Post by kim on Jan 29, 2012 21:09:13 GMT -7
Agenda & Minutes to GA of 01/29/2012
~ 20 people in attendance
Agenda
Review of Process. Begin by establishing principles.
Working under set stack: 10 comments taken, go through all before adding more comments to stack. Peacekeeper set.
I. Announcements
II. Working group reports
1. Occupy Congress
2. Communication
3. Direct Action
4. Foreclosure Defense
5. Move to Amend
6. Facilitation
7. Finance
8. Encampment
9. New Groups? –none
III. Proposals
1. State aloud/Scribe
2. Clarifications/questions
3. Concerns
4. Resolution
IV. Discussion of Proposals
V. Other Business
VI. Confirm date/time/place of next meetings
VII. Evaluation of Meeting
VIII. Adjournment: Discussion & Soapbox
Minutes
I. Announcements
a. The film “The Economics of Happiness” is showing on Feb 2 in the theatre on the 3rd floor of the UC. Deb VanPoolen of Occupy Ashland is here on her way to Occupy DC. She worked on the film and is planning to be at the showing. I just spoke with her this morning and she will be staying in DC for a few extra days because of the threatened raid on both of the encampments there. She asked me to strongly encourage all of us to make calls to the park service in support of those camps: Bob Vogel superintendent (202)245-4661 or Jon Jarvis director (202)208-3818). (One amazing factoid-the health department came and did an inspection of their kitchen and gave them a 100% rating!!) POI: She came to a consensus meeting and is an excellent source of inspiration and knowledge.
b. Conference call to discuss a national gathering on July 4th taking place every other Thursday. Meeting is open-ended and flexible, likely to be in Philadelphia. Talk to Stephen. Conference call coming up this Thursday. Stephen planning to attend and is a part of the national working group around that.
c. Labor Film festival at the Roxy next week, Feb 3 & 4. Poster on the Union Hall door that outlines the films playing. Entry by donation. POI: first movie at 5:30, $5 donation requested for one, $9 for both each night.
d. Charlotte NC group violence: information is by the calendar. Make calls, letters, etc.
e. Occupy Social Forum in Olympia, 18 & 19th February. Several people going, Casey communicating with OccupyOlympia. Much of the northwest region showing interest, 200-300 people expected. Social forum, workshops, agenda will be developed there. Talk to Casey to get involved. Leave 17th, return 20th (Presidents day). May have actions planned on Presidents Day. Have houses where people can stay.
f. Oakland last night: will be on the news. National headline news. Occupied an unused convention center. Riot police stopped them, 400 people arrested. Some violence occurred. No one knows who it was, could be agent provocateurs. Explosives present, broke into county building, and burned a flag. Wider implication for the group: will bring a proposal around this.
II. Working Group Reports
1. Occupy Congress Report: Was a great success, about 3000 people from all over the nation. Still many people there now. Eviction a concern. Took over the west lawn, 1500-2000 people participated in a national GA. Did breakout groups of about 300 people, and then reconvened for reports. Visionary breakout: ideas going forth, what to do, how to move forward. Vacant homes, free services, community GAs, involving the homeless, guerrilla gardening, operate radio stations, workgroups to develop proposals, etc. Networking: InterOccupy, outreach through other forms, to union, postal service, communications with rally bus, Occupy Café on line to facility conference call between Occupies/ National Call to Action: Discussion of diversity of tactics & best use of time. Options include to avoid tactics which you do not agree with them, and looking at effectiveness of tactics. Occupy.net will have tools for occupations. Attended a GA at the national monument. GA at present is about 15 people(!). Interestingly, the encampment people were not overly supportive of the GA (or, more accurately, yelling “F*@# the GA”). Spokes-council model consists of occupation working groups. Members rotate between being the spokesperson for that group. Stayed there for the Occupy the Courts rally as well, and at the supreme court had about 300 people total. Interesting insight into police provocateurs and undercover tactics. Not as relevant here, but good to be aware. Will post his notes from the GA and the visit to the listserv. Occupy the Dream: The Civil Rights movement is making a commitment to Occupy, we should reach out to civil rights groups here. Occupy Farms: Organic farming group looking to build up farms to feed occupies. Macpherson Square has about 100 people camping there now, between the two camps probably 300 camping. Mix of people, actively homeless and others. Hold nightly GAs ts Macpherson, differentiating between decision-making GAs and informational GAs. Publicity? Had 680 articles posted, Fox showed the smoke-bomb, MSNBC did a piece.
