General Assembly Meeting Minutes
October 10^th

Agenda (ALWAYS have one for every meeting) Have rules, enforce them.

Committees

(Steering Committee – Voted on by the people… possibly 5 volunteers voted in)

YES to rules and organized structure.

1. Org structure (5 person St Committee, sub committees, general assembly)

Break up into sub-committees – ie. Media, Technical PR, education, outreach, strategy, safety committee, Internet-Liaison Committee/Youtube video creators, Artwork/Design Committee – design business cards with email, twitter, facebook page, etc. and maybe buttons and shirts so we can easily find one another, public relations committee – note, public relations does talk to the press), support/logistics – bring signs, Cleaning Committee to make sure there is no litter left in the area where we were, Government Liaisons – gov’t and cop contacts – we should be using a permit to march. Each group could and should research their areas thoroughly and present the group with the best information they can find.   Gov’t Liaison is a member of the steering committee – someone who is good with public policy.  Clerical Committee.  Logistics – put a list.  Mechanics/technical skills people for community outreach – volunteer work.  Theater – Flash Mob.  Human Resources – someone who is good with mediating difficult situations/dealing with group dynamics.

2. Outreach (public, gummint, other groups etc)

3. Strategy (don’t forget fun)

Break into groups, vote on a steering committee.  Have a symbol that means “quiet.”  Where will we go?  What will we do?  Saturday at noon.

NEXT hook-up – Friday night gig at 5pm – Steering try to show at 4pm.

4. Media

Press Committee

5. Support for members (baby-sitting, lawn moving, car repair (whatever it takes)-even have child/dog care for actions etc. ((Can be combined with Logistics))

7. Gov liaison

8. Trouble

         Within: talkers, whiners, egomaniacs   (Speech – I will stand up for the rights of the other members of our group)

         Without: cops, spies, agent provocateurs

9. Rapid action response/cleaners 

10. Contact with other groups

Try to get involved with other groups

11. Research

12. Gimmicks (business cards, shirt buttons, bumper stickers, friendly store window signs etc.

Some issues: shall we have same time and place for actions, shall we introduce some imagination with theater, costumes, etc to make us multi faceted?

What about Farmer’s Market-are we bothering people? We never want to do that. We could try for a booth there, do we have staffing resources?

Big Tent, shall we inhibit satellite issues (save the whales, no strip mining etc) to maintain the big picture and attract a broader base? We will lose at least a few of our people but probably gather more, and maybe win.

 Collect all info we can and collate, condense and simplify. Most of the manifestos are groovy but too big for us here, see global guerillas.

Shall we have regular actions at the same time and place (rain cancel?) or not? Shall we introduce art, diversity and theater into our actions? Samo old chant and march saying ‘hooray for us’ or mix it up with variety and innovation? Shall we discourage the individual pulling us in a direction we have not considered yet (such as the woman who ranted at us to march in Farmers Market and wouldn’t shut up)?

Organization (St Committee, collectives?) Non violent training if things get dicey

Logo, business cards

Weekly potluck/meet and greet/organization meeting

Steering committee – Who is going to pay for the business cards??