Mike van Graan of the organisation’s Interim Steering Committee presents the following report:
Here is a time framework about how we got to this point.
January 18: Sibongile Mngoma launches the Facebook group to mobilise the creative sector to hold accountable corrupt administrators and politicians for their adverse impact on the sector. The Facebook group – known as Im4theArts - is coordinated by a Working Group of volunteers invited by Sibongile to assist her to manage the group and the page.
January 31: The group grows to 7,000 members proving that the motivation for the group has struck a chord.
February
4: Njabulo Madlala summarises the grievances raised
by members of the group into 78 points.
February
4: Im4theArts Working Group members meet the
Director General and senior management of the Dept of Sports, Arts and Culture
for the first time to share the grievances of the group’s members.
February
10: The group grows to 11,000 members
February
17: Im4theArts meets the Director General and
senior DSAC management for a second time.
February
28: The group has 15,000 members
March
26: The President announces a three-week lockdown
to stall the spread of COVID-19.
While the Facebook group has thousands of
members, it becomes clear that in order for it to act effectively, it needs a
clearer leadership structure, with more formal mandates for action and so that
it cannot be excluded from forums dealing with artists’ issues because it is
deemed to be an informal structure.
April
20: The Working Group posts a proposed Vision
Statement for Im4theArts including a Mission, Values, Principles and Aims and
tags thousands of members of the group to provide feedback.
April 24: The Working Group
posts a document outlining three options to structure the group; the document
includes a rationale for structuring the group, outlines the challenges in
devising a structure and provides options for the status quo to continue, for a
flat online structure and for a formally constituted body.
May
8: The revised Vision Statement is posted and
members of the group are invited to comment about a few contested elements.
May
8: Summarised versions of the three structure
options are posted and members are tagged, inviting them to select one.
May
13: It is announced that 70% of those who voted
opted for the formal structure.
May
19: The final version of the Vision, Mission,
Values, Principles and Aims of Im4theArts is posted in the Facebook group.
May
22: The Working Group – now rebranded as the
Interim Steering Committee (ISC) - agrees to build a critical mass of members
who subscribe to the Vision, Mission, Values, Principles and Aims in order to
launch a formal structure with signed up membership and an elected National
Steering Committee by 1 September.
June
3: Im4theArts hosts the first of its weekly
webinars and calls for members of the group to sign up as members of the
organisation by completing an online form and declaring their support for the
Vision, Mission, Values, Principles and Aims.
June
4: An online membership form is posted and members
of the group are tagged to sign up.
June
10: Members of the Facebook group are again invited
to sign up online as members of Im4theArts, the organisation.
June
12: Members of the Facebook group are invited to
join Working Groups on Advocacy, Arts Education, Communication, Cultural Policy
and Sustainability. To be part of such working groups, members of the group
need to sign up as formal members of the organisation.
June
22-24: Im4theArts hosts a Winter School and
hundreds of members sign up in order to participate in the courses on offer.
June
26: By the end of the Winter School, 560
individuals have signed up formally as members of Im4theArts.
June
29: The ISC publishes a draft Constitution in the
Facebook group and invites feedback; the Constitution will be the basis for
formalising Im4theArts as an organisation.
July
2-9: The first meetings of the Working Groups take
place and elect convenors who will serve on the new National Steering
Committee.
July
15: The Constitution – amended in line with
feedback from members of the group – is finalised and distributed directly by
email to the signed-up members for adoption by 29 July. Another call for formal
membership is made, again reminding members of the group that liking the
Facebook page and being a member of the Facebook group does not translate to
formal membership.
July
15: The membership form is posted again in the
Facebook group since the Constitution requires that individuals be members for
at least 14 days to be eligible to stand for election and/or to vote in the
elections.
July
27: A call for nominations for President,
Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson is made directly by email to over 700
signed-up members of Im4theArts.
July
29: The Constitution – which, in order to ensure
that Im4theArts is a national organisation, may be adopted when Gauteng,
Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have at least 50 members each, and when three
other provinces have 25 members and the remaining three have at least ten
members - is formally adopted by 100% of the members who voted.
July
31: Nominations for the three top positions close,
and Sibongile Mngoma – founder of Im4theArts Facebook Group - is elected
unopposed to the position of President of Im4theArts, the organisation.
August
1: Another call for members to sign up is made, and
should anyone new sign up by 3 August, they will not be able to participate in
the provincial elections from 8-10 August, but they will be able to vote in the
election for 7 national members to the National Steering Committee which is
scheduled for 15-17 August.
August
18: The new National Steering Committee will be in
place from 18 August, and members of the Interim Steering Committee who did not
stand for election or who were not voted in, will stand down.
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