2. May Day: Still getting going, so no fixed meeting yet. May Day planning will happen for May Day here in Missoula. Meanwhile, the NATO- G8 summits will kick off in Chicago that day as well. Stephen will be out there and be a contact person for anyone interested in going out there. The group he is working with will be providing food support, & will need constant volunteers. Be aware that this will be a militarized police state; you will want to prepare yourself and read about it before going. Rahm Emmanuel is drafting frightening defense and crowd control legislation.
3. Union Working Group: Meeting on Thursdays at the union hall basement. Mark organizing in other parts of the state right now, so not meeting regularly but generally meeting at 5pm Thursday.
4. Communications Group: Meetings on Monday at 5:30 pm at the Break. Jim was invited to join as a tech online person. Mostly became a discussion of forum topics, but overall was to review the services we have available and how to get more people involved. Constant tension between screening what goes out through different media outlets, and allowing freedom. How to use the website & other online outlets more effectively for outreach to the community. What do we want to communicate on a larger scale? Basically right now if anyone asks for something to be posted, he posts it, and that person is responsible for the content.
Meanwhile, Occupymissoula.com is an open site so anyone can post anything they want to it. Idea and premise is that it is completely open and transparent. Anonymity is the capstone. Can imbed videos, can submit forums. Archiving work will be done. Provides a level of freedom not available or tolerated on the web, avoiding censorship. Occupymissoula.org will be different. Will be divergent. Wordpress has ads, so people can target it with advertising. Need to move away from blogs. [For occupymissoula.org], mediators will correct mistakes if people post html content. During the Occupy the Courts rally two lists of email addresses were collected, one for Move to Amend specifically, another to update people on Occupy Missoula events. Listserv seems like it is for internal communications, any process in place for those that want informational posts only? Occupymissoula@gmail.com is used that way, give list the moderator.
5. Direct Action: Meet at 4:30 Saturdays at the Break. First Friday action at Free Speech corner. Info will be sent to the occupymissoula@gmail for posting.
6. Foreclosure Defense Group/strategic planning group: Meetings Sundays at 12:00 noon at the Break. Trying to tackle the larger issue of how to keep people engaged by looking towards what the movement is more widely about. Came up with the concept of the octopus: the head is the “demon” that we want to defeat, the tentacles are the actions that will get us there. Will pass around a handout for people to fill out, please return to Foreclosure Defense group at next GA.
7. Move to Amend working group: Meeting Monday 2pm at the Break to talk about next steps.
8. Facilitation: Meeting at 1:00pm on Sundays prior to each GA. Would love to have your help! Facilitation is on everyone, if we go off process or something is not clear, chime in with POP, etc. Support roles are set up before hand, so if someone can’t stay for the entire meeting it can be arranged to relieve them.
9. Finance: Meeting at 6pm on Fridays, Break Espresso. Short meeting. Talked about fund raising and a website for targeted collecting of funds for certain events. Account opened with Denny’s copy shop. with $10 anonymous donation in it now. POI: Good Food store was given to the Houseless working group/Encampment. Good Food Store is ok with two accounts, just need a description so they can explain the accounts to those who want to give to them.
10. Consensus Group: Meets on Wednesdays at 7pm in Union Hall basement. Working on 3 proposals: List of Principals, Structure of the GA, and the Decision Making Process. Organically developing to refine process. Will likely bring them next week, then give a couple weeks for the group to process them.
11. Educational Working Group: Free school class suspended for now, until the next class begins. Some of the people from that class have joined with Transition town movements in Missoula.
