Instructions for Starting a Work Group: Difference between revisions

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This is supposed to be a way for Occupy Boston to crowdsource pamphlets people can print out and distribute on First Night.  This is an INFORMAL working group, meaning it has no approval from the GA.  Consequently, any contributors should adhere to three rules.
As of 12/19/2011


1) Do not try to define Occupy Boston. We've had enough trouble just keeping the Socialists from attacking the Libertarians, so please don't presume you can write a single page explanation of who we are and what we want to accomplish.
1. Think about the topic/issue you want to work on, research, act upon. Look at the big list of [[Working Groups]] and see if there are any that are already thinking about or acting upon the topic. Make sure to look close, because existing WGs may be covering "part" of the issue, and you could ask the members of that WG to extend their "scope" to include the issue you're concerned about. Or you could work as a "subgroup" to the working group, and maybe take advantage of the existing skills that are coordinated in one spot. It's often worth asking! At the very least, if you contact the group, you will raise awareness of the issue, and perhaps find people that are also concerned.


2) Do not try to create a plan, goal, or set of demands for the movement.  Our goal here should be simply to describe the system as it exists, in order to explain to people WHY the occupy movement needs to exist.  So, for instance, don't talk about Democrats and Republicans (Unless you're offering a specific criticism of both sides of the Two Party System.)  Instead, discuss/include graphs of wealth disparities, Corporations on Wall Street that subvert the political or economic systems, the IMF Structural Adjustment Programs/World Bank schemes, NAFTA/Free Trade agreements, media corporations, electoral politics, environmental issues, etc.  In other words, don't say what we are or what we want.  Just explain (in a non-partisan way) why the system is broken and needs to be fixed.
Also, it may help to talk to a few people working in similar Working Groups to make sure people are supportive of your planned "Statement of Work". The "Ideas" Working Group is helpful for that.


3) Do not claim to be speaking for the GA. The GA doesn't even know what the GA wants. You're just using this opportunity to explain what needs to be fixed in the system, from your point of view.
2. Assuming that no other working groups are already covering a topic, find a few people that are interested in working on it. Email the big lists with an announcement that you're interested to find others to work with. You may find that someone's already formed a group that just isn't listed yet on the big list of [[Working Groups]]. Then voila! You've found a home for your work!


Here's my example for a simple, one page handout. I'm aware that I broke rule 2. Suck it, I'm a better anarchist than you:
3. If you don't find an existing group, but find one or more people to want to work on the topic, coordinate with the people interested and come up with a "mission" statement for the group. Make sure to email the mission statement to the big lists, to make sure everyone knows specifically what you have in mind, and to make sure, one last time, that there's no overlap with what other people are doing. No sense in spending time doing the same thing twice. You may find that people contact you to ask you to modify the mission statement to avoid overlap with existing groups.


4. Create a wiki page for the new WG, making sure to include your contact info and the mission statement, even if it's just in draft format. The wiki is a great place to "develop" documents such as a mission statement, because it tracks changes, allows you to "revert" to old versions, and provides a link for you to send around in emails while you recruit and coordinate.


          What is Wall Street?
5. Once you have a wiki page posted, you are sort of considered an "informal working group". Of course, you can be informal without a wiki page. But once you have a wiki page, you're sort of on the books as existing. But not quite as formal as having gone through GA. To make your Working Group "formal", as opposed to "informal" (we haven't worked out the specific titles yet, but there's a general sense that we dont' like the word "official"...or "established"... but nonetheless, there are two types of working groups...those that are approved by GA, and those that aren't.)
Wall Street is a colloquial term for the Financial District in New York, but in practice Wall Street is a group of multinational investment banks, hedge funds, and various exchanges like the NASDAQ.


        Why does the Occupy Wall Street movement want to take money from the rich and successful?
6. To propose to the GA that the working group becomes "formally recognized", attend a [[General Assembly]] and announce the formation of the WG and what the focus of your task will be.
This claim, constantly levied against Occupy Wall Street, is simply false.  We just want fair income and corporate tax rates, not redistribution of resources. Multinational corporations, banks and hedge funds to pay their fair share of taxes, and also to obey the regulations imposed on smaller businesses.  Collectively, the multinational banks corporations referred to under the metonym Wall Street have trillions (Yes, trillions) of dollars hidden in shell companies and offshore assets.  The banks create asset classes called derivatives, many of which are untaxed and relatively unregulated.  These include Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations, which are complex insurance swaps that have the effect of raising borrowing costs for national economies.  Another class of derivatives are called Mortgage Backed Securities, which helped cause the 2008 crisis and the ongoing mortgage and housing crises in America.


