FSU Meeting Notes 1

*** November  MEETING  NOTES  BELOW  this  DRAFT  of  TASKS   ***

FSU Draft to make 'TASK' files with                                              11/26/2011

Has a file started:

Nov, 22 Site-Assistants (used as a draft for this page)


 * Site assistants: people to meet & greet educators, get them the microphone or help them find a place to teach. Gather white board, announce class with the microphone +/or people's mic.

Nov 9th, Teacher's suggestions


 * Post schedule signs: make signs for up & coming classes. Post & organize FSU at the InfoTent.-John has started to do this, and needs more monitoring.
 * Friday 3-5:00pm scribe w/ a computer
 * Possible: Nia, Joan, Matt Wormer, Monica,

          Web help with wiki, list-serve, website developer, twitter, YouTube, Flicker

Nov 19th, May First Basic Info, [mailto:emails@occupyBoston.org emails@occupyBoston.org];

Nov 9th, [mailto:FSU@lists.OccupyBoston.org FSU@lists.OccupyBoston.org] LIST SERVE


 * Financial liaison, research the items on the 'things' list below so FSU can make requests.
 * What do 'users' see? Look at our exposure on the ground and on websites.
 * Forum coordinators: Immigrants, Ecology, Civil Rights ...
 * Videographers and, if you have video of any of our classes plz send URL. Likewise, photos etc...
 * Organizing all of the above.
 * Create a logo for Free School U, our colors are bright, orange and black. We began with the Soap Box and plan to reinstate it when we have more volunteers and a good location for the SB.

How-to for scheduling, define role

Liaison w. legal ... injunction & bringing in a tent

Tent, bring in, space, 24/7 someone

Scheduling volunteers & other tasks

**********************************************************************

FSU meeting notes 25-Nov-11 3-5PM, 470 Atlantic Ave (Independence Warf) send to [mailto:fsu@occupyboston.org fsu@occupyboston.org] 8 attending: Eden, Tamzid, Daniel, Richard, David, Chris, Duncan, Ken facilitation by Eden, Notes by Daniel  There's a handout from Eden starting with "needs volunteers for the following" appended and expanded. It a draft of what should be 'Tasks' on groups.occupyboston.org FSU site. agenda/discussion for this meeting important unrelated deferred to next two meetings (Dec 2nd and 9th) Eden returning to Washington in three weeks, so these various roles require people stepping up

Film festival? Howard Zinn series? Forums? - Chris FSU tent is available - 10"X10", but not yet setup Should we have Logistics clear a space to put it up now or wait until after the court date? &lt;wait&gt; Logistics & Legal is aware of the possibility that a tent may be confiscated while being brought in. Consensus was attained as to postpone the tent set-up for one week - next week will try to get consensus postponed to wait past the Dec 1st court date on the injunction Key WG's like Legal and Financial should have a liaison to FSU and/or vice-versa. want that legal perspective in next meeting (Arania, of Legal has volunteered for FSU) Richard volunteered as financial liaison, full consensus, will work with Eden to transfer knowledge Eric is already in logistics and will continue that liaison A template may be drafted by OBIT (Reed),to facilitate ease of teacher/time/location dissemination. There was a draft document for a ground support calendar. Plenty of things need to be done on the web. Teacher protocol (file started here at groups.occupyboston.org):   You want to teach a class? Here's what you need to do to get organized for a class (Site-Assistants file started on groups.occupy...) Winter is a tough time to give outdoor teach-ins! How do we find indoor space? -Chris & Zinn, ask Maureen, of the Summit, ask facilitation WG