12. Encampment working group: Q: Are they still having regular meetings? It is on the calendar. Not meeting, but doing their own houseless outreach. Jimmy passed away at the transit station this past week. Was in need of constant attention, has affected the Encampment people immensely. United Methodist Church had a homeless outreach to provide services and gather statistics this week.
III. Proposals
A. Statement of Proposals – Scribed
a. Proposal: From Foreclosure Defense Group (FDG) . Propose we engage the GA in the Octopus activity with the goal of beginning to define the issues around which we will activate and educate. Fill the Octo-form out today, or being them home and return them to FDG later.
b. Proposal: Alternating weeks, Decision-Making GAs and Working GAs.
c. Proposal: Last minute so not well developed but comes out of what happened in Occupy Oakland last night. How do other actions in other cities affect our group? Believe it might have been agent provocateurs, but likely to happen more and more as people try to make the movement look bad. Make a statement that we make a statement that we are committed to non-violence.
B. Other point of discussion:
a. Follow up on retreat (Form working group?)
b. Another model that might integrate with first two proposals, have a hand out with flow chart, details not developed but will hand out the information for everyone’s consideration leading up to the next GA
IV. Discussion of Proposals
Prioritization of Proposals: Communication around Occupy Oakland first, then in order stated originally.
a. Proposal: Our group should make a statement to the Missoulian and wider audience that we, Occupy Missoula, are non-violent and some of the things we saw reported on at Occupy Oakland were violent, and we do not condone that violence. Will need to take care to express it, since it could be agent provocateurs. Rough draft.
Questions:
i. Isn’t non-violence covered in our declaration/yes but we might need to counter this directly. What we know is that violence took place. POI: Not on NPR yet, but it is on the front page of Yahoo, and other media.
ii. Criticize government violence and law enforcement as well
iii. Make it a brief statement.
iv. Has anyone from the Missoulian contacted us yet? /No
v. Where will this communication go? Send to other Occupies as well?/Contact with Helena and Bozeman. Occupy MT facebook has a statement of standing in solidarity Oakland./ We support Oakland, just not the violence
vi. Instead of a written statement, can someone be interviewed?/Yes, we have people who are willing to be interviewed.
Comments & concerns:
i. Important to put it out, community will hear about it and we need to clarify.
ii. 19 cities have confirmed actions in support of Oakland, full breadth of information has not come out. Any statement we make MUST condemn violence all around, including condemning police/state violence. “Echo” event: police clamp down violently, people fight back.
iii. Lack of information about what went down. Oakland has riots.
iv. Second the proposal, keeping the initiative is fundamental, keep support.
v. Lack of information is frustrating. After confrontation here over the tent, learning it is hard to be a community that listens to everyone.
vi. Protesters are there for justice.
vii. Beyond black blocks and violent groups: those groups would not be there if there weren’t cops there.
viii. It appears we are in agreement that we want to make a statement of solidarity but condemn violence. Reach out as much as possible to say we are non-violent.
ix. Clear, simple, precise, with quotations from our declaration. Time is of the essence. One article tomorrow is likely the only coverage it will get.
x. No discussion about information we don’t have!
xi. If communicating with the government, contest that they are legitimate if they use violence on their citizens.
xii. Don’t include discussion of those things we don’t know, & keep it general. Reiterate that we are totally opposed to violence. Avoid talking about what we don’t know.
xiii. Synthesis: Intention was to keep it short, and to state we are committed to non-violence by anyone in Occupy or by the police and state, as well as solidarity with Oakland. Concern: Occupy taken over before. Headline will go across the country that Occupy burns the flag. Damaging. Not in favor of what happened in Oakland or of the violence. POP: Out of Stack. POP: Time check, 4pm.
xiv. Synthesis: OM has been and will remain committed to nonviolence and we stand in solidarity with the non-violent protesters in Oakland. We disavow violence by both the people and by the state and police./Yes, Consensed.
