For the General Assembly of 1/23/2012, we were one vote shy of obtaining Quorum. Therefore, no new proposals were made. However we did make some general workgroup report backs followed by a discussion of our concerns over the future direction of OccupyHouston as regular, reoccuring members of the prescence at Tranquility Park, alongside the Freedman’s Town Project House and Roccupy. Joe Roche reports Harris County Comissioners meeting is at 10:00am this Monday followed by City Council open forum at 2:00pm Pointdexter volunteers to join Peacekeepers Pointdexter also reports maybe joining TX/RX [A systems analyst/hacker/tinkerer nonprofit collective] on behalf of Occupy with motive to maybe leverage any resources as needed. There is consensus that Park conditions are abysmal and is a recognized problem requiring a solution. Jennie and Sherie disavow membership from Roccupy and are trying to get stuff back to Tranquility Park, and to “reset” things as according to the originol logistics of the Tranquility Park. Some furthur discussion proceeded that rather than returning back on exactly the same part of the park, we rotate around and begin efforts fixing the other side of the park. Logistics wants back: 2 tables 2 chairs Laptops Possibly surplus blankets Clothes maybe Lots of stationary (inside) Folding Chairs (inside) Maria points out it may be possible to obtain items we may need that have been recycled through Freecycle.com Trae Facebook Groups reflecting the various workgroups and roles of Occupy should “just happen” in the interest of increased transparency. Afterwards, some general concerns were raised by some present that OccupyHouston has broken up into a series of secretive groups. Although Occupy is “leaderless” it is also “leaderful” in that the people who decide to take responsibility of something should, ideally, step aside after adding their nuance so that others can add theirs, in effect returning back to the “source” of the movement. People who have formed their own groups in the name of Occupy, but then not returned that back to the General Assembly, have, in esscence, broken faith with Occupy, threatening its integrity as a whole entity. On the other hand, it was also argued, that a Gestalt perspective is a good way to interpret OccupyHouston. That OccupyHouston is made up of separate groups that are large, or small, depending on frame of reference, and may not seem to make a coherent picture when taken exactly as it is laid out, but when patched together keeping in mind negative and positive space [in this sense this is being used in the sense of black and white shades of a picture,] in its own context, makes an actual interpretable picture. Literally, this is what you see when you look at the World Wildlife Fund Panda Logo, or our own We Are The 99% logo with the head of a girl. These logos have been left behind to help people understand and will be placed in the library. Before disolving for the night, we had a last round robin approach to air what we felt, and we talked about: 1 ) Cleanup of Tranquility 2 ) Physical occupation in public space is still important, versus private space 3 ) We hope for better cooperation among workgroups 4 ) Forgiveness among workgroups 5 ) No secrecy 6 ) Survival over the next final three months of winter 7 ) Some mediation and exchange, that FTPH (Freedmen’s Town Project House) and Roccupy would be together and communicating 8 ) For evreyone to know what groups we have; and for these groups to be accessible 9 ) Maybe “official” communication should be in a particular format (email?) so there is always a single point of reference for the conversation between groups as a whole rather than vieing for evreyones attention across different mediums 10 ) We are still a young movement with many questions 11 ) Can we get portapotties? 12 ) Meet back at Tranquility at 1:30pm for protest action followed by City Council Forum

GA Started 5:40pm Moderator: Jenny Scribe: Patrick S. Miller Facilitators: Ben Franklin

Workgroup Report back:

Internet [Ben Franklin]: changed the name from media workgroup to internet workgroup working on the facebook Admin procedures, closing discussion & finalizing Mission Statement by Feb 5th, webrequests@occupyhouston.org is the primary point of contact for the Internet workgroup, all workgroups should send webrequests here (including minutes).

Freedmans Town [Jamin] finishing up restoration project (lot clean-up) corner of ruthven and wilson at 11. sunday the 22nd (tomorrow)

Announcements: Jamin– Monday 11 am book reading at park “the best that money cant buy” discussing feasible ideas to replace current broken system; meeting with the Real School, Houston federation of teachers sat. feb 11th @ 4

Workgroup proposals:

Internet [Ben Franklin] That livestream (and other internet participation) in GA be suspended until technical difficulties can be resolved. (e.g.: Hard to hear what’s happening in the GA and lag affects  voting on proposals. Who can participate? How do we verify?  Also battery power was an issue.) –Proposal Passes–

Internet [Ben Franklin] That every internet account that has “OccupyHouston” in the name/officially is an OccupyHouston account have 3 active OccupyHouston members who currently reside in the Greater Houston metropolitan area with the password/login access. (Note, these members do not need to be part of the Internet Workgroup, but we’d like to have their contact info in case of accident or emergency.) –Proposal Passes–

Internet [Ben Franklin] Withdrawl 3rd proposal, and instead announce that as the OccupyHouston.org webpage currently lacks 3 active qualifying members, that Mary Dreamingkat (part of the Internet workgroup) will become the 3rd such individual.

