Hand signals, pledge

Announcements: Walkupy leaving for Chicago on Monday, hope to be there towards the end of April.

Committee report backs:

Legal (Shayna): People who were arrested Oct. 26 or Nov. 5 need to be in contact with Legal in preparation for their court date March 9. Everyone else please show up in court as as a show of support. We don’t intend any actions, the best plan is to be there in solidarity.

Media: Meeting directly after GA, we will go somewhere indoors because it’s cold. Probably Mamma Mia’s, but see us after GA.

Action: Rally Tuesday 11-2

No committee-related proposals. Other proposals:

Sara: We, the General Assembly of Occupy Atlanta, call for the repeal of Georgia statutes which suppress worker’s rights in favor of employer’s rights, including the ”at-will” employment law and all laws contravening or allowing for exceptions to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

Explanation: Taft-Hartley exceptions to the National Labor Relations Act mean that someone can refuse to join a union or pay dues even if they are working in a unionized job and receive the benefits of having a union negotiate with the employer. This is what weakens unions in this state compared to other states.

Clarifying question: What does at-will mean?
Sara: It means that you can leave a job or be terminated with no notice. It also means that in Georgia you are only protected from discrimination if the company has more than fifteen employees, because those are the only ones covered by Federal law. If you work for a small business, they can fire you for any reason at all or no reason.

Call for consensus. No blocks, no stand asides. Consensus reached.

Other business:

Occupation Week coming up in March…keep tents in park then?

Discussion: We need to know more about what Occupation Week is and when.

CJ: Look around, everyone’s tent is nice, but mine is messed up. It won’t even close.

Copper: Some people have sabotaged the tents and broken the zippers.

Sara: I intend to get tent repair kits, I just haven’t gotten a chance yet.

Brandi: I am in touch with people at other Occupations, and I want to get 500-1000 people here by spring. They will bring donations with them and organize logistics. Can we claim the park based on squatter’s rights?

(Discussion, people expressing the opinion that it only applies to buildings that have been abandoned for a length of time but that there are many abandoned homes around the city that could be acquired through adverse claim.)

Anna: Accounting funds $3875.71. When we hit $3k, a spending freeze will kick in.

James: It’s fundraising time, people!

Ed: Mt. Bethel will be at Safe House at 89 Ellis St. to take people to the church for shelter tonight.

Comment: I don’t feel people should leave, it shows weakness.

Brandi: I can’t stay out here in the cold, my health won’t allow it.

Sara: Based on my own experience protesting…be safe, be self-aware, be smart. Don’t push people to do things, they know better than anyone else what they are capable of.

Big Softy facilitating. David moderating. Sara taking minutes.
Misty read pledge. Hand signals.

Announcements
Tim – Planned action at AT&T next Tuesday, rally 11-2 Help save working class jobs
Misty – Welcome to all the new people! Free school at the Teardown, posted on Indymedia. Videography/editing class
Sara – Labor issues affinity group. Bringing proposal to call for repeal of exceptions to NLRA of 1935 on Saturday. Also some of us went to Mitt Romney’s campaign stop today.
Colin – Bike shop open Mon 1-5, come in and help. Seeking donations.
Big S. – 451 affinity group wants books. The ‘zine wants submissions, print version and website, outreach for Glen Iris house and other things.
David – Event at PnP on Saturday, possible press coverage, positive representation of what is going on there.
Ed – Have been occupying in the park, approached by three different GSU professors who are sending students out to interview. I will be speaking at GSU tomorrow night at 7 pm for the Student Union. We are getting visitors from all over the place, including Germany.
David – Proposal for modification of the pledge coming up. Will include correction of grammatical errors and a phrase about diversity of tactics.
Big S. – Occupation at PnP: Task Force will have to continue legal battle. This may mean that Occupy Atlanta may have to move out.
Copper – We need more original occupiers out here because yesterday people walked away with four tents. If you have time, please come occupy.