xv. The “scandal plagued Oakland police department” is in the news, and we don’t know what’s going on out there.
xvi. Check Occupy Oakland’s website for a statement of nonviolence.
xvii. Consensus is that it will be sent out broadly to other occupies, news outlets, and will call news contact directly.
xviii. Join Casey to draft it after the meeting. Will be sent out immediately.
b. Proposal: From Foreclosure Defense Group. Propose we engage the GA in the Octopus activity with the goal of beginning to define the issues around which we will activate and educate. Fill the out today, or being them home and return them to Becca. (A handout was passed around for everyone to fill out. Please return to Foreclosure defense group members at next week’s GA.) /Yes, Consensed
c. Proposal: Pass the proposal that every other Sunday will be a Working GA, starting this week with a decision making GA and thus a working GA next week, understanding that we need to develop the structure and list of what constitutes an “emergency proposal” for Working GAs in a work group. /Yes, Consensed
Question, Concerns, Comments (I was responding to these as the one bringing the proposal, so pardon the lousy note-taking during this part! )
i. Call it something else? Not to confuse it with the working groups? /It is the working groups! Allows Working groups to collaborate.
ii. Make it so that if we can make a decision if needed? /Yes, work it into the structure.
iii. Structure of Working GA: Start with Announcements, facilitators ask for Proposals, if none brought then move into the workout sessions, then reconvene into one group afterwards to share what came out of the sessions.
iv. Breakout groups can bring bulletpoints back to spokes-council type discussion following the sessions.
v. Like the idea of switching up the GA and doing it alternatively, but this leaves the door open; if we ask for proposal we could get off track and never get to the working groups if there is a proposal.
vi. We have structured a means for calling an emergency GA.
vii. Occupy Oakland website: police arresting them for being nuisance/POP, off topic. Talk about it later please!
viii. Proposals that go through the GA most smoothly have a lot of people working on them, so a working group GA is a good way to tighten up proposals that are in process.
V. Other Business: Discussion (POP: Extend meeting to 4:45? Yes)
a. Retreat Report (5min). Questionnaire responses recorded. Date? Mid to late February targeted. Hard copies of form available at the GA, also sent out to the listserv.
i. Clarifying: retreat—scratch that name and call it strategic planning/Yes
ii. Has anyone called to check availability of Union Hall?/Not super comfortable for day long discussions, but can be considered.
iii. Interested in having bands here for a social & potluck on a Sat/Sun?/ Vibe check. Yes but keep it a strategizing meeting.
iv. Ok to bring this back up next week before we break out in to working group sessions?/ Yes, Consensed.
b. Forum. Next Tuesday Money and Politics Part 2. Topic was set ahead of time and people came prepared to talk about that. Allow the forum participants to decide what will be talked about at the next forum. What that topic is will be announced at the GA, posted on the calendars, etc. Open forum for the community to join the discussion. Forum will be a working group, make a working group report that lets the GA know what was discussed and what the next topic will be. Union Hall 6pm.
VI. Confirm date/time/place of next assemblies: Set time and date of next: 2pm at Union Hall. Facilitation group meets at 1pm
Sunday: Union Hall 2pm
Tuesday: Forum, 6 pm Union Hall
Friday , Occupy the Oval: School is back in session, Monday meeting 3pm.
VII. Evaluation of Meeting
Handled difficult topic well, kept it on task and accomplished what we set out to do on the agenda, give props to facilitators/went great, 3 proposals and 3 topics, bullheaded facilitator?/ditto/amazed at the process of getting things refined before they come in to the GA/ditto/been feeling more inspired and think that the GAs are a little more uplifting and momentous, less troubled/lot less clunky than in the past, getting it done! Getting better each time/ditto/when we implement this new GA proposal, we should be aware that this is something new and there will be a learning curve, be patient. Might not be seamless, so try to keep structure/appreciative of new stack keeper stepping up! Challenging to facilitate, and be firm with structure while allowing things to develop organically/having a new facilitator was great, the facilitator should always wear horns.
