Did You Know Flyer
The trifold flyer is ready for distribution when it gets GA approval. This is a “Did You Know” flyer that talks about Economic Inequality with OSTL contact information. Zach ultimately plans to taylor this flyer directly to the neighborhood(s) being targeted in the city and county.
Neighborhood Associations
We need an introductory flyer that includes info on GA’s, working groups, and future actions. This, along with the trifold flyer, will be handed out when teams go speak to Neighborhood Associations. We agreed to wait on setting up these speaking engagements until the second flyer is complete and we have more information about future events.
Concrete Long Term Strategy
We discussed Occupy the Midwest Regional Conference (OMW) and May 1. We agreed that long term build up for big events makes a more lasting impact with our message. It is also good to have fact sheets and information about future events/actions to distribute.
May 1 will be a global event and we need to begin strategizing for it now. Ideas that were brought up:
- a day without the 99%
- remembering, the history of May 1
- anti-corporation: An action at the Peabody Shareholder’s meeting is already being planned during the first week of May by MORE, SEIU, Wash U, Young Activists United, and the Greens. Peabody has a long track record of union busting, not paying taxes, record profits, and environmental destruction–flyers have already been made.
- connect May 1 to something concrete
- St. Patty’s Day-do May 1 outreach
- anyone who can’t participate in May 1 can step outside at a predetermined time and bang pots, or make some other type of noise and/or wear a button that says, “I”m part of the 99%”
We also want to strategize on ways to make concrete changes in our community, such as reclaiming foreclosed and occupying abandoned properties for the purpose of establishing resources, like a community center. We agreed that after identifying a building we would first need to speak to the neighborhood to see what their needs are. In order to facilitate this it would be good to identify block units and their captains. There already exists a Federation of Block Captains. A phone call system to alert neighbors of actions/events happening in their neighborhood will ultimately be developed.
Canvassing is already happening in the 14th ward, which is Annie’s ward, so it makes sense to continue to do outreach in this area. This is Carol Howard’s ward. She is a new alderperson. Cathy will bring a proposal to GA for this canvassing to be a part of OSTL outreach. Ultimately, as part of our efforts to effect concrete change, we want to help promote mutual aid between block units, develop alternative economic systems, such as bartering, and to promote the formation of more General Assemblies.
Other means of effecting concrete change are the petition drives that the Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) and Jobs with Justice (JWJ) have been spearheading. One petition is to raise the minimum pay in Missouri by $1. The other is to end the usurious interest rates on pay day loans. These petitions could also be a part of any outreach team’s efforts.
Newbies
We began a discussion about how to promote connections with new people who come to OSTL through outreach, OMW, and nice weather.
As GA’s have sometimes been fractious, and because this is often someone’s first contact with OSTL, how do we improve the GA process? And, do we need to strengthen our welcoming team and pamphlets? Perhaps, when the weather is nicer and GA’s are more plentiful, we can have a once a month newcomers meeting instead of GA.
Ideas discussed to make GA’s run smoother:
- Stronger facilitation–Cathy will talk to Colleen and set up more facilitator training.
- It can be hard for some people to respect the GA process. Experienced facilitation training should help newer facilitators be comfortable with the process.
- Possibly have newer facilitators co-facilitate their first few meetings with a more experienced facilitator
- It’s important that everyone’s voice is heard and therefore important that no one dominates the process. Progressive stacking is one way to alleviate this.
- Make it clear at GA what the expectations are.
- Consider going to a 10% block. That way, when there are large numbers of participants, it will take more people to block. This helps to maintain a balance so, for example, two people couldn’t block a proposal 100 people are in favor of.
- We need to emphasize being concise. Most of what we have to say can be said in1 1/2 minutes. Often, people end up repeating themselves.
- When doing vibe checks, remember that taking a straw poll can actually yield more information than twinkles alone.
We also discussed possible ways to ask someone to leave the movement if they repeatedly over a significant length of time show an unwillingness to be a respectful participant. Ultimately we thought this would be a good issue to bring toConcern Circle. Cathy is going to do Concern Circle Facilitation Training.
Other topics touched upon:
- Work groups that could form out of these discussions: Neighborhood Outreach, Alternative Economics, Art.
- McKee is buying up land and the rights to buy land on the North Side.
- We need to plan a year in advance for some artistic endeavors like big puppet and stilt walker parades. Floats.
- It would be good to have liaisons to affinity groups, like OBS and JWJ. We could call them “links.”