Proposal: Alice M– I’m told that if you go to the tv stations, you can require they give you the info about which PACs are paying for what airtime. We need to get a crew to test this idea out.  (Suggested that Alice talk to joe roach of Political Action or Scott Gregory of Research) –Proposal withdrawn–

Jamim– I propose occupyhouston puts its name behind the education meeting here at the park. –Proposal Passes pending 24 hour waiting period.–

Opinions: Anthony: an honor to march with you… we are all here and I see more and it is good to see brothers and sisters working together to march… I am trying to get more people in the movement.

Ben– how groups work. Worked from boy scouts to global issues discussion groups… people tend to get burned out especially in volunteer groups… stay focused on core issues and figure out what things to do. And how to keep it in your life afterwards… 2 instructors are coming down to teach non-violent speaking skills. And to help with conflicts between participants. I will ask them what days & locations that can do over the next few weeks, and report back so we can decide what best fits our needs

David– this is my 33rd day down here. We need peace keepers: large male and female. There have been incidents here.

Argument over the police between several members…

Ian– i’m actually quite amazed at the accomplishment that o.h. Has occupied the park for 100 days. But we should move since we have moved away from the goal.

stressing the importance of participation to keep it alive. But have a better attitude toward those who haven’t been here.

ben doesn’t think we should move that we could rotate around the park.

David: Smokers pick up your butts. Or if you want to help, pick up trash.

Consensus to Adjourn GA

MEDIA/WEB WG Meeting Minutes  01.21.12

No livestream due to overcast weather

Facilitator: BenjaminF

Scribe: Karen

In attendance: DianeS, KarenR, mouse, BenjaminF, Mary, LindaK, (visitorfromOccupyEarth)

Announcements

Karen: Of the eleven invites sent out by Kevin from the Jan 7 Day, very few have accepted/joined the Web Google Group. Welcome Linda, an exception, thank you for coming today.

Discussion

Name Change to Internet Work Group

From Media/Web to Internet.  AGREED

WG Mission/Charter draft is in progress and available to view/edit at link. It’s a start but could use a little more work to include “Scope” and links. Please review, add and/ or comment. Final is due Feb 7.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16z1jdnBb4UO2KI_1iAD72eIVdVx7CDnnffpZWXo_zwI/edit

Virtual participation via livestream in GA’s, new rule from 01.19 GA:

“Capitol- Livestream be used to allow people online to participate in GA
PoI: 30 second delay on livestream will affect calling for consensus
Proposal Passes, Pending next GA original proposal passes” http://occupyhouston.org/2012/01/evening-ga-19-jan-2012-minutes/

Karen: has serious concerns with this concept of Chat Room “voting” capabilities. Yes, we want to be more inclusive of our virtual occupiers, (she is one), however, there are numerous flaws in this unless it’s further explored and developed better. There needs to be criteria in place on how to “qualify” any given Chatter as an active OH Occupier. Also technical questions, sometimes its really hard to hear.

Mouse: the hard to hear issue can be lessened if GA people will use MicCheck and we may also be able to purchase a Mic. Mouse will research Mics and costs. Mouse will also need reliable battery-life, hardware.

Benjamin: As a Member of Facilitation, Ben will ask that FAC WG consider reviewing this as well, as it has a radical impact on standard procedures in place such as Quorum and so on.

Karen: volunteers to look into other Occupies who may be already doing something like this for models & ideas.  See Occupy Boston: email occupybostonmedia [at] gmail [dot] com.

Linda: offers to help research that as well.

Work Group Proposals for GA

Benjamin will make an Internet WG Proposal stating that we propose that this decision allowing livestream (Chat Roomers) to participate in Ga’s be suspended pending the development of criteria, means, tools and related technical issues.  AGREED.

Mary: Discussed need have do a WG Proposal stating that every internet account that has “OccupyHouston” in the name/officially is an OccupyHouston account have 3 active OccupyHouston members who currently reside in the Greater Houston metropolitan area with the password/login access. AGREED.

Official Policy regarding posting promotions of non-OH events and activites to Calendar and FB Wall?

Diane: Methods to verify that Events OH wants to help promote are OH approved?

* event was approved in GA proposal/Minutes

* submitted by a WG Magnet or active known Occupier to webreq’s mail

* ?