VII. Adjournment 4:52pm.
Post Meeting Discussion & Soapbox
~ 20 people in attendance
Agenda
Review of Process. Begin by establishing principles.
Working under set stack: 10 comments taken, go through all before adding more comments to stack. Peacekeeper set.
I. Announcements
II. Working group reports
1. Occupy Congress
2. Communication
3. Direct Action
4. Foreclosure Defense
5. Move to Amend
6. Facilitation
7. Finance
8. Encampment
9. New Groups? –none
III. Proposals
1. State aloud/Scribe
2. Clarifications/questions
3. Concerns
4. Resolution
IV. Discussion of Proposals
V. Other Business
VI. Confirm date/time/place of next meetings
VII. Evaluation of Meeting
VIII. Adjournment: Discussion & Soapbox
Minutes
I. Announcements
a. The film “The Economics of Happiness” is showing on Feb 2 in the theatre on the 3rd floor of the UC. Deb VanPoolen of Occupy Ashland is here on her way to Occupy DC. She worked on the film and is planning to be at the showing. I just spoke with her this morning and she will be staying in DC for a few extra days because of the threatened raid on both of the encampments there. She asked me to strongly encourage all of us to make calls to the park service in support of those camps: Bob Vogel superintendent (202)245-4661 or Jon Jarvis director (202)208-3818). (One amazing factoid-the health department came and did an inspection of their kitchen and gave them a 100% rating!!) POI: She came to a consensus meeting and is an excellent source of inspiration and knowledge.
b. Conference call to discuss a national gathering on July 4th taking place every other Thursday. Meeting is open-ended and flexible, likely to be in Philadelphia. Talk to Stephen. Conference call coming up this Thursday. Stephen planning to attend and is a part of the national working group around that.
c. Labor Film festival at the Roxy next week, Feb 3 & 4. Poster on the Union Hall door that outlines the films playing. Entry by donation. POI: first movie at 5:30, $5 donation requested for one, $9 for both each night.
d. Charlotte NC group violence: information is by the calendar. Make calls, letters, etc.
e. Occupy Social Forum in Olympia, 18 & 19th February. Several people going, Casey communicating with OccupyOlympia. Much of the northwest region showing interest, 200-300 people expected. Social forum, workshops, agenda will be developed there. Talk to Casey to get involved. Leave 17th, return 20th (Presidents day). May have actions planned on Presidents Day. Have houses where people can stay.
f. Oakland last night: will be on the news. National headline news. Occupied an unused convention center. Riot police stopped them, 400 people arrested. Some violence occurred. No one knows who it was, could be agent provocateurs. Explosives present, broke into county building, and burned a flag. Wider implication for the group: will bring a proposal around this.
II. Working Group Reports
1. Occupy Congress Report: Was a great success, about 3000 people from all over the nation. Still many people there now. Eviction a concern. Took over the west lawn, 1500-2000 people participated in a national GA. Did breakout groups of about 300 people, and then reconvened for reports. Visionary breakout: ideas going forth, what to do, how to move forward. Vacant homes, free services, community GAs, involving the homeless, guerrilla gardening, operate radio stations, workgroups to develop proposals, etc. Networking: InterOccupy, outreach through other forms, to union, postal service, communications with rally bus, Occupy Café on line to facility conference call between Occupies/ National Call to Action: Discussion of diversity of tactics & best use of time. Options include to avoid tactics which you do not agree with them, and looking at effectiveness of tactics. Occupy.net will have tools for occupations. Attended a GA at the national monument. GA at present is about 15 people(!). Interestingly, the encampment people were not overly supportive of the GA (or, more accurately, yelling “F*@# the GA”). Spokes-council model consists of occupation working groups. Members rotate between being the spokesperson for that group. Stayed there for the Occupy the Courts rally as well, and at the supreme court had about 300 people total. Interesting insight into police provocateurs and undercover tactics. Not as relevant here, but good to be aware. Will post his notes from the GA and the visit to the listserv. Occupy the Dream: The Civil Rights movement is making a commitment to Occupy, we should reach out to civil rights groups here. Occupy Farms: Organic farming group looking to build up farms to feed occupies. Macpherson Square has about 100 people camping there now, between the two camps probably 300 camping. Mix of people, actively homeless and others. Hold nightly GAs ts Macpherson, differentiating between decision-making GAs and informational GAs. Publicity? Had 680 articles posted, Fox showed the smoke-bomb, MSNBC did a piece.
