Notes for 9 Oct 2011 General Assembly (taken by Kim Marley & Jen Larson)
Start time 8:21 pm
Opening with “We are the 99%” chanting
Running through the agenda for tonight
Introducing facilitators, time keeper, stack takers (Nina, Tim), notetakers (Kim), call for another person to take notes
What facilitation is – making sure the group can move through agenda items
Stack takers make sure everyone can get out their comments
Recap of the hand signals (twinkles, lukewarmness, block, etc.)
Explanation of what a block is, when you think something is not in the best interest of the group, we try to resolve it before moving forward
A lot of discussion points on the agenda for tonight
Recap of what a process point is and point of information, point of information takes priority over the stack
Reports back from working groups
Call for anyone from any of the working groups
1) Medical Committee
Tomorrow doing free blood pressure screens (didn’t catch the time)
We cannot give out more than the recommended dosage of any drug or vitamin
2) Outreach
Has a box of fliers anyone can take them to distribute
3) Legal,
if you have any questions there’s info at the media table and a number and e-mail address to call.
If you want to assist in this area, please e-mail.
Baltimore Marathon is happening this Saturday and they will be using this area to a certain extent, we are talking with them to accommodate both of us.
Mic check (didn’t hear all of this at the beginning) Underground communities met earlier today on how to bring this up to general assembly and how to collaborate such as Baltimore Racial Justice Association to raise awareness about these issues and have a larger training at a general assembly. One thing we’d like to do today is to get a temp check to see how many people would be interested in having an exercise at the beginning of a GA to start (missed a bit here) different forms of discrimination. Will the facilitators please take that up?
Should we do a temperature check or take a stack?
Mic check what the working group is asking for if people want to do exercises at some point during the GAs so people can start thinking about different forms of oppression and how they play out at Occupy Baltimore.
Facilitator - Point that this is also on the agenda, we will table this until that time.
4) Media
Will send a proposal out over the list
There was a fun write up on a blog, new media stuff on the website everyday, FB, and Twitter
Make sure you retweet and use the hell out of our url occupybmore.org, use it everywhere so we can get to the top of Google results
5) Outreach
Met last night and talked about different ways of reaching out to different communities
Will be doing direct contact to unions in the city, we need help with that
Secondary google group set up specifically for outreach
We put out the notes every night, if you see something you want to do put forward a proposal for implementation
Get involved our meetings are normally after GA or talk to me or Chris
If you want to talk to union leaders we need your help
6) Security
I wasn’t here this weekend, away at my sister’s wedding
We need more people to sign up for shifts to cover concerns,
You don’t necessarily need to sign up, but everyone look out for everyone
7) Food – no update, general clapping for the food
Mic Check, just a reminder, Food Committee did ask that tomorrow be a pot luck, please bring large dishes to share, and include a list of ingredients of what is in your dish
Report back from workshops
Mic Check today I (Kate) did a workshop on talking to the media, not very many people came, we brainstormed notes, if anyone wants help or advice, talk to me and we can do a 1 on 1, it’s actually fun
(Taking a stack)
Kate will post her notes on the Google Group
Thai – has a question (couldn’t hear it at all) are we allowed to give honest answers (to the media)?
Mic check (Kate) your truth is the truth of the movement, and as long as you’re saying it belongs to you, more power to you, my workshop is about how to speak your truth so the media doesn’t screw you by chopping it up
Mic check if we could have someone donate a flatbed truck to generate interest just like politicians do, let’s use the media, new media vs old media, generate interest
Facilitator, there is time for announcements at the end
Point of clarification, we agreed at a previous GA that anyone is free to represent the group so long as they make it clear they are expressing personal opinion
Facilitator - Stack is growing
Natalie on the Stack- wondering if there was another media teach in tomorrow
(Kate’s response) If people are interested I’m willing to do another tomorrow at 5:00 pm
Jenny on the stack- I think the process is getting a little muddled, had raised hand on one of the report backs
Facilitator - this is a comment section on the teach ins
Next speaker - reporting back that we had been having a live feed, if you can help make that happen, bring in a camera that would be powerful for us to make that happen
CT on the stack - workshop on Consensus Decision Making potentially using it here as part of our process, I can do trainings here, I’ve written some books on it, there’s concept of consensus and the other idea is the structure of affinity groups, the past 2 nights we’ve broken into smaller groups who report back, same concept could be used for the structure as a whole, bringing decisions back to the plenary, will do more workshops over the coming days, small groups will come up next to discuss how this group is organized and how we make decisions, there are different ways to structure that, agenda process is still being tweaked, what direction we should move in, will be one of the discussion topics, we are currently using loose voting/super majority, should we move to consensus, how the agenda is planned, all these things are up for discussion
Facilitator - Using the GA for education has come up, earlier there was a report back that asked for a temp check on issues of gender and oppression
This is the first time we’ve all done this, we’re all learning as we go
The idea is that we’re going to divide into small groups by counting off, about 8 people in each group with 3 discussion topics, your group can structure your own internal discussion, need to select a spokesback person, at the end of the discussions we’ll have a fishbowl for report back and we’ll all hear that information
Generic topic is the use of GA time for education, 15-20 min education element as an option, would you like to use this time for that, there are workshops during the day, but they are less attended, lots of calls for direct action, no taskforce planning that that I’m aware, how are we going to get that up and running
Point of information – there is a group…(didn’t hear)
Facilitator - There is a goals and purpose task force that might include some of this, but these are separate topics for tonight
Mic check – You mentioned affinity groups, can you elaborate on that?
