We held our first members meeting 18 July as an opportunity for our new members to come together to get to know each other better and to discuss our shared values and what we want the membership to be.

What’s important to you about being a member?

Members shared that networking, sharing resources, skillsharing, supporting each other and collective action was important to them. As community organisers and activists we need to be holistic and sustainable and this is only possible if we work together. Whilst everyone was very keen to support each other they were also mindful of not having much time or capacity so it will be important to find ways to make this work around people’s other commitments. We also talked about the need for care and support around wellbeing, and a role for allies to help with this.

What do we want to do together?

We did a visioning exercise imagining what Redistro could be in 20 years time and what we could achieve. People talked of Redistro helping to bring communities back together again, inspiring action in other places, having hubs across the city, being a place where adults can dream again and communities having their power back. We talked of having a legacy to pass on to the next generation.

How do we want to be together?

In small groups we took some time to think about and share our values and principles as members, here’s a few of the things that came up:

• Flexibility – understanding of different life experiences/ needs
• Aiming for revolution
• No prejudices
• Rest!
• Serving the community/ staying rooted in the local Bristol community
• Collective over individual
• Liberation for our communities
• Democratic processes
• Power to the grassroots
• Socialising
• Autonomy
• Respect
• Dignity
• Trust
• Culture of kindness
• Honesty
• Intersectionality
• Decolonial
• Have a voice
• Being heard/ listening
• Empathy
• Diversity
• Inclusivity
• Equality
• Acceptance
• Non-judgemental
• Compassionate

The meeting was attended by 33 people, representing 24 of our 30 members: Bristol East Disabled Society, South Bristol Sisters, Bristol Ballroom, Spotlight Community Group South Bristol ( SEND), Abolitionist Healing Collective, Wonderfully Made BU, When Nature Speaks, Healing in Dub, A Space to Breathe, Knowle West Connection, The Great Oak Tree Hub, Bristol Autism Centre, Cushion, VORCH, Mix and Match Gardening, Genesis Training and Life Chances, Mrsclutterbug, Let’s Talk Let’s Do, Trans Resistance Action Network (TRAN+), The Cause, BS14 Global Community POC, Trashegimia -The Albanian Heritage and two individual associate members.

With thanks to our amazing facilitator, Yaz Brien, for helping us design the day and guiding us through.