2. May Day: Still getting going, so no fixed meeting yet. May Day planning will happen for May Day here in Missoula. Meanwhile, the NATO- G8 summits will kick off in Chicago that day as well. Stephen will be out there and be a contact person for anyone interested in going out there. The group he is working with will be providing food support, & will need constant volunteers. Be aware that this will be a militarized police state; you will want to prepare yourself and read about it before going. Rahm Emmanuel is drafting frightening defense and crowd control legislation.
3. Union Working Group: Meeting on Thursdays at the union hall basement. Mark organizing in other parts of the state right now, so not meeting regularly but generally meeting at 5pm Thursday.
4. Communications Group: Meetings on Monday at 5:30 pm at the Break. Jim was invited to join as a tech online person. Mostly became a discussion of forum topics, but overall was to review the services we have available and how to get more people involved. Constant tension between screening what goes out through different media outlets, and allowing freedom. How to use the website & other online outlets more effectively for outreach to the community. What do we want to communicate on a larger scale? Basically right now if anyone asks for something to be posted, he posts it, and that person is responsible for the content.
Meanwhile, Occupymissoula.com is an open site so anyone can post anything they want to it. Idea and premise is that it is completely open and transparent. Anonymity is the capstone. Can imbed videos, can submit forums. Archiving work will be done. Provides a level of freedom not available or tolerated on the web, avoiding censorship. Occupymissoula.org will be different. Will be divergent. Wordpress has ads, so people can target it with advertising. Need to move away from blogs. [For occupymissoula.org], mediators will correct mistakes if people post html content. During the Occupy the Courts rally two lists of email addresses were collected, one for Move to Amend specifically, another to update people on Occupy Missoula events. Listserv seems like it is for internal communications, any process in place for those that want informational posts only? Occupymissoula@gmail.com is used that way, give list the moderator.
5. Direct Action: Meet at 4:30 Saturdays at the Break. First Friday action at Free Speech corner. Info will be sent to the occupymissoula@gmail for posting.
6. Foreclosure Defense Group/strategic planning group: Meetings Sundays at 12:00 noon at the Break. Trying to tackle the larger issue of how to keep people engaged by looking towards what the movement is more widely about. Came up with the concept of the octopus: the head is the “demon” that we want to defeat, the tentacles are the actions that will get us there. Will pass around a handout for people to fill out, please return to Foreclosure Defense group at next GA.
7. Move to Amend working group: Meeting Monday 2pm at the Break to talk about next steps.
8. Facilitation: Meeting at 1:00pm on Sundays prior to each GA. Would love to have your help! Facilitation is on everyone, if we go off process or something is not clear, chime in with POP, etc. Support roles are set up before hand, so if someone can’t stay for the entire meeting it can be arranged to relieve them.
9. Finance: Meeting at 6pm on Fridays, Break Espresso. Short meeting. Talked about fund raising and a website for targeted collecting of funds for certain events. Account opened with Denny’s copy shop. with $10 anonymous donation in it now. POI: Good Food store was given to the Houseless working group/Encampment. Good Food Store is ok with two accounts, just need a description so they can explain the accounts to those who want to give to them.
10. Consensus Group: Meets on Wednesdays at 7pm in Union Hall basement. Working on 3 proposals: List of Principals, Structure of the GA, and the Decision Making Process. Organically developing to refine process. Will likely bring them next week, then give a couple weeks for the group to process them.
11. Educational Working Group: Free school class suspended for now, until the next class begins. Some of the people from that class have joined with Transition town movements in Missoula.