Committee report backs
Legal – Shayna: Copper had court Monday, all charges were dismissed. Copper: I appreciate everything Occupy Atlanta has done for me. We need to remember this is a non-violent movement. Sometimes tempers flare and we forget what we are really here for.
Action – Robert AT&T action, talk to me or someone on Action about our plans for that.
Misty – Conflict mediation working group exists! contact me, Andrew, Daniel, etc…training available from Sacred Space. Restorative circles.
Q from BS: Would it work for other Occupations?
Misty: I think we should try it.

No committee related proposals. Other proposal which was previously tabled:

PROPOSAL TO CUT GAs to 2 times a week. The time limit for ga would be rescinded.
Friendly amendment to go to 3 per week due to the anticipation that there will be much more business to deal with in the spring.
Response: The proposal can include a provision to add more GAs as needed at the discretion of the Process team. Also people don’t come on Mondays and Fridays, so there’s no point in having meetings people don’t come to anyway.
Friendly amendment to go to just one per week.
Response: People have different work schedules, and if we only have it on a week night or a weekend some people will not be able to attend at all. Twice a week is manageable.
Friendly amendment to have a think tank on a day that there is not enough people for a ga.
Response: This seems like something Process or somebody could just decide to do, doesn’t need to be part of the proposal.
Point of information that it is discouraging when there are not enough people for a ga.
Concern that there are not enough committee report backs at ga.
Response: That’s not so much part of this proposal, but I have a plan to address that.
Proposal passed that the ga would just be on wednesdays and saturdays without the strict 2hour time limit.

Other business
Adam – There was no Free Market on Sat. Tried to go to Gardening meeting and Education and Training meetings, neither one happened
Copper – I would like to see more up to date pictures, etc on the website. We need more conflict mediation at the occupations here, I have heard the same thing from travelers. This is a young movement and we will have conflicts, keep it peaceful.
Daniel – Firedoglake.com had a vote about which Occupations were the most successful and Occupy Atlanta was voted into the top five. We won a tent. We have a few options of what to do with it, but I feel strongly this should be an open discussion

Sara – read text of proposal for Saturday: “We, the General Assembly of Occupy Atlanta, call for the repeal of Georgia’s statutes which suppress worker’s rights in favor of employer’s rights, specifically the ‘at-will’ employment law and all laws contravening or allowing for exceptions to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.”

Emelle – Will and I have been in Haiti, we are doing a report back Feb 12 6-8 at the AFSC building about the work we are doing. Will: There is no Occupation in Haiti, we would like to galvanize one. The youth there are very displaced morally, I would like to change that.
David- we had an informal meeting with Task Force. Anita feels confident that an appeal will be accepted. We think we should have a plan B, C, etc and contingencies. We also need to prepare in case we need to “Occupy” the building. We need a group discussion and a plan for action.
Misty – I’m sorry that things fell through, that happens some time. I’ll give out my phone number to the new people. Larry had mentioned that he can dry blankets, I know another guy who runs the Bread coffee house at Emory, if the foks in the park need that. We do have a conflict resolution working group, come get training.
? – I was on the de-escalation team at OWS. We would get training in non-violent communication and would be on duty at given times. If there was a conflict, you would call the person on duty and they would try to address it.
Will- We have some blankets, I’d like to bring them.

Committee Report Backs:

Home Defense:
– need to bring in a whole new layer of people engaging in community action
– Mon 11AM, press conference about the Pittman house at Chase offices 1215 Caroline St.
– Tuesday, training at 60 Walton on how home occupation works for home owners and would be home occupiers
– Jan 27, March on Chase Bank following a rally at the Pittman house 404 Glen Iris Dr. with the goal of getting 100 people to participate
– Thursday 5PM, regular Home Defense Committee meeting
– Feb 7 10AM-4PM, at steps of the courthouse will be another auction protest

