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Day two at USSF from Steven
Posted June 30th, 2007 by sgibsonBy Steven Gibson, Los Angeles Area Program Director, AFSC Pacific Southwest Regional OfficeÂ
Day two attending sessions. In the morning I gathered with organizers from Boston, Western Mass, NY, Los Angeles and other regions to discuss how to organizing regional social forums. We heard and shared experiences of planning and carrying out social forums for citys and regions.
In the afternoon I attended the workshop led by SmartMeme about story telling for strategy. I found the workshop very informative and interesting. We talked about the elements of a good story: conflict, characters, images and foreshadowing. I was not sure when I started if the workshop was what I would want. But after a few minutes my attention was held with these lessons about applying story based strategy for political actions. I began to feel my pulse racing faster with thinking about bringing these concepts and tools to Los Angeles.
I toured the Dreams and Nightmares exhibit and again felt the conflict and sadness from the results of US military action in Iraq. The exhibit features civilian shoes and panels about civilians and the effect on their lives of the war.
The rest of Thursday was spent making contacts with organizers and activists from around the country.
