GA Minutes Tue Oct 02 2012

= Minutes for 2 Oct 2012 =

Details
Location: Community Church of Boston Time: 7:15 - 9pm Note taker: Steve Facilitator: Mike Stack: Carolyn

Summary
Eleven or twelve people attended. We passed four proposals:


 * To endorse the Oct. 6th Peace Action
 * To endorse three days of action against AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee)
 * To reimburse $29 to the street theater working group
 * To hold a community gathering, to debrief S17 and S30.

Opening Remarks
Mike: I encourage you to vote, even if you're not voting for one of the major political parties. There are more than two political parties. I'd also like to elicit an outreach strategy for Occupy Boston.

At an earlier GA, $500 was allocated for S30, and there will be a FAWG proposal at some point.

Working Group Announcements
Food (Deb). Deb summarizes food's contribution to S30. The food working group holds $560 in autonomous funds. We have leftover supplies: cutlery, water, and such. The food working group meets regularly, but we meet on-line; we're too physically spread out to meet in person. I'm wondering how to support people on Saturday's march. We also got some new working group members via facebook.

If you're planning an action and want food, it's very important to give us lead time.

FSU (Eden). obr.fm is broadcasting tomorrow night at 7pm. The show's guest will discuss fiscal policy.

Deb: does the show have a call in number?

Eden: Yes. I'll send the number to the community forum.

Info (Eden). I've become the new info group. info@occupyboston.org.

Radio (Eden). Occupy Boston Radio had a good fundraiser Sunday night. They raised about $300.

Street Theater (Aria). Street theater is having a short meeting on Wed. at 1pm. We'll meet at the JP licks in JP. After that, we'll try to have 4pm meetings each Wednesday.

We may make an appearance at the JP Artist Ball on Oct 13th (which is an indoor event).

Deb: If you want a facebook plug for this event, send me what you want to put up.

FAWG (Linda). I sent an interim accounting of reimbursements. This was distributed at the last FAWG meeting. FAWG should have a proposal in the next couple of days.

On Friday, Steve and Joe will add their names to our credit union account.

Individual Announcements
Bill. I printed out several newspaper articles from Sunday. Whenever I'm interviewed, I try emphasize Occupy Boston's values. Our values are important.

Bobbi. I want to put together a working group, having something to do with homeless needs, and how to reach out to homeless people. I want to do this work in Cambridge. I'm working on a grant that will allow me to interview homeless people. The homeless problem is growing, and we have to do something about it. I want to do something to empower the homeless population, and offer them a glimmer of hope. I'd welcome any thoughts on this subject.

I'd like to set up something for regular blanket donations.

We also need an inventory of what logistics has in storage.

Eden. I'm going to make reservations to see No Room For Wishing on Oct 9th. Contact me if you're interested in going. I'm also going to see Ragtime at the Strand on Oct 5th; this is a play about Uphams corner.

Aria. I'm trying to get the big black and yellow banner from John Murphy. If you can get in touch with John, please have him get in touch with me.

Dana. Honkfest is this Sunday, http://www.honkfest.org. We've been invited to participate, and we'd march between the leftist marching band and VFP.

Bobbi. Do we need an SAA prior to the Saturday march?

Deb. One OB working group has been actively working on the March. There's also a planning call on Wednesday.

Linda. The honkfest parade is from noon-2pm. There won't be a time conflict with SAA.

Rich. After S30, I ended up with the debt boulder. Should we bring it to honkfest?

Carolyn. Could we have an Occupy presence at Saturday's Peace Rally?

Aria. On Nov 24th, there's an end the fed rally. I'd like to have the debt ball for that.

Linda. When is the march on Saturday?

It's at 13:30 pm, at Park Street.

Mike. Recently, I went to a 350ma.org meeting. There's a big overlap between 350ma.org and CASEJ. The next 350ma meeting is Oct 9th. We talked about opposition to a proposed power station. There was also lots of discussion about fracking and Spectra's planned pipeline in the Northeast. If you're interested, you can find out more at http://350ma.org.

Linda. There was an anti-fracking demonstration on Labor Day, called hands across New Hampshire. There was a Sep 23rd action at a VT nuclear power plant, with 12 arrests.

There's a bank action group that's looking at the possibility of forming a state bank. See http://strikedebt.org. They've also got a good pamphlet.

Proposals
We have five proposals tonight.


 * 1) To endorse the Saturday's peace Rally (Steve)
 * 2) To endorse three days of action against AIPAC (Rich)
 * 3) To give street theater $60, for three tickets to the Oct 13th JP Artists Ball (Aria)
 * 4) To use the Oct 14th (or other) GA to debrief S17 and S30 (Aria)
 * 5) To request a $29 reimbursement for the Street theater working group (Aria)

All proposals start in the consent bucket, and we take questions.

Endorsing Saturday's Peace Rally
Q: Can you add VFP to the wording in your proposal?

Yes.

Q: If the proposal passes, will you let the organizers know that Occupyboston has endorsed the rally?

Yes.

Q: The peace rally organizers are having a planning call on Wed. Can you call into that?

Yes, I'll call into the planning call.

Endorsing Three Days of Action Against AIPAC
Q: What is AIPAC?

AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It's a lobbying organization, sponsored by Sheldon Adelson. Ridgely is one of the main organizers for this protest.

Q: Is there a website?

Yes, https://exposeaipac.wordpress.com.

$60 for three tickets to the Oct 13th JP Artists Ball
Q: What is the artist's ball?

It's a fundraiser for groups in JP. Our presence would be to give publicity to the street theater groups.

Q: What was the amount?

$60, for three tickets at $20/each.

Q: So, you'd dress up as costumes and go?

Yes, we'd dress up as a pig, a wolf, and Glass-Steagall. We'd dress up and act.

Q: Will there be something to identify you with Occupy Boston?

Yes? We'd have a flyer about Glass-Steagall.

Q: Are any other groups participating?

Proposal comes out of the bucket.

GA to debrief S17 and S30
Proposal comes out of the bucket.

$29.00 reimbursement for the Street theater
No questions about this proposal.

Proposals 1, 2, and 5 remain in the consent bucket.

Proposals 1, 2, and 5 pass.

$60 for three tickets to the Oct 13th JP Artists Ball
Aria withdraws the proposal.

GA to debrief S17 and S30
Linda: how about doing the debrief after the FAWG presentation?

Dana: We already do debriefs at SAA. Could we debrief at SAA?

Deb: If debriefing doesn't fit into one day, we could spread it out across several meetings.

Eden: Why not have a community gathering, and do the debriefing there? We could do this on Monday Oct 8th, or Oct 22nd.

Linda: I believe that the Community Church of Boston is available on the 8th. I can confirm this tomorrow morning.

Dana: If we can't pull things together for Monday, we can still start the debrief at SAA.

Bobbi: Could we debrief Saturday's anti-war action too?

Steve: If we have a community gathering on Monday, what time will it be?

6pm - 9pm, assuming that the space is available.

Carolyn: I'm concerned about having a potluck where everyone brings chips. If we have food, we should have real food.

Deb: I'll work with Eden and Bobbi on food.

Proposal Passes, subject to availability of the Community Church of Boston.

Individual Stack
Rich: Perhaps this is a generational thing. I don't think anyone here is under 40. I think that older people have different ideas about organizations than the younger generation. It's just something to think about.

Mike: We do need to think about these things.

Eden: I think a community gathering will help bring some younger people in.

GA ends at 9pm.