Action Committee:
– Tue 24th 11:30AM, at Wells Fargo offices 2 Peachtree St. will be a protest against their investments in commercial prisons encouraging people to pull their money out of Wells Fargo
– Sat, 28 Feb starting 9:30AM with speakers all day, at Ebenezer Baptist Church there will be a summit calling for the abolishment of the death penalty
– 14 Feb (Valentine’s Day) 11AM-2PM, there will be an action at AT&T offices, 675 W. Peachtree St. NW protesting their laying off 740 employees after making record profits in 2011
– 22 Jan at 3PM, at 60 Walton a meeting to form a working group to start planning a SE regional Occupy conference (tentatively planned for March 8-11)
– Tues 6:30PM, at 60 Walton there will be an Action Committee meeting
– Action needs people to spread fliers!!! The Fliers will be provided. If you can post, hand out, or otherwise distribute fliers promoting OA events please contact the Action Committee. Remember, as part of Occupy Atlanta, “We share burdens by taking initiatives to fill roles and relieve comrades.”

Finance:
– Current funds = $4,530.07
– spent $800 for yard signs
– provided $700 for sending folks to Occupy Congress

Proposals:

– Proposal tabled at yesterday’s GA was tabled again.

Other Business:
– concern expressed by the same speakers as at yesterdays GA about a person at Peachtree & Pine kicking out others, calling police to remove others, and assaulting another person

– people willing to come in and train occupiers in NVC, Non-Violent Communications, and Restorative Circles available this week (will try to make a class happen)

– OA bus: We may be able to acquire a bus for OA. The offer is for the donation of a bus (and its maintenance) to OA not money or funds that could be used in some other way. If it works out it would likely be arranged through Jobs for Justice and the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition. We will need art for the bus (along the lines of making it a “traveling billboard” for OA.) There would likely be three or four folks in OA sharing responsibility for the bus for the sake of insurance.

– When problems with folks or situations arrise lets bring in the concerned parties to clarify accusations. Some of the events described concerning the actions of the person [referred to above] at Peachtree and Pine are incorrect and distort the situation.

Committee Report Backs:
– Web Committee meetings moved to Sunday at 6:30 with meetings on the second and fourth Sundays of each month taking place via IRC at irc.indiemedia.org #OAwebsite. All other sunday meetings will take place at Peachtree & Pine.
– The OA website was “blacked out” on Wed. 18 Jan in solidarity with the internet PIPA/SOPA day of protest. All site contents were available after clicking through the information about the protest that Andrew craftily posted.

– Arts and Literature is reorganizing and working away with hopes of having more fun events soon.

Proposals:

– “Removal of W. from position as liaison for Occupay Atlanta with Peachtree and Pine.” Discussed whether it was appropriate to proceed with this without him and others involved present and concern expressed for following process. Proposer agreed it would be better to delay vote on the proposal until the next GA.
Tabled

– “Wiktionary.org will be the standard dictionary for arbitrating the meaning of words within Occupy Atlanta unless an explicit definition has been formally adopted for a specific situation. Should any concern arrise about malicious editing of a current wiktionary definition then an acceptable previous definition from wiktionary or -failing agreement upon that- the Dictionary.com definition will be used.”

Discussion about whether it was necessary to have an official source of word definitions when people should be able to use common sense. Historical GA events brought up to justify proposal.
Passed

– “Each proposal to be voted on by the General Assembly, GA, will be submitted to the Process Committee and made available on the Occupy Atlanta web site at least one week prior to the proposal being brought before the GA for a vote. Modifications to the proposal during this one week lead time shall be made available by the proposer in a timely manner -including updates on the web site and final submission to the Process Committee of the proposal as it will be presented to the GA by the time of the last Process Committee meeting before the GA at which the proposal will be presented. Should the Process Committee or members there of who are facilitating a GA at any time deem the proposal to have been substantially changed to the degree that it constitutes a new proposal the proposal may be subjected to a new week of lead time before the proposal my be voted on.

In situations where the Process Committee recognizes a pressing need for more rapid consideration of a proposal the Process Committee may add the proposal to the agenda for consideration by the GA -waiving the one week lead time. The Process Committee will maintain a list of proposals and the dates of GAs at which the proposals are scheduled to be presented and will make a good faith effort at making this list available for perusal.

