ANNOUNCEMENTS
Art club: monday nights, materials donated, mural on truck (Sunday instead of Monday), art gallery show
POI october 22nd, opening of prospect2
Joe, has asked someone to post updates daily about whats going on at camp, proposed direct actions, classes, volunteer and donation needs, if people from these groups could contact me after the meeting, also offering to be voice for people at camp who’d like to share their feelings about camp online
Caucus for People of Color meeting on’ Thursday at 1pm
Entertainment: On Friday after the GA we will be showing Betty Boop cartoons and Harland County somewhere near the pagoda
Women’s Caucus meeting tomorrow at 3pm, where female identifying individuals can talk about stuff
Local’s Caucus meeting Friday at 6, meet at Pavillion. local defined as anyone who is a resident of the area before Katrina
EVERY NIGHT AT THIS CAMP SOMEONE HAS BEEN SEXUALLY VIOLATED. Medic encourages everyone to think of their safety and to make this a better place to work, live and interact. Please get involved in public safety. Emphasis on every one’s responsibility for what happens here.
Street Team call out: to help spread flyers for Saturday’s march. meet after the GA
Love Bomb Second Line happening Friday at 9 pm at 2626 Chartres. It is not a traditional second line, it is drum and bass. costumes encouraged.
i met some people who felt that they were not welcome, while you are on site it is very important to engage with anyone passing by. We will be wearing orange bandannas, and you may send them to us
For suggestions of direct action thingys, for suggestions. if you want to write them down and well pass them on
WORKING GROUP REPORT BACKS
EDUCATION
SEIU organization, is going to have a teach in at 11, in the pavilion, working with labor unions, who broke the economy
the orleans parish prison…is going to have a teach in sunday at 3pm ‘occupy NOLA should concern itself with prisons and better network with local populations’ flyers are available
still looking for people to propose classes to teach, please specify time date and location
tomorrow there are two classes being offered:
a history of the middle class in the us, the second is
intro to US government
they will be at the pavilion, at 10, but it is listed on the education pillar in the library
FOOD GROUP
Hygiene: we’re serving food for you all, meaning at meals you do not serve yourself
the kitchen is going to be closed for certain hours, mostly it will be closed at night. this does not mean food is inaccessible. we need to’ work closely with anyone who feels they need food at unexpected hours
our meetings happen every night after the GA, come to that!
INTEGRITY
This’ protocol was consensed upon by the assembly:
1.Assess the threat: information between night watch and other integrity group members
2. soft engagement, this is specifically introducing yourself as a representative of this community to the person or persons in questions in heated discussion, arguments, or perceived violent situations, more active engagement is required. etc.
no one is to call the police: we have not empowered ourselves to contact the police
guidelines for integrity liasons on patrol:
all have to remain absolutely sober, for the entirety of their shift
conduct themselves with diplomacy, passion and tact.
during shift should be unarmed, or should have their weapons peace-bonded
during shift change, brief the incoming shift on any developments or concerns
TRANSPORTATION
I have a truck
I have a van and a phone number.
ANTI-RACISM
saturday meeting cancelled, we will resume our meetings on Monday from 1-3
organized meeting with members of GNORT, Greater NOLA O Round Table. we talked about the way certain members are seeing occupy NOLA, ways they would like to see us support the city in their organizing. respect the history of organizing in NOLA. general excitement about the way our works can mesh up and continuing to work together ***it should be said that there was both negative and lots of positive feedback from organizers.
reconvening on Wednesday, Oct 19 from 5-7 and discussing GNORT and Occupy NOLA teach IN. One or Two reps from each working group being present at this teach in.
if you would like to hear a little bit more about our goals and their goals are come to the meeting
PRESS/MEDIA/OUTREACH
pamphlet Intro to GA: for Saturday, to hand out to people when they arrive back at Duncan
FAQ sheet about who we are and why we are here:
can be submitted by individuals with things that we can generally agree on.
we need help from groups, when we finish we will present them with our responses,
not a manifesto: we are keeping all answers as broadly and simply stated, friendly outreach.
Call out: Someone from working groups, please join us to help answer questions, after GA
Call out: we need a graphic designer or has designer program access
TECHNOLOGY
working on website and making improvements. there is a wiki and a’ forum. privacy part if needed. in process now.
town hall has a computer.
