Your voice online is woven into our movement. If you want to influence the GA directly and can’t go yourself find an advocate, a friend a family member. Contribute virtually with a workgroup.

I’d love help with the Ranked Choice Instant Runoff Voting one that I had formed. I couldn’t be at GA tonight so I got someone else to announce the proposal for me.

And we will meet in person Sunday afternoon when I am free so can prepare for vote for proposal that evening.

As one of the 99 percent of the 99 percent, I also agree with those who say stay visible but let the traffic flow.

Good luck!

I spoke for 350 viewers when I posted that. I reflected THEIR feelings about the situation last night. I don’t know the names of the facilitators, so cannot say specifically who, but it is obvious to the vast majority of the online community that there are indeed facilitators pushing their own personal agendas. Believe me, I wish that wasn’t the case. Part of the problem is perception. When one is on site, one tends to get pulled into the emotions of the moment. On the other hand, when one is watching from a distance, it’s much easier to see things that those on site may miss due to those emotions. We from the online community do not understand why 83% voted to open the street the night before, yet that wasn’t even brought back up again in last nights meeting. That was a travesty.

So, the small minority got their way. They were able to “keep the street”. Until the city decided to clear it. 8 people went to jail needlessly. I find it (and this is me, not the community with THIS statement) telling that only 8 of the 17% that wanted to keep the street actually stayed on principle. The rest?…They obviously lacked the courage of their convictions.

Back to the online community. There are members of the media team that have my contact information. I am willing to speak to you about ideas on how we can facilitate incorporating the online community into the GA discussions. I don’t see it as being a hurdle at all. I am one person from the online community, however I have asked for, and received permission from them to speak on their behalf, thus I made my post, and I stand by every single word as being an accurate portrayal of the frustrations and the feelings of the community as a whole.

To those of you that forced the street to remain closed until Portland PD stepped in. Congratulations, you got national media exposure. All negative, as we from the online community tried to warn you about, but were rebuffed. So instead of a PR win that could bolster our position in the community, we instead ended up garnering yet more negative press.

In direct response. Yes my personally view Sunday was to open the street. And last night my personal view was to open the street.

As an aside at the 2nd General Assembly I advocated for getting a march permit, and at the 3rd General Assembly I advocated for making the Oct 6th march route available to the police. We settled on making it available to the “People of Portland” the morning of the march.

I have strong opinions about what we should do, and changes I’d like made to the GA process. But more important than anything, and I hope I demonstrate this when I facilitate, is supporting the group coming together in consensus regardless of what the decisions may be. Having success at this basic level I believe builds a new political model that may be more resilient with the potential of being more powerful than any other.

I believe the people can get it “right” more than our government as it stands. This belief motivates me to help.