GA Minutes Saturday Nov 5, 2011

Occupy Boston General Assembly

November 5, 2011

Caroline, Alex-process mgr; Gorge-stack;  Alex-timekeeper;  Rev Mary Francis Drake-minutes

Hand signal review

Consensus reviewed; floor aids

Proposal, clarifying questions, points of info,objections/concerns, statements of support, ammendments, restatement  of proposal, review 2nd time

Working Group announcements:


 * 1) Information Working Group, Kevin- first working group Monday at 7 pm at info tent, collecting email of people who want to volunteer-new, email daily volunteer needs and events going on each day, if your working group needs volunteers one email daily to [mailto:voinfotent@occupyboston.org voinfotent@occupyboston.org], email now [mailto:occupythecalendar@gmail.com occupythecalendar@gmail.com] to get on the calendar
 * 2) Facilitation Group: Eric-passed proposal today in-camp ocupiers frustration that their voice is not heard at GA,, in camp individual announcement section will be added to ga will come prior to individual announcements and included in progressive stack,
 * FSU: eden- need volunteers for daytime to help teachers, put up signs, greeters, direct people, no tent so sign for FSU needs to have sign visible; please sign up on clipboard, 1 hour or 4 hours needed; 20 minutes greeter, set up microphone, set up space, IMPORTANT: FSU won’t survive if there are no greeters in support of meeting teachers, [mailto:Rachel@freeschooluniversity.org Rachel@freeschooluniversity.org] if you want to teach, [mailto:eden@freeschooluniversity.org eden@freeschooluniversity.org] if you want to volunteer
 * 1) Ideas: polling what people from the heart feel are central values; what values do we all share; put your values on the whiteboard by library, information box by Gandhi statue as well, collecting interview by Mallory, Daniel, ideas presented on Monday at 7 pm
 * 2) Signs: Jay, looking for volunteers to help with sign tent working group meeting tues at 2 at tent; good way to get message out, hold signs on Atlantic during day and night; working group mtg tues 3 pm
 * 3) Alternative banking:; Liam, formation of working group to stop ‘fighting’ the 1percent or trying to convince corporations or politicians to support what we value but making own bank to support those things;working group meeting tomorrow before GA by pyramid, 6:30

Individual Announcements:


 * 1) Food: extra soup, too much food, soup available, gets cold quick, volunteers needed for washing dishes; getting water, Chipotle donating; need people to organize/run kitchen, new kitchen tent coming next week; restaurants donate hot food; need cereal and jelly;
 * 2) Volunteer coordination: working groups say they’re understaffed, now there are many who want to volunteer so working to match volunteers with working group needs, info/media/outreach groups to get coordinated for productivity
 * 3) Financial Accountability: Greg Murphy-computer access –wiki page financial transactions being reported daily, debit and credits published, more details coming, detail level coming; financial acctg meeting,  Mon/Wed 6 pm South Station above the food mezzanine ,, thurs 3 pm 4 pt channel, Sunday-tba, proposals listed on wiki page, wepay accts transferring $30,000 in general fund will be moved to credit union, Liberty Bay credit union, deal that anyone who opens an account Liberty Bay will give $50 to you,
 * 4) Logistics/winterization: smoking on camp-smokers please be cool and throw your butts away, pick up others; please don’t smoke in tents as it’s a fire hazard;  working group tents and spaces; tring to find spaces but not much space need ideas;  possibility to buy tents but need to know working group ideas for winter tent; mtgs 2 pm Ssat/Sun and 5:30 pm weekdays; logistics Sun at 10 pm; greenway-please don’t  use gardens area, keep it clear, permit issue re: farmer’s market-let’s embrace them as they’re on our side….local ; food tent ordered and will order within the week approved thru GA process

Individual Announcements:


 * 1) David: ieas working group-effort to write a statement of purpose for ‘occupy’ an working authors group1 have a draft and is published onwiki; looking for ideas

Working Group Proposals:


 * 1) Winterization: emergency funds for winter:  if a storm comes w/supplies/logistics; propose a budget of$2000 for blankets, tarps, hats, scarves, dropcloths, etc. for when logistic tents runs out; receipts will be provided to fin accountability group;

how much of first proposal of $1500 and how it was spent….tarps, wool socks, rubber suits for safety & medical, rubber boots, $1200 spent; $300 left over –may be inclement weather this week we may not have enough time to have funds ready to go for coming weather; $ ways to keep people warm; donation requests, many things are donated so we want budget available to buy things that aren’t donated Fear that people will start getting cold and go home---consensus process, please bring up as pt of concern; 5:30 weekdays, 2 pm weekends-winterization   working group-keep tents and community safe; mtgs in south station on mezzanine or near aubonpain. Points of info: One man tent, seen a few more around, consolidating space into bigger tents will eliminate one individual tents would be good;</li> Will we be ready knowing where supplies are coming from when snow comes?-most purchased from Hilton tent city and army surplus store on mass ave, plans in place for bulk buying</li> </ol></li> Concerns/Objections:<ol style="list-style-type:lower-roman;"> Any funds used for sustainable ideas like raw materials like wool and making blankets and other things? If we buy only specialize things, we’ll runout of funds quickly</li> If it gets cold, does that constitute use of $? Can we generalize that anytime we need it we use it….may be an amendment in just a moment.</li> </ol></li> Ammendments<ol style="list-style-type:lower-roman;"> Generalize proposal to say anytime it gets cold and there is need, funds are automatically available to alleviat e it</li> Suggest that we specify that the judgement of when it is cold enough to spend $ when it’s up to winterization group when to spend funds</li> Less than 32 degrees, winterization would be able to make decision to spend winterization funds</li> Take wind temperature into account</li> </ol></li> </ul>
 * Small groups discuss
 * ?s-<ol style="list-style-type:lower-roman;">

Proposal Amendment from Winterization group: emergency budget used in urgent situations, but would consider making things but would like to keep ‘sustainable’ language out of revised proposal

Revised: $2000 for emergency fund when it’s ‘cold as hell’ left up to discretion of winterization working group, receipts provided to oversight and transparency with accountability

Round 2 of process:

Question: what’s in the buget, over $30,000 acct and about $18000 in credit union

Points of info-none

Concerns/objections-none

Support-Greg strongly supports proposal in his heart an publics’ heart and people who occupy here are such a strong symbol of what this movement is about!

Ammendments; change language of ‘extremely cold’ i/o ‘cold as hell’

2nd amend to ad in winterization working group can also buy items they deem necessary for the emergency other than or in addition to the items on the list

3rd amendment: way for individual occupants to register their needs-bring up in restatement

2nd reproposal: $2000 in emergency funds for storm s and extremely col weather up to the discretion of winterization working group which meets daily, for items they eem necessary; receipts to accountability;

No blocks

Consensus reached with more than 75% in favor.

2nd proposal from facilitation: has been worked on for 3 weeks, consensus  w/in the group, processed twice, printed copy given out by speaker to share w/group; called ‘Priority Proposal Process’

Any working group or individual can bring things up for proposal/process; spirit of proposal is to ask that there be more community participation before proposals get presented to GA. Asking proposals to go through steps and they would get priority on proposal stack.

See typed proposal on wiki under facilitation working group.

</ul></ul>
 * Small group discussions
 * Clarifying questions<ul style="list-style-type:circle;">


 * Any way to provide technology to people in camp who do not have it to print and add to wiki? Response: proposal states that printed copies would be made available at the info tent;  questions may belong to IT…this proposal doesn’t address how to do that
 * Digital divide: how do people in camp come to know about this by getting copies available on camp
 * Who in camp will make it possible to put proposals together. Response: facilitation will assist with process for anyone who needs technology help

