Minutes of Red Rag Collective 13/1/85

Present: Paul H., Marcus, Sue CLark, John F., Liz Swain, Clive,
Citizen Cain, Veronique, Jackie, Pogle, Mark Robinson, John H.

1. Diary for Events & money for phone calls. Marcus needs these items
to keep up with everything. It was agreed that Marcus should buy a
suitable diary, and that he can take money from the collecting tin at
Acorn.

2. Red Rag Bag. Clive reported that to dat 84 tapes have been
produced. Over 50 have already been sold. All debts heve bean paid
with the exception of £30 owed to Reading Between the Lines. Acorn &
Rag Doll are selling tapes at £3.00. Pop Records and Music Market are
selling tapes with a 5% mark-up. Tapes will shortly be available in
Oxford through a friend of Pogles who works in a record shop. Clive is
arranging a publicity handout/press release, to contain much
information and mail order address, tapes to be priced at £3.50 to
cover p&p. Also, 5 tapes will be sent FOC to a national Folk & Jazz
magazin, Radio 210, Radio Oxford, The Pace (a popular fanzine), and
John Peal of Radio One.

3. Red Rag Calenders. There are 25 left. Sue has 16 & Acorn have 9.
Someone, that you know, still has'nt got a RR calender.

4. Next collective Meeting. Flat 6, 117 Kendrick Road, Reading, at
4.00pm. Hi Liz!

5. Co-ordinators. Issue 19/20 Jan - Bridge 37 4532. Issue 2/3 Feb -
Gut 669562. Issue 16/17 Feb - Sue 662302. Issue 2/3 Mar - Jackie,
message on 669562.

6. Going out guide. John P. no longer has time to compile g.o.g
because of work commitments. Mark Robinson (782178) has volunteered to
take it over after next issue. Going out guide to cover all dates,
from issue date to the Wednesday after next issue date. This is to
help keep coverage continuous if Rag gets delivered late.

7. Citizen Cain. Was invited to this meeting so that collective could
see who he was and talk to him. Welcome CC. There was much discussion
about CC column. Some concern was voiced about CC being regurded as RR
editorial and expressive of the collectives views. CC said that he
wanted to put other viewpoints forward which would not be reported by
the commercial local press. In an attempt to distance the RR
collective from the individual view of CC, it was agreed to head all
future CC items with a new title. Viz: "A Red Column - An individual &
different view of Reading and its surroundings".

8. Red Rag Social. No, not another fund raising event, but more a
private party for anyone involved in the production, printing and
distribution of the Rag. So, all receipents of these minutes are
invited to Fairview Community Centre, George Street. On Sunday 27/1/65
at 3:30pm. Bring whatever you need for a good time!

9. Red Rag collective meeting minutes. A mention should go into the
next Rag to enquire whether more people feel they should be receiving
these minutes.

10. Outlets. A) Rib & Roast at the junction should not be mentioned in
outlets list that we publish, although they still want to act as an
outlet. B) Continental Stores, Nick suggests (by letter) that this
shop is unsuitable as an outlet because of the vast numbers of soft
porn books that it stocks. After discussion it was agreed to take CS
off the published outlets list although they will remain an
outlet. Paul suggested that someone (Nick was proposed) should explain
decision to store owner and perhaps write an article outlining the
harmful effects of soft porn. C). New outlets. Paul said he had a new
one in Caversham (though he dld'nt say where, hope he has told
Guy). D) It has been discovered that some distributors have moved away
without telling us. There should be a mention in the next rag
regarding this and a plea for each distributor to check (once in a
while) that people on their round still live there. E). Outlets list
should be recompiled and printed in full (barring the exceptions
above) in at least one in three issues.

11. Regular events. Paul suggested a new, revised and updated regular
events list for 1985. Marcus will action in time for next issue.

12. Poems. Collective policy unchanged - no poety. There is art
alternative publication called 'Early Poety' which should be mentioned
in the Rag. Next co-ordinator to get address from Paul.

13. Exclusion of letter from 8/9 Dec edition. It was reported that the
editorial group decided to print letter although it may have been
agsinst collective policy. Jackie said that it was a hard decision to
take and an introduction by the editorial group explained why decision
was taken. The printer (John H.) made a separate and unilateral
decision to exclude letter without any communication with editorial
group (or anyone else). There were cries of censorship and abuse of
personal power in heated tones. Liz suggested that the perpetuator of
this letter had suceeded in his main object, which was to disrupt the
RR collective, regardless of whether laeter was printed or not. John
H. thought this was not the case, but rather this experience will help
strengthen group and help us to define things in a more obvious
way. Jackie argued that editorial groups have to make many decisions
for each Rag using collective policy as a guide (rather than
unimpeachable law) and taking responsibility for those decisions at
collective level. After much discussion it was decided that in future
if anyone involved with an editorial group objected to something being
included in that issue because they thought it was against collective
policy, than the item should be held over for a collective
decision. The majority of this collective meeting decided that the
letter was unsuitable for publication, although it is available at
Acorn (in RR box) for anyone to read. Jackie & John to write an
article together, explaining all, for the benefit of Rag readers.

Pogle. 15/1/85.

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