Basically the idea is that we have a society that emphasizes individuality, this is about meeting with likeminded people, in the future we may have more focused committees, committees are like affinity groups, can be around any topic, and you can be in as many as you want, idea that there would be ongoing groups that could work on things they care about and take action on behalf of the larger group, long term vision of spokescouncils to replace or be in addition to the GA
A new visionary model, supporting the values of egalitarianism and democracy. With one person one vote a lot of times all voices aren’t heard
(Another point that I didn’t hear)
3 topics up for discussion and now we’re counting off to 10 at 8:55 pm
Facilitator - When you’ve found your group sit down and start talking, but please stay in sight so we can find you.
Anyone without a group find a small group and join it.
9:09 reminder that we’re at the halfway mark for small group discussions
9:13 Mic check, we need a medic
9:14 Mic check ten more minutes to discuss further the topics
9:20 4 mins remaining
9:25 time is now up, when you’re done please everyone come back to the center, everyone who is a spokesperson come right to the middle, everyone else form a circle around them, report back people in a small circle around the lap top and everyone else around them, (repeating this point) explaining the fish bowl, everyone gather around in a nice big circle
Facilitator with a quick announcement from the security team (Koala) there is a police presence there has been a couple thefts that have happened, please keep all your posessions close to yourself, if something goes missing please come to the security team so we can deal with it without the police, please don’t talk directly to the police it creates some confusion, to my knowledge no one is signed up for security tonight, we need two people per shift at a minimum, we’ll meet at the information table at the back at the end of the meeting
Point of information, we already have an informal police liaison and his name is Chris he’s with the national lawyers guild he’s been here since the beginning, he’s defused many situation that no one found out about, with no formal liaison, but it makes sense to just appoint him
Facilitator – moving that to the announcements section, end of the meeting to sign up for security shifts
9:30 going to the fish bowl, don’t need to repeat what another team says
Team 1
Jeff good to see all the people out here, 3 topics direct action level, direct action is the point of Occupy, we need to start moving beyond the square, a big march if don’t properly can engage more people, don’t rest on our laurels, put the priority on involvement now instead of on arrestable action, should be a distinction between marches/direct action and arrestable action, would need to know intented result ahead of time, generate short powerful videos from the square 2-3 mins Move your money campaign, get people’s money away from the banks to work for us
2) full consensus model may be difficult to engage with here, strive with concensus, but if it keeps us from moving forward we should move towards a majority, blocks should be detailed in front of the group 3) on education, too much of a pulpit feel, may draw meetings out too long, should have more publicity of the workshops, not everyone wants to see the same education, maybe once a week have a 20 min education piece during GA so we don’t miss out, potentially 7:30-8 ½ hr of education, good way to get involvement ahead of the GA
Team 2A first talked about structure and governance, people had seen people coming and leaving, high turnover because people are turned off, maybe get more or different facilitators, randomized selection for facilitators, but truly random would be problematic because it requires skill and training, didn’t cover consensus vs majority 2) education would like to have education at GA, using the agenda board as a means of proposing educational setting, and then do temp check to select, education sessions could happen at the end so folks could leave ahead of that, point that people want education during GA because it’s when the most people are here 3) direct action our group wants loud nonviolent direct action soon
Team 2B Adam five of us in the group came to the conclusion that indecision is not one voice, we shouldn’t offer with one voice if we can’t agree, through this we’ll be able to find affinity, education during this time seems less important than bringing everybody to affinity groups, move if you agree with another group, group governance, we’re in a good position to use affinity to figure out where we’re at 3) direct action Monday march to recruit people with the idea everyone can agree on without indecision, limit confusion walk Charles st to Monument to Federal Reserve bank to generate interest/support 4) inspire leaderless leadership forming synergistic groups to move on these things now, if you don’t feel the same as the person next to you, work with the person you can agree on
