GA Notes Sunday, Oct 30
There was no GA convened on Oct 29th.
Proposal notes from 28th: teach-in proposal by Allison approved.
Media Committee has video of the rally and is preparing them.
Food & Water committee needs help with disposal of greywater. Called for donations of hot drink mixes: tea (including herbal decaf) instant coffee, cocoa, etc. Fruit needed.
Outreach meeting at Stephen's after the GA.
No proposals on agenda.
Newsreel: various reports from other Occupations. 30 arrested in Austin. Denver reports 5 cases of hypothermia hospitalized. Des Moines received permit, must be renewed weekly. Cedar Rapids occupying a location in the 2008 flood zone, which still has 8PM curfew to deter post-flood looters. Seattle arrests reported.
Agenda Items:
Due to moderate turnout, it was generally agreed that no proposals should be presented or voted on at this session. General discussion of camp issues was opened. A guest from Occupy Portland was present and offered useful perspectives on how other Occupations work.
Waste spills inside portable toilet are a problem. New permit issued by City permit requires us to put toilet on sidewalk between east and south quadrants. The City's required placement of the portable toilet on the sidewalk will block pedestrian traffic.
More peacekeeping patrols are requested, including daytime. Citizen volunteers have offered their phone numbers so they can be contacted when more peacekeepers are needed, but there is currently no mechanism to organize volunteers and contact them. Suggested that we start a Google Docs private list of volunteers.
General camp issues. Public drunkenness is causing problems. Visitors are turned off by drunks and drug use. Too much is being done by too few core members, while many people are not contributing anything to the community, and some actively disrupting the community. It was suggested that personal ethics of self-responsibility and respect for others and OIC be part of our principles, and repeat violators of camp rules are not doing this. Rules for handling these issues should be worked out in the Peacekeeping Committee and presented to GA, and those methods be compared to other Occupations. Trying to bring people into the community activities has mixed results. Any person has the right to call the police if they are the victim of a crime, OIC does not need to be consulted.
Meeting briefly suspended due to a medical emergency and a security issue Reconvened after 10 minutes.
People need to take responsibility for the actions of others. We can't turn a blind eye to problems, everyone needs to be prepared to take appropriate action.
Idea of moving the Occupation of a house was introduced at a previous meeting. Opposition to the idea was expressed. We are still in discussions regarding existing camp winter survivability, so some opinions that this is premature. Some support for an indoor base camp along with camp, some opinion this would divide our efforts. Call for commitment to continuing activities through winter no matter what, like using community based resources like public meeting rooms for indoors GAs. Occupation of the park is considered vital for solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, and being in the park in front of the public is significant part of our direct action.
The meeting was adjourned. After the meeting, a special session of the Peacekeeping committee was convened, to create proposals for the GA to deal with problems. The draft proposals are posted on the whiteboard as agenda items for the next GA.
