[OccupyCU] minutes from 7/30/2012 GA

[Stuart Levy]

Occupy Champaign-Urbana GA meeting of 7/30/2012

Chandler, Sandra, Pam, Stuart, Eleanor, Paul Mueth, Ya'aqov, Karen

Stuart took notes.
*** marks action items for someone.

Announcements (Ian, yes, please do add these to the calendar!)

   8/7 Tue 6pm Brookens Ctr, Washington&Lierman
     County board vote re putting a pair of nursing home referenda on 
November ballot
     (to (1) triple tax rate and (2) to permit Board to sell off the 
Home, which is presumably the point)

   8/7 Tue 5:30-6:30pm  University YMCA
     Immigration Forum's monthly meeting
     Sandra will be there for JwJ

   8/9 Thurs 5:30pm  Common Ground outdoor tables
     OccupyCU Aquifer group meeting - at Common Ground outdoor tables.
     [This meeting was planned during tonight's GA - see details below.]

   8/23 pickets for UofI movein day - "inform returning students of UofI 
union busting"
     multi-union presence ... leafletting & picketing ... at two 
times/places:
     7:30-8:30am  Pennsylvania Ave Residence halls (PAR), near Lincoln & 
Pennsylvania
     4-5pm        Ikenberry Commons - not sure where, possibly 3rd and 
Gregory St

   8/27  Monday 7pm at West United Methodist Church, Green & Goodwin
     Homer coal mine discussion -- sunrise coal?
     affecting well water, crops, requires immense amount of water, ...
         Prairie Rivers will have a DVD on how coal mines have affected 
other communities


Other agenda items suggested
     any local commemoration of hiroshima/nagasaki day (8/6, 8/9)?
     maybe leafletting as part of Saturday's demo?

     Ian Davis has been maintaining calendar - do we still need it?
     Status of OccupyCU web site?

     Referenda - Mike Weissman offers (says Paul Mueth)
     to write public i article on both referenda,
     in collaboration with anyone interested - especially Chandler

     Aquifer - yaaqov and eleanor  (YZ- is this our issue, or another 
group's?)

     Jail issue

     Quad day

     Media transparency political ads - PaulM
     (broadcast station public file)


----

web site
     Where is it?
     http://occupyCU.org       (upper/lower case doesn't matter)

     Is it redundant with e-mail list / facebook postings?
     after some discussion - we think NOT redundant.
     Yes we need it -- at least the calendar --
         at least to be a presence for people who aren't already in the 
group.

     *** Thanks to Ian for maintaining the calendar!
     So yes, please do keep doing that.
        We need to keep a flow of events going to him (like the ones above).

     Several people puzzled over forum and other web site stuff.
     Do they work?  Do we care?  No one at the meeting seems to be using 
those.
     But the calendar at least is worth having.
     Paul had an idea for some useful feature - SL missed what it was.

Referenda

     PaulM: what's status of Public Spaces referendum in Champaign?
     Stuart's waiting on the Champaign signatures that Eva Jehle collected.
     Sandra will talk with Eva.

     Chandler: Citizens United / Corporate Personhood, on ballot in both 
towns -

     Astrid Bergson is proposing to bring this up at *county board* level,
     in hopes they would pass it there as a Board resolution.

     Astrid needs to talk with Pius Weibel, Board Chair, to get it on 
County Board agenda.

     If all goes well it could be considered at Thu 8/23 County Board 
meeting.

     There was a similar referendum introduced (not passed yet) in 
Chicago that it could be modelled on.

     *** Chandler will probably be sending out a come-to-meeting 
announcement for people to attend whichever board meeting it'll be 
considered at.

     *** PaulM: we'll need talking points for Corp. Personhood.  Paul 
offers to write some up.

      YZ: so at next meeting there'll be a report on this?  Is there a 
task force to be at work on it?
     Just Stuart + Sandra.


      Other referenda -- Move to Amend in both Urbana and Champaign, and 
Public Spaces in Urbana --
      were already approved at the April township meetings, so they'll 
definitely be on the November ballot.


Media transparency for elections
     PaulM: FreePress.net is helping/encouraging people to organize,
           go to their local stations, review the Media Files,
           to see who's buying what political ads during campaign season.

