[OccupyCU] ocCUpy Minutes 11/05/12

[Theresa Scott]

ocCUpy Minutes 
November 5,
2012
 
Next meeting: Monday, November 12, 2012, IMC
Invited speaker: Francisco Baires, Community Programs Director, YMCA
 
In attendance: Susan, Jesse F.,  Ya’aqov, Dave, Pam, Sandra, Kara, Chris H., Ian, Doug,
Theresa, Paul, Karen, Stuart
 
Susan gave the charge for the group: This was the 2nd of 3 meetings where we are trying to pick up ocCUpy where it left off in the
summer. 
 
Susan read the notes of what people had shared from the
previous week. Among the issues raised were:  ocCUpy might better articulate the voices and needs of
marginalized people; StrikeDebt.; host a debtors’ forum (connect with GEO to
talk about student debt); foreclosures; we need to find a way to gauge our
success as we move forward; while Occupy identified a hurt, it can also be
viewed as a tactic; look at Campus Management; find creative ways for protest;
look at the area of Champaign that the city is looking to gentrify and see how
we can support the dispossessed; look at corporate influence; focus on class
and focus on change.  
 
Paul wanted to learn who was funding the Gill/Davis
campaigns and how Citizens United is playing itself out locally.  Ian said that the Free Press has the
information that Paul wanted to look at, that WCIA had looked at that issue
already.
 
Following the reprisal of last week’s issues, Susan asked
for further reflections on what was shared or additional thoughts about where
ocCUpy might go.  
 
Jesse, who is the local Occupy movement’s founding father,
said that he dropped out because he didn’t see the weekly corner protests
working with just 6 to 10 people.  He felt that the meetings were too long, people were obnoxious, most
couldn’t talk, and the people who wanted to contribute couldn’t.  He shared that he presently does things
online and wants to present some ideas he has to the group next week.  He said that in Tel Aviv, ½ million
people were protesting in a country of 6 million.  In Spain, every day unions are protesting.  Why not here?  Given national issues like the debt, how can we put all them
all together and generate a bigger audience for all we want to do?  Jesse feels we should abandon the
street corner protests until we get greater numbers.  Jesse asked if the group was opposed to using social
media.  The idea that he will
present to the group next week contains that component (the group shared that
while they were not opposed to social media, we must take care to see that it
does not end there, that there is actually action taking place).
 
David  posed the
question of how OWS occurred?  (See
recent email from Susan containing links supplied by Rich P. for history) We
need to think about why it captured public attention like a prairie fire.  Whatever OCU does, we need more
people.  Other organizations  in town are focused on specific areas
of need.  We need to maintain a
presence out there and find our focus.  David also asked if anyone is interested in helping out on Occupy the
Air.  
 
Pam mentioned that Bill G. said that he would like to see
people out in the neighborhoods and talking with them to get a feeling where
they are coming from.  Pam gave the
example of caroling in Section 8 housing last year.  Everyone was very friendly and supportive.  She asked if anyone was interested in
canvassing with her.  She feels
that if you have a questionnaire, it helps you to have a conversation which is
the point of the face-to-face.  Stuart shared that when he went door-to-door, he met a lot of great
people whom he felt should be part of ocCUpy.  Pam asked for help in designing any questionnaire that might
be used.  
 
Ya’aqov used the metaphor of Bizet who, after experiencing
failure with his opera Carmen, was
forced to work with a sextet that was at his disposal.  He was forced to write for them; he was
stuck with them.  Ya’aqov said that
the people in ocCUpy are our sextet, that this is our ensemble and we should
tend to each other.  We are all we
have and we should take the needs/interests of those in the group into account.  Numbers do not matter.   He also said that doing creative
things like caroling may draw in people if we may not get from holding long
meetings. 
 
Ian said he wanted to know if the website should
continue.  Presently it is not
getting many hits.  He is willing
to continue to work on it if there is a desire.  We  can use the
site for publicizing events.  It is
also good for like-minded people to use the  forum to discuss ideas, then work on projects.
 
There was then a discussion about the listserv.  Can we get the listserv to be a
functional organizational tool rather than one used for discussions and
posts?  Perhaps it  should only be for messages.  Conversation  should not be stifled but it should be limited for
announcements.  Stuart shared that
the Peace listserv and Peace Discuss listserv are 2 separate things.  
 
Kara said that she had sort of forgotten about OWS once it
fell off the national radar.  She
felt it might be good to plant little reminders in people’s faces that
say:  We’re still here.  We’re still angry.  Not that much has changed.  Example: putting up small images such
as things we loved about Occupy or things that still make us angry.  Perhaps we could go to a corporate
building and post some of these images in a giant collage.  Have people add to it gradually.  She will bring an image  next week as an example of what she
means and encouraged all of us to do the same.  
 
Sandra shared that people seemed to notice her name when we
posted “ocCUpy was here” signs each week after our weekly protest with our
names on them.  She said that  if we win the referendum on
leafletting, we can start doing stuff.  Maybe go to Lincoln Square and actually do what we wanted.  Make a presence in the towns.  
 
Karen shared that we can make our own media.  We can submit letters to the newspaper,
make our own stories for the Daily Illini, the Publici, the News Gazette,  etc.  
 
Chris shared that the movement is about presence.  As a movement, we need to have
direction.  One of the problems
that OWS had was that its direction was vague.  Many are frustrated with it not going anywhere.  Just not seeing the impact.  There is lingering despair and we need
to make it ironic or humorous.  We
should find creative ways to make serious issues into something that has impact
on peoples’ lives in a meaningful, local level.  Need new ideas to make it fresh again and remind people it
is still happening.  
 
Susan shared that prior ocCUpy meetings featured a lot of
competitiveness,  with men talking
and interrupting and feeling the need to go on very long.  There seemed to be no consciousness
that we have lives or commitments.  She proposed that future meetings be built on a preferential  option for women.  [I may not be describing this
accurately and I can correct it in future minutes]  A method meaning, preferential option for the poor, for
women.  Susan shared how the first
meetings of AWARE were conducted based on feminism: at the start of the
meeting, there was some sort of art, something new.  Then there was information, reports from what people were
working on.  It lasted only one hour.  In the second hour, there were working
groups to which you could contribute or you could stay and simply chat.  There were greeters and priority was
given to newcomers who were asked to share first.  In this way, there was a personal connection with
newcomers.  There was a feeling of
compassion and caring in the meetings that made people want to return to be a
part of an ensemble such as that.  There was consensus in that if you wanted to do something crazy, you
needed to get people’s approval.  
 
Pam shared that when she first started going to meetings, we
were trying to do everything like OWS, even in the way we conversed.  There was lots of sign language.  She said she felt inhibited to talk
because she may have said the wrong thing.  Similarly, she is concerned that we maybe not put a rule on something as far as feminism in
the way we conduct our meetings.   
 
Susan shared that we need language.  She said that there art that is built
on the concept of the wound.  Artists would make a bandage of the hurt.  In our case, we need a way to describe the hurt.  What does our would look like?  How can we describe it?  
 
NEXT WEEK:  Susan and  Stuart have
invited Franciso Baires, Community Programs Director of the YMCA, to speak with
us on November 12th.  We
are looking to him for  ideas
around direct action, cultural change, and structural change.
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