WG/Facilitation/Proposals

Priority Process Proposal
(as amended at FWG public meeting)

For Occupy Boston proposals to: reflect more voices and broader ownership; strive for an inclusive process; allow the Assembly to be more informed about and better prepared for hearing and voting on proposals; to help Occupy Boston participants plan to attend specific General Assemblies so they can vote on proposals of interest; help those making proposals gain practice presenting; and to better the likelihood of passage; the Facilitator Working Group recommends a Priority Proposal process.

We strongly encourage everyone to make proposals, particularly those from historically oppressed communities. We think this process helps to ensure that your voice will be heard.

Please note that emergency proposals, e.g., from Safety, Medics, Legal, etc., will continue to get immediate attention.

We propose the following steps to achieve priority status for your proposal:

1. Decide if you want your proposal to receive priority status at a General Assembly.
   Anyone, whether a group or an individual, can make proposals and gain priority status.
   Pre-announced, pre-posted, pre-scheduled proposals which have had publicly announced meetings and passed consensus at a public meeting, will be considered prior to other proposals at General Assemblies.
   Working Groups and individuals may still bring any proposals to the GA, without submitting to this new process, they simply will not have priority status on the agenda.
   
2. First Steps (at least 4 days prior to presenting at GA):
   1. post the proposal on the OccupyBoston wiki and make physical copies available at the camp library;
   2. schedule and post online, the date of the GA at which the proposal will be presented;
   3. do outreach to all WGs to let them know you have a proposal in the pipeline and would like their input;
   4. schedule and post online, with 48 hours notice, the date of a public meeting (which must be at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled GA), at which the proposal will be reviewed and taken through the consensus process. (Individuals can host meetings)
      (On non-GA evenings, facilitators will be available at the 5pm Facilitators Working Group meeting to assist with all of these steps, including typing your proposal and helping you write, to the best of our ability.)
      
3. Announce at the earliest possible evening GA,
   1. that you are preparing a proposal,
   2. the subject of the proposal and that it is posted online,
   3. the date of the public meeting,
   4. and the date the proposal will be presented to the GA;
      
4. Conduct a full consensus WG meeting where you
   1. state the need the proposal is addressing;
   2. first assess whether the proposal requires consensus at a General Assembly;
   3. Document all objections and amendments.
   4. Explain how objections were addressed
      (Objections must remain on a public list so that, if the proposal cannot address them and is still consented to, the community knows that there are outstanding concerns/objections to address.)
   5. Explain whether or why not amendments were adopted.
      
5. If the proposal has passed consensus in the public meeting, present at the pre-scheduled GA;
   
6. If the proposal did not reach consensus at the public working group meeting, post that result online and announce at the next available GA that the proposal will not be presented on the previously scheduled date OR that you will still bring the proposal to the GA, but it will not be given priority status.