Announcing AMC2012 Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Submit session proposals now!
AMC2012 features 21 amazing participant-organized Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Read the descriptions here!
You are now invited to submit proposals for AMC sessions. Submit your proposal at AMPTalk!
*PROPOSALS ARE DUE MARCH 14TH*
We are looking for sessions that can be hosted within AMC Practice Spaces or Tracks, or that stand alone in their awesomeness. When you propose your session, you can associate your proposal with multiple Tracks and Practice Spaces, or none-of-the-above by selecting the "General" track.
Tracks are a series of 5 - 10 AMC sessions focused on media-based organizing strategies. We define "media-based organizing" as any collaborative process that uses media, art, or technology to bring about a more just and creative world.
Practice Spaces are experiments in creating the world we want to see. Through Practice Spaces, we model practices that make the AMC more accessible, engaging, and transformative for everyone.
Network Gatherings are day-long mini-conferences held on the Thursday before the conference. These are spaces for established networks or groups to convene in the space of the AMC for in-depth reflection and planning conversations.
We're excited to fill the AMC with incredible content from new and returning presenters.
Let the session proposing begin!
Help shape AMC2012 - take a 10 min survey
Next week, 34 coordinators of the AMC2012 tracks, network gatherings and practice spaces will meet up in Detroit for three days of intensive planning.
At this meeting, we will launch the six-month process of content-development, cross-network collaboration and grassroots fundraising that will result in a glorious AMC2012.
We need your input in this planning process! What skills do you want to learn at AMC2012? What strategy conversations do you want to have? Who do you want to make sure participates in the conference this year?
Tell us all these things and more in a super short survey. It will only take 15 minutes of your time and it will contribute volumes to the awesomeness of this year's AMC.
If you are inspired to give more detailed input, please fill out an additional survey designed by the coordinators of the Webmaking Track to assess what web development skills should be shared at AMC2012.
While we will continue to accept responses over the next several months, your input will be MOST VALUABLE to us if we receive it before 9am EST on Friday 1/13. This will allow us to incorporate your feedback into the coordinators' planning meeting next weekend.
Thank you for being a part of the AMC network.
AMP Year-End Reflections
Image by Joe Namy
This was the most epic year-to-date in the life of Allied Media Projects.
Image by Joe Namy
During that same weekend in late January 2011, AMP moved from our cozy (but too small and inaccessible) office in an old Elementary School to a 3,000 square foot ground-level space in the Furniture Factory Theater building, only a few blocks away, in the Cass Corridor. Our new office includes a media lab/classroom which we designed to host the first round of Detroit Future Media workshops. We have spacious work areas for our staff, which has grown from three at the beginning of the year to a crew of eight full-time and a dozen part-time staff.
Image by DMEC Communicator
Through DFM we trained an inaugural class of Detroiters in audio, video, graphic design, web design skills and the application of these skills in education, social justice organizing, and community-based entrepreneurship. We selected DFM students through an application process which asked, "What is your vision for the future of Detroit?" and "How will you use digital media to transform your community?"
Image by Joe NamyIn August, we launched Detroit Future Schools by hosting 12 teachers and eight DFM artists-in-residence to "AMP Camp" – a five-day professional development retreat at a YMCA camp in West Michigan. AMP Camp was a time for collaborative curricula-building,plus a healthy dose of kayaking, karaoke, and jumping off trampolines into a lake. At the retreat, we looked long and hard at the education crisis facing Detroit. We realized that the goals of our program were nothing less than to reinvent the purpose and practice of education in Detroit. Our purpose is to prepare the future-builders of a more just, creative and collaborative world. Our practice is digital media arts integration, project-based learning, democratic classrooms, and school-community connectedness.
Photo by Leona McElveneAmidst the highs of the 2011 Allied Media Conference, the graduation of the first class of Detroit Future Media, and the AMP Camp week of Detroit Future Schools, the Summer of 2011 hit a profound low with the passing of Detroit poet-activist-educator, D. Blair. Blair had been an important part of the AMC community, most recently as co-coordinator of the "Poetry and Music as Transformative Media" track at AMC2011. AMP staff mourned alongside our vast network of people locally and nationally who loved Blair. We celebrated and honored his life, while committing to do better at taking care of each other as we work towards a more just and creative world.
AMP continues to be an active member in the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, providing facilitation for monthly meetings and technical support for the network of the coalition's thirteen Public Computer Centers. At the first DDJC retreat, held in November of this year, we laid strategic plans for the coming year of Discovering Technology Fairs (or "DiscoTechs") community wireless networks and communications work, including the publication of the zine, Communication is a Fundamental Human Right.
Flyer Templates for Your Organizing for AMC2012
We have four flyer templates that you can use for your local organizing towards the AMC. Check them out and download here!