Team 3 1)structure need more talking tables to produce clarity of the movement 2) education we need more multicultural awareness so when we meet with individuals from different groups, suggested that we have interpreters or people who speak different languages who can talk to tourists, we need better signage, need to differentiate which table is which, when we have the permit when it gets cold outside, might be cool to get people to the shelter, need a master sign sheet for (missed) list of peole to contribute homes for personal hygience, more activities for childrent brain stimulating, we thought an art auction would be cool to couple up with some art galleries for fundraising for Occupy, if possible more people to donate a social networking account, not everyone has internet, but it will help to creat social networking acocunts to get the message across
Team 4 1)leadership – nomination process, should there be more formally organized with leaders, (missed point) for formal leadership: more disjointed without leadership Against – no one can speak for everyone, concern with having a public face, do we want one person/group attributed to us
For: we turn to the analogy of the smaller committees of Occupy with rotating votes, more of a communicative thing, what do we mean by Leader/Leadership
2) workshops during GA focused on: Process, Governance, Communication, Condensation(??) “How to id critical fallacies” “Deescalation of Conflict” (Missed some of these)
3) Direct action didn’t have much time for it, structure and lead direct action
Team 5 1)meta discussions didn’t get too far into governance, focused on affinity groups and breaking up into smaller groups, probably not going to happen for most topics, simple majority seems to be working fine 2)education concerns about how we chose who will be an educator, nonhierarchical structure, which person gets to educate which topics, break into those sections you want to learn more about, should it be as part of GA, end so we can exit if necessary 3) direct action, can break into small groups to discuss, we should be doing more, high visibility, get more people in to get bigger
Team 6 Julie 1) direct action was the main focus – should be a direct action committee who will take suggestions from others and those can be brought to GA, great to have this committee at this point, getting the colleges involved, a lot of students interested, but don’t have experience with direct action, people that we’ve brought so far have been really excited, create a student demo day, ehre’s the day, here’s the time to get them here for other stuff, huge problem in Baltimore is urban blight, but no one will go there, board up something downtown near here, there’s businesses down here who have gone out of business, create that down here, a big Baltimore problem, do media projects around this, with art from blighted areas around the direct action 2) process debate about GA starting on time, part of the group it helps when it starts at 8:00 pm 3) ditto if we use GA time for education do it around GA so not everyone needs to be there 4) affinity groups CONs create splintering PROs have a support network and affinity groups are already here
Team 7 Jeff 1)affinity groups are redundant, for them because difficult for people who don’t want to speak to the whole GA, will get more difficult as this group grows, will get more difficult to have voices heard 2) education-not an effective use of time, not necessarily here to educate, but this is a good time if we do want to educate, concern that educator comes in on a leadership role automatically, don’t want to drag the meetings on longer 3) direct action we need more, get out of the square be more visible, get the signs up more, get more support, time before GA is a great time to use for organization to get the word out, get it out with more people, get more people holding signs, marching bank tours weekly or daily, we should make people know that we’re here and we’re staying, plenty of places to go and the movement will grow
Team 8 Brennan 1) structure and governance agreed on consensus based model mostly because affinity groups are inevitable and consensus based groups makes those visible, otherwise they loosely exist that might refute what the majority wants, stuff gets unsaid, one of the biggest issue is that people don’t understand what we mean by affinity groups, need CT to do more workshops to explain this system and also H2 has been to these workshops, this system is best for a horizontal and egalitarian system by and for the people, we’re not a homogenous 99%, shouldn’t put our assets into one face 2)education during GA we were ambivalent, most education should be during workshops, trouble to determine relevant topics for GA, ex. Of white privilege workshop, fond of decision and process education before the GA so that peole know how to engage 3) direct action we didn’t cover as a group (missed his personal point)