Responsibility for posting of a proposal to the web site lies with the proposer and may be fulfilled by a third party on behalf of the proposer. The proposer also holds responsibility for getting on the stack to present the proposal.”

Discussion about the duration of the lead time being long at one week and possible better to have a shorter time. Agreed to try one week to promote more engagment in dialogue and possibly modify to a shorter time at a later GA. Concern expressed about how an emergency proposal would be handled. Agreed that it was appropriate to trust Process for judging when a proposal should be allowed to short circuit the lead time and come up for immediate vote. Clarified that this only applies to proposals and no other OA information would need to be made publicly available on the web site.
Passed

Other Business:
– Concern expressed about getting clothing and bedding of the park occupiers dried out during rainy spells like we’re having. Any help that can be provided in the form of dry clothing, washing & drying of occupier’s clothing, and other creative means of keeping folks in the park warm and dry will be greatly appreciated!

– Violet joined the Occupy the Courts protest today and being so impressed with Occupy Atlanta wants to join the occupation of the park. A tent and sleeping bag are needed to support this! Any leads?

-Senator Fort back in hospital, folks from OA visited him

-There will be daily workshops at the AFSC starting on Monday.  Info will be put up on website.

-Anarchist Assembly 119 Wyman St. 5-9 pm on Saturday 119 Wyman St.

-Folks should reach out to Vincent Castellini about developing the proposal regarding media committee

Committee Report Backs:

-Home defense meets every Thursday at 5:30 pm @ Glen Iris

-Next Saturday January 14th rally at Glen Iris

-Tuesday January 10th Press Conference at 11:00 am

-Sara Amis stepped down from Media Committee

-Jonathan mentioned Operation Free Copper

-$7,746 balance in bank, waiting on receipts from Glen Iris

-Some folks abusing MARTA pass budget

-January 9th rally at capitol against the death penalty

-Action committee meeting rescheduled to Tuesday at 8:00 pm at Troy Davis Park or 60 Walton St. if the weather is bad

-Everyday people hosting a bus to Occupy Congress on January 17th, $100.00/seat

-January 20th Occupy the courts

-Morgan is the new bottom liner for Arts and Lit.

-This Sunday January 8th is the wrap up of the Human Rights Art Show

Proposals

-Proposal to separate Arts and Lit. from media.  There was one block which became a stand aside after it was agreed that Arts and Lit would work on Street Art, Killer Coke, Kick out Sodexo campaign if folks came to Arts and Lit that wanted to work on this.  Proposal passed.

-Proposal that GA’s last no longer than 2 hours.  Amendments include: Anything not finished will be moved to the next GA. Saturday GA’s can last 3 hours at discretion of facilitator. There will be a timekeeper assigned to each GA.

-Proposal regarding diversity of tactics and risk management/informed consent. Tabled.

-Proposal to dissolve demands committee (not submitted to process prior to meeting). Tabled

Other business

-Sunday 5:00 pm. Know Your Rights and Cop Watch Training at the Teardown

-Person from Occupy DC talked about a De-escalation committee that had been effective at conflict resolution in DC. He offered to share PDF docs on this.

-Diana bailed out Copper, if we can support both Copper and Diana throughout this process in order to ensure that Copper can get to all of the follow up appointments/court dates. Help with rides, help with keeping folks accountable, scheduling reminders etc.

General Assembly @ Troy Davis Park

1. CALL TO ORDER.  Hello from Troy Davis Park.  Happy Holidays, and wish everyone a prosperous New Year.

2. Reading of pledge and guidelines.

3. Announcements

A. Action committee is currently working on a new process, that would allow individuals who are interested in doing an action, to submit for review.If you are interested, be sure to attend the action committee meetings every Tuesday at 6pm.

B. A noise demonstration is scheduled for Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 254 Peachtree St SW, from 9:30pm-10:15pm.  Bring pots, pans, drums, whistles, and show your support.