HIRING: Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator (Full Time)
Allied Media Projects is seeking an experienced, creative and visionary individual to serve as Content Coordinator for the Allied Media Conference, which we host annually in Detroit.
Job title: AMC Content Coordinator
Job type: Full time with benefits
Job location: Detroit, MI
Overview
The Allied Media Conference works at the intersection of many social justice communities: youth leadership, queer and transgender liberation, environmental justice, disability justice, transformative justice, radical people of color anti-violence, healing justice, prison abolition, decolonization movements, anti-poverty movements, radical art, intergenerational movement-building, immigrant justice, media justice, community media, open source technology, education for liberation, and many more.
The ideal candidate has organizing experience in three or more of these communities, strong relationships in at least five and a clear understanding of how they are using media-based organizing strategies. The ideal candidate also has extensive experience with writing and editing, large-scale project-management, facilitative leadership on local and national levels, grassroots fundraising, non-hierarchal, network-based organizing models, popular education and program logistics. They must understand and be aligned with the Allied Media Projects Network Principles.
About the Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator position
The 2012 Allied Media Conference will feature 24 “program nodes,” including 6 Tracks, 11 Network Gatherings and 8 Practice Spaces. Each of these program nodes will be coordinated by two or more individuals or organizations from within the AMP network. Each set of coordinators will work with 5 to 12 other individuals and organizations to develop conference content, implement grassroots fundraising strategies, and coordinate the logistics for hundreds of AMC participants. In total, this will involve over 200 “content producers” for AMC2012. We anticipate 2,000 people will attend the conference this year.
The Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will work closely with AMP Co-Director, Jenny Lee to provide direct support to all of the content-producers of the 2012 Allied Media Conference. This support will include: helping groups to clarify the visions of their programming and edit their descriptions; helping groups clarify the vision and strategy for their grassroots fundraising and outreach efforts; doing general AMC fundraising; making connections across issue areas, skills and identities; facilitating collaborations; aligning all conference content with the vision and principles of AMP; facilitating groups and individuals through logistical, programmatic, and financial challenges towards solutions.
The Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will also solicit and support AMC content outside of the 25 program nodes (approximately 50 additional sessions). Immediately following the AMC, the Coordinator will lead documentation and evaluation efforts to begin the organizing cycle for the 2013 conference.
The Coordinator will also support year-round network organizing using online platforms developed by AMP.
The ideal Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will take increasing leadership in conference organizing with each AMC, with the goal of full direction of conference organizing by AMC2014.
Responsibilities
- Manage systems (organizational and technological) for AMC content coordination. These include systems for:
- Content solicitation, proposal submission, and review processes
- Collaborative writing, editing, and decision-making
- Grassroots fundraising strategy development and implementation
- Logistical needs assessments and organizing to meet those needs
- Year-round idea development, match-making between AMC content partners, and organizing support
- Participate in innovating AMC organizing systems
- Facilitate AMC documentation and evaluation processes
- Support year-round network organizing using online platforms developed by AMP
Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have many of the following qualifications:
- Exceptional capacity to listen and learn
- Confidence and skill to integrate new ideas into established systems
- A passion for facilitating the leadership of others
- Excellent writing and editing skills
- Vision and imagination. The ideal candidate has a vision for a more just and creative world and the leadership of grassroots communities in shaping it.
- Ability to weave relationships across diverse issue areas and identity groups.
- Comprehensive understanding of accessibility; experience producing events that are accessible to people with disabilities, non-english speakers, queer and transgendered people, parents, low-income people, and multiple age groups.
- Familiarity with principles and practices of collaborative design
- Familiarity with Detroit social justice organizing and ability to draw connections between Detroit and other communities within the national AMP network.
- Experience as a participant, volunteer, presenter, or Track Coordinator of the Allied Media Conference.
- Experience as a media producer
- Experience with conflict mediation
- Experience with creative problem-solving in a collaborative setting
- Experience designing and leading creative, participatory workshops
- Experience facilitating productive, enjoyable meetings in person and virtually
- Experience administering websites or an ability to learn
- Experience designing and implementing social media strategies
- Ability/desire to work flexible hours, including occasional evenings and weekends, and willingness to travel occasionally.
How to Apply
Please send the following to work@alliedmedia.org:
- cover letter
- resume
- 2 writing samples
- 2 outlines of workshops or presentations that you have led
- names, emails, and telephone numbers of three professional references
Applications will be accepted until January 1, 2012. Interviews will take place January 4, 5 and 6. Our ideal candidate will be able to attend the AMC2012 Coordinators Meet-up January 13, 14 and 15, and will have an official start date of February 1.
Allied Media Projects is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, religion, HIV serostatus, disability, height, weight, veteran status or marital status.