Team 9 Chris 1) structure and governance information hub that can point people towards workshops currently going on so they know what’s happening in that circoe over there right now, comic guidelines, have some display of hand signals, ASL, so we don’t need to cover those each time, illustrating how these meetings are facilitated, get our needs list more organized, let the people know what we do need 2) affinity groups find that concept useful, use GA to bring out their cogent concerns, maybe have affinity groups at the end of GA, GA be declarative, make sure everyone knows what a mic check is and turn down music during mic checks 3) education during GA, not a good forum for education, but workshops should be used for it, more awareness of workshops at GA 4) direct action, need to go beyond unions and get into local communities, we need some ideas about how to get into communities, get connected with events going on in the communities, canvas malls and grocery stores
Team 10 Todd 1) direct action we should empower small groups to do their own, liaise with existing community organizations, others have been already working these issues, some feel that we’ve had too much drum circle type, party stuff going on, it is needed to bring in people, but it seems like an endless drum circle a little off putting makes people mad who have been away at work, need for largescale direct action with unions that are already out there, lot clean ups in neighborhoods, get into direct dialog and see where we’d be welcome, reengage with the Algebra Project 2) when in GA can we address direct action, how can someone get group support, use of the calendar, reiterate about when events are happening, need to know ahead of time for people’s schedules, need to know how to introduce action 3) education didn’thave time to flesh it out
Earlier Team Education – maybe people who want to start workshops can also prepare videos along with also presenting the material and preparing pamphlets, so GA doesn’t get bogged down, along with contact info so people with questions can go back to the disseminator with those
Facilitator – check with outer circle if a point got overlooked during the fish bowl
(Building a stack)
Direct Action committee need to make it explicit that it’s not a limiting committee, everyone who wants to do a direct action should be run by GA first, strongly encouraged, but not required
Natalie on the stack- Occupy Baltimore needs to be out and doing positive things in communities
Jenny on the stack – a lot feel like education shouldn’t happen during GA, but to have a healthy leaderless process, some education may be helpful, and allow us to work together, that is necessary
Brennan on the stack – Tema 8 need a welcoming committee for new people covering what we’re generally about, have a pamphlet, people with alternative ideas (besides CT) should also be encouraged to come
Meagan on the stack – reinforce idea of having the hand signals and general way this runs written out somewhere, need rides for college students, shuttle doesn’t stop down here and circulator stops at 9:00 hard to get back afterward
Point of Information – the #11 bus gets you here from Towson, we look at public transportation as a last resort, can be intimidating but we should all look into it
CT – looking to just said things that weren’t covered at this time
Thai from the stack – N/A
Corey from the stack – mic check I think we can use affinity groups as a way of coming to conclusions quickly
During any marches that might go on if we could kind of wear the same thing, the 99% on white t-shirts, everyone should have one when we go on a march
Facilitator – trying to wrap up
CT – Issue of structure and governance will be ongoing, we got good feedback, anybody is welcome to bring forward proposals on how to organize ourselves, will be ongoing discussions
Education – mostly not inclined not a decision, just a deeper temperature, this can still come up as an agenda item, helpful for the facilitation team, probably not on including education, permission will need to be granted before additing education, clear that facilitation team can’t just agree to that on their own
Direct action – no specific working group yet to plan and implement action
Kiana from Outreach is working on the college outreach, talked about going to segregated neighborhoods, need more people to help
CT – name of the Outreach group might need to be looked at, need someone to specifically work on direct action
Mic check - What was spoken about concerning outreach is more like canvasing, rather than direct action, to clarify
CT – need a committee on direct action, not a clear idea of guidelines for direct action at this time, a lot of suggestions, but the process hasn’t been figured out yet, if you have an idea for direct action, there isn’t a process yet to bring it to the group, no doubt that we want to do it, but how it happens hasn’t been figured out yet, it needs to happen in the coming days
I propose we start a direct action committee, is there a POC to be the convener?