C. Legal team reported that Copper didn’t have court on December 28, 2011.  Also, in order to visit Copper, you would have to get on a visitors list to see him.  Otherwise, you are still able to communicate with via  letters.

D.  The Process Committee is working very hard in order to increase the proficiency of the GA’s.  If you would like to be involved in this process, you are free to attend the Process Committee meetings which are held one hour before GA’s, at the scheduled location of the GA.

E. Manuel’s Tavern is holding an event to support Copper, as well as the general legal fund on December 29, 2011 at 8:00pm.

General Assembly @ Freedom Park – November 17, 2011

The note taker apologizes if anything in the notes are incomplete.  It is very cold today and hard to focus and type!

1. CALL TO ORDER.  Hello from Freedom Park! Hakuna matata – everything should be all right!  We have some friends in jail but more working on getting them out.

2. Reading of pledge and guidelines.

3. Announcements
1. Vigil tomorrow night in Lumpkin, GA for School of the Americas watch.  There is also a van leaving from here on Saturday to head down to the School of the Americas protest, which this year is being called, “Occupy Fort Benning.”  On Saturday night there will be a gathering of Occupy and other groups there.  If you are interested in going, contact Tim when he gets out of jail!
2. Larry makes DVDs related to progressive issues & knowing your rights when interacting with police.  Ask him if you’re interested.
3. Great concert last night @ Wonderoot  $500 in donations – which combined with the Ben & Jerry’s event earned $700 yesterday!
4. Party for Jason “@ Hole in the Wall” on Saturday – it’s his birthday!

4. Committee Report-Backs:
1. LEGAL:  Nine people arrested today @ Georgia State event.  Legal is working on getting them bonded out and finding out details about court, etc.  IMPORTANT:  If you are arrested in the next 24-48 hours, call Shab’s number 770-356-0577.  The previous jail support numbers will not accept collect calls!
2. EDUCATION & TRAINING.  Committee just started meeting.  Putting together some workshops/teach-ins on various topics.  Dates not set.
3. ACTION:  Great day of Action Today.  Two Wells Fargo flash mobs/ mic checks (no arrests), action at Georgia State / Courtland Bridge (9 arrests), and finally, event in solidarity with the unions at Verizon & Home Depot (no arrests).
4. MEDIA: Had a meeting earlier this week about working to share and rotate roles, share responsibilities, etc.  No meetings in past days – trouble contacting folks.  We should meet soon, figure out a strategy!
5. Tech:  Sub-domains set up for committees on websites (i.e. action.occupyatlanta.org).

5. Other business:
1. People met the other night to talk about concerns related to racism, classism, lack of proposals at GA – should be an ongoing discussion.
2. Concern about joint Tea Party event on website – Tea Party movement has been racist, sexist, they openly carry guns, to protests, etc.  We don’t want anything to do with them and we are concerned about this advertised “joint action.”
3. Thanks for all you do, what you are doing is important excited that you are here near where we live – and in a place where we can park easily!, police have noted they will arrest people here after 11pm.
4. Related to Tea Party – we need to have a discussion about “balance of power” and what needs to be proposed through GA or not.  I was in Detroit last week and they have to pass actions etc. through GA (otherwise an event or release can only be associated with a committee).  We can try something and if it doesn’t work we can change it, but we need to figure out how GA / proposals should work.  Also, OWS passed a “Statement of Autonomy” and it is great and we should think of adopting it here.
5. C7 is coming by with food and tents.
6. Point of Information: The Fed March has been mentioned at both Action committees and during General Assembly. The last time was 2 days ago and there were no reports of problems.  If people had a problem with it, it wasn’t made public, hence why the event moved forward.  The “joint action” aspect will be removed from the website.
7. Also, what was said about the Tea Party as a whole is prejudiced — just because someone belongs to the Tea Party inherently implies nothing about their views.  No information has been found about state or local chapters of the Tea Party that merits those prejudices.
8. Point of Information: The national Tea Party and local chapters are different, and the Tea Party itself started as a grassroots movement before being co-opted by the GOP.