     *** Are people interested in doing this?
     (We're in Illinois, the Obama race shouldn't be competitive here,
     but still interesting for other races like Gill's.
     Also interesting to see how much money the media are bringing in!)

     Pam: sounds like a real Occupy thing to do.

     What media?  Television, radio.  We should coordinate who goes to 
which station.

     *** Pam offers to do this.  She'll go to WCIA.

     What would we do with the information?
      - flyers, radio -- Paul on WEFT, Occupy the Air, ...?
        Does WILL still have Public Square?  Think so.

      - should we have a protest in front of News-Gazette?

      - farmer's market -- Paul had raised public-spaces issue on recent 
Focus 580 program which was discussing farmer's markets


     It'd be great to educate people about Rove's Crossroads, Koch's PAC 
whatever-it-is


        [Heard on Alternative Radio recently: America's identity is 
violence]


Aquifer (vs. proposed toxic-waste permit for existing Clinton landfill)
     Eleanor - it's hugely important.    We [who?] have an attorney.
     Trying to get EPA to designate Mahomet Aquifer as sole-source-of-water,
     which would require additional USEPA study before permitting could 
happen -
     effective obstacle.

     YZ - if we're looking for something that *we* can do that others 
won't, this isn't it...

     Paul suggests we pick a Saturday demo location that's close to Area 
Disposal Services' offices.
     Carle uses them, for example, but perhaps they could go elsewhere.  
Bad publicity could embarrass ADS.
     We could bring leaflets/petitions/propaganda, deliver to their offices.

     Is ADS Champaign office open on Saturday?  If not, could we do this 
on some non-Saturday?

     *** Paul will call them and check when they're open.

        Eleanor - yes she could bring petitions.


     YZ - People standing up and vocally asking for what they want, 
that's the signature of Occupy.

     Eleanor goes to public meetings, says, I'm from Occupy, we're 
against corporations doing these things...

     Paul - can we reach anyone in Occupy Peoria, saying, This guy lives 
in your area, could you picket him?

    Set a date for next Aquifer task force meeting...
       -- Uncertainties - collaborating with other group; open hours; 
what can we present?
       -- Don't want to wait for next GA to proceed.  Let's assemble a 
working group.
       -- A sheet was passed around.  I think Eleanor is leading the 
group/keeping the sheet.

    *** 8/9 Thurs 5:30pm  Common Ground outdoor tables
       OccupyCU Aquifer group meeting - at Common Ground outdoor tables.

    *** Eleanor will bring materials.  Paul will gather information...


Quad Day - Chandler
     C. spoke with Quad Day coordinator today - checking whether we're 
on the list of orgs to be there.
     Answer: if you're not an actual nonprofit group, you can't table there.
     BUT, he saw an announcement [from Theresa?] that we will be there 
on Quad Day.

     Ian just last week posted an "Occupy Quad Day" event to our calendar.
     What does he know that we should know?  Is there a student group 
that would be represented there?

     What's going on - is there indeed a way that OccupyCU can be 
present on Quad Day??

Jail
     Eleanor - is jail a done deal?
     Pam - no!
     Eleanor - do we (OccupyCU) need to have ideas of where that money 
should go?  Treatment programs, ...?
        [for example] Salvation Army is turning into a residential 
alcohol treatment center, says E.

     Is that CU Citizens' question?
     CUCPJ did do a community survey, asking what people thought about 
public safety,
     how they felt about spending $20M, whether they thought a new jail 
was needed...

     Didn't CUCPJ ask Occupy to consider questions of money?
     Yes, Carol Ammons [and Chris E] have.


     Sandra - Question is, Do they need a needs assessment.

     There was a suggestion [from Pattsi Petrie] that someone should put 
together a comparison matrix of the four groups selected to carry out a 
needs assessment (which may just mean that they know we want to build a 
jail, so they'll justify that).

     Karen - if the nursing home is privatized, they'll also privatize 
the jail
     Stuart - regardless of jail privatization, it's important to talk 
about Nursing Home money and Jail money in the same breath -- as Rachel 
Schwartz is suggesting we do.  Selling the nursing home, as some on C. 
Board want to do, would put most medicaid patients on the street.

     YZ - there is a group working in a very focused way on the jail.

     *** Karen - and Stuart - offer to create comparison chart of four 
RFP proposers