IT was inevitable that, as the grassroots Yes DIY movement grew and grew, eventually someone would see the sense of a national get-together to discuss the way forward.
Those clever people at the National Yes Registry and the IndyApp have done just that and as many as 450 people from all over Scotland are expected to participate in the first national Gathering of the local grassroots groups in Stirling on Sunday, May 27.
Organisers say it is specifically designed to have individual Yessers, local groups, their members and all of Scotland’s different community needs at its centre.
The day in the Albert Halls will start with registration and breakfast after which the new completed IndyApp2.0 will have its official launch. Former MP Dennis Canavan will give the keynote speech at 10am and The National can reveal Mhairi Black will address the Gathering by video link. Participants will then come together in workshops to help develop and guide grassroots supporters into an effective campaigning movement, ready for indyref2, whenever it’s called. A full programme for the day will be emailed to all participants. Breakfast, lunch and all-day refreshments are included in the £14 ticket.
In the evening, there will be social Gathering in the form of a ceilidh dinner, for which tickets cost £20.
Tickets for both events can be bought at nationalyesregistry.scot. No profit will be made from and all accounts will be published.
Organisers must know numbers attending by May 17 for final payment of the event’s £8000 catering expenses. Jason Baird, who is one of the organisers said: “This will not be another ‘top table’ Yes conference, finished when the speakers have said their piece and everyone goes home. Instead, the Gathering will be the start of a collective process of group mobilisation, one where individual participation, group consent, popular support and new technology come together to build Yes into an effective, non-party political campaigning force that is ready and prepared to fight indyref2.
“Autonomous groups lead themselves, so the real task of those participating in the Gathering is to identify: shared experiences, campaign ideas, resources and proposals that the groups collectively feel are of strategic importance to the movement.
"These will all be posted on the newly launched IndyApp for the networked groups, all across the country, to assess and then decide upon for themselves.”
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