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Meredith: Feminist Caucus Sunday at 12 pm, Tuesday  Women’s Self-Defense class at 5:30 pm

Misty: Making Occupy movie, want more women for interviews.

Chris: Radical Caucus is holding an Open Forum Saturday at 5 pm, and organizing a march on MARTA Wednesday at 5:30 pm.

Rob: Media Meeting tonight after GA.

Lillie:  Good Outreach meeting turnout.  Our meetings are Monday and Wednesday at 5:30 pm.  Bottom-liner meeting this Sunday at 5:30 pm, and will be done weekly.

Ladie: Tomorrow we are hosting a Veteran’s Day brunch at noon followed by a press conference at 12:30 pm.

Sara: Having another Benefit show and we’d like actors.

James: There’s a show Thursday the 17th being scheduled at Wonderroot.

Avery: Phone # of Occupy Atlanta – 404 720 6060. Committees can send an email to IT@occupyatlanta.org for a phone #.  IT meeting this Saturday at 1 pm at Peachtree & Pine.

Sara: Arts and Lit meeting Sunday at 12 pm.

Graham: Tomorrow at 4 pm we’re Occupying the Banks.  Thursday the 17th, National Day of Action, we’re holding an action in Union Solidarity at 6pm.  Another Occupy the Banks action next week.

Ron: Education and Training committee meetings are Wednesday and Friday at 4pm/

Tripp: Process needs help! Our meetings are everyday one hour prior to GA.

III. PROPOSALS

James: Formerly open trade with OWS.

• Query: What does this entail? A: OWS just needs GA approval and video evidence to send us supplies.
• Query: Any other conditions? A: None that have been expressed.
• Query: Who will they be in contact with? A: Logistics.

No stand-asides, no blocks.  CONSENSUS.

IV. OTHER BUSINESS

Avery: Apologizes for short, curt behavior at last night’s GA.

Copper: Concerned about some people who have been put on the street from Peachtree and Pine.

Annette: Contact me if interested in doing an 11:11 am event on 11/11/11.

Occupy New Orleans visitor: offering security help/training.  Glad to be out with other Occupiers!

Tim: Occupy Gwinnett is now set up, want to set up similar things in other areas.

Shab: battle with Fannie Mae, action on Monday at 2 pm.

Tripp: if in food service, talk to him, if you have flags, please talk to Ladie.

Chris: Please limit facebook posting so you don’t unnecessarily push down other important information.  Consider limiting your own posts daily, try to be considerate of other, more important and informative posts.

ADJOURNMENT

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sally: Disappointed with the confrontation that occurred last night, after GA had decided to remain silent in protest in respect of Bailey.

Lyndsey: GSPHE is having a rally tomorrow at 11 am at GSU courtyard.

Hector: Tonight at 11 pm we’ll take the sidewalk on one side with street performers on other side. C7 will bring tents at 6 am.  If you get arrested, you won’t have legal support.

Lillie: Feminist caucus tomorrow at park at 5:30 pm, set up by Juanita.  Also women’s self-defense classes will be soon set up. Meetings will he held Tuesday//Thursday at 5:30 in the park.  If concerned, females should als talk to Lyndsey on Unity.

Jason: Legal doesn’t have any more money, so avoid arrest.

Robert: There will be a meeting of bottom-liners Wednesday night after GA.

Khaalis: Starting a weekend class: People’s Persons Class to increase social unity, break the ice, and so forth.  Class will meet at north end of the park by the water fountain.

Chris: Terence from Atlanta Public Sector Alliance will give a presentation Wednesday at 5 pm on the Beltline and corporate greed.

III. COMMITTEE REPORT BACKS

LaDie: Occupy foreclosed home in Snellville went well; News went national.  Those 5 arrested last night are out on bail.

Anna: Finance has meeting Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 5:30 pm.

Lillie: Outreach wants to do wheatpasting and sign postings.  There have been successful banner drops in the past, and we’re stoked about that.