At transparency mtg: jean and martin of media-said that for occupy business said that for short periods of time the computers in media are available</li> Member of Facilitators available to help people put things on wiki</li> </ul>Concerns/objections<ul style="list-style-type:circle;"> Speaker not in support of this proposal, 4 days is too long, simpler ways to address this; counterproposal-agenda on white board to vote on priorities;</li> </ul></li> Support:<ul style="list-style-type:circle;"> One person believes that concenting a proposal that has already been talked about makes the proposal more efficient</li> <li>Another in support, as 4 day limit will not delay proposals since this one has taken 2 weeks to get to ga; doesn’t think it will slow down proposal process</li> </ul></li> <li>Amendments:<ul style="list-style-type:circle;"> <li>Eric-propose to amend that those who want to make priorituy proposals are allowed or enabled to bring proposals physically if they are not able to submit them electronically</li> <li>Would like some language if emergencies come up if something needs to be voted on immediately;</li> <li>Other concern re-expressed; counter proposals can be brought up at any time to supercede current proposal even if it is concensed.</li> <li>Strongly support having discussions before votes but not necessarily 4 days in advance; perhaps there needs to be an alternative…which is someone wanting to discuss the proposal at the GA and still use ga format for discussion</li> <li>Thinks it would be a good idea to allow this for priority proposals and other proposals we can ask GA to sort the rest in the priority order they deem appropriate</li> <li>Proposal that there be a limit of the number of priority proposals at ga to allow less formal propsals a guaranteed space for consideration</li> <li>Folks that don’t have access to internet should be able to deliver plans for priority proposal to media and information who will disseminate the proposal…response that facilitation group has already offered to make internet and printing available</li> </ul></li> <li>Call for quarum: are there enough present to speak for whole camp?</li> <li>No quarum tonight for the consensus. Speaker would like to address concerns<ul style="list-style-type:circle;"> <li>4 days not too much time….gives people notice</li> <li>Language of emergency proposals go to head of stack immediately</li> <li>Likes the idea of having only 2 priority process proposals per GA</li> <li>Proposals that don’t go thru priority process, put on board for GA group to prioritize those</li> <li>Facilitation mtgs 5 pm mon-fri, sat/sun 4 pm; cold weather at south station</li> </ul> &lt;/ul&gt;
 * Points of info:<ul style="list-style-type:circle;">

Mike from occupy Wall Street announces that he is in solidarity with occupy boston and available to talk to people

Proposal from Winterization Group:  bring it up tonight even though it won’t be consensed tonight

Asking for $1000 for tiny houses on wheels 10 of them to be built to address ‘permanency’ regs from city; easy to be moved, well insulated, $100 per one person, $120 for 2 person, Sage could teach how to build

Why 10? Small portion of overall budget…to try them out, then propose more.

What about making some 2 person? Yes, that is the plan as one way to stay warm is to have a sleeping buddy.

Why not for everyone? That’s a possibility, designed by Sage.

Sage speaks….about 2” think styro w/foil R10 insulation value, ceiling is 3 layers of 6mil poly, clear plastic with air space w/insulation but doesn’t drip, design changes, maybe bigger, body heat keeps it warm, hot water bottle makes it cozy,

How will it be decided who would get these? Further discussion around who would get them.

Notetaking ends since there is not quarum.

Discussion continues about building wheeled housing. Housing will need to be built off site by volunteers as building supplies cannot be built on site.

Point of info: Somerville group has large workshop with building tools an have agreed to let us use them for whatever we  need to do. SWEET!

Is it hard to breathe inside them? Small crack around the door lets in oxygen; may make gortexwindow

Would it be possible to deploy in stages? So we know that we know that police see that we’re building or housing them here so they won’t stop us.. response: these are safe so they shouldn’t have any objection.

Besides ventilation is there natural light….addressed with clear plastic on the ceiling.

Can we test flammability? We’ll talk about it more at proposal and we have not flammable methods of warming onsite, no open flame. Also no smoking should be happening in tents.

One more point-woodshop in Somerville is fully outfitted to comply with city ordinance and could test it there.

Design is not perfect…first prototype. Sage open to ideas to improvements.

Would you make working group for those who want to participate/build?

Maybe winterization group could be part of that.

GA ends at 9:10 pm

Inividual Stack:


 * 1) Martin: address how to unite people that don’t live here with people that do live here; newcomers and those who’ve been here since day 1; concern with fracturing; sign up at info camp to get people plugged in; those who live here and hang out-try to help ease tensions between campers and newcomers for cohesion and better use of language…not me/us/them, we’re all in this together