SANITATION
how to use the composting toilets.
go to the bathroom lift up the seat
do your business
cover up your business with sawdust
close the seat
put any toilet paper in the bucket
pee a little bit ok,
please pee mostly in the raingrate thing.
please dont put the toilet paper in the rain grate, not where it goes.
please respect the bathroom as much as possible.
if the bucket is full, please dont poop in it.
if its full find one of us.
tampons go in the trash
working on the pee smell
pick up after yo’self.
take a bag of trash home, in the car with you when you leave.
we keep them next to where you throw yer trash, if you see em, grab em.
improve lighting
compost: right next to trash, trash does not go into compost. no dairy or meat
ENTERTAINMENT
wants some bands to play and stuff
batman play, batman meets occupy new orleans, if you want to participate, go to next entertainment meeting, we’ll figure it out.
DIRECT ACTION
Autonomous empowerment: we help with direct actions, come find us, we will only give you assistance
Permit: Consensed upon not prohibiting people from getting a permit.
we aren’t giving them a route unless we have to in order to march,
legal will advise before we agree to anything
Radios: 4 donated for communicating during the march
if anyone has more radios that op on vhs, please donate
Route: we have consensed on a route but will not release it at this time
Street Team: is organized
AGRICULTURE ACTION GROUP, a new working group: we’re going to make agriculture happen
CITY PLANNING
working on expansion of the town, check us out by the open air tent
WELLNESS
medical phone number – 504-919-5287
Call out: we need medics for saturdays march
trainings begin Friday
decompression tent:
will be available for all busy ants to rest in
asking for small people furniture to go in that area
new zines and lit at medical station
diabetic disposal station
new forum online
thai massage: Saturday, 5:30 or 6 after demo, before GA at decompression tent,
10 minute sessions, thai massage is based on yoga priniciples, you will lay down and volunteer massage therapist will move your arms & legs to help release tension and stretch your muscles. loose clothing advised
FOOD
trying to implement a system to get water, before it runs out
Call out: if you have a truck or a van, please help us
we also need more people to help with cooking
New kitchen hours 6-10, 12-3, 4-7, 10-12
Needs:
mardi gras cups
5 gallon water cooler bottles
FACILITATION
if you’re new please contact someone from one of the groups, we need your help! you will help us succeed, it depends on you getting involved as much and in any way that you can
READING OF THE AGENDA
6 tenths interest will be kept, not will be tabled
poi – it was decided that whether these items needed consensus or could be worked on by the proposer without consensus
- use of peoples mic , temp -
- earlier weekend GA
- working groups spokes council
poi – one person from each working group to talk about working group interdependency
- can legal represent us
- make list of resolutions
- nonviolent stance
- invite speakers from the rest of the community to share in front of GA to soapbox
- deciding Saturday agenda at Friday GA, while still allowing new proposals for agenda Sat night
comments – should these remain on the agenda
Comments regarding People’s mic
question: does it need to come to the whole GA?
comment: the use of people’s mic is something we all need to agree to
proposers comments – it’s a way to make the meetings more efficient, i suggest we try to use a PA system to have shorter and more efficient meetings, i understand some people love the PM, others not so much
POP – what we do is read through proposal, have new proposals, and then vet them, which means now we’re saying what’s on the board
New proposals ?
- we make fire ants our official mascots
- talk about the use of point of process, there have been too many being used, might be too many, we’re just loosing time, again.
POP – possibly doesn’t have to be on the agenda, as we learn more about it through use, it’ll become much more clear
POI- facilitators were trying to give a small clinic on the process of the GA
Vetting of proposals: without 6/10ths interest, proposal is
- sent to working group
- table
- added to the agenda of future GAs
POI no one from legal team, so we can’t talk about it
Agenda proposal 4. Can legal rep us TABLED
POI regarding proposal 6. non violence: we already have a consensus on nonviolence, individual reads consensed proposal, maybe we should re-address it when there are more people
TEMP CHECKS on Proposals
Proposal 1: ‘use of people’s mic’
temp check: tabled for now
arguing about process
Facilitator comment: there’s a space and time to discuss issues, we have a process for the way that we pick what we talk about, i would move to keep with the process we have all agreed with, do not continue to talk out of turn and slow us down further
POI we voted about whether we would talk about this tonight, we will not
Proposal 7: ‘invite speakers from the rest of the community to share in front of GA to soapbox’
clarifying – allow people who are not usually here to talk about things they want, it will be motivational and refreshing
POI soapbox is at 5pm on the hill, anyone who wants to can do that
POI there was a soapbox today, 7 people were there
temp check – tabled for now
Proposal 8: ‘deciding Saturday agenda at Friday GA, while still allowing new proposals for agenda Sat night’
clarifying – consider that we’re bringing many people here on Saturday
temp check – passes
Note to readers, we took temp check on all proposals, transcripts are difficult to take at this time, to clarify:
1.use of peoples mic -tabled
2.earlier weekend GA- tabled
3.working groups spokes council -tabled, sent to working groups
4.can legal represent us-tabled
5.make list of resolutions-tabled sent to working groups
POI member of media and member of digital media will collaborate, already working on it
6. nonviolent stance- tabled
7.invite speakers from the rest of the community to share in front of GA to soapbox-tabled
8.deciding Saturday agenda at Friday GA, while still allowing new proposals -passed
New proposals, fire ants and limit on POP: should these remain on the agenda?
