Occupy Asheville General Assembly
May 4, 2013
Kathryn Facilitating; Jonathan Notes
Treasury Report: John S reported that as of March there was
$726 in the treasury.
Website: We’ve paid for another 6 months, which means we
have about 5 months left. The cost
has been $39 for six months. Kathryn has paid for this the
last two times. We agreed that we would
capture the information from the website for archival
purpose and allow the website to expire at the
end of this 6 month period. Jonathan agreed to figure out
how to capture the info from the website
and to approach the archives at the downtown library to see
if they would be interested in holding that
information.
We also consensed on a proposal to disburse $39 from the
Treasury to Kathryn to reimburse her for the
most recent website renewal cost.
Asheville
Solidarity Network: After the May Day parade there was a meeting at the
downtown library
about wages in Asheville.
Jonathan reported that by the time he got there it had changed into
conversation about starting some kind of Solidarity Network
for Asheville.
The purpose of this network
would be for people to share information about actions,
issues, and projects, so that others might show
up in solidarity. There seemed to be some strong feelings
about having this Network not be a place for
trying to has out ideological unity but be open for all
kinds of calls for solidarity. There was interesting
conversation about past efforts and alert systems,
particularly Asheville Mutual Aid. Jonathan
mentioned seeing some familiar faces from Occupy Asheville’s
past. At GA there was discussion about
whether to approach this forming network about if it would
make sense to send out an email to the OA
list inviting people to join the “solidarity network,
however no decision was made in this regard. It was
noted that we needed group consensus before using the OA
email list for this purpose.
Sunsetting Occupy Asheville:
We had a long conversation about whether we should and if so how we
should “put to rest,” “close down,” “sunset,” etc. Occupy Asheville. On the one
hand there was strong
sentiment that we should not in any official way indicate
that Occupy Asheville was finished or over.
There were concerns that doing this would prove people in
power who believed they just needed to
wait out “occupy” as having been correct, that there are
still efforts associated with Occupy Asheville
active and that gatekeepers/people in power or authority
believe that Occupy Asheville is still in
existence and indicating otherwise would mean a loss of
leverage or standing. There was concern about
the message that officially ending OA would send about the
Occupy moment/movement in general and
concern about where doing so would leave individuals who are
still active on issues that OA was
involved in and who are associated with OA. It seemed that
folks with these concerns were OK with not
having regular meetings but would block any proposal to
officially end Occupy Asheville. On the other
hand there were a number of people who were concerned that
felt like there needed to be a clean and
clear break. They expressed concerns about efforts that
might claim continuity with OA but might take
stand or actions that were not representative of Occupy
Asheville as it is or has been; there were
concerns about the common assets of OA, including funds,
contact lists, web presence etc, and decisions
being made about those by individuals after in effect there
was no Occupy GA or Coordinating Council
meeting. There was also a concern about the loss of
integrity that could come with continuing to
present OA as a vibrant active group, when that is not the
reality, at least when it comes to people
meeting collectively as OA. It was noted that there are
several groups two which predated OA: Asheville
Homeless Network and Veterans for Peace, as well as two
groups that came out of OA: Nonviolent
Direct Action Training Working Group and Seniors and Friends
that continue to meet and are active as
projects. Some felt that these groups were important reasons
to not end OA others felt like it made
more sense for these groups to be able to continue as
members of a larger effort: Occupy Asheville.
There were feelings both that if OA ended we would lose the
relationship we’d developed, and that OA
ending did not mean that we’d loose our relationships with
each other but could carry those into future
projects and efforts. There was a third perspective that
given that there are still groups meeting and
that there are still shared assets that OA does need to
continue to meet, but that the first Saturday may
just be a bad time. And there were at least two people:
Kathryn as a frequent facilitator and Susan as
the individual that the group had empowered to manage the
email list who are no longer willing to play
those roles.
Sonny proposed: We hold a GA on June 15th at 2pm under the
big tree at Pritchard
Park and invite
people to bring proposals about what should be done with
remaining OA funds. The proposal was
amended to include a reminder that all groups and
individuals have and will continue to have the
ability to act autonomously but that they need to be clear
that they are not acting for the totality of
OA and that at the GA in June we will provide information
about how people can continue to support
these groups that have been associated with OA. The proposal
passed with consensus. Jonathan
agreed to send out the email about the June GA. Susan will
transfer the list to Jonathan.
While it was not explicitly stated in seemed implicit to the
note taker that after the June GA, if all
common assets were dispensed of, there would not be another
meeting OA scheduled unless those
gathered at the GA decided to do so.