Consensus was attained for groups.occupyboston.org as the primary formal destination and eventual home of all FSU wiki info When Rachel is here next week, consensus will be tested again to formally pass the aforementioned proposal FSU Working Group members, go to groups.occupyboston.org to create an account to become a member of a the FSU WG - go to site, sidebar for account, request with name & email - open the "My Groups" menu item, the "Groups" tab which lists them all, including FSU - right column "Request Membership"; will popup that request is moderated - let Eden moderate the message, may be a lag time - come back to "My groups" tab to insure actually added - when complete, you'll have access to edit the file in wiki-like pages   which is where all essential internal documents will be migrated (help?)  Chris' report back from Zinn Memorial Lecture Series 1st informal meeting at Pankaj's house: Junior Professors from area schools (BU & UMass Boston who met at the OB planning meetings in September) Meeting for the long-term vision for Zinn & Dollars & Sense Economic Forum. Eden invited to next meeting, DEC 4th. Pankaj & Nicole's house Talked about how to make FSU a model for what public higher education should be (free public education) Run classes by coming back strong in the spring at Dewey SQ. after having some things inside winter long Might have a 6 week long summer course that could possibly give a certificate Chris met with Marylyn Frankenstein BU professor on Wed about having a film series this winter Have the film series as a way for everyone to get their feet wet, with theme nights and discussions mechanisms for feedback from people about what types of classes ZINN & FSU should host, and suggest we survey what people want classes on Reserve the spaces, schedule them, fill with film series, recruit teachers and topics Zinn Memorial Lecture Series & other Forums are a subset of Free School University  freeschooluniversity.org - will be maintained as a nation-wide web-site, support for Occupy Movement free education  next meeting next Friday, 2-Dec 3:00 PM back at 470 Atlantic Proposed agenda: > continue follow-up RE roles & responsibilities > vision statement, where do want to be in 6 months, in the spring? > discussion of greeters/class coordinators, full written description on   http://groups.occupyboston.org/wg/edit/37 (FSU) Do we want to have slots to schedule; have site-assistants available before educators; fuller disclosure of DIY > the tent & onsite presence - further consensus, need for more onsite people   (right now there are only two FSU people on the ground in Dewey, Duncan & John) > Richard's joint proposal FSU/OccupyToSustain, tabled but not discussed

> where's our primary calendar, notes, etc? consistency of placement, security of archive, clarity for ground-support volunteers

> role description for the scheduler (Rachel: Occupyboston.org/calendar/, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, wiki); formalization, moderators -for email list, list email (list-serve), groups, wiki. > other various & sundry matters (we didn't get to the "free" part of the agenda until 4:35 PM, so...)

Other important items:

GA schedule has changed, on the weekend GA starts at 5pm, Sat & Sun.

Starting Dec 3rd


 * Middle East and North Africa Solidarity Day

WhenSun, December 4, 4pm – 6pm...eden eamiled Gregg to find the poster for this event



FSU Volunteer Ground Support Meeting

11-18-11 3:00pm

Present: Eden, Nia, Susan

Eden began by asking for agenda items.

Nia asked about user experience task: seeing how accessible FSU is and asked about FSU’s overall mission and goals.

Susan stated that she did not have any questions. She thought it was the Working Group meeting.

Eden talked about the volunteer list that is in an excel file put together by Joan. She asked Joan did some research and acquired a tent. The tent is at Eden’s house.

FSU is looking for people to update files.

Eden has concerns with how open the Wiki is, so she would like to generate files on the Working Group’s platform on the May 1st server. Eden handed out mini-flyers for FSU

Eden said that her original idea was to have a list of tasks and lay them out. One task that is not on the list is to look for indoor space.

Eden explained her purpose for FSU. The original purpose was to put some meat behind the signs. Can people generate solutions? Eden would also like to be growing leaders. She would like to have people in camp teaching and gaining confidence in what they believe. Sees the schools as being an integral part of the movement, considered as core as any other function-medical, food, etc.-in any location-not something that crops up later. Wants to generate a website -interactive, archival, video.

Susan explained her purpose. She seconded the idea of putting meat behind the signs. Went to a 1pm class on COINTELPRO. She taught the Foucault class afterwards. Susan teaches and would like to be able to put her skills to use as well as other tasks. Just wants to help. Her availability is tough. It’s hard for her to commit, but she would like to try. She will make sure she can be here if she’s scheduled. Susan mentioned the idea of FSU and Howard Zinn Lecture Series continuing and growing into a certificate program. Excited by the prospect of free school.

