Affinity Groups

• Serve as the primary brainstorming nexus for the conference.
• Share and synthesize information from various theme breakout sessions since everyone can't attend every session.
• Build collaborative working relationships.
• Generate ideas for posting on the "Meta-narrative" and "Goals" walls (see Posting Walls below).
• Be constructive and creative, and make sure everyone is heard.

• Friday evening (7:00-8:00 PM)
• Saturday morning (11:00-12:00 PM)
• Saturday afternoon (4:30-5:30 PM)
• Sunday (10:45- 11:30 AM)

• Assign a note-taker / reporter to every breakout session to give 3-minute report-back to the group afterwards
• Select a discussion leader, timekeeper, recorder, and wall-person for each affinity group meeting,.

• Share 3-minute report-backs from each breakout session
• Discuss report backs
• Identify and list ideas for (1) meta-narratives and/or (2) high-level group goals, and post them to the walls.
• On Sunday morning just before action planning, all affinity groups will review proposed goals together.

• Be efficient.
• Keep meetings congenial and have fun.
• Be supportive of each other.
• Follow through on agreements.

• Discussion leader - Makes sure everyone gets to talk.
• Recorder - Summarizes everything everyone says on flip charts.
• Time-keeper - Keeps the group aware of the time or serves the group in other timekeeping assignments.
• Reporter - Prepares group requested reports.
• Wall-person - Records/posts things the group wants placed on "Meta-narrative" and "Goals" walls (one posting per item)

• Meta-Narratives (to deepen, coordinate and harmonize messaging)
• hemes, memes, stories that reveal the common denominators and interrelationships beneath and between the diverse issues attendees (and single issue groups) are concerned with
• Material posted to the Meta-Narratives wall will be sorted and reviewed by the group for consolidation into a Port Huron-like vision statement to encourage deeper, more synergistic messaging in the independent media community as a whole.

• Larger, overarching collaborative goals that participants would like to see this group accomplish as well as suggested actions and required resources to achieve respective goals. For example, one section of this wall might feature "Creation of a comprehensive and trustworthy non-corporate news source" and a listing of actions and requirements to realize that goal. Another section might feature "Building synergistic national/international networks among independent media sources" and technical and organizational ways to realize that goal.
• Data posted to the Goals wall will be used in a "Reality Dialogue" on Sunday to help identify concepts that are supported by everyone present and can best serve as the basis for action planning and commitments from the group.

• The conference will break into three tracks for breakout sessions:
• Narrative / Messaging - Discovering the meta-narratives
• News Source Development - Creating a trusted, influential non-corporate news source
• Networking / Technology - How to collaborate and exploit technologies to distribute news