Robert: WRFG is willing to have PSAs for OccupyAtlanta on it every hour. We are working on this.

IV. OTHER BUSINESS

Misty: We came to consensus at another meeting to provide Childcare at GAs for parents who’d like to attend.

•    POI: Logistics used to oversee Childcare committee. Will look into what happened and try to get it started again.

Thomas: We need to be in solidarity with one another, and we’re not right now.  Last night was a joke due to the small minority trying to push their own agenda on the rest of Occupy Atlanta.  This is not OK.

Lillie: I agree with Thomas.  This needs to be said at General Assembly because it concerns us as a whole, and could possibly threaten the whole movement.  Bailey sacrificed herself for the movement, and we should’ve all respected the GA’s decision to silently support her sacrifice instead of acting out for people’s own agenda.  If hyou have another agenda, come to GA and discuss it so we can know and try to figure out compromises.

Khaalis: When you disrespect cops, I feel disrespected because many of my family members are law enforcement officers.

Chris: I’d like a member of Unity to explain the new security procedures at P&P.

• POI: There will be community meetings at P&P, and we’re changing the security process.  It is up to facility manager to decide who spends the night.

Sally: Working ona  coalition to go into neighborhood planning units.  There are 25 in Atlanta and we want to work with and through them.  Send your input to occupyatl@yahoo.com

 General Assembly Minutes 10/23/11

Call to Order 10 min

Ice breaker

Announcements 15min

• Reverend Richard Cobble from Concerned Black Clergy

• Show of support for the movement
• Concerned Black Clergy stand in Solidarity with Occupy Atlanta

• Legal is doing a legal observer training tomorrow at 8 pm

•  We need more legal observers

• Know your rights Training time TBA

• Working group for warmth and dryness meeting tomorrow at noon at the park, looking for people with expertise on keeping warm and dry in the winter

• Media committee is working on asking for heating goods

• Occupiers from Durham give us mad props and want a copy of our GA Pledge
• GA Peace and Justice Coalition is having its monthly end this war rally to Occupy Atlanta this wednesday, they will have signs to bring the troops home, 5pm-6pm
• 89.3 is doing special programing on wednesday concerning the crisis of homelssness in ATL so the programing  will be interviewing homeless people, advocates, and organizers, we are welcome to tune into WRFG.org to listen
• Haloween working group has been formed, meet Colin at 8:30 at the stage.
• Sunday oct 30th GLAR will come to occupy atlanta and will be doing teach ins throughout the day.
• AFSC has been letting us use their building. we will be moving everything to the park to end the division.Talk to Lindsey to get events up on the website
• Newly formed assembly at 2pm to try and accomplish stuff Task Assembly.

committee report backs 15 min

• Logistics reports contacted port a potties companies with quotes to get them to the park at some time tomorrow.
• Action reports tomorrow at 11 am press conference, Afrika Bambaataa, Killer Mike and Stafford family will report then march the 11th circuit court of appeals
•  Opposition to Koch brothers, capitulation and levitation Spread the Word! 5 pm
•  Making posters for the events following the GA meeting
•  Elija will flyer tomorrow
• Thursday Pine’s water will be shut off and a march will be scheduled in solidarity need lots of people
• action committee meeting at 5 pm
• Tuesday on WRFG will be doing an announcement about the Koch brothers at 4 pm
• Finance announces they will release financial status multiple times a week and will refine allocation of funds. Process meeting at 5 on even days of the month
• Medics report Mental health we must all make a concerted effort to take care of ourselves and our people mentally, we cannot give into the fear or feed it, Basic hygiene and public health is in jeopardy because the Mayor took away the porta potties. Willfully creating a public health threat and nuisance. he need to correct it,
• Tactical unity report back
• Outreach and welcome reports we are ramping up outreach Welcome is also starting an orientation to teach them about the park before they get integrated into the community tues  and thurs at 6. they want more people at the front table.
• Media reports that they have been discussing we need more people to talk to the press.  Demands and process experience is also needed.
• Demands reports that GA cannot block decisions by demands committee when is the next meeting? no one knows….maybe tomorrow night after GA.
• Anti racist committee reports they meet on Wednesdays at 7 but that will most likley be revised. they work to get more involvement from people in color and in leadership positions.