Kate, talk to her after this meeting to figure out the process of how to do direct action, we’ll hear their report next meeting
Medical announcement, anyone staying overnight that is CPR certified please raise your hand
Announcements section at 10:20 27 announcements on cards that were posted on cards and then if you want to comment on your card or an announcement come on up and we’ll form a line
Cards are read by facilitator: (I didn’t write these down in these notes)
Process point are these announcements or comments, we could move on, but I don’t want to insult people who put up a card, anyone feel strongly either way about tabling the cards, 2 blocks, cards take no time, and this is discourse between day time and night time card, point of the cards is to put points out to everyone
Back to the cards (still not writing these down in these notes)
10:26 Legal team and Security announcement
A lot of police in the area in the past couple hours and we’ve been talking to them, this evening someone was accosted while going to the porta potty, police are here to inform us of this, precautions we should all be taking, one person was arrested, we need to establish some guidelines about how we exist in the space after hours, always 3 people at the porta potty, need to create a safe space for all people, we were approached by these police officers, main point was the safety issues and also another concern, they asked to know the objective and what the group hopes to gain, want to have a direct line of communication with the group, only number is the one that’s posted at the media center, the entire group would have to discuss the point about objectives
Another speaker – recommend that we have the conversation about a line of communication with police that everyone feels comfortable with, also discuss the objectives tomorrow
Another speaker – everyone take care of each other, need to take precautions out here
Question - If we call that number, who answers? It rings to different people on the legal committee
Starting the announcements 10:32
Will have an outreach meeting on the grass after GA, direct action is different from outreach, bringing in people from the outside community (outreach to unions, professors) will have overlap with Direct Action, unions need to know what direct action we’re engaging in
Starting a womens caucus to discuss womens issues, there is a Google group Occupy Baltimore Womens Caucus on Google group, we’ll also be making announcements
We should make signs in different languages, bring your dictionaries
Kim - Give ourselves a round of applause for being here
Some people from the world of higher ed, I teach at CCBC, we want to help create a flyer that can be passed out articulating some of the main points of the group, want to show it to people first, we have made a flyer, not necessarily articulating all of the deamnds, but if you like it see us and we’ll make more copies, we’ll be here at demonstrations and events, we want to do more of these kinds of things
Be Heard – Baltimore Higher Education …
Doesn’t speak for everyone, it’s our contribution, we want to hear your comments on it
Point of Process – tomorrow at 11:45, we’re going to be flyering
Announcement from Paul who had to leave – suggested that Tuesday evening, 1 week anniversary that we not have GA and instead have a celebration of that anniversary, a lot of different opinions, it was brought up on Google groups but then got lost behind other discussions, not sure where to take this idea, but we should talk about it, and that night Joe Squared will be catering
Todd – democratizing manufacturing, will be making more stencils, if you want to talk about how we as a community can make things talk to me
Damo – this is the most exciting thing that has happened in my life, messaging, despite our best efforts we’re alienating large portions of the population, we’re not yet the 99%, scaring people off, need to use inclusive language and find out what their concerns are about, concise way I’m using is “this is not a protest, this is a demonstration against corporate greed, we’re not here because we know solutions, we only know the problem…(didn’t get all of this)
CT – on Thursday at 3:00 pm I’ll be teaching a Facilitation and Consensus workshop
David – Goals and purpose tomorrow at 6:00 pm, we need more physical infrastructure, can get an employee discount at Lowe’s, need to work out logistics, make a list of our collective employee discounts
Tom – offering rides to Towson tonight
May feel like your individual interests lie in so many different areas, developed some games that make it more theatrical, have a character to confine your interests rather than be confused by all the different interests, come to me if you need help picking a direction
Love how people are stepping up, we need more people stepping up, tell people about it here or on the Google group
Josh – waste management, meet me by the pile of trash to help transport it to his car after the GA
Agenda planning team comment – our meeting happens before GA, we want to have more people to facilitate our meetings, trying to have new faces on facilitation, 5:30 every day, step up to do something, CT is teaching so you can’t mess it up
Evaluation Portion – Popcorn method
Agenda – fairly broad consensus that we want direct action, discuss concrete plans at every night’s GA because it’s so important, working roup on oppressions was upset because we requested to be heard and were told it was on the agenda and then was told we missed the opportunity, some communication issues with the facilition team
Mic Check they did call during report backs from teach ins and also people who scheduled workshops
We want to limit back and forths during this time, just want feedback
Mic check right now everybody is new so it’s most important to form (didn’t hear all of this)
Overall concerns about the entire meeting – More mic check, so that everyone knows what’s going on and everybody’s heard, more inclusive some people are leaving a little sour, feel unwanted, make sure your comments come off as inclusive, need to get everybody in, smooth some of our language, most important thing is getting structure, we are building a community here, getting activities that are getting done GA, outreach, and action, get new ideas into the mix, need to keep the cards, not all ideas from day time and online gets to the night group
Mic check, more human mic means more brevity and more reinforcement, in addition it’s the job of the facilitator to prioritize those who are speaking less rather than return the mic to those who are speaking more
Mic check, my name’s Patrick, I just got here (missed some) wondering if there’s some solidarity (missed more) need more information to distribute to whoever asks
Mic check that’s what goals and purposes does and the only consensus we has is to keep it a perpetual work in progress
Reggae band and music, people came and it was attractive
Awesome meeting
Mic check this is our struggle and it is hard and we are very brave and we must take care of ourselves and more importantly each other
Mic check we are the 99% (chanting)
10:55 end although there were some additional announcements