temp check – kept
A vibes facilitator enters the facilitators, and facilitators present amended agenda:
PEOPLE’S MIC
use of people’s mic: original proposer doesn’t want to use it, someone else makes proposal
CLARIFYING QUESTIONS:
how can that big thing be brought into the crowd (referring to large wheeled diy amp)
i want to envision a movement where there are people all the way back to that building (behind us), i believe that we have to prepare for success, we should continue to use the people’s mic
POP – this is for clarifying questions, non opinions
wouldn’t taking that large thing on the hill be dangerous?
POP – that doesn’t make the proposal more clear
perhaps couldn’t a megaphone be used
POP – suggestion, this is not the time to make a suggestion
for example during stack, when there’s people at different parts of the group, you will bring it to them?
who is going to be in charge of the machine?
what part of having a pa obligates us to using it all the time?
can the concern for using something other than the people’s mic be formed into a working group?
what goes into maintaining this?
CONCERNS:
How to keep it concise, it would be hard to stop someone from taking the mic, talking forever, and threatening the process
Heard a soundbite from the Boston occupation, it struck me that cops use amplification this (peoples mic) is the way we communicate with us
personally more difficult to think when using the people’s mic, we are losing members of GA each night, part of this is the monotony of this staccato rhythm
there’s a certain amount of individual personality in the way a person speaks, people’s mic is silencing that individuality
I really like using peoples mic, we never consensed to use it, we don’t need consensus to end it, we would need consensus to use a different option
while using peoples mic, it keeps peoples attention
support peoples mic but that doesn’t mean that there might not be situations in which amplification could be useful, whatever happens with this proposal, this amp would be great resource for us
even though the cops in Boston use the megaphone they got shit done if they would’ve all been using the peoples mic they probably wouldn’t have, we should use technology to increase the effectiveness of our communication
act of repetition gets people to talk who may not otherwise speak because they may be too nervous or disenfranchised concerned shy whatever the fuck to start talking.
it is very intimidating to use a mic
it is intimidating to use the peoples mic for the first time but ever since we’ve been using, I’ve never listened to people as much
the proposal as it is going, we would have peoples mic and pa in the same meetings, this is over-complicating the people’s process
this group is small enough right now for a loud enough person to be heard
temp check close stack on concerns? consensus, moving on to
FRIENDLY AMENDMENTS
POP person gets on mic and interrupts speaker, this is the issue: you can’t just talk over us, it’s completely disrespectful
people have the option at general assembly to use people’s mic or pa, on their choice, no regulation on what you have to use, and the default would be the peoples mic, amp be allowed for those who have a preference
it is friendly, accepted
we try for a specific amount of time to make that machine work if after 30 seconds it is feeding back, we resort to peoples mic, so we don’t waste time on technical difficulties
it is friendly, accepted
four options’ 1 peoples mic 2 pa 3 megaphone 4 speak out loud . you do hear me
POP concern from before stack closed that had been ignored, Saturday bunch more support, an opportunity to be more inclusive, larger community of NOLA finds peoples mic alienating and confusing, if we allow amp we will be able to garner support
if this proposal moves onto us using this pa, add on that it not come with a group of disrespectful men that use this machine in way that breaks our unity
proposer is interrupted:
concern: no matter what if this amp is in our lives it cannot stay in the hands of disrespectful people who stayed up at 2 am and called people pussies for not protesting in the cbd
POI this is the first time the pa has been here
POI amp entered our lives last night…
POP this is getting really out of hand and hope the facilitators can come up with a solution to pull us back together or move on
suggest this issue go to the facilitation committee
Facilitator, vote on this? NO does not passes
anyone who is uncomfortable peoples mic can ask for a suspension, at which time they can amp their voice however they want, if it doesn’t work they can call for mic check
proposer: already in agreement with proposal
f this machine is used, it needs to be out of the hands of those men, completely uncomfortable with their disrespectful behavior toward women in particular, it goes to a group of another set of people.