Eden explained the origin of FSU. Everyone is a teacher. Everyone has something to teach-wants to provide as broad a base for educators as are interested.

Nia said ditto.

Susan said that she thinks that the tent will help with accessibility as well. She mentioned that people will go in to get out of the cold, but will still soak up some information.

Eden would also like the FSU tent to house materials that the library can’t, articles, papers …

Susan mentioned that a box of books to read for pleasure would be helpful as well.

Eden-one idea that was at one of the early planning meetings was to have people make an original copy of a poem and make it accessible in the library and be circulated. Someone could scan it and get it up on the web. Susan said that she would be happy to start that off. She has some Phyllis Wheatley poems that she will begin with.

Eden said that she will update what other people have been doing this week. Joan got the tent. Eric knows where FSU wants the tent placed.

A man named John from MassArt will be printing out and posting to the FSU schedule board and keeping it current.

A woman named Marguerite and a man named Duncan came to do greeting. Eden needs to check in with them.

Harvey Wasserman is coming on the 20th. He was going to talk about political action as a general thing, but will focus possibility of the US going to war with Iran. Tosh One is coming after. FSU needs promoters for this event.

High priority task for this week: write in what greeters do; get that into the Wiki and groups pages.

There are 45 working groups.

The two forums are the Economics (under FSU but they do their own organizing), Zinn ( Socialist; active academics), and Health & Justice as well as one Immigrants Forums.

Rachel does all the scheduling for the FSU. She has access to the occupyboston.org calendar, twitter, FB, youtube.

There is a history of what was scheduled on the Wiki.

Eden works trying to network people. Eden takes class schedule off the Wiki and puts it into the Occupy Boston Globe, the schedule board on the ground and the info tent. She also puts some information in the Library and Media.

Everyone has access to the Wiki.

A man, DJ has expressed interest in starting a Dewey school for Occupiers.

Susan asked how it would be different from Free School. Eden said that it would be campcentric-enrollment for the campers to teach. She has only reached out to nonviolence, process, veterans (Rachel), but other than that, they don’t really do any outreach.

We looked at the Occupy Boston site to see the list of working groups and look at FSU’s wiki and FB page.

FSU Working Group Meeting

11-18-11

4:00pm

Present: Eden, Nia, Adam, Marguerite, Steve, Z, DJ

Eden gave an overview of FSU-some needs and what’s been working. For example the Zinn lecture series has their own videographer and that is a goal for FSU. She is not sure who a point/contact person is for the Zinn series. They may slow down for winter and regroup later.

Eden also updated the group on recent activities with FSU-acquisition of a tent

Introductions/Interests:

Z was attending Zinn lectures; started student union at UMass Boston-several showed interest in teaching at FSU

DJ is a grad student at UMass Boston. Proposed a Dewey school for the purpose of more a community/education arena. Interested in recruiting people to help.

Eden thinks that FSU doesn’t have enough support.

Adam is from Dartmouth and works at a school in Waltham. He started coming here off and on 3 weeks and started going to the lectures. He thinks the lectures are the best part of the whole movement. Has random thoughts and ideas of great teachers and speakers. Wanted to get more involved and not just watch.

Steve lives in Cambridge and co-directs a men’s homeless shelter. He’s been involved in different progressive causes. He likes the way OB converged. He thinks the educational part, and having it be ultra-accessible is really vital to him. He also has some potential candidates for speakers as well, but he is kind of aware that it’s in survival mode now and keeping it going on a basic level and he’s committed to do that.

Eden was part of the planning meeting at the Boston common and joined Arts & Culture. She broke away from that group and started FSU. Her original purpose was to put some depth behind the signs and stated the Soap Box ... Step-up & Jump-IN!



free school university @ occupy boston, wg meeting         11/11/11

Held in the A-Z Library

sign board… is missing!!! Logistics doesn’t know where it is ... it may be gone.

tent ($100 option) will be donated!!!

