GA Minutes, 2/11/12, Founder’s Square
GA Notes 2/11/2012
Facilitator: Mandy
Time: Jesse
Stack: David
Notes: Robin
Introductions
Ariel and Aaron (new folks)
mandy david robin mariana Ariel and Aaron (new folks) jesse lark, guitar bob (new at Occupation), terry, steven, eddie also in attendence
Mandy read the opening statement and explanation of hand signals.
First we’ll have work group reports:
Direct Action work group: Last Tues we asked about joining F29 national day of action, we got approval to move ahead. We met Thurs and came up with basic plan, I took conference call with national group right after our wg meeting. All I’m asking today is approval that our target corp is YUM brands with a side of Humana. We have minimal plans, we’ll go to the YUM center, we’re going to start around 4, to get the word out about ALEC where corporations write “pre bills” and send them on to legislature to get passed. We’ll ask for help and volunteers but we need approval to join the national group.
David: can we go occupy KFC?
Lark: we may need some gorilla ninjas to do a few things throughout the community. There are other groups who we may reach out to. If we register we can get some help from other groups.
Proposal For F29 event shut down the corporations event in solidarity with other Occupy groups across the country.
Taco: we need to get people to do stuff the day before and the day of
Lark: This is going to be a big big event. We’ll come up with plans, it’s going to be huge.
Proposal: no stand asides, no blocks, proposal passed.
Mandy: Encampment workgroup is next
Jesse: Can someone volunteer to send in a needs list weekly
Mandy: can anyone volunteer to do that?
David: Since Cymone left nobody’s been doing it and I don’t want to take it on b/c I have so many other things.
Mandy: can we talk about it afterword?
Mariana: There was a food donation at 9am this week and no one was here to receive it, we need to formalize that and tighten that up.
Guitar Bob: My tent can be addressed 24/7 I will respond kindly
Mariana: we have to greet all donors warmly and let people know their donations are appreciated. We have to tighten that up.I won’t solicit anymore donations til that is tightened up.
Taco: We need receipt booklet. People show up and “No, I have to go” and don’t listen to us when we say they need a receipt.
Jesse: It’s set up where we can get online contributions online again, do we have to track goods that are donated?
Taco: we have to give receipts to everyone
Jesse: No, only if it’s over $100 we have to give a receipt
Karl: I think it’s a great idea to record for accountability, but unless it’s over a certain amount you don’t have to and we don’t have to give receipts for food donations. Let’s not let another meeting go by without picking up a receipt book. It’s easier to get one than it is to talk about it for 3 GAs in a row.
GBob: I can greet people any time of day.
David: some people drop stuff off and we never know they were here. Last Sat. I sent an email about b/c someone said he dropped off food and $20 and I never saw that donation.
Mandy: anyone else on stack to talk about it?
Taco: We had a situation where a couple of power cords got burnt out b/c of the weather, a heater got fried, etc. We need more power cords again, extension cords.
Jesse: we’ll post it online
Lark: Size?
Taco: 10-12 gauge cords
Stop Foreclosures WG: F25 day of action.
Jesse: We’re doing an occupation at bardstown and baxter we’re going to mic check them and demand they stop foreclosing and I just want to let everyone know about it, we meet Monday at 6 at WIT corner of shelby/chestnut.
David: we should move GA to 4 so we could all attend and still have GA
Mandy: can we vote to move the GA to 4?
Discussion: re moving GA to the bank, and doing it after the protest
Mandy: the Proposal is : GA at chase bank after the protest.
Vote: nobody objects, it passes.
Facilitation WG: Jesse: did anyone get in touch with David
Marion: I saw KA Owens and said KY Alliance needs the money, It seemed like it might not work.
Eddie: We got the office. I’ve talked to David Lott. K. Owens is just a co-chair. It’s up to us, we just don’t want to leave our camp site.
Jesse: If no one objects I’ll get in touch with him today and ask him about what was proposed at last GA
Eddy: we’ll save them money to pass on the phone calls they get, they only got 4 last month.
Karl: If they are willing to use our services, they are not into the intern they have and think it’s a waste of money. If we offer services, I don’t think we’ll have no need to pay for electricity.
Eddy: I have a computer I can donate if we have someone to install it, etc.
Mandy: want to keep talking on this? If no, we’ll move on.
Mariana: I met with George he’s meeting with Yarmuth Monday at 11:30 and he’s got a list of people he wants to attend. He’s done a lot of work on this.
Taco: Who’s going with him>
Mariana: Me, Pam, George, Keith
Mariana: Last weekend nobody came and the facilitator’s feelings were hurt. I’m planning on going tomorrow. It’s Sunday 3pm at Brycc House.
Media: David: There’s gonna be a big story tomorrow in the CJ by Chris Kenning
Taco: I was in the paper for the Occupy Mitch McConnell
Eddy: whole top of the metro section
Taco: has anyone been keeping up with what’s been going on with the occupations around the world?