12. Encampment working group: Q: Are they still having regular meetings? It is on the calendar. Not meeting, but doing their own houseless outreach. Jimmy passed away at the transit station this past week. Was in need of constant attention, has affected the Encampment people immensely. United Methodist Church had a homeless outreach to provide services and gather statistics this week.
III. Proposals
A. Statement of Proposals – Scribed
a. Proposal: From Foreclosure Defense Group (FDG) . Propose we engage the GA in the Octopus activity with the goal of beginning to define the issues around which we will activate and educate. Fill the Octo-form out today, or being them home and return them to FDG later.
b. Proposal: Alternating weeks, Decision-Making GAs and Working GAs.
c. Proposal: Last minute so not well developed but comes out of what happened in Occupy Oakland last night. How do other actions in other cities affect our group? Believe it might have been agent provocateurs, but likely to happen more and more as people try to make the movement look bad. Make a statement that we make a statement that we are committed to non-violence.
B. Other point of discussion:
a. Follow up on retreat (Form working group?)
b. Another model that might integrate with first two proposals, have a hand out with flow chart, details not developed but will hand out the information for everyone’s consideration leading up to the next GA
IV. Discussion of Proposals
Prioritization of Proposals: Communication around Occupy Oakland first, then in order stated originally.
a. Proposal: Our group should make a statement to the Missoulian and wider audience that we, Occupy Missoula, are non-violent and some of the things we saw reported on at Occupy Oakland were violent, and we do not condone that violence. Will need to take care to express it, since it could be agent provocateurs. Rough draft.
Questions:
i. Isn’t non-violence covered in our declaration/yes but we might need to counter this directly. What we know is that violence took place. POI: Not on NPR yet, but it is on the front page of Yahoo, and other media.
ii. Criticize government violence and law enforcement as well
iii. Make it a brief statement.
iv. Has anyone from the Missoulian contacted us yet? /No
v. Where will this communication go? Send to other Occupies as well?/Contact with Helena and Bozeman. Occupy MT facebook has a statement of standing in solidarity Oakland./ We support Oakland, just not the violence
vi. Instead of a written statement, can someone be interviewed?/Yes, we have people who are willing to be interviewed.
Comments & concerns:
i. Important to put it out, community will hear about it and we need to clarify.
ii. 19 cities have confirmed actions in support of Oakland, full breadth of information has not come out. Any statement we make MUST condemn violence all around, including condemning police/state violence. “Echo” event: police clamp down violently, people fight back.
iii. Lack of information about what went down. Oakland has riots.
iv. Second the proposal, keeping the initiative is fundamental, keep support.
v. Lack of information is frustrating. After confrontation here over the tent, learning it is hard to be a community that listens to everyone.
vi. Protesters are there for justice.
vii. Beyond black blocks and violent groups: those groups would not be there if there weren’t cops there.
viii. It appears we are in agreement that we want to make a statement of solidarity but condemn violence. Reach out as much as possible to say we are non-violent.
ix. Clear, simple, precise, with quotations from our declaration. Time is of the essence. One article tomorrow is likely the only coverage it will get.
x. No discussion about information we don’t have!
xi. If communicating with the government, contest that they are legitimate if they use violence on their citizens.
xii. Don’t include discussion of those things we don’t know, & keep it general. Reiterate that we are totally opposed to violence. Avoid talking about what we don’t know.
xiii. Synthesis: Intention was to keep it short, and to state we are committed to non-violence by anyone in Occupy or by the police and state, as well as solidarity with Oakland. Concern: Occupy taken over before. Headline will go across the country that Occupy burns the flag. Damaging. Not in favor of what happened in Oakland or of the violence. POP: Out of Stack. POP: Time check, 4pm.
xiv. Synthesis: OM has been and will remain committed to nonviolence and we stand in solidarity with the non-violent protesters in Oakland. We disavow violence by both the people and by the state and police./Yes, Consensed.
xv. The “scandal plagued Oakland police department” is in the news, and we don’t know what’s going on out there.
