a DSA steering committee meeting a few days later and came to an agreement that we should acknowledge that this is an amicable and strategic split.

As the sun set on the Retreat, we divided the remaining work among four groups: drafting our first few agendas, finishing our core values statement, revising our theory of change, and readying all the physical materials for handout at the public meetings.

In a followup meeting a few days later, we reviewed ongoing work and brought up tensions about how some work is still using Red Door Collective structures and chats and other work is not. The cadre is trying to work through how we do work in an organized fashion.

Check out our Google Drive and Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.

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2023-1-3 Recap “Scrummaster”Missed a few meetings? Need a refresher? Here’s everything you need to know about the Nashville Tenant Union Cadre Meeting that took place on January 3rd, 2023.

First, a reminder: The union will be having a work retreat on January 14th in order to finalize the agenda for our first tenant union meeting. At this time, we still expect for the retreat to be held at Benj’s propaganda shed. Keep an eye on our whatsapp announcement page or listen out for any updates to location and time.

After a restful holiday break, ten cadre members held the first virtual meeting of the new year.

Jack M. volunteered to facilitate, and our cadre used the jamboard and Trello to determine an agenda for the night. Benj brought forward updates from the media committee, including a sharable toolkit to help spread the word about the tenant union and our current name poll. We anticipate settling on a name and logo soon.

The cadre then went on to discuss the structure of the Tenant Union organizing body itself, and its differentiation from the related projects that helped to form the cadre. Updating formation of work and committees will be on the agenda for our upcoming retreat.

Jack M. reported the results of our vote to determine the venue for our first tenant union meeting, with East Library winning out as the group’s first choice. Due to continued concerns over covid safety, Greg and others brought forward a proposal for a cadre mask mandate and testing routine. A second proposal on quarterly meeting roles was discussed and determined to need more definition. Please read both proposals if you haven’t already before our upcoming work retreat on Saturday, January 14th.

Check out our Google Drive and Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.

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Missed a few meetings? Need a refresher? Here’s everything you need to know about the Nashville Tenant Union Cadre Meetings that took place on December 6th and 13th.

First, an announcement. The union will have a work retreat on January 14th to finish the agenda for the first tenant union meeting. To ensure a productive retreat, we’ve been busy prioritizing our work and determining the best tasks to handle that day.On December 7th, a few cadre members met virtually in order to organize our many goals into an achievable retreat agenda. Kayla and Benj had a key reflection: we will need physical union branding for potential members to bring home and remember us.

A week later, a much larger cadre whittled down the list of potential union meeting locations at Kayla’s lovely home.The cadre also kicked off our very first vote on a small process change, the quarterly rotation of cadre meeting roles. We decided to conduct this vote over WhatsApp, in order to be inclusive of anyone who couldn’t make this meeting.

The union will have a work retreat on January 14th to finish the agenda for the first tenant union meeting. One of the most important documents for the inaugural meeting is our Core Values Statement. We’ve assigned our comrades to expand on individual themes from prior cadre meeting discussions.

The meeting finished with a discussion of COVID safety proposal. Feedback included language improvements, an expansion in its scope to consider overall wellness and safety, and an ask for clarity on mask mandates vs mask encouragement. We plan to discuss these health justice talking points in our next few meetings, especially regarding the mask policy for the first union meeting.

Check out our Google Drive and Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.

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Miss some meetings? Need a refresher? Here's everything you need to know about the 11/22/22 Mentor Meeting and 11/29 Cadre Meeting for the Nashville tenant union (Official name pending.)

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Missed last week’s meeting? Need a refresher? Here’s everything you need to know about  the Nashville Tenant Union Cadre Meeting that took place on November 15th in around a minute.

The cadre met in Benj’s newly furnished Propaganda Shed. We broke the ice by deciding that waffles are better than pancakes and that autumn is the best season. Going forward, the Shed will also be open for Office Hours - a time for the cadre to do union work in this new shared space. This week, we committed to a door knocking training at Workers Dignity.

We spent most of the evening discussing our union’s theory of change. Topics included the current state of housing nationally and locally, as well as the union's working goals. Derek, Rebby, and Marge are going to create a powerful first draft of a strategy on how we win. The first tenant union meeting is likely to happen at one of the following locations: the central bus depot, DRKMTTR, or the downtown library.

Check out our Google Drive and Cadre Projects Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.

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Missed last week’s meeting? Need a refresher? Here’s Marge to tell you everything you need to know about November 8th’s Nashville Tenant Union Mentor Meeting in maybe a little bit more than a minute or two.

This week's meeting started a bit bumpy as none of the mentors were able to attend. Rane was ill and Rainer is now working in the evening. We started with some introductions and talked about our favorite place we had ever biked.

Then, we got to work - looking over our Trello and Jam Board for guidance

From previous discussions, we prioritized the following needs to have a successful launch of our monthly tenant union meetings
Name & Logo
Location & Time
Agenda & Outreach Plan

Since Media is already working on both name selection and logo, we decided to work on finding a location and time. This resulted in multiple locations being sought and creating asks for members to collect more information.

In searching for locations we believe may be suitable to hold our first three months of meetings, we plan to ask the following questions:
How accessible is the space to public transit?
Are there similar available dates in Jan, Feb, March?
Can the space hold 20-30 people and what is max capacity?
Will food be allowed?
How accessible is the venue: ramps, automatic doors, gender neutral restrooms?
What will be the cost?
What are the steps to reserve?
What are the details to accessing the building (how to get in, who is responsible, etc)?

We then spoke briefly on some key points to add to the first agenda for our monthly meetings and decided that a separate meeting focused on the agenda might be best. Gracie will be calling an ad hoc meeting to work on our Values Statement. Benj is finalizing the form for naming the union. Multiple members took on the task of researching locations.

Finally we wrapped with our usual sharing of Kudos and Tensions before logging off. This coming Tuesday we will continue our work in person at Benj's Propaganda Shed.

Check out our Google Drive and Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.

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Missed last week’s meeting? Need a refresher? Here’s everything you need to know about November 1st’s Nashville Tenant Union Cadre Meeting in under a minute.

This week, Ashley, Jack, Greg, and Benj discussed building our theory of change, creating our values statement, and holding further trainings for canvasing and one-on-ones.

The Tenant Union Launch meeting is still planned for January 2023, and will be announced to all networked activists, comrades, and community members alongside a clear ask to attend a door knocking day or similar base building campaign.

Our media team continues its work on setting the name and logo for the union through public polling and collaborative design. Cadre priorities include setting a location and time for the launch meeting, as well as writing future agendas and an outreach plan.

Check out our Google Drive and Cadre Projects Trello board for written notes, assets, and action items. Don’t forget to join our Whatsapp groups for day-to-day announcements and events.