Occupy RoanokeVA

by Jason Peoples :: Oct 9, 2011 @ 11:26pm

I want to thank everyone that was able to make it to the second meeting of Occupy RoanokeVA!! We had a great turnout today (at least 70 people of all ages!) and I really think we made some big steps toward finalizing all of our plans for this coming Saturday.  We hope to see even more of you on the 15th and I feel sure that we will.  At this time I would just like to go through what all we discussed in today’s meeting.  Please anyone who was there feel free to add to anything I may have left off.  I tried to take great notes, but I most likely didn’t get everything written down.  I am going to just go through the notes exactly as I wrote them this time in hopes of saving a little time on compiling them for everyone.  I tried to group everything better last time, but spent a good deal of time doing so.  I want to get these up ASAP for all to go over and especially for those that weren’t able to make the meeting.  Thanks again for everyone’s involvement, dedication, and hard work thus far and I look forward to watching us grow even more!

• The meeting opened around 2:05 pm with a statement from a representative of Plowshare (Gary).  Gary shared with us what Plowshare is about and there are several things that they are involved in that seem to coincide well with what we are about.  Seems like the beginning of a beautiful relationship and we hope to receive support from them.  Thanks again for stopping by Gary and we hope to be in contact with you more in the future!
• Next order of business was to talk about the media and how we will handle ourselves around them. Chris Cobb read and helped interpret a part of a “Revolution:a how-to”. This info was directly from Anonymous(the group in NYC) and we will most likely be able to post a copy of this on Facebook real soon for those that didn’t get a copy.  This info is mainly to keep us unbiased and organized as well as making sure that the media doesn’t take a statement from anyone that has not been directly approved by our general assembly.
• Kaydee then proceeded to read the Declaration that we have posted in our Facebook group. For those that have not read this or weren’t at the meeting please try to familiarize yourselves with this ASAP as it is what we are modeling our Occupation after.
• Cortknee shared some more info to us about how to participate in our general assembly.  This info came directly from the sheet Chris Cobb read from as stated earlier in these notes. Also, Cortknee read through some guidelines for all of us to follow closely as we interact with each other.  If these guidelines aren’t already posted we will make sure that they get posted ASAP as well.  These guidelines are basically how to treat others as well as how to behave to ensure that all have a pleasant experience during all assemblies and our Occupation.  At this point we mentioned our committees and stated what our plans were for the meeting (Just for everyone that wasn’t there. We voted on everything before proceeding or making any decision. The way we voted will also be on the sheet “Revolution: a how-to”).  We decided that we would talk a little about “us” and have a period of time for questions/comments until 3pm.  At that time we would break up into committees and work for an hour on what our particular committee deemed most urgent and things we needed to have in place before this Saturday.  The next part of the notes are from our questions/comments section of the meeting.
• There was a concern about how to keep those of us that aren’t on the internet/Facebook up to date with everything.  We mentioned newspaper/phone calls/post-cards.  Some of this will be dealt with later in the meeting, but to get ahead of myself Owl will be facilitating our Social Services committee and will be having a meeting for anyone wanting to join this committee on Wednesday 12pm at Cups(coffee shop) on Grandin rd. Please all interested parties try very hard to make this meeting as we will be needing many folks on board with this committee.
• We had a representative from Roanoke College talk to us about making fliers to hand out and get more people informed about us.  They have a budget they are willing to use to help us so we are very grateful for his and all of our college support (I forgot your name brother please forgive me!).
• Freeda Cathcart (running for office) was at our meeting and mentioned a website (along with some help from another attendee) VPAP.com which helps in tracking money donated from corporate donors.  This will be a good site to reference for our legal/research committee.
• We talked a little about compiling all of our info which we have been trying to do and hope to be better at doing in the coming days/weeks.
• We then mentioned and made it clear that we are not affiliated with a political party (applause from all!).
• There was some talk about how do we all fit in this movement.  We later got everyone to go to the committee they felt like they could contribute the most to or were most interested in helping.  In this way we will all be able to help and do what we can to make this thing run smooth, efficient, and as productive as possible.
• There was some talk about what our short-term attainable goals would be. We mentioned taking money from big banks and putting them into local banks/credit unions as well as supporting small local businesses as much and often as possible.
• Our donations are being handled by Cycloward (am I spelling this right??).  We raised $324 through passing a hat around later in the meeting YAY!!  So we now have a budget to work with.  We then talked about having a donations/fiscal group.
• Someone mentioned we should try to get the word about us around as much and as soon as possible.  Maybe having people volunteer to stand on the corner as much as we can to hold up signs.  We hope that everyone will continue to spread our movement through word of mouth, networking, and anything else you can think to do.  Just be sure that we are spreading things that are directly related or stated by our group. We also, talked about canvassing neighborhoods.
• There was a gentleman who spoke of occupying public lands and I hope that he reads this to add more about what his aim is for this. We were having to hurry a bit at this point as the clock was approaching 3pm.