Committee related proposals  10 min

• Proposed that Jack and Hector be Bottom Liners to TU because of strong personalities and these guys know how to run it.

•  Point of process we are not allowed to make decisions for committee in GA
• TU is in the process of eliminating some of the difficult members
• There was a plan that went out and was given to individuals for ideas to get unity bw TU and other committees and this has not been set up.
• Lots of points of process about dissolving the committee rather than making decisions via the GA.
• Proposal refomulated to dissolve TU and reformulate it with Jack and Hector as bottom liners
• Pof P
• Proposal to disovle TU and then reform it
• Blocked
• Direct response that the TU has formed leaders which is not acceptable
• There is a unilateral power structure with a confrontational power structure.
• Counter proposal: We create a new committee called conflict resolution with primary responsibility for resolving all conflict in the park
•  Call it Peace keepers
• Point of process Occupy Atlanta has NO LEADERS
• clarifying questions:

• separate committee for conflict resolution as security team
• the primary purpose of something called security is to maintain order. IDk if all of us believe in order. TU has a similar purpose. the new committee’s primary focus is resolving conflict and maintaining peace
• We still want to dissolve TU and call it Peace keepers?
• The first proposal was dropped in favor of the second one
• Concerns
• TU should be maintained and Peacekeeping should be separate
• TU serves a good purpose of keeping property safe
•  Direct response: when TU was first made nothing in the proposal to be a security or do preemptive security measures to stop stealing. While necessary it has gone to far.
• If we have separate units for the same job then the job will be confused and will be done differently. The point of TU was to keep peace and keep conflict from happening and this can be done by one committee of peace keepers.
• Hector has been chill and thats what we need controlling this family and he is good at what he does. He does a great job but has been pushed out.
• Proposal re read.
• Those part of TU have a personal conflict with this vote should not be able to block it.

• If moderator yells at you its because you’re not listening to her and if you listen she will become quiet
• We have no precedent for handling the dissolution of a committee given that those in the committee will certainly block it.  Tabled to Process in order to figure something out/ask New York how they do it.

• We have 3000 dollars in the we pay account. there must be several ways to access the account, sent a paper check, do an email, withdraw money a bank account, order a we pay prepay visa card. We must remain fully transparent. Preliminary guidelines: anyone can make a proposal to GA but the proposal must say how much money and how it will be spent, if and when the GA has consensus then the finance committee or whoever elected must have access to the account, would be tasked with withdrawing the funds with one of the previous methods. We propose that Letron, tech and logistics one from each would all have access to the we pay account. what is spent will be posted on the blog. The person who makes the proposal would not be able to draw form the account. All receipts should be kept to maintain transparency.
• Direct response: what to do in emergency? we may need money more quickly then how GA can respond.
• redirect to finance committee.
• There is a way to allocate funds through a request form.  We don’t have money for everything. Everything is limited.
•  Perhaps we can have money set aside for emergency
• revised proposal
•  Currently John has access to the we pay account and he wants to pass it off, he wants something more thorough and transparent first.  He wants to have a clear proposal before he passes off the log in information. he wants 3 people. He wants everything else to be tabled because he leaves Wednesday.
• we need 3 people with access to carry out the task of administering funds.
• One of those people should be from legal and another from finance.
• Friendly amendment that the person be an established occupier to maintain stability.  Active for a good amount of time.
• This decision must be made tonight. Because John is leaving.
• Proposal to choose two people has been refereed to committee then brought back to GA.
• Concern that if things are not made transparent before GA then things will be corrupt.
• Proposed that legal, finance and tech committees will come back with one candidate from  each to assume logins access to the Occupy Atlanta WePay account to be elected by consensus at the GA.
• CONSENSUS THANK YOU PEOPLE!