Post by kim on Feb 5, 2012 20:45:39 GMT -7
Working GA of 02/05/2012
~22 people attended
Overview
I. Announcements
II. Working Group Reports & Discussion
III. Forum Date & Time
--- Working Groups Break out Session----
IV. Reconvene
V. Evaluation
VI. Adjournment
I. Announcements
1. Feb 19 2pm at University Oval (the time is subject to change, but time will be posted on the calendar). Students at U holding a March against Coal Exports to protest coal transport through Montana, which will travel by train through Missoula. Will bring a proposal which can be decided on next week. Occupy the Oval gearing back up after the break, low turn out at the Oval GA but hoping that will change.
2. Ray paid for the storage this month for the stuff that was collected from the camp ($60/mo).
3. Occupy Bozeman Report: 50 people attended the Occuparty a couple weeks ago, generally about 20 people at the GAs there. Focusing actions against Wells Fargo. Participated in Occupy the Courts & went to Helena to thank MT Supreme Court for decision. Also working on getting an ordinance in Bozeman to amend the constitution to say corps are not people and money is not speech.
4. Alternative Banking: Josh is state contact person for the non-partisan think-tank trying to help states start their own state bank. Currently, taxes and fees collected go to a US Bank account, and state agencies have accounts at local branches throughout the state. Therefore all state money is going through a private organization that can then leverage that money just like any other bank to finance private enterprise in other parts of the world. Divestment action against US Bank (would move the state, a big account, out of US Bank). Conference call being held soon, go to <Interoccupy.org/mpbcall>, click the register button and it will walk you through how to join the call. Molly Moody working on this, building support for the movement across the state. Has been working on this for about a year. Q: Who would be the opposition? The banking association, US Bank. Non-Partison League working on this and other actions.
5. Coalition building discussion: nice article in Public Citizen newsletter- paper will be passed around.
6. Occupy Convention in Olympia, Feb 18 & 19. Forum between different Occupy groups around the region/country. Place to stay there, but need to sign up so they are ready for us. See Casey to sign up and arrange car-pool.
II. Working Group Reports/other discussion
- Occupy the Oval: (Proposal) GA officially endorse the coal march planned
- Direct Action: Had free-speech corner action, a few people attended.
- Foreclosure Defense Group: Meets every other Sunday at noon at break espresso, meets. Meet every other weekend. Occupy Helena wants to start forums online, but not sure how ours is working wants input. (Proposal) Have once-a-month OccupyMontana meetings that change locations each time (Butte, Missoula, Bozeman, etc) for strategy sessions to bring the state groups into closer cooperation.
- Consensus would like to make the focus of the Working GA in two weeks to spend time going over the 3 Consensus Group proposals which they are developing and writing now.
III. Forum Tuesday 6pm: Current topic is Money and Politics, continuing discussion to seeking solutions and visioning beyond the current (we know what we don’t want, what do we want to move towards?)
------- 5 minute milling and re-organizing into two groups: Communications and Direct Action-------
IV. Reconvene
a. Direct Action Group Review
Discussion of Move to Amend
Realized there’s a need to show occupy’s presence, one way is to attend events, need a pamphlet to hand out (Sara is working on it).
Setting up a conference all about the state bank action, call will be announced at the next GA.
President’s Lecture Series-Kim will forward information to listserv & Occupymissoula@gmail.com.
Rocky Mountain Power Shift Conference-Occupy the Oval
b. Communications Group Review
Working to get on all the Missoula calendars of events; will create a form that people can fill out when they have an event so that Communications get complete information to post to the events calendars.
Need to communicate the working groups: what groups there are, what they are doing, how the participate, and contact person. Will use the existing forums on the proboards, but tech will post links that go straight to the work group thread for each group. Each group should write a description of their group and add it to the section for that group.
We’ll create poster announcing the GAs and Forum that can be posted all over town, and make lots of copies; evone who comes tot eh GA can take copies and post them around town.
Control Z is a themed booklet-use this to write and learn extensively about a particular idea or campaign, e.g write one all about the #OWS movement, others about each of the major campaigns that walk through what is it, why is it a problem, examples of the problem, solutions or alternatives, plus art, ideas, and culture jamming critiques or quotes. Everyone can contribute.
Culture jamming-create faux advertising material that makes a point, and distribute it around (AdBusters a resource).
V. Evaluation
Awkward at first but then became productive. /Too bad so many people left before the evaluation./ Time-keeper and facilitator needed in future. /When we “reconvene” at the end, stand at tables and have a person speak, don’t rearrange furniture first before discussion.
VI. Adjournment 4:20
Discussion of Strategy Session-Continuing planning: Who will plan it? - Form Work Group, invite Gw to join and continue her work.
