Public Discussion - Friday, November 4 2011

Friday, November 4

Facilitator: Marty
Facilitator: Forest
Minutes: Mallory
Stack Taker: None

The discussion followed this format:

• Introduction (10 minutes)
• Breakout Group Formation (individuals on stack) (20 minutes)
• Group Discussions (45 minutes)
• Group Stack/Presentations (10 minutes per group x 3 groups = 30 minutes)
• Conclusion/Summary

Breakout groups were formed after an opening discussion about what people wanted to talk about. The three breakout groups were:

• Local Issues
• Occupy as Paradigm Shift
• Functional divisions in the movement and occupy boston (i.e. offline/online, onsite/offsite)

Some noted questions/comments that resulted at the end of discussion:

• How does occupy reach into rural areas? Also, what about occupy gardens/farms?
• How to include people whose time is filled with work obligations (i.e. how to occupy time the same way we are currently occupying space)?
• "laboratory space" to describe our ideas discussions.

Two functional issues with discussion format identified by facilitator (Forest) were:

• Breakout groups for the most part lacked facilitation, stack taker, timekeepers, or minute recorders. In the future groups should ideally follow an established process for discussion.

• People who tended to agree seemed to clump together in the smaller groups. Maybe experimenting with starting groups with members randomly assigned and *then* applying law of two feet would be worthwhile? Also, instructing group initiators to make sure their group has someone taking stack?