Organization

First, I'd like to praise the organizers in Madrid who kept kept their cool, in spite of the overwhelming number of problems and their sleepless nights. There are a couple of persons whose persistent good attitude I will long remember.

I have never planned for 4,000, and I realize that getting more than five people together can be a logistical hassle. It's nearly impossible with a large group not to step on someone's toes. However, I know some people who have organized political conferences of several hundred, which is comparable to the number at any of the six sites of the Encuentro, and they know that a half dozen people in a core group, however experienced, can't take the job on alone. The exodus from the Madrid organizing group, the consequence of political differences (the details of which were never made clear to me), resulted in exactly that--a half dozen people in near panic, making arbitrary and sometimes patently bad decisions, at all hours of the day and night, and then communicating them poorly to the participants. I think we all encountered instances of this process.

An alternative scenario is the delegation of authority. If some people want to use the school kitchen, then set forth parameters for its use and let those people organize themselves to use it. Draw more people into the process, and let the group segment the process as necessary. It's more efficient and a lot less enervating. I've seen it work at mass meetings. Treat people like competent , responsible human being and you may get competent, responsible human beings; treat people like sheep, and you probably will end up with a lot of resentful sheep. Always bear in mind the general principle that decisions should be made by those whom they most affect.

I tend to agree with others who thought there was too much moving about the country during this Encuentro. While it was instructive to have bloques meet in communities whose form and practices were relevant to the particular topic, I think time was squandered in an area as big as that of the Spanish state, having people come first to Madrid, then scatter around the country, and finally meeting in a locale not in center of the national transportation network. I understand that factional politics were involved in the choice of the final meeting place, Still, we might have gone directly to the mesa sites, and then met in one place for the plenary of plenaries and a final ceremony. The only reason I could see for having us hang around for the first three days in Alcobendas was so that we all could attend the opening ceremony. Seeing thousands of people in one place with a common purpose, as I did at the opening ceremony, is awesome. However, if time and resources are a premium, then we could do with one less ceremony (half of which is ritualistic chanting and symbolic gestures). I'm not demeaning ceremonies and parties--I had fun--but I think that some of this sort of group activity far outweighed the crucial democratic participation at the mesas.

Recommendations:

• Recognize that there will always be logistical problems and that nobody can please everybody all the time.
• Therefore, the best method of pleasing the most people is to get as many interested and committed people as feasible involved in the decision-making process. Delegate authority and divide labor.
• Don't simply adopt a method of dividing up workshops across the countryside, just because it may have worked somewhere else (i.e. the Chiapas). Be sensitive to local conditions, the ease of transportation and means of communication, and the needs and desires of participants.
• Avoid redundant ceremonialism, if time and resources are scarce. (Anyway, the 20th century is full of unhappy lessons of what happens when politics becomes too aestheticized.)

Well, that's it. I'm not trying to rain on an exciting and beautiful parade, just offer some perspective. Stay strong, stay real, and stay in touch.

--MFL 3.ix.97

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