xvi. Check Occupy Oakland’s website for a statement of nonviolence.
xvii. Consensus is that it will be sent out broadly to other occupies, news outlets, and will call news contact directly.
xviii. Join Casey to draft it after the meeting. Will be sent out immediately.
b. Proposal: From Foreclosure Defense Group. Propose we engage the GA in the Octopus activity with the goal of beginning to define the issues around which we will activate and educate. Fill the out today, or being them home and return them to Becca. (A handout was passed around for everyone to fill out. Please return to Foreclosure defense group members at next week’s GA.) /Yes, Consensed
c. Proposal: Pass the proposal that every other Sunday will be a Working GA, starting this week with a decision making GA and thus a working GA next week, understanding that we need to develop the structure and list of what constitutes an “emergency proposal” for Working GAs in a work group. /Yes, Consensed
Question, Concerns, Comments (I was responding to these as the one bringing the proposal, so pardon the lousy note-taking during this part! )
i. Call it something else? Not to confuse it with the working groups? /It is the working groups! Allows Working groups to collaborate.
ii. Make it so that if we can make a decision if needed? /Yes, work it into the structure.
iii. Structure of Working GA: Start with Announcements, facilitators ask for Proposals, if none brought then move into the workout sessions, then reconvene into one group afterwards to share what came out of the sessions.
iv. Breakout groups can bring bulletpoints back to spokes-council type discussion following the sessions.
v. Like the idea of switching up the GA and doing it alternatively, but this leaves the door open; if we ask for proposal we could get off track and never get to the working groups if there is a proposal.
vi. We have structured a means for calling an emergency GA.
vii. Occupy Oakland website: police arresting them for being nuisance/POP, off topic. Talk about it later please!
viii. Proposals that go through the GA most smoothly have a lot of people working on them, so a working group GA is a good way to tighten up proposals that are in process.
V. Other Business: Discussion (POP: Extend meeting to 4:45? Yes)
a. Retreat Report (5min). Questionnaire responses recorded. Date? Mid to late February targeted. Hard copies of form available at the GA, also sent out to the listserv.
i. Clarifying: retreat—scratch that name and call it strategic planning/Yes
ii. Has anyone called to check availability of Union Hall?/Not super comfortable for day long discussions, but can be considered.
iii. Interested in having bands here for a social & potluck on a Sat/Sun?/ Vibe check. Yes but keep it a strategizing meeting.
iv. Ok to bring this back up next week before we break out in to working group sessions?/ Yes, Consensed.
b. Forum. Next Tuesday Money and Politics Part 2. Topic was set ahead of time and people came prepared to talk about that. Allow the forum participants to decide what will be talked about at the next forum. What that topic is will be announced at the GA, posted on the calendars, etc. Open forum for the community to join the discussion. Forum will be a working group, make a working group report that lets the GA know what was discussed and what the next topic will be. Union Hall 6pm.
VI. Confirm date/time/place of next assemblies: Set time and date of next: 2pm at Union Hall. Facilitation group meets at 1pm
Sunday: Union Hall 2pm
Tuesday: Forum, 6 pm Union Hall
Friday , Occupy the Oval: School is back in session, Monday meeting 3pm.
VII. Evaluation of Meeting
Handled difficult topic well, kept it on task and accomplished what we set out to do on the agenda, give props to facilitators/went great, 3 proposals and 3 topics, bullheaded facilitator?/ditto/amazed at the process of getting things refined before they come in to the GA/ditto/been feeling more inspired and think that the GAs are a little more uplifting and momentous, less troubled/lot less clunky than in the past, getting it done! Getting better each time/ditto/when we implement this new GA proposal, we should be aware that this is something new and there will be a learning curve, be patient. Might not be seamless, so try to keep structure/appreciative of new stack keeper stepping up! Challenging to facilitate, and be firm with structure while allowing things to develop organically/having a new facilitator was great, the facilitator should always wear horns.
VII. Adjournment 4:52pm.
Post Meeting Discussion & Soapbox