Facilitation Skill Share – July 9th

July 7th, 2012 · gmurphy · News and Announcements Comments Off

The Facilitation Working Group, in conjunction with experienced trainers, will host a facilitation skillshare for the Occupy Boston community, to present tools useful to facilitators not only in large, stable public gatherings but also for smaller, more private, and more contingent contexts of consensus-based decision-making. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own lessons and obstacles as facilitators and role-play scenarios that will empower the entire community to facilitate productive conversations and horizontal decision-making in Occupy Boston’s future, whether at general assemblies, in affinity group meetings, or during direct actions.

Community Church of Boston – 565 Boylston Street

6:30 – Food
7:00 to 10:00 – Skill Share

General Assembly Tuesday July 10 to Address Big Questions About the Future of Decision Making at Occupy Boston

July 7th, 2012 · Steve · GA Agendas, General Assembly, News and Announcements Comments Off

GA will be held July 10th at 7pm, at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument hill on Boston Common.

The agenda for this GA is to attempt to make decisions about what decision-process we will use going forward: will we keep the GA or adopt another format? How often will we meet and where? Do we need to create a series of meetings to address these issues? If so, which and why?

The proposal to have this GA was part of a proposal passed at GA 6/30.

Why have this meeting? According to proposer Carolyn Magid, this is a chance to address a problem: GA is our current decision process, but we have dwindling GA attendance at the same time that we are trying to consider proposals with very broad implications for OB (about spending on S17, setting aside money for purchase of land, freezing spending, etc.). We need a good representation of Occupy Boston to decide on these important questions and to consider more generally how we should be moving forward as OB. If the current GA plan doesn’t give us a good representation of Occupy Boston, we need to consider what changes we need to make so that we have a decision-process we support and want to participate in. So this GA is focused on the decision-process in hopes that we can move ahead to make other important choices with more buy-in from OB.

How will the meeting work? GA will use the Alternative Decision Making Process-Consensus (see General Assembly, Passed Resolutions 4/22/12 for more details) which allows us to consider everyone’s best ideas and to attempt to reach consensus in a much less rigid way than the original GA process. This meeting may be the beginning of a longer conversation before consensus is reached.

All OB members are urged to come and bring your best ideas.

Still Going out of Business Bake Sale for Bank of America

July 7th, 2012 · Steve · Events Comments Off

On July 2nd, we had our first Going out of Business Bake Sale for Bank of America. After gathering in Dewey Square, we grabbed our banners, put on our costumes, and marched up to the Bank of America building at the corner of Franklin and Federal.

We spent an hour in front of Bank of America, passing out flyers, gathering petition signatures, and handing out our famous honest-to-goodness, no-money-down, variable-interest-rate, miss-a-payment-and-we-take-your-f’ing-house brownies and cookies.

And we’re going to do it all over again, this Monday, July 9th at 4:30 pm. Join us! Meet at Dewey Square, march to Bank of America, and exercise your right of free speech to ridicule a truly rapacious financial institution.

Here are a few photos from the first bake sale:

Proposals Passed by the June 12, 2012 General Assembly

July 4th, 2012 · Steve · Passed Resolutions Comments Off

The June 12, 2012 General Assembly Passed one proposal.

Statement of Solidarity with SEIU Local 615 by David Lamoso

Occupy Boston stands in solidarity with SEIU Local 615 as they enter into a struggle for a better contract. They are fighting for better wages, better hours and better access to health care. An injury to one is an injury to all.

No minutes available for this GA.

Proposals Passed by the June 16, 2012 General Assembly

July 4th, 2012 · Steve · Passed Resolutions Comments Off

The June 16, 2012 General Assembly Passed three proposals:

1. S17 Solidarity Proposal

We stand in solidarity with September 17 day of action called for by our friends and allies in Occupy Wall Street. We join in the call for all occupies from across the nation to converge in NYC on S17 and shut down the Financial District.

2. S17 Spokescouncil open to all groups interested in participating in the S17 actions.

3. S17 Funding Proposal

Proposal to earmark $7000 for the S17 Working Group for outreach and
transportation. This money will only be spent for materials directly
related to S17. The S17 WG will be responsible for budgeting and
creating specific guidelines and priorities. Of the amount allocated,
$500 will become available before the first meeting for groups making
promotional materials. The first WG meeting will on 7/7 at 2PM and 2-3
meetings will be held before spending money.

GA Minutes: http://wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/GA_Minutes_Sat_June_16_2012

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