General Assembly Notes 10/27 We are 3 weeks in, 1 more week to a month! Facilitators – Adrienne, Shozuko and Austin Stack – Justin Committee Announcements - Occupa Portland, the latino committee - There is a community Dia de Los Muertos altar on the corner of NW Alpha block. Pleas come add photos/herbs/food to it. In particular people who have fallen in causes/martyrs - Paul from PR committee Mayor Sam Adams has issued a statement: “From the start of the Occupy Portland protest, I have made one thing very clear: We must protect people's right to peacefully protest, while also keeping the city moving and working. With this balance in mind, I have also made it clear that while the City is not at this time enforcing certain rules at Lownsdale and Chapman squares, all parks rules are in effect at all other city parks. We will not allow Occupy Portland to set up an alternative encampment at any other city park. Portland Police Officers have been reminding Occupy Portland participants of this throughout the week, and will continue to use their discretion in enforcing parks rules throughout the city. We will continue to monitor the Occupy Portland protest, and make practical, day-to-day decisions like these as warranted. I want to thank the participants for their ongoing cooperation with City officials and staff, as we strive to balance their right to protest with keeping the city working.” – mayorsamadams.com o Jameson square closes at 12:01 – you will get arrested if you are there after - Cameron – Know your rights seminar at 1:00pm in Terry Schrunk Plaza - Brandon – Kitchen committee – Need more volunteers. Please have patience with kitchen volunteers they are working hard, please bring back your dishes. - Reid Parhem – Media liaison – (503)949-2865 here to clear up questions from last nights GA about how people can own websites – registrars handle domains, there has to be 1 persons name attached to a website on behalf of Occupy Portland. He has no publishing rights or ownership o Also the local Fox station is no longer affiliated with Fox o PR team is gathering documents/information about what happened with the website and will disseminate this info - Scott – Facilitator with Community – needs volunteer to help coordinate with community – wants to network with community – tell people who can help we need wool clothes - Kip – Web Team – We now have control of the domain name occpuyportland.org , it is back to normal - Austin – Facilitation Committee – Need more facilitators o Weekly trainings on Saturdays 2-4 in the Yurt o Monday/Wednesday/Saturday facilitator open hours in the library 12-1 o They have a listserv General Announcements - Marsha Meyers –The Economic Justice Action group is having a film screening at the First Unitarian Church on Friday Oct 28th at 6:30 pm – this week the films are “The Medicated Child” and “Psychotropic Drugs and Children” - Shout out Anonymous they hacked the transcript of the conversation between Reid Jackson and Viani about setting up a corporation, you can get it at the info booth - Elaina – Update on Occupy Oakland after the Tuesday morning raid and the evening protest/attack by police they had 3000 people come out on Wednesday and a GA with 2000 people. They are planning a city wide strike on Nov 2nd. Also plans to evict Occupy SF have been withdrawn, - Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline protest – meet at Terry Schrunk at 2:00pm on Nov 6th will then march to hold hands around pioneer courthouse. They have a facebook page- stop the keystone xl pipeline and a twitter o There will be an art event before the march on Thursday or Friday - Cell phone found after GA on Oct 26th – it is in lost and found - Announcement to form a working group talk about ideas that we have all been thinking about – gov’t is being accountable to the corporations and not the people – talk about it after GA - Mike – Spending Committee meet on Sunday at 5:00pm in Terry Schrunk Plaza - Announcement that we should change ‘working group’ to ‘working team’ - Announcement to form a working team to prepare thanksgiving dinner for the encampment and Native American Families – met at Terry Schrunk Friday the 28th at 3:00 – can find him on twitter @mjeharo - Tuesday Nov 8th – Occupy Baghdad 6:00pm silent auction, 10:00pm Howard Zinn film – need volunteers to help set up silent auction, all proceeds will go to Occupy Portland – email occupycomedypdx@gmail.com - The I don’t give a fuck committee wants hugs and kisses - Reminder free concert tomorrow at Pioneer Square, need volunteers to come early 11:00am to help set up - Announcement to form a permaculture committee – meet at “the farm” in camp at 10:00am Friday Oct 28th - Reminder to respect the livestream equipment when you see it Proposal Announcements - Cameron – 2 proposals o Wants a way for contributors to be able to donate without paypal – and have a shopping list/wish list online o Have an emergency fund - Questions: 1. What will the emergency fund be for/will it be used to restore the grounds? o For now just for emergency situations 2. Is it possible to have transparency with the budget and put up some direction of finances and clarify where they are being distributed o I am not part of the finance committee but that can be part of the proposal - Kip – Discuss $14,000 already collected via paypal that is sitting in an account, it needs to be moved so that the spending committee can use it. Kip is having a conversation tomorrow with an attorney to see about setting up a trust fund in a local credit union