GA Minutes – 7pm Sunday 1st January 2012

 

Minutes 1/1/12 Actions agreed upon in bold at end.

 

St Paul’s 1-1-12: 7 pm

Facilitator: Daniel Minutes: Mia & Em

Agenda:

·         WG feedback

·         Matt’s proposal

WG feedback

·         Last night (NYE) was amazing. Next time we have a big event we need more volunteers and more clarity on time schedules

Info

·         All relevant information about events etc should be given to the info tent, so they can inform the public and other camp members

·         Info needs leaflets → they have been ordered/printed, should be here soon

·         No drinking in the library, especially while its open for public

Welfare

·         Wants feedback from the camp

·         Mon 4 -6 WG on communication

·         Trying to pick a day for all the WG’s to come together and discuss progress and ideas, coordinate on overlapping areas

BOI

·         At BOI there is a WG about going into communities, expanding the movement

Tranquility

·         Reclaimed some of the equipment that had been donated to livestream

Finance

·         Tomorrow between 11 and 1 finance will take requests for funds

·         Tuesday 1 o’ clock decisions on which funds are granted

 

Matthew’s Proposal

(At this stage just the beginnings of a discussion with a Proposal to come out of it in next few days)

 

* The 4 Occupy London sites could become autonomous; each with its own working groups, finances, strategies etc…

* Representatives from all sites would come together to feedback, collaborate and co-operate on a regular basis and could choose to work together when appropriate…

* The idea being that this would allow more freedom and less acrimony between sites…

* Also, as/if more sites open up, it will become too unwieldy to keep running them all centrally.

 

Points made:

  • There have been problems with relationships between sites – misunderstandings, mis-communications, lack of clarity on current degrees of autonomy and co-operation/non-co-operation.
  • Finsbury Square and St Paul’s are ‘on the same page’.
  • BoI having very challenging times recently, resulting in the doors being closed to other occupiers for part of New Year’s eve and all of New Year’s day; some people angry about this.
  • Some people are concerned that BoI may be draining resources from St Paul’s and simultaneously making autonomous decisions that don’t consider the other sites.
  • Some people are concerned about thefts and bad behaviour at BoI.
  • BoI have closed their doors in order to sort out internal problems.
  • Concern that if BoI ejects trouble-makers, those troublemakers will land at St Paul’s.
  • All resources belong to all sites at Occupy London, can’t talk of ‘St Paul’s’ or ‘BoI’ resources.
  • The proposal includes all sites doing their own fund-raising.
  • Everyone must raise their own funds, otherwise anyone can open a squat and call it ‘Occupy’ and ask for funding.
  • Autonomy would protect the movement as a whole from ‘stupid’ actions of any one group.
  • Anyone using the name Occupy must be aware that their actions affect public perceptions of the whole global Occupy movement.
  • Tammy – We need to be urgently looking at strategies for when the eviction order comes. It may not come but probably will at some point – we won’t be here forever!
  • As we get more sites it’s hard for groups like finance and media to keep up.
  • Em – but maybe there aren’t enough people to repeat all the working groups at each site.
  • Liz – At Greenham the women after 1 year split into c.9 different groups with differing characters; the groups were autonomous but shared finances; this worked very well.
  • Ronan – Perhaps we should be looking at a bigger picture – What have we done, what have we learned, what has worked well and what hasn’t…? What would we like to do in the future…? These things are pertinent to all 4 sites and to all the Occupy supporters who are not part of any camp… We should be aiming for cross-camp and cross-working-group communication on these issues.
  • Mia – Smaller, autonomous groups could mean less bickering; everyone would have more freedom of choice – drinking and non-drinking sites, residential and non-residential sites…
  • Em – look at other sites with open minds and realise that just because a few people behave badly at a site, we don’t need to tar all with the same brush… Try not to jump to conclusions.
  • Vica – We should try not to use ‘they’ and ‘us’. Also, it’s not as simple as whether or not to be autonomous – some groups work well across the sites, others would be better with more independence. We shouldn’t try to cement anything too much at the moment, because we’re in a period of fluidity, we don’t know what will happen with evictions and what directions Occupy will take in the future.
  • ??(sorry, name gone): We should let things evolve, meanwhile concentrating on public engagement and outreach and on creating a strong Occupy community.

     

  • Mia – We could have a joint GA with other sites on Weds to discuss these issues… Suggestion for this to be at BoI as way of being supportive given the difficult times that have been going on there. (Idea received warmly, no-one against; Mia agreed to suggest this to BoI and bring answer back on Monday).
  • Tammy – We should start an Eviction WG. This group can start discussing the issues then bring them to GA. (Idea received warmly, no-one against; Tammy suggested meet 11am Monday, meet at Info.)
  • Working Groups could meet for co-ordination/feedback/discussion/brainstorming Tue 7pm… this date is provisional for now, Internal Communications WG will update on Monday. (Idea received warmly, no-one against.)

SHOUT OUTS:

* Painter Jose is coming to St Paul’s tomorrow.

* Finance requests to be in by lunchtime Mon for consideration at Tue GA.

* Finance WG will be in geo-dome from 11am-1pm.

* Banner making will happen Monday afternoon in library.

 

3 Responses to “GA Minutes – 7pm Sunday 1st January 2012”

  1. Thanks so much for the minutes! Makes a big difference when off site. Is also key to having the record of what was agreed. I know this is not always an easy job – thanks again.. xx

     
  2. Thx for putting these minutes up of the G.A. Best wishes to the Occupyers. xx

     
  3. Im new to the mechanics of of this whole movement i want to know as much as possible and become a part of this but if im gonna do it properly then i need to do as much prep as possible as fast as possible. i just saw occupy wall street a few hours ago on current tv and ive been feelin royally indignant about so much recently anyway i say live and let live autonomy is indicative of what this is all about unless ive really missed the point cos theres so much to protest about anyway. the more schools of thought the bigger the debate and the bigger the change when we need to occupy as much as possible. anyway how do i get involved who should i speak to is there a phone number or something cos typing takes me ages. cheers

     

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