Earlier this evening, Sandra and I met with the Corpus Christi Progressive Populist Caucus in order to discuss moving Portside Books to the Corpus Christi Progressive Center. As it turns out, we really only needed to talk to Abel Cavada and Joy Miller, who determine which groups can set up shop in the Center. Their offer was exceptional. If we choose to move the store there:

• We will not pay rent.
• We will have complete autonomy -- i.e., we shall run the store as we see fit.
• We can decorate our store within reason. In other words, we can put up posters and such, but nothing that might be considered obscene, etc. I doubt this would be a problem.
• We would have access to the Progressive Center's courtyard. We could plan events, etc.
  
• Likewise, we would be able to sell books at other events there.
• We would probably benefit from the advertisements for events at the Center that run in We The People.

In exchange for all this, we'd probably be expected to do minor things such as clean and help repaint, etc. 

However:

• We could not sell thrift at this location. We might be able to compensate by throwing thrift/rummage sales once a month or as need be.
• There is no air conditioning. Fortunately, the house was designed so that breezes go through it.
• We would probably have to be dilligent about distinguishing ourselves and our politics from the Progressives. In practice, Portside Books is essentially an anarchistic, anti-capitalist bookstore. Although there is considerable overlap in our concerns, progressive values and strategy are inimical to, and incompatible with, the anti-authoritarianism and anti-capitalism we embrace.
• We would need super committed volunteers. As in, the sort of people who sign up for shifts and actually stick to them.

On the plus side, workers might even be paid, since John Kelley also told me and Sandra that they wanted to run a coffee shop out of the Progressive Center, but they were low on manpower. If Portside Books were to handle this function, giving of course a cut of the money made from coffee to the Progressive Center, this could be pretty lucrative. The Progressive Center is situated right across from the court house, and with some modest flyering we could sell coffee to Monday morning jury crowds. The outside area could be converted into a cafe setting with some work. Naturally, we made it clear that we were only interested in selling fair trade coffee. He was all for it.

This deals with step one in my previous post, which sketched out some thoughts of mine about how to proceed with Portside. In my second point in my previous post, I suggested setting up a bank account so that Portside members could begin saving up for a grander project. After meeting with John and discussing it with Sandra, we both agree that it actually makes more sense to simply designate a general Portside fund, for members to use as they see fit. This is a better fit when it is assumed that Portside could stay at the Progressive Center indefinitely, and is actually more of an organic way of doing things. So maybe we could save up for a new location, but if that's unncessary then it makes just as much sense to use funds to order new books, pay for ad space, etc.

I much prefer this plan over my previous one. 

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