and will draft a full proposal for the GA tomorrow. For now the donate button has been removed from the website - Questions: 1. How do you propose that we function as a movement without $ o I’m not, we need $, right now we have a lot. This is not a proposal to end collections just how to put $ in a safe accessible place so it can be used 2. When and where are you meeting o no exact time yet, 1:30 or 2 at the media tent, will share info from meeting with attorney with the info tent 3. What advantage does a trust offer over a non-profit o the attorney won’t be able to make decisions without the input of people from the committees, this would just be a short term thing not a long term solution. - Randy White – runs the website brightneighbor.com – proposes to take human waste from camp and turn it into soil via worms that can then be sold and have a sustainable source of $ for the movement - Questions: 1. Are you trying to get a portion of Occupy Portland involved in your proposal? o wants to convert human waste via red wiggler worms into soil to be sold 2. Two questions – would this work for kitchen waste as well as human waste? What is the turn around time? o yes, recology now has a contract with the city of Portland to collect scraps/waste. We can turn waste into something to sustain this movement. Takes 3 years 3. Is this a proposal to make a compostable toilet? o told to talk one on one with proposer - Tom – Proposal for march on Nov 12th for single payer healthcare , Jobs with Justice is on board - Questions 1. Isn’t there a diversity march already planned? o Ok move it to Saturday the 19th then - Proposal for someone else to take on forming a solidarity strike with Oakland on Nov 2nd. We need to start having a economic impact/being a threat to the 1% - Proposal on Dec 21st 2012 to move to a pay it forward society – abandon ownership and completely reform gov’t Introduction of Guest speakers Ryan and Ben who served in the marine corps in Iraq. Ryan: - CP Scott Olson had his skull fractured with a 40 mic tear gas canister by cops after he served in Iraq - Taking $ to kill innocent people is not what I signed up for , but its what I did, I thought I was serving my country. This is not what I need to do, I need to fight the 1%. - Having a memorial in honor of Scott Olson and fighting to end all US wars Ben: - Signed up for the marine corps before 9/11, had no idea what I was signing up for. I am disillusioned, it is a dehumanizing experience - There is no support for vets returning home - We need to fight the domestic enemies - We can all agree whats wrong with corporatism and militarism Break Out Discussions - Sustainability o Start a committee? Have discussions/workshops/educational forum? o Occupy Portland should be more sustainable, use less energy, reduce fuel use and corporate dependence o Occupy should be a model o Assess actual energy usage in camp o There are many outlets for free food that would provide sustainable/organic food, we do not need to take donations from safeway/corporations o How can we use community resources and incorporate people not already involved in the movement – school of sustainability at PSU- get those students involved in making our camp more sustainable o Get engineers without borders involved o Keep a pulse on whats going on online - there has been a proposal by Antonio from sanitation to make a sustainability committee o Talk to other occupy movements - Winter weather o What to do about the General Assemblies * Covering Terry Schrunk with tarps * People may move out of camp and there could be space to move into camp * Build a natural structure * KXL radio has a studio that holds 20 people * Find a meeting room or hall to march and hold GA inside * Concern about exposed media equipment during GA * To maintain integrity of GA’s we should move them to a space where is it not freezing so people can concentrate – PSU or Unitarian church, a place we can walk that is accessible. * Move up time of GA * We should hold GA over at KXL radio and broadcast o What to do about camp * Concern about: electrical wires/cords, more medical issues, need for more clothing. Don’t want to abandon camp. Concern about people trying to light firs * Use more tarps, build barracks * Learn from the homeless – hold workshops * Work with local churchs to arrange indoor space for those who need it, but those who can stay at camp should stay * Work with existing warming centers and/or make own warming center at camp * Work with street team who are extending into other communities and have people sleep in communities * Have a tactical retreat for the winter, are the other places we can occupy or other ways to express the occupy sentiment * Forma winter weather committee vs too many committees already * Gather under bridges * Build roofs out of corrugated steel over tents – we are already breaking park rules * Winterizing – we need more man power to get rid of hay, we need to deal with run off, burlap sacks and hay will just get moldy. Use more palates? Ground will get muddy * A winter strategy group has been formed but people have stopped showing up – meet with/contact Adrienne to get involved * Occupy Wall st has just voted to have a spokes council model that will meet 3 nights a week indoors – committees come together to make decisions * Occupy Chicago – large portion of occupation is held in subways – we have a diversity of options – meetings on the max? * Occupying WA high school is unfeasible because it has just been bought by a developer who will begin developing in 1 month