Occupy Strategic planning, Meeting Notes, May 20, 2013

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5/20/13 6-8pm Call

What do you want to get out of the meeting?

  • Cal - How are we going to work together as a group? How are we going?
  • Aria - We are moving toward a mission statement - the way we formulate strategy

is to collect information as a means of collecting strategy. Once we get hard objectives then we will evaluate the data to get people thinking about goals and objectives. Direction of the mission then agreement of the objectives.

Can the group be nimble? (Agreement)

  • Individuals verse institutions (Example Abolish all meat farms) How to?
  • Education for people - reaching out to individuals.
  • Karen - Look at people as human beings to make change - confusion of our

process. Would like to give power to the people and not institutions. More concrete goals. World peace good goal but hard to strategize. What are specific things we can strategize.

6:38pm Talking about lingo

  • When answering the questions about what lingo: Not understanding the difference

between achieving world peace and a Constitutional Amendment as they are both "pie in the sky" as expressed by Karen.

  • Terra - We are looking to facilitate legislative actions through education.

Individual action as a category that can be "bubbled on" from the grassroots up.

  • Karen - Does not believe amending the Constitution is enough for change.
  • Chris - Institutions and Individuals - Individuals are a big force as consumers.

6:48pm Deciding what we are going to do next

  • Karen - Wants to empower individuals to affect change - to do things
  • Aria - At the end of this we should have a list of goals for people to take individual action.
  • Karen - Clarifying? Is the purpose of this call to create a new political party?
  • Aria - What does Occupy want?
  • Terra - The roadmap is a collection of ideas - where are people's head's going -

collective think - the roadmap are things that can happen legislatively as well as more - two roadmaps one for legislative change and one for post legislative change

6:55pm

  • Polar - We don't need to make the distinction of individual verse institution -

reality based change not simply "empower individuals" something more specific If something doesn't represent something that is in a "realty zone" then it shouldn't be on the list.

  • Iwanka - Where is viability directed? (Answer: Why mention world peace and

then take our group seriously)

  • Aria - Not talking about what talking about how. Ending poverty in the world doesn't fit the criteria so we shouldn't include it.
  • Michael - question about the survey verse having a goal like ending corporate

persons

  • Aria - The survey is a mid step before the national gathering to collect information
  • Cal - What are the steps we are going to do for a goal if we picked one

thing before natgat

  • Karen - What's she's feeling is missing - her concern - tons of surveys done

asking questions - feels whoever shows up on a call determines the agenda - we should go back and see what people thought when as a group and cite it -

  • Aria - Abandon the process and see how we can advise those at natgat could do x

y or z thing one option - second option bring the results of a survey with us to see where the "umff" is - throwing this out there as possibilities as were things to go

  • Cal - It a solution not either or - more national input verse clumps of people

who show up in places - most people outside Occupy want the movement to focus

  • Polar - If Karen is right why bother with surveys - we are a working group

associated with Occupy - Occupy is a loosely linked chain with each group having a mission - the work we choose to do is valid - come up with a product to bring to natgat that represents the knowledge base and skill set of the people in this group - I think the focus is "Who are we" - The movement accomplishes nothing if we don't turn about 100 million people in this society. Serious movement doesn't identify with pipe dreams.

  • Karen - She thought this was the national strategy group - she thought this

groups purpose was to see what people wanted and bring a proposal to natgat and build a strategic plan - I don't think a survey is the way through it - what is lacking is the political will - by political I mean individuals not a list serve - Interested in bringing a strategic plan to national gathering

  • Terra - Believes we have been preparing proposals to bring to the natgat -

individual action verse legislative what percent of our effort will be put into each

  • Aria - What we should do is take the data we have now and narrow it down to a

number - say 12 and present that to natgat as a means of crowd sourcing - we want to know what they want -

  • Michael - Believes there should be one main focus of the movement and show

how that one thing connects to many things

  • Cal - Had a vision on how the movement focused on one thing and achieved that

one thing and use that to achieve another thing - wasn't for focusing on one thing but now believes the movement should focus on one thing and thinks that a strategy group should make that recommendation at natgat

  • Polar - One broad objective corporate ownership of the country under that

corporate personhood - media, commons - did start off as Occupy Wall Street not Occupy End of War - framing our project as one thing such as corporate ownership of the country and go from there

  • Aria - Believes that the people who attend the natgat are the people who are

doing the work - if we were to say bring to natgat ending corporate person but don't bring an income guarantee and a proportional representative

  • Cal - Many things you just said fall into corporate power - most things with the

economy - unions - wages

  • Dennis - For years we have a one sided top down class war - they are stopping

everything including environmental stuff - paid off by lobbyists - if we can centralize it and fit a lot of different issues that show it has to do with the controls of the corporations

  • Polar - Like the idea of an umbrella to affect a lot aspects - what is it to be

a fully realized human being?

  • Michael - Government in the Future by Prof. Chomsky has in it about about true

human action is that which flows from inter impulse - the true end of humanity is to inquire and create not be a cog in a machine of production

  • Terra - likes how the energy is converging on a short list
  • Aria - Basic income guarantee - abolish corporate person - set aside first use

privilege of common land with first use privilege of disenfranchised people

  • Polar - Human Personhood
  • Karen - Proposed three things - need to shift power - what is power -

dismantling the corporate system - realize people's own human potential Cal - not imposing a plan on other people - Terra planned a debrief at the end of the call

  • Aria - What and how is very important - what is missing is how are we going to

get there - proposal the mission of this group to put forth objectives of how will Occupy bring about a new world Polar - In response to Karen's idea we are back to everything again and I think it is too broad - what started Occupy Wall Street was the financial collapse and disenfranchised everybody but the bankers and nothing has been fixed because the corporations own the government (8:04pm Media campaign about the irony of human personhood believing that it can reach people)

  • Karen - I was proposing not just destructing but human values and creativity and

natural law

  • Michael - We can not fail at abolishing corporate persons - we need to continue

until we succeed at abolishing corporate persons - we will not be able to do anything about the environment until we abolish corporate persons - the environment is truly an inclusive issue and we can not affect the change as we need to as long as corporations are people embracing environmental destruction as money making opportunities

  • Aria - come up with a short list would be a great mission for this group - I

hope we can settle that as a mission Karen - concur that we need a narrower list - not a survey - merit in exhaustive list on paper - to then narrow

  • 8:05pm

Debrief

  • 8:30pm Home Work: Go on Ether Pad and share what the issues are - edit and figure it out throughout the week - figure out when the next call is next Monday or the

Monday after

Notetaker: Michael

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