GA Minutes Sun August 12 2012

12 Aug 2012

 * In Copley Square plaza.

Announcements

 * At the last GA, it started out with about 6 or 7 people, and people were wondering if they should even have it. But eventually about 20 people showed up.
 * People are really confused about community gatherings and people were showing up for them. We checked and there are none planned, so we took them off the schedule and told the church that we weren't doing them.  If you want to do one contact Greg or myself (Carolyn) and we'll set you up.
 * After today we can go back to the common for GA, because Shakespeare in the Park is over, so we should decide where we're going to meet. Sunday GAs will stay at Copley, but Tuesday GAs can be moved to the common.
 * It might be easier to have just one fixed place rather than moving.
 * If it rains, do we still have the option of going inside the community church?
 * Temperature check decides to stick in Copley.
 * I went to the rally in Malden that City Life/Vida Urbana put on. It was kind of odd, because most of the people that were there were part of a tennants unions.  The event was about a man who was losing his home that he owned.  I went mostly because the man who's here from Spain mentioned how exiciting it had been in Spain.
 * Does anybody here know if the puppet people are actually going to show up on Saturday, at what times, or where?
 * [noone seems to know]

Proposals

 * There are currently two proposals for consideration this afternoon.
 * The Boston hemp fest rally in the Boston common has been going on for a while. ~50k people show up every year.  It would be good for OB to have a booth there.  It's right when the school year starts.  The proposal is for $150 which is the cost for a 10x10 booth at the rally, the SAA can decide what to do there.
 * CC: I'm still trying to figure out who puts this rally on
 * A: It's put on by MassCann, it's a cannabis legalization rally
 * CC: When is the day?
 * A: 17 September
 * POI: S17 stuff is being planned for that whole weekend. CC: Is there anybody who would be able to man the booth.
 * A: I can go man the booth!
 * This proposal passes as part of the bucket.


 * The radio program, "99% Boston" has been doing a lot of work to try and reach a larger audience. The show is going to be moved to Unregular radio, which has potentially 1000s of listeners.  Each show recorded has studio fees of $85.  For a whole year that's $4420, plus money for promotionals, and stickers etc to bring the money to $5000.  The time slot would be Thurs 8-9.
 * CC: Is there some reason we need to commit to a whole year?
 * A: We thought a year was a good amount of time. We have a verbal commitment with them for a half of a year.  We're really in to this for the long haul.  It's a really radical show that's almost impossible to get advertising for it.  We're asking for less than what working groups used to get a week.
 * CC: Is this just one part for OB radio deciding this?
 * A: Yeah, it's just one show.
 * CC: Is there a reason for not just doing it for 6 months to see if it's working?
 * A: I don't really know if OB's going to be around in 6 months. I believe in this project, and I don't know if we'll have GAs in 6 months.  I'd like to get a year.
 * POI: The S17 proposal asked for more money for less amount of time.
 * CC: Who's actually involved in this show?
 * A: THere's been 25 people on the show as guests. 9 women, 16 men, from OB.  We'd like to have it more gender balanced.  I host the show, and theres a bunch of occupiers in the gang that puts it together.  There are also people who want to be more involved, but are working or whatever.  We couldn't think of anyone who we wouldn't have on the show.
 * CC: What will this seem like to other people in OB radio?
 * A: OBR has been one of our most expensive things, but we're going to have more listeners the first show than OBR might have in a week. I don't know what they'll think, but maybe some of those shows will follow our lead.
 * CC: Did you consider getting a slot and slotting different OBR shows in instead of the one.
 * A: No, that's not really the model, it's not what they would have been comfortable with and its hard to build listenership.
 * I would be interested in hearing something like "99% Boston" is brought to you in part by a grant from Occupy Boston with the time of the GA, etc. That this is a community service provided by OB.
 * I'm a little worried about the money that's left.
 * I know two people that have radio shows on unregular. They average tens of thousands of viewers.  We're worried about the money coming in here, but I'm worried about the people.
 * A lot of my concerns come down to money, because I think we're down to very little money. I guess I'm more inclined to the 1/2 year than a year, but I'm also concerned about what this means for OBR and the rest of OB to sponsor one's group project and nothing else.
 * Currently OBR has a listenership that's a dozen. I think if we do this that number is likely to grow.
 * I'm one of the hosts of another show on OBR, and I'd like to to pass this and come on the show.
 * At the last OBR meeting this was brought up.
 * I would like to amend that somehow people start thinking about having real bake sales to start raising money for the winter.
 * We're going to look into fundraising. We're going to look for advertisers, but we think it will be a tough sell.
 * I've always said that if we don't do stuff to get the word out, we're going to eventually lose the money anyway.
 * We had this meeting last week, and we need to come up with funds immediately, and there's not going to be another GA in time to get the money.
 * I guess what I heard was that there might be another funding proposal for OBR. My point is that we can't spend all of our money on radio stuff.
 * I personally feel that it's time to revist the tactical proposal. How much money has been earmarked for that?
 * There's over $10,000 in the tactical proposal.
 * Could you just say a word about what the show is like?
 * Its a great show with great dialog. All the people on the show have great chemistry that flow pretty well.  We're getting dialog out there and we're giving people ideas.
 * When would be the first broadcast on unregular radio?
 * 30 Aug.
 * Because this is an affinity group I want to make sure that this is open on some level.
 * The show has been like that since the beginning.
 * I would like to suggest that we fund it for only a half a year.
 * The proposal has passed! All in favor, but for one stand aside.

Open Stack

 * I want to raise the issue that we're not doing enough to evaluate why we are where we are and where we could be going. I just mean larger questions about our tactics and strategy all along.  I keep getting things in the mail from other people about where Occupy went wrong, but I'd like for us to talk about that too.  I think there are things that we did way back long ago that may have really influenced where we are right now.
 * We should have that conversation at Community Church in a less distracting environment.
 * I have a report back, last Thursday, a bunch of people, occupy and not, got together and started talking about how we can get the banks to stop hording their money, and how to invest our money in local businesses. I think there's going to be another meeting the week after this one at the Democracy Center in Cambridge, 7-9 on Thursday.  Terra will probably put out another notice about it.