~22 people attended
Overview
I. Announcements
II. Working Group Reports & Discussion
III. Forum Date & Time
--- Working Groups Break out Session----
IV. Reconvene
V. Evaluation
VI. Adjournment
I. Announcements
1. Feb 19 2pm at University Oval (the time is subject to change, but time will be posted on the calendar). Students at U holding a March against Coal Exports to protest coal transport through Montana, which will travel by train through Missoula. Will bring a proposal which can be decided on next week. Occupy the Oval gearing back up after the break, low turn out at the Oval GA but hoping that will change.
2. Ray paid for the storage this month for the stuff that was collected from the camp ($60/mo).
3. Occupy Bozeman Report: 50 people attended the Occuparty a couple weeks ago, generally about 20 people at the GAs there. Focusing actions against Wells Fargo. Participated in Occupy the Courts & went to Helena to thank MT Supreme Court for decision. Also working on getting an ordinance in Bozeman to amend the constitution to say corps are not people and money is not speech.
4. Alternative Banking: Josh is state contact person for the non-partisan think-tank trying to help states start their own state bank. Currently, taxes and fees collected go to a US Bank account, and state agencies have accounts at local branches throughout the state. Therefore all state money is going through a private organization that can then leverage that money just like any other bank to finance private enterprise in other parts of the world. Divestment action against US Bank (would move the state, a big account, out of US Bank). Conference call being held soon, go to <Interoccupy.org/mpbcall>, click the register button and it will walk you through how to join the call. Molly Moody working on this, building support for the movement across the state. Has been working on this for about a year. Q: Who would be the opposition? The banking association, US Bank. Non-Partison League working on this and other actions.
5. Coalition building discussion: nice article in Public Citizen newsletter- paper will be passed around.
6. Occupy Convention in Olympia, Feb 18 & 19. Forum between different Occupy groups around the region/country. Place to stay there, but need to sign up so they are ready for us. See Casey to sign up and arrange car-pool.
II. Working Group Reports/other discussion
- Occupy the Oval: (Proposal) GA officially endorse the coal march planned
- Direct Action: Had free-speech corner action, a few people attended.
- Foreclosure Defense Group: Meets every other Sunday at noon at break espresso, meets. Meet every other weekend. Occupy Helena wants to start forums online, but not sure how ours is working wants input. (Proposal) Have once-a-month OccupyMontana meetings that change locations each time (Butte, Missoula, Bozeman, etc) for strategy sessions to bring the state groups into closer cooperation.
- Consensus would like to make the focus of the Working GA in two weeks to spend time going over the 3 Consensus Group proposals which they are developing and writing now.
III. Forum Tuesday 6pm: Current topic is Money and Politics, continuing discussion to seeking solutions and visioning beyond the current (we know what we don’t want, what do we want to move towards?)
------- 5 minute milling and re-organizing into two groups: Communications and Direct Action-------
IV. Reconvene
a. Direct Action Group Review
Discussion of Move to Amend
Realized there’s a need to show occupy’s presence, one way is to attend events, need a pamphlet to hand out (Sara is working on it).
Setting up a conference all about the state bank action, call will be announced at the next GA.
President’s Lecture Series-Kim will forward information to listserv & Occupymissoula@gmail.com.
Rocky Mountain Power Shift Conference-Occupy the Oval
b. Communications Group Review
Working to get on all the Missoula calendars of events; will create a form that people can fill out when they have an event so that Communications get complete information to post to the events calendars.
Need to communicate the working groups: what groups there are, what they are doing, how the participate, and contact person. Will use the existing forums on the proboards, but tech will post links that go straight to the work group thread for each group. Each group should write a description of their group and add it to the section for that group.
We’ll create poster announcing the GAs and Forum that can be posted all over town, and make lots of copies; evone who comes tot eh GA can take copies and post them around town.
Control Z is a themed booklet-use this to write and learn extensively about a particular idea or campaign, e.g write one all about the #OWS movement, others about each of the major campaigns that walk through what is it, why is it a problem, examples of the problem, solutions or alternatives, plus art, ideas, and culture jamming critiques or quotes. Everyone can contribute.
Culture jamming-create faux advertising material that makes a point, and distribute it around (AdBusters a resource).
V. Evaluation
Awkward at first but then became productive. /Too bad so many people left before the evaluation./ Time-keeper and facilitator needed in future. /When we “reconvene” at the end, stand at tables and have a person speak, don’t rearrange furniture first before discussion.
VI. Adjournment 4:20
Discussion of Strategy Session-Continuing planning: Who will plan it? - Form Work Group, invite Gw to join and continue her work.