Saturday, November 12, 2011
Facilitator: Liz
Note taker: Anonymous woman whose name I don’t know (HELP me with this) and Bert
Stack: Liz
Greeter volunteer: Harry
Agenda:
GA protocol
Last night’s minutes
Sunday GA time
Occupy camp cleanliness
NO VISIONING TONIGHT SO WE CAN ADJOURN FOR THE SOLIDARITY MARCH
Felix began making a statement about us making a mockery of the homeless by pretending to be homeless, which he says he understands but it’s sometimes insulting. He was ‘SUI’ (speaking under the influence) and also interrupting the meeting so we asked him to wait until he came up on the agenda. Harry eventually took him aside to talk.
WORKING GROUP REPORT BACKS:
DIRECT ACTION/OUTREACH: by Bert. Seven occupiers from Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro went to Raleigh yesterday for The Day Veterans Occupy gathering at the state capitol. No folks from Durham, but Raleigh had a good group there and twelve veterans were honored, including one 80+ year-old who stated that he could not believe that anyone who had been in a war and seen the horror of it could come home and NOT become a peacenik and work to stop all wars.
DIRECT ACTION: by David. The teach-out went well last night even though it was cold. Passed out lots of literature and had 8 or 9 people involved. It was a good opportunity to think about direct actions.
Stephanie interjected that in a less ‘friendly’ locale we should rehearse more.
David: this stemmed from the desire not to stagnate and to have more actions. We will plan more and take care of technical problems that are mostly ironed out. We should have a backlog of ideas and events. We have 7 or 8 lectures on various regional Occupy movements. The reaction from passersby is that they have to recognize that something is going on by either going around the group or going through the group.
David: How can we make Black Friday effective? We will have a thread on the Direct Action Forum and Lex will bottomline it.
NEW AGENDA ITEMS:
Sunday GA time: David says that we did not follow the prescribed procedure for changing the GA to a new time and that we did not follow through on the poll about what time the new, longer weekend GA should be, so he feels we need to revisit this. There are some conflicts with some of the IBooks folks who attend the Prison Books work sessions, so that works against better attendance. And he says the 3:00 GA’s were sparsely attended which indicates that it isn’t a good timeframe.
Bert: The time that was listed on the website for the Sunday GA (we’ve only had one since we changed the time) was incorrectly listed as 6:00 (the usual time) so people were unaware of the time change. That could have been a factor in the low turnout since we know that some people came at the listed time. Also, there were several factors considered for having the GA at 3:00: this will give families time to come and participate and still be able to be home for dinner; we were hoping to draw more new supporters by having it earlier in the day and were less concerned that we would miss the usual participants; the time change to standard time meant that usual 6:00 time would be both cold and dark—a disincentive to come out.
Someone asked if having it at 4:00 would help with the folks from IBooks making it.
David: Is alarmed at the poll not being taken and the decision being made at GA without the poll results. Has concerns about transparency. Requests that this be tabled and these notes be entered for discussion tomorrow.
Felix: Has concerns about the homeless attendance at the meetings. Needs to know the specific time so he can get the word out.
David: Sunday is okay. It’s the time of the GA that is his concern.
Occupy camp cleanliness:
Bert: Has concerns about our image with the public. He thinks we need to be more committed to keeping the site clean and well-picked up so we do not turn off potential supporters/occupiers who see an unappealing Occupy site.
Liz: Asks that others help with the dishes. She’s done them two days in a row. The dirty dishes are placed in one of the big blue bins for easy pickup. Anyone who has a dishwasher can do them easily, so please help. She’s concerned with the environmental aspect of using so many paper plates, etc.
Felix: Clean up after yourself.
Liz: Everyone remember the old camping adage that you leave your campsite looking better than you found it.
Becca: The campers don’t come to our meetings so they are not hearing these concerns and may not know what we are asking of them.
David: Trash accumulates quickly. Some people clean the site only to find more trash has been dropped only a few minutes after cleanup. Be proactive with your cleanup efforts.
Amanda: Don’t forget that this applies to clothing and bedding and other items as well.
Louis: Cigarette butts are trash.
Camp relationships: tabled
New supporter: Andy is here for the first time and plans to be back to show his support. Welcome, Andy!
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