Greeters is our greatest need

Forums: The OB Economic, Zinn Lectures

FSU got access to mic as of 2+ weeks ago

teachers not vetted, self-selected, Rachel posts to OB..org, Facebook & wiki eden posts to occupy boston globe

marguriet rostenthal - taught social policy national jobs for all coalition, wants to be helpful but not around much

katherine – volunteers when she can – need more free schools, she woks in the info tent

chris – economics forum coordinator – series of speakers he knows through $ and cents magazine, met with folks from zinn school, education should be free, education being assaulted. . . fsu can be a model for free higher public education – floated idea of surviving through winter come back strong in spring, 6 week summer school with certificate. . . winter classes inside possibly quantro, cinco. . . also interested in logistics of self organizing. . . he posted instructions for teach-in or talk presenter on the FSU wiki page

susan – english professor, teaching here. . . what are people asking for. . . focus on surveillance. . . poetry of Phyllis Wheatley. . . (there have been 2 well attended classes on surveillance)

John student at MassArt. . . wants to be more involved. . . living here since the beginning… is willing to sleep in our tent

Spider/Ariana. . . working with legal since the beginning, wants to work with fsu, strongly supports the school

steven – church works in homeless shelter in cambridge, free lance film editing. values resource of fsu

free school university helping movement generate more ideas and educate. . . put meat behind the signs

sign is missing – fsu has no face

can reserve new indoor space at meeting if we can meet at 4-5. . . need to be out by 5. . . set agenda by email?? sensitive to fact that not everyone has email. . . everyone at the meeting has email

doodle on working group new forum. . . please use

next meeting 4pm at new space on atlantic ave. . . behind the building access through alley

enquentro cinco. . . does charge classes. . . have been letting us go when there an opening in the schedule – chris will check about usability of the space for our winter classes

chris. . . what about having classes offsite inside and is that identifiable as fsu @ ob. . . will we accept offer of space? pursue several different spaces. . . south station not at dinner or lunch time

zinn lecture series only books academics – active professors?

friends of or working group. . . not sure of difference. . . friends of can have kickstart or paypal donations, more independent. . . working group gets stipend of $100 week anything over needs to be approved by GA, comes out of GA. ..

reason for existing as a working group is. . . if over winter we are using space away not an issue. . . it’s enough to maintain level of greeters – getting a tent may be too much of an issue. . . census of tents – consolidated there may be room for a tent. . . no greeters because it is too hard for them to be greeters. . . a tent would make this better. . . need a person to sleep in it so, no one else would sleep in it. . . possible john from library, rachel. . . and new john(Mass Art)

if everyone chooses not to be a working group does it undermine the GA. . . how many friends groups might there be. . . 3 or 4 now

go to wiki site for fsu there are draft protocols posted. . . for speakers – how to get on schedule. . . idea is that it is self-organizing down to the greeters. . . forums are responsible for greeters for their talks. ..

on front page of ob site is a fsu button for volunteering or speaking

summit 2-6pm, SAT for working groups next week. ..

talk of disbursed march. . . people stay on various corners

need volunteer for sunday. . . julius levine teach-in on sunday at 2. . . rachel will be here, jon will help. . . he will email her

jon will make announcement about missing signboard at GA, SAT

sign up for greeters could be on the wiki. . .if we had a tent we could have a white board. ..

tent is approved by consensus.. .

joan will greet at 10 am saturday, steven will greet at 5, marguerite will greet on tuesday. . . Eden is keeping the list for this week then, on to wiki

Chris will look into C% for classes, may decide to have slots available and fill those instead of having teachers choose.

Interest in making FSU more self-serve



FSU Meeting Notes from 2011-11-6

marilyn frankenstein

duncan micfarland

duncan mac, vidoegrapher

jeff stone

rachel

david

eden

danny

joan

priorities

greeters = protocols are being developed

set up calendar so people can sign up to greet, video

setup and take-down

look at all the online free-school info

wiki. . . discussion page is talk

multi-session classes. . . how to answer questions about the movement. . . art and activism. . . Marilyn – possibly off-site

quantitative meaning and argument

encouraging multi-session forums. ..

fsu is essentially a platform. . . sessions are self-organized, keeping space open for people to teach