Brooklyn, NY: Report from the meeting to create a political movement for basic income

Thirty-one people signed the attendance sheet at the first meeting of group of people attempting to start a political movement for basic income in the United States. Several more people attended without signing, and others followed and contributed to the meeting online. The meeting took place from 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Commons Brooklyn on February 26, 2015, at the close of the Fourteenth North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress. The meeting began with all participants discussing their background and the history that brought them to the basic income movement. The group then split into several small groups, each discussing a different issue. Participants reassembled to bring their discussion to the whole group and to make some decisions.

The group chose not to name a leader or a leadership committee. It did not even pick a name for the new organization at this point. Instead, it created several committees and asked them to perform certain tasks. The group created the following committees:

One committee will be in charge of legally chartering two groups. The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network, which has existed since 1999 without an official legal charter, will become a U.S. nonprofit organization—a so-called 501(c)(3). This means that it will be able to accept tax-deductible donations, but it will not be able to do overtly political work. The second organization (yet to be named) will be chartered as a social welfare organization or a lobbying group with a 501(c)(4) tax designation. This means that it will be able to do overtly political work, but donations to it will not be tax-deductible. The following members have so far joined the committee to charter the two organizations:

CONTACT PERSON: Steven Shafarman <sshafarman@gmail.com>

Ian Ash Schlakman <ian@civsys.it>

Jason Burke Murphy <murphyjason@elms.edu>

Mark Witham <mwitham@basicincomeproject.org>

Eri Noguchi <en16@columbia.edu>

Dan O’Sullivan <danosully@gmail.com>

A committee was created to organize the next meeting of the unnamed political group. The USBIG Network meets once a year at the NABIG Congress (which alternates each year between the U.S. and Canada), but the political group will meet more often. The committee hopes to organize the next meeting within 3 to 6 months. The committees within the unnamed political group will probably meet earlier via the internet. The following members volunteered to organize the next meeting of the unnamed group:

CONTACT PERSON: Mark Witham <mwitham@basicincomeproject.org>

Jude Thomas <composerjude@gmail.com>

Diane Pagen <dianepagen@yahoo.com>

Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com>

Dorothy Howard <dorohoward@gmail.com>

The content creation committee is in charge of research, news reporting, social media presence, and media relations.

CONTACT PERSON: Jason Burke Murphy <jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com>

Contact for people interested in the NewsFlash and BI News: Karl Widerquist <Karl@Widerquist.com>

Contact for people interested in improving the Basic Income articles on Wikipedia: Dorothy Howard <dorohoward@gmail.com>

Scott Santens <scott@scottsantens.com>

The regional network committee will work on establishing local chapters of the group in cities and towns across the United States. The contact person for this committee is:

Kristine Osbakken <krissosbakken@gmail.com>

Liane Gaile <liane.gale@gmail.com> and Ann Withorn <withorn.ann@gmail.com> agreed to be the contact people for the for working groups on women & Basic Income, basic income & the new economy, and basic income as an anti-poverty policy.

The organizers of this new group without a name put out a nationwide call to anyone who wants to get involved. If people would like to join one of the existing committees or propose a new committee, please email the relevant committee contacts and volunteer. If you don’t know which committee to contact, the two groups have two general contact people:

Contacts:

The unnamed political group: Jason Burke Murphy <jason.burke.murphy@gmail.com>

The USBIG Network coordinator: Michael Howard <michael_howard@umit.maine.edu>

The Following people signed the attendance sheet at the meeting:

Ann Withorn

Buffy Cain

Dan O’Sullivan

Diane Pagen

Dorothy Howard

Felix Coeln

Ian Ash Schlakman

Jason Burke Murphy

Jesse Alexander Myerson

Joel Cabrera

Johannes Ponader

Jude Thomas

Karl Widerquist

Kristine Osbakken

Leah Grace

Liane Gale

Mark Witham

Mary Bricker-Jenkins

Michael Bohmeyer

Michael Lewis

Mike Sandler

Mitchel Cohen

Peter Barnes

Ron Rubin

Scott Santens

Scott Simpson

Steven Shafarman

Eduardo Suplicy

Tristan Roberts

Tristan Mantel-Hoffmann

Victor Chudnovsky