Discussion on posting non-event type items as well, such as News links, etc. We should do more of that.  Ben: try to make the tone be neutral… “for your information” rather than “Way to go!” (exceptions for Stop SOPA, that’s gets the Way to go! lol, also any other Occupy specific big news, be it national, global, or local)

Diane: Calendar access continues to be an issue. Will ask Kevin again for help with this and then draft a mini-tutorial (google doc) for other/future Cal Admins.

FB Admin news

Karen: Several things going on in FB Adminland. Working on finalizing OH FB Admin Guidelines.  Once final and agreed, we can publish to the website & FB  –  transparent. People need to understand the role of FB Admin, it’s a responsibility & service to all of Occupy not just a way to post about your own pet issues or activities.  Also, there are several FB Admins who are no longer active, we need to contact them and let them know we will be removing them so they have an opportunity to let us know if they want to stay, and why. (Already did this with Gessner Soto, done.)

Web Functionality Issues

Numerous items: Livestream links, Newspaper sidebar-button, New Section for WorkGroup Minutes, etc.

Note: WG Minutes will file under General Assembly/Minutes Section until we can get a New WG Minutes Section set up (or the OH WG’s wiki is up and running) AGREED

Mary: has determined that most of the needed format changes cannot be done without ftp level admin due to WordPressTheme set up.  If she can get ftp access from Kevin or Cassie, Mary is willing to work on fixing these items and more on the website.

NEXT MEETING:  Due to several schedule conflicts, decided to schedule next meeting as an online focus session in the web google group over 48 hours period Feb 4 – Feb 5. Primary focus to be finalizing Charter and other details for Feb 7 WG Guideline deadline.

 ____________________

Tentative Minutes ** note: these are not proofread or corrected yet **

GA minutes 19 Jan 2012

Workgroup report backs

Joe – public comment 9:30 yesterday.  Ray Hill spoke, had a lot of interaction.  topic: police bullying.  Remmington Ellesse spoke, and mayor left for the 3rd time in a row that remmington spoke.  mr. cook spoke about budget.  joe spoke about spanish company getting contract that violates the buy american act.  mayor is in DC at conference sponsored by 1%.  don’t forget the commissioners court.  go speak.  Trey: how to find agenda?  Joe:  google “harris county commissioners court agenda”

Amy – outreach: occupy the courts.  3 breakout groups for fridays.  on sat, jamming doing food.  alice doing kids stuff.

johnathon: logistics – freedmans town separated out into their own occupy.

delbert – POC – organizing with churches in freedmans town.  met with 4 churches.  mt. horror, mt carmel, st james, macedona.  the purpose is for them to work more cohesively with freedmans town project and OH.  I’ll be attending church and meeting with the pastors.  10AM sunday.  anyone is welcome to go.

—-

announce

delbert – yesterday court case.  person aquitted of a jaywalking charge.  second trial.  judge wanted to make sure he was locked away for jaywalking.  a few of us showed up at the trial and we left an impression with the judge and court.  threatened with contempt of court.  guy was aquitted, because the police had lied about the charges.  tomorrow there will be a press conference about the injustice in the district attorneys office.  8315 live oak, 11AM.  anyone from occupy is encouraged to come and speak.

amy: reported contacted her about occupy and churches.  can I  give you as a point of contact?  delbert: sure.  BFSCR refered her to webpage

Trey –  myself and anthony talked about starting higher education outreach group.  discussed having an open forum where college students (and anyone, but mostly college students) to come and share what they think, specially about college.  has not yet solicited or announced anything before now.  would like help making a flyer.

also, Trey needs a ride to the panel discussion friday

Nick – I was over at reoccupy house and their outside activities are shutting down so they may be coming back to the park

Joe – 1401 andrews was sighted by the city of houston (yellow tagged) last week and was told that they have till the 25th of Jan to rectify the situation what’s a yellow tag? you are in danger of getting a fine for some sort of illegal activity.  it was a code issue.  they said it was an illegal campsite. … there’s no such thing as an illegal campsite in houston.  going to speak out against it in city council.

amy – lisa pithian will be coming into town on 4th of febuary.  runs website organizing for power.  works with occupy wall street.  she’ll put on an all day workshop.  still in the works, no topic list yet.

Ben – low turnout at the consulate due to kelsie sick and ben going directly from work.  gave out 6 occupy newspapers, got into an argument with a worker at the consulate, and the same old guy in a red truck flipping him off 3 weeks in a row. – Bren and susan will do another non-violent communication center workshop.  please get with ben after GA if you’re interested.