the people who have this pa are divisive to the group, we use a different pa
proposer: not quite friendly, anyone who wants to use a form of communication other than peoples mic they have the right to use any form as long as it is respectful and does not have technical difficulties for more than a minute
lets try the system for one evening if it doesn’t work and we don’t pass consensus on it, then we suspend use of pa immediately
Concern: whether or not you agree with how they have spoken tonight, they came here to try to contribute something, but I find the bullying disturbing
BREAK we howled at the moon
Set up some kind of mediation so if anyone is really disrespectful with amp the person who is offended can seek communication
NO, this is about amp in general assembly
POI this whole country was built before amplification
TEMP check move on to voting on consensus? YES
Proposal with friendly amendments:
People have right to use amp or any other method of speaking that they want as long as there are no technical difficulties that last longer than one minute AND this permission will be used for one GA, then voted on to see if we should keep using it.
Block:
Can’t vote on this until we address the disrespect of these people
Can there be a group of people other than the machines owners who facilitate its use?
Propose a working group formed organizing sound amp tech for ppl who do not have the resources for themselves
proposer: NOT friendly amendment
TEMP check vote on vote? GO forward
DISSENT
peoples mic is an important symbolic statement and powerful link to the rest of the movement and deeply poetic
a lot of contention against the people who have the system, can’t use those people’s amp
in general against I am very against middle men especially electronic middle men
POI it’s evident this won’t go through because of this bickering. even if this person was allegedly being disrespectful to women, we reacted with a mob attack when he was just attacking like an idiot. hope we can laugh at ourselves
something to be said for the verbal currency people’s mic provides. repeating the words makes them the people’s. in a community in which everyone hears every word in the same way, difference in the amplification will lead to power attached to the different words
POP we make our decision by consensus, on this issue we wont make 90 percent, let’s table it
Table issues? Majority want to table issue
Dissent: this has become a much larger issue. several women have expressed they feel disrespected: you cannot say those feelings are illegitimate. I don’t understand who will be in control of this device.
Facilitator: going to move on from talking about this issue to issue of fire ants
FIRE ANTS
Proposal: this unfortunate issue of people’s mic is still really important to everyone, but it is my turn to make a proposal. we can talk about this again at tomorrows general assembly.
I propose make fire ants our official mascot. We have invaded their space and ruined their homes; they bite us they sting a lot. to be aware that we have occupied an already occupied space which was fully functioning community itself, let’s let fire ants represent us.
CLARIFYING QUESTIONS:
can we make paper mache costumes?
individuals with access to diatomaceous earth be able to use it?
No
CONCERNS: none
VOTE majority for but there are a few dissenters.
DISSENT: proposer votes to take this issue to another time
DIRECT ACTION
Proposal: on saturday night we’re hoping to bring the most people back here than have been here since the first march
BROKE OUT INTO BIG SMOKY BRAWL WITH DUST, photographed
Facilitator reasons with divisive GA: ‘who thought this would be easy? we are going to fight, it is worth it.’
POI our first ever consensus: to not engage in violence towards each other, this includes our personal space, our physical well-being, saying verbally harmful things and symbolically harmful things. To people here who have just broken that code, they should leave because we have a consensus that you are not allowed to act that way toward people here
POP good chance for mediation this is a skill were going to have to learn throughout this movement, if we don’t learn how to mediate, we are going to split into factions , please come talk to me if you’d like to.
move on to facilitated mediation? CONSENSUS
restate proposal to ask Friday’s GA to decide what will be on the agenda for Saturday night, new proposals can be made Saturday night. intention is that we’re bringing in a lot of people in that are entirely new to this process, would like to have a GA that appears well oiled that focuses on real issues, an assembly that if it becomes contentious, it is contentious about real issues.
QUESTIONS?
pamphlet on GA
media group is preparing just that for people for saturday
concern for’ people here that it is not just about themselves
are there real issues? working groups have posed proposals?
anyone can give proposal
some people are making attempts to push other people away, none of us are perfect we all make mistakes, lets try to get along
VOTE? CONSENSUS proposal passes
move to close GA any objections? CONSENSUS
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