GA Minutes 7/3/12
IKE BOX 7 PM
Facilitator: Bobbie Stacker: Nancy Scribe: Sandy In Attendance: Laurie, Bobbie, Nancy, Rich, Stacey, Sean, Michele, Stan, Evan, Mike, Sandy, James
Moment of Silence: Bobbie Non-violence Agreement: Bobbie Hand Signals: Nancy Mission Statement:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Stacey: Doug is in Oklahoma, heading to Missouri and plans to be in Washington DC by September. He sends a group hug; reports that most people are nice.
- Nancy/Bobbie: Katharine will not be at Friday’s Move Your Money event; others will bring signs and flyers this coming Friday at noon to the US Bank at Commercial and State downtown.
- Laurie: The Bike Group met and decided its name is the Sprockets – which may be temporary. It will come with a proposal/plan that the Sprockets will bike to the ‘bank of the week’ bank branch after being at the Friday noon downtown bank event. They want the Move Your Money campaign to be visible in other areas of the city.
- James: After several years, the Straub Environmental Learning Center will soon visit the 30 acre protected habitat James and Lisa live on so they can move forward with their plans to create a nature sanctuary/educational place; he has tree and berry starts if anyone wants them.
- Sean: He’d like the Mission Statement read each week; it was agreed it would be. He’d like to add a sentence or two and will bring that in a separate proposal.
- Nancy: The Philadelphia Occupy National Gathering which started can be viewed on-line. Greg is there.
- Stan: Can the OSO calendar reflect some of the other organizations’ events which overlap/work closely with Occupy, perhaps assigning different colors to each group to help identify each? Bobbie said that she had been told she could do that but does not know how to make the other Calendars fit; Stan will help Bobbie set it up.
- Stan: He and Laurie will bring a proposal to have the park occupied one day each week, with people signing up for shifts to ensure an ongoing presence. He envisions a tabling effort.
- Bobbie: Only a handful of people showed up Monday night to protest outside WalMart about the TPP agreement. The word needs to be spread about how devastating the TPP trade agreement will be to this country. More on that later.
- Sandy/Stan: If some of the bank signs were in Spanish, more people could become part of the Move Your Money campaign. Laurie will have someone she knows translate simple statements into Spanish.
- Nancy: December 10 is Human Rights Day and there is a website coming which will promote the new movement called 2 Million Friends, in which www.change.org will obtain 2 million signatures from around the world to show the UN and President Obama that 2 million civilians have died in the Afghanistan War, and that more than half of the world wants peace. She will provide more information as that campaign ramps up.
- Sean: There are just four months remaining until elections and a lot needs to be done.
CALENDAR:
- Mon Jul 9 – 6:30pm, attend Salem City Council to support Move To Amend.
- Wed Jul 11 – 6:30pm, at Ike Box, MPMTA Study Group 201 presents Citizen’s United / Free Speech. The next one is Jul 25.
- Thursday, July 12 – 6:30pm at Ike Box, MPMTA Study Group 101 meets for its weekly, Thursday study of democracy using the WILPF format.
- Mon Jul 23 – 6:30pm, attend Salem City Council to support Move To Amend.
- Fri, Sat, Sun Jul 20 – 22, at Bush Park, is the Art Fair with tabling by MTA and Occupy.
- Wed Aug 8, 7pm – 9pm, at OPW, will be a Big Banks panel.
- Sat Aug 18, 10am at Unity Property, 1777 Fabry Rd SE, is the Salem Peace Festival.
- Sat Aug 25 – Sept 3 at the Fairgrounds, the State Fair where tabling will happen.
AGENDA:
- Sean: He brought his consensus proposal. A brief discussion resulted in his agreement that as there will be an education training in which the Occupy process of facilitating, consensus, etc will be covered, he will wait until it is determined at that training whether he’d still want to present it. Dean had offered at last week’s Spokes Council to be part of the training group and present his consensus outline/process. (See Reports for a discussion of the GA/Spokes Council alternating trial.)
- Nancy: Teens in Afghanistan for peace have been moved to the city from outlying regions to keep them safe. They have started wearing blue scarves to signify peace. Occupy could make and sell blue scarves to show solidarity with the teens in Afghanistan, which could be an Occupy fund raiser. The web site is www.thebluescarf.org. A temporary AG will determine if making scarves is feasible.
- Bobbie: Every Monday at 10am at Ike Box buttons are made to sell as fund raisers to keep MPMTA in brochures etc. Join in!
- Bobbie: A sign up sheet is going around so people can choose shifts to work the Art Fair MPMTA booth. She reminded us that Occupy merchandise is sold at the same time as both groups are non-partisan.
- Sandy: She encouraged everyone to attend MPMTA Study Groups. (See Calendar.)
REPORTS: Rich reported that Portland is exploring the tax exempt status ALEC enjoys – they find ways to give money to politicians, such as by saying vacations are scholarships. He has a few ALEC buttons which he will give tonight.
Stacey said that Communications did not meet as Katharine had family obligations.
ACTIONS:
Friday, Jul 6 at Noon, meet at US Bank at Commercial and State to hand flyers to people to encourage them to move their money from big banks to local banks and credit unions.
Monday, Jul 9 at 6:30pm meet at Salem City Council to support the Marion Polk Move To Amend effort to get a referral on the November ballot about the corporate personhood/money is speech concern. And, more importantly, meet Jul 23 at 6:30pm if the SCC agrees to put the referral on their Agenda.
PROPOSALS: Results (Passed, Rejected, Tabled) 1. Nancy: She proposed that Occupy show support for the teens in Afghanistan who are bringing the message of peace to that country. They wear blue scarves to signify their position. There were no blocks – Occupy will support it. An AG will form.
2. Sean: He brought up that he had a proposal about Spokes Council (SC) as many were confused about the process. Discussion revealed several suggestions/concerns: It is thought that alternating GA and SC, while seeming to be a fair compromise initially, may have added to confusion about the process, so one idea was to go just SC meetings without alternating with GA for a time to give SC a more realistic trial period – one to three months or more were suggested. Another mention was that any proposal, decision, etc should be in writing, with enough copies to allow everyone the opportunity to read the proposal etc. Laurie expressed that it is important to know that until a specific idea is stated, decisions cannot be made – it is too abstract; Stan said that the overlapping models may be closer than some think – that AG can be part of GA; proposals made at Spokes Council could be voted on at the next GA. The rhetorical question was asked: Is there anything brought up at SC that cannot be done at a GA? It was decided that as there is only one more SC meeting (Jul 10), followed by the GA where the SC will be evaluated on Jul 17, that this discussion will not go to a proposal. Nancy moved to table this and Michele seconded it – passed. It will be thoroughly evaluated on Jul 17.
ADJOURNED by Nancy; seconded by Laurie. Next GA facilitator will be Evan, stacker will be Laurie, scribe will be Michele.