—— Proposals

Amy: started an online petition to ask city council to pass a resolution to end the ideas of corp personhood and money is speech. Q  (Trey): who created it? A (Amy): I did.  go to change.org and anyone can do it.  there is a nationwide movement doing this.  change.org themselves might promote it. Johnathan: can you tell us about change.org? Amy: not really. PASSED

Tyler: Make the block a commitment.  if you block, and it passes anyway, you leave.  they’re votes are no longer counted. Ben POI: would you consider it good enough to go through and publicize people who have blocked in the past No, not retroactive.  wants to clear up the problem / tyranny of one person. clarify: can you say when this has happened? tyler: well, I don’t want to punish new people. john: we now need a chain.  so it’s not a tyranny of one, it’s a tyranny of two ben: shot down the proposal for the vetting. nick: we need to not have folks leave. call for more time failed.

PoP Ben: we have pending propsals

John: passed one GA.  is a loosening of proposal rules.  workgroups can do proposals any day of the week.  Lift the 2 day constraint. passed second

I propose that individual proposals have no more constraints put on them (like the two consecutive GAs).  because we don’t have daily GAs anymore.  the last quorum we had was more than 48 hours ago. Trey: opposed wording.  said he would prefer that it be stated that the previous restrictions were being lifted.  John accepted rewording. Amy: if we had fewer of them, would we get more attendance? Ben: wanted to say that there was a chain block previously, even though those folks weren’t here. John: unless it’s an immediate proposal, we have a 24 hour waiting period. PASSED

Restate: Decide to officially form a physical occupation vigil group comprised of committed members to participate in & affirm the symbolic importance of maintaining the physical occupation
Proposal Passes, Pending next GA  Passed.

Capitol- Livestream be used to allow people online to participate in GA
PoI: 30 second delay on livestream will affect calling for consensus
Proposal Passes, Pending next GA Friendly amendment Amy: allow those who can’t participate by livestream to send proxies Benjamin blocked: I need details of a proxy system detailed before allowing it. not withdrawn. block upheld on amendment. original proposal passes

Jamin: we require our official livestreamer to participate in GA.  discussion about what official livestream was, if we need a team and/or how to do it.  jamin just really wants the person doing the livestream to participate.  john was saying that it wasn’t a single person, it was the web team that was responsible for web team. amended: Per livestream proposal, we request that web have someone who’s livestreaming also be actively participating in the GA and have the person livestreaming and the virtual participants noted in the minutes.  PASSES

John: I propose that anyone can livestream.  however, those non-sanctioned livestreamers not be able to take consensus votes from those livestreams.   PASSED

——- opinions

Trey:  it’s good to have ian back.  thank you to the peacekeepers.  there was something a few nights ago that got ppl upset – if you don’t know, don’t ask.  ask for tmp check for org a meeting kinda like what jenny did but to just all get together and talk about workgroups, what ones we have, and allow folks to have enough time to have time to be here.

discussion about frequency of GAs and attendance.

Joe: to finish the info on the yellow tag.  research shows no actual code exists.  talks of what to do about it. Trey wants to send them a bill for the cost of having ticketed us. SOPA+PIPA: mike honda (US congressman) blacked his website.  he comes to houston often, and spent his childhood in an internment camp in San Diego, CA: mayor gave state of city address and got mic checked.  he’s trying to get those guys charged with federal conspiracy charges.  explanation of conspiracy charges.

Nick: been coming here more than 90 days now.  ga was every day, and you could count on it.  I’ve tried to get ppl to tell me when it’s happening, and it was hard.  it’s important to have it every day so we can get together today at 7PM.  changing the schedule caused it go downhill.

John: served an eviction notice to city hall and/or tranquility park

Amy: there’s no way to know why GA’s are so poorly attended. but we could be doing more – like actions twice a week.

Mike (Troll): lets do this every day.  all wear white.  the left, all wear black.  sit by color.  have the kids talk to us.  I miss my daughter.

Ben: spoke on a GA schedules and consensus and how we’ve not really had it and how this has helped reveal rifts that were existing.  asked the reach team to go back through and find when ppl actually showed up.  90% supermajority is not the same type of thing as consensus -x.  got more time.  liked trey’s idea.  amy: give lead time.  ben: agrees.  need to do more education about consensus; it’s not voting with silly rules. john: what’s schedule? current schedule: 7PM every night, 11AM every day.  nick: occupation is every day, GA should be too

Joe: occupying a foreclosed home.  I’m gonna do it and report back on it.  gonna be a little non-transparent about it the first few weeks to avoid “party at joes house”.  normally a house gets neglected after a foreclosure for a little over a year.  if you’re occupying a house and pay off neglected property houses, you have a really good shot at getting the deed.  once you’ve occupied for a while, it’s much harder to get evicted, takes 90ish days and cost money.

moderator note: I missed GAs and yawl.

Maria: needs to talk to someone who will be here tmw at 2PM who has a cell phone.  wants to use it to find out if there’s gonna be a courthouse protest or not.