        What is the mortgage and housing crisis in America?  Why does the Occupy Movement attempt to stop foreclosures?
This is a good opportunity to recruit like minded individuals to work with the WG.
As many as 60 million houses in America are owned and held by a private corporation called MERS, or the Mortgage Electronic Registration System.  MERS was created as a tool for banks to securitize mortgages into financial assets, called Mortgage-Backed Securities.  Because hundreds of mortgages can end up in a single MB Security, it became clear in 2008 that banks had purposely and fraudulent sold billions of dollars worth of valueless MB Securities to unsuspecting customers.  However, that wasn't the real problem.  Once a mortgage is issued and placed into the MERS computers, the original paperwork, including the signature on the loan documentation, is shredded or otherwise destroyed.  Under US law, a bank cannot foreclose on a house unless it can provide a court with the original documentation to prove a direct chain of ownership over the mortgage.  Since the banks issued the mortgages in the first place, they know which ones are going to fail:  Banks have been caught red-handed taking insurance out on houses in the MERS network, then illegally and fraudulently foreclosing on the families inside without providing the proper paperwork and signatures.  A majority of the mortgages in America are securitized within the MERS computers, and legally, none of these houses can be foreclosed on without committing perjury and fraud.  Banks have also used techniques called "robo-signing", where they hire unqualified people (Janitors, Taxi Drivers, etc.) to fill out the foreclosure paperwork in lieu of a qualified lawyer.  For these reasons and several others, the Occupy Movement has stepped in to prevent banks from carrying out illegal foreclosures (ie ones that lack the full paperwork for foreclosure) on American citizens.


Other ideas: Consolidation of media Corporations, Federal Reserve/Treasury, IMF/World Bank Policies, Bailouts, Quantitative Easing, Campaign Finance, SEC/NARA destruction of Matters under Investigation files, the impact of NAFTA/GATT on offshoring of American jobs, environmental policy, War on Terrorism, War on Drugs etc. Make your own Pamphlet to express your grievances!
Also, it helps to bring a bunch of copies of a written description of your proposed Work Group, so that people at the GA can read it.
 
3. Establish WG meeting dates and times: this could be once a week or up to 7 times a week, e.g., the acilitation working group meets five days per week, alternately the Nonviolence WG meets once a week. Other working groups are "virtual" and meet online via discussion lists and/or conference calls. However you decide to meet, it's important that the public have access to the lists and to the meetings. So if they are timed events, they must be posted on the calendar.
 
4. Establish a wiki site with a contact email address, if you haven't already. The Internal IT WG can help you with this.
 
That's pretty much it for the establishment of a WG. It's basically considered an autonomous action. Working groups are comprised of anywhere from one to dozens of people.
 
For additional questions, please [mailto:volunteer@occupyboston.org send an email]

Latest revision as of 08:20, 1 March 2013

As of 12/19/2011

1. Think about the topic/issue you want to work on, research, act upon. Look at the big list of Working Groups and see if there are any that are already thinking about or acting upon the topic. Make sure to look close, because existing WGs may be covering "part" of the issue, and you could ask the members of that WG to extend their "scope" to include the issue you're concerned about. Or you could work as a "subgroup" to the working group, and maybe take advantage of the existing skills that are coordinated in one spot. It's often worth asking! At the very least, if you contact the group, you will raise awareness of the issue, and perhaps find people that are also concerned.

Also, it may help to talk to a few people working in similar Working Groups to make sure people are supportive of your planned "Statement of Work". The "Ideas" Working Group is helpful for that.

2. Assuming that no other working groups are already covering a topic, find a few people that are interested in working on it. Email the big lists with an announcement that you're interested to find others to work with. You may find that someone's already formed a group that just isn't listed yet on the big list of Working Groups. Then voila! You've found a home for your work!

3. If you don't find an existing group, but find one or more people to want to work on the topic, coordinate with the people interested and come up with a "mission" statement for the group. Make sure to email the mission statement to the big lists, to make sure everyone knows specifically what you have in mind, and to make sure, one last time, that there's no overlap with what other people are doing. No sense in spending time doing the same thing twice. You may find that people contact you to ask you to modify the mission statement to avoid overlap with existing groups.

4. Create a wiki page for the new WG, making sure to include your contact info and the mission statement, even if it's just in draft format. The wiki is a great place to "develop" documents such as a mission statement, because it tracks changes, allows you to "revert" to old versions, and provides a link for you to send around in emails while you recruit and coordinate.

5. Once you have a wiki page posted, you are sort of considered an "informal working group". Of course, you can be informal without a wiki page. But once you have a wiki page, you're sort of on the books as existing. But not quite as formal as having gone through GA. To make your Working Group "formal", as opposed to "informal" (we haven't worked out the specific titles yet, but there's a general sense that we dont' like the word "official"...or "established"... but nonetheless, there are two types of working groups...those that are approved by GA, and those that aren't.)

6. To propose to the GA that the working group becomes "formally recognized", attend a General Assembly and announce the formation of the WG and what the focus of your task will be.

This is a good opportunity to recruit like minded individuals to work with the WG.

Also, it helps to bring a bunch of copies of a written description of your proposed Work Group, so that people at the GA can read it.

3. Establish WG meeting dates and times: this could be once a week or up to 7 times a week, e.g., the acilitation working group meets five days per week, alternately the Nonviolence WG meets once a week. Other working groups are "virtual" and meet online via discussion lists and/or conference calls. However you decide to meet, it's important that the public have access to the lists and to the meetings. So if they are timed events, they must be posted on the calendar.

4. Establish a wiki site with a contact email address, if you haven't already. The Internal IT WG can help you with this.

That's pretty much it for the establishment of a WG. It's basically considered an autonomous action. Working groups are comprised of anywhere from one to dozens of people.

For additional questions, please send an email

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