Mandy: Media’s about what we’re doing here and maybe that would be something to talk about afterword?
Lark: I don’t know what to do about the media needs list I have
Eddy: What kind of needs?
Lark: I need a videographer, we need radio spot.
I’ll make a list and send it in and someone from the media team will address them.
David: I’ve been talking with Karl, right here on 4th st. is the free public radio.
Eddy: they also have a video stream
Jesse: What would the scope be?
David: It would be an occupy show, we’d try to call others from other occupys and if they’d give us an hour a week that would be great.
Jesse: I support that but I think we need to keep getting approval from GA as it moves forward.
Taco: If we’re going to do something like this why don’t we do it the day after the GA, so it can be talked about right before it’s happening.
Karl: May I recommend that we go over there and try to get an episode to focus on Occupy (state of affairs or something)
David: they’d decide what time it would be
Lark: can we vote that we’ll look into and we’ll discuss what we will do next time.
Proposal: We go to free public radio and ask about what is open to us
Vote, no blocks or stand asides, proposal to inquire passed.
Mandy: Next up
Lark: we can have a table at the social action Shabbat it will be an informational table, lots of good organizations. It’s not a protest, it’s an outreach opportunity.
Mandy: I think we should support this especially because of what happened before when someone was calling and using our name inappropriately.
Jesse: I don’t like adding friends of occupy, b/c it seems like an endorsement. I’m not comfortable with it.
Lark: The reason I had that idea came out of the conference call that we need to add affinity groups, the only people I was going to ask would be people who’ve already been friends of occupy louisville. I got neighborhood groups to support prior projects, it was sort of a pr thing.
Eddy: I’ve got pictures of Yarmuth that we could display on the table
Karl: My 2 cents, we need to get to a point where we can define the scope of endorsement and differentiate between different levels of endorsement. There are some who are very sensitive to it, very worried, and sometimes I think it’s an absolutely appropriate response. But a list of groups that say they endorse us and putting it on the website is not us endorsing them .
Mandy: 6 minutes do we continue?
Lark: I’ll have everything approved before we put it on the table
Mandy: can we vote on Social Action Shabbat
Proposed that we have a table? It passes, no stand asides or blocks.
Lark: I’ll let y’all discuss the friends of and maybe we can talk about it next time.
Mandy: so we don’t need to vote today?
Lark: It seems like more discussion is needed on this topic for sure. I do think it’s good to let other groups know who supports us.
David: I know that Dawn over at UU are very supportive and they started a group and they are planning a valentine’s dinner for us.
Lark: Joann would like to know how many people are coming by Sunday, we’ll give her a head count, let me know after GA
Finance WG: Online donations are all set up. There’s a form where you can see a spread sheet of our donations and all our expenses.
We should keep track of all financial donations
Mariana: can we send an email blast about it?
Jesse: I can do that, do we need to address the financial situation of the past?
Mariana: We should be positive about it.
Lark: Let’s wait til we can get it all online
Vote to wait til next GA to get things updated and ready to roll out?
Mandy do we have Other WG reports? Ok we’re going to open it up to Open Stack
David: I’d like to introduce Guitar Bob. He’s very into consensus, he’s been with the rainbow gatherings, he has a referral from Occupy King NH, and he’s pretty cool.
GBob: thank you David
Mandy: Open Stack Items?
David: As you know most of us here are unemployed. We’d like to find businesses that wouldn’t mind letting us work one or two days a week
Help the Occupiers find temporary work to get funds into our pockets and the occupy account.
Robin: What is the plan? It’s too vague.
Mariana: wanted to say that all donations to the camp need to stay in camp.
Guitar Bob: I understand the opposition but I think can be a good thing.
Mandy: I think people here networking together and offering support in helping people here get jobs, but I don’t understand what Occupy can really do to help or can offer to this?
David: I’m thinking we can send out an email and when people are looking to hire people they’d know they could come to us.
Eddy: we need to do a better job engaging people coming to the camp, and we can do a lot to network. Just advertising that people from Occupy are looking for a job…Occupy is still looked at as being trouble makers.
Proposal: The Occupants at the encampment would like to do temporary employment through connections that we have made through occupy to procure funds.
Mandy: can we vote on that? IF you think we should endorse what david said?
Yes, three nos, some stand asides Ok, there’s not enough support for that to pass, so if you’d like to refine it a bit and bring it back?
Ariel: How do I find out more about the groups and what they are about?
David: occupylouisville.org has a forum section that lists all the workgroups and when they meet.
Ariel: I looked at it and it had times, but there’s not much about what they are doing.
Jesse: check the website each group has a page with some info.
Mandy: also, we have people here from several groups, so your resources are right here.
Mandy: Okay opening the floor to anymore open stack
Can we end the meeting with words of encouragement.
David: gonna be in the paper tomorrow someone get me a copy
Lark: we have online donations again! thanks to everyone who made it happen.
Mandy: I’m happy to see 4 new faces here today and would like to hear what brought you here.
