In place of the GCM in July we held a series of meetings instead under the project Future Sight.
Full Future Sight report can be read here but basic minutes of the sessions are below:

The Future Sight Workshops Session 0 • AGM Possibility Explosion This took place during the DSFL AGM in May 2019. It was a quick half hour brainstorm to identify some of the positives and setbacks of how we’ve been working, according to a group of 27 currently active volunteers and freelance workers, under the themes of Money, Structure, Labour and Community. Session I • Inspiration Stations: DSFL meets Partisan Manchester Thursday 18th July 7.30 – 9pm How do other spaces like ours organise themselves and what can we learn from these models? We heard from Xav Cohen, Events and Venue Coordinator from Partisan, Manchester’s cooperative arts and social space, all about their approach to organising, their model, its successes and challenges, to help us get inspiration and food for thought, with a Q&A. This evening also included smaller group discussions where we reflected on what we heard. Session II • DSFL Maps ‘n’ Gaps Sunday 21st July 2019, 2-6pm This session helped us get a full grip on the tasks, roles and responsibilities that currently exist or are undertaken in the space. We needed a map of where we are to know where to go next. We did this via a process of participatory mapping, starting the process of remodelling how we work. Which are the dormant collectives? Who is accountable for which tasks at DSFL? Who is paid and unpaid and why? When is communication simplest and most complex and on which platforms? Which are the particular sites of overstretch and burnout? Who knows what about each area and how do we democratise this knowledge? We mapped all tasks of almost all the collectives and then plotted them based first on priority and then on how often that task is getting done! We ate delicious food from DSFL's Food Collective Session III • DSFL Future in Sight! Sunday 28th July 2019, 2–6pm Reflecting on what we’ve learnt over the past three workshops, we worked through the process of building our new models. Using interactive group work we refined our ideas together, from small adjustments to current processes to bigger changes to our priorities. What could be improved upon? What else works? Where can we save to spend elsewhere? How might we consolidate and adjust how we work to support healthy boundaries, our shared social and political goals, and collective and individual mental health and wellbeing? How can we make our new trial model sustainable, clear and transparent to new members? The resulting proposals were then subject to an indicative vote in person at the end of this session, using the ‘Ideas Rating System’ as a more refined version of ‘Dotmocracy’ By the end of this session we had the beginnings of a costed model to communicate to the wider global membership. Yes, we ate food from DSFL's Food Collective again. 5 B A C K T O I N D E X Participation Attending participants 23 members, with most attending all three sessions External participants Opportunities to participate via a dedicated email, Loomio, Whatsapp and public facing messages on all social channels about this opportunity.