General Assembly 1/12/2012

The minutes of Occupy Worcester's General Assembly on January twelfth, 2012.

Facilitation: Leila

Secretary: Dana

Agenda proposed:

Announcements, Media group proposal, Sex offender proposal, proposal of official solidarity with Occupy Boston's effort to discuss the issue of sex offenders. Agenda APPROVED.

Announcements:

Activism & Outreach- Report-back from members who visited Central Massachusetts Stonewall Democrats and Stone Soup activist collective.

Proposal- Brian W.'s summary of plans for the new site were read, summary of plans for establishing terms of service and forming internal moderation, summary of changes to Facebook usage. Temperature check with mixed results, requests for explanation of disapproval made, response from group generally concerned with the size and scope of the proposal and concerns over specific details. Request that Media member present break the proposal into individual segments.

Proposal- The new web site (temporarily at occupyworcester.net) will migrate to the official domain and replace the original web site content when it is ready, the original web site content will be saved should the group wish to revert. APPROVED.

Proposal- Members will be encouraged to join the new site and hold discussions there, the Occupy Worcester Open Group on Facebook will be disbanded. Temperature check with mixed results, requests for explanation of disapproval made, response from group included concerns over losing accessibility for the public and participation of people only comfortable with Facebook. Request made that the proposal and subsequent items be tabled and further discussed by Media to be presented to GA at a later date, group consensus on tabling the item.

Proposal- Adopting something similar to Occupy Boston's initial proposal regarding sex offenders: All level 3 sex offenders are banned from Occupy Worcester, anyone accused of sexual assault at a GA approved event will be banned from Occupy Worcester. POI from member proposing: Message of concern from community member who is involved with promoting community advancement of former prisoners looking to succeed. Clarifying questions regarding what a level 3 sex offender was, how the group would know if someone was a sex offender, how would we enforce bans?

Desire stated to open stack on the issue.

Stack on proposal :

John- general concern

Jacob- In favor of addressing acts occurring at events, not sure about banning people.

Jeremy- Echoing concerns of community member's message, pointing out that A&O just reached out to EPOCA (group promoting community advancement of prisoners and former prisoners).

Tom- Mostly in favor of the proposal, maybe ban on a case-by-case basis.

Dana- Concerned about the wording of "accused" being too broad and problematic, the legal system doesn't always work, in favor of case-by-case basis.

Doug- Has a child, agrees with concerns over wording, proposal would need fleshing out but important issue to discuss.

Barry- Has a child who attends events, suggested investigating if someone was an offender based on concerns in the group.

Leila- Suggests we request a statement from EPOCA on the issue, understanding the difficulty of the subject and how it can be touchy, but it's an important discussion to have as a group.

Jeff- Agrees with case-by-case basis, if we adopt blanked bans "who's next?", against blanket bans from Occupy Worcester.

Jacob- Okay with case-by-case basis, suggests friendly amendment to say so.

Dana- (responding to story about enforcing bans of a member elsewhere masturbating openly and refusing to heed ban) If someone behaves like that, even if it's difficult for some people to do, call the police!

Leila- Support of case-by-case basis, keep the discussion active, need for a safe place for everyone to talk from.

Jeff- Details of how other groups proceed in such cases.

John- Look into more details of how other groups handle such cases.

Dana- Keep having the conversation at further GAs.

Restatement of proposal with amendment: Anyone accused of assault at an Occupy Worcester event or known sex offenders who cause concern within the group can be banned by the General Assembly of Occupy Worcester. APPROVED.

Proposal to endorse members going to Occupy Boston's Sunday GA at 5pm to state solidarity with their Women's Caucus on holding the conversation and share our conversation and results. APPROVED.

Proposal to close GA. APPROVED