• We decided on a Sunrise ceremony beginning this coming Saturday.  We plan on marching twice a day while occupying (once at 12pm and once at 5pm).  We also talked about holding a respectful event and letting our police know when and where will be.  This is for our protection as well as anyone around us while we occupy.  There was a gentleman who mentioned knowing Chief Perkins and we would all be very appreciative if he would contact Mr. Perkins for us (I forgot your name as well brother my apologies…I will learn everyone’s name in time, but I’m terrible with names so please bear with me on this). Side-note:Owl is trying to get in touch with you also to contact the Chief as well and he will also be contacting the Mayor to let both parties know we aim to do this right and peacefully and want to know what we can do to make this happen as comfortably for them as possible also.
• There was a question about what our rights are as far as assembling and what not.  Our legal committee will be providing everything we need to know and sharing this info with us.  There are some things already posted on our group page that we all need to read over as well.
• Parking came up as a final note before we broke up into committees and this is an item we need to work on as well to have a well thought out plan in place for our occupation.  We all know downtown parking is limited and will become expensive the longer we stay there.  We need to come up with proper solutions for where we can park and then car pool to make this easier for everyone.
• At this point we broke up into groups/committees to talk about things pertinent to our movement that need to be addressed before our occupation.  I want to leave the groups discussions off of this set of notes and have them each post up their notes individually so that we can make sure all things covered are listed.  I have the notes from the internet/networking group and I will post them tomorrow.  I am spending my night compiling and typing up the general notes tonight and I don’t think that I have enough time to work those up as well. Our basic premise was to consolidate our info onto our website and Facebook page, set up a Google voice account, and work hand in hand with the other committees to gather and send out all info needed to be posted.  I will give the rest of the details as soon as I get off from work and eat dinner tomorrow.  I hope that this will not inconvenience us too much. The next part of the notes are after we re-convened at a little after 4pm.
• The media group brought to our attention that Channel 7 was present and wanting to shoot us in our meeting and we voted “ok” on this. Those that were not willing to be in the shot were asked to head to the back so they could still listen/participate, but would not be filmed. Also, we had one media team member (I’m switching committee to team for any further uses to make the word smaller to type) give a simple statement to them more or less telling all to join us.The media team would speak more at the end of the meeting.
• The direct actions team verified our when and where (as stated earlier) as well as our marching times.  They talked about “speaking spots” or places where we can have people that want to speak (to educate/motivate etc.) stand and be heard. They spoke of making a leaflet to be printed up by James(I did write your name down James!!) from Roanoke College. They will be coming up with our march route as well as a to-do list, cleanup effort, a place for folks to use the restroom while occupying (Library, Mill Mountain Coffee), using a human microphone(more about this on the Revolution sheet to be posted soon), and getting in touch with neighborhood leaders to diversify our movement. Anything you want to talk about (as far as anyone who wants to speak) should be listed online.
• The legal team came up with 4 basic goals for the coming days. 1. Obtain legal representation (this is a preventative action)/get in contact with someone from the National Lawyers Guild. 2. Make pamphlets produced with info about city codes and risks involved.  3.  Get the police on our side to protect us and the public.  4.  Research and provide info from objective sources such as corporate donations to politicians, info on big banks, the big message of OWS, and economic equality. They were also asked to research Mohammad Wasei (spelling?) the founder of this movement.  One more thing is (this is optional) for anyone with a medical condition that wants to provide an emergency contact there will be a form provided for you to leave this info.  This is a preventative action and we are simply trying to cover all bases.
• The arts & culture team made several signs during their hour of meeting together.  They plan on making signs and boosting visual quality with them.  Someone in the group offered to make bumper stickers saying OccupyRoanoke.org and we voted to put that into action.  The team also talked about this occupy being a “celebration” so they want us to encourage drums, music, and to be as creative/dramatic as we can be.  They want to also let folks know to make any signs that you want (no profanity and on point with what we are about) and to feel free to drop them off at Mill Mountain Coffee downtown.  Let them know to make sure the signs get to Kaydee.  There are also signs/fliers online that have been made available from our brothers and sisters in NYC and anyone that can/wants to print those out please feel free to do so.
• The main thing I want to point out that I didn’t mention about the internet/networking group is that we need to establish ways of getting online while downtown (hotspots, 3g routers, etc.) as well as anyone that can provide spare batteries, a solar charger, or anything useful for this. I will put more details of this up very soon. Sorry again for this, but I promise to have the details up by tomorrow around 8-9pm. Anyone in this group with me feel free to add on anything urgent I have left off.
•  We now began to discuss how to handle police.  Always treat them with respect regardless of how they treat you. They “are always right” and we need to listen to them without letting them intimidate us.  That’s their job.  Never resist arrest because if they decide to arrest it will be an illegal arrest.  To make sure it is illegal we need to make sure that we give them no reason to arrest us.  Obey all crosswalks/laws while we are occupying and don’t give them a reason to harass us.  Don’t spit, curse, litter, be violent, block sidewalks, etc. If we see anyone being arrested it is important that we document it with everything we can muster…Video footage, cameras etc, Take down all info about arrest (time of day, where it took place, why it took place if they give a reason, get the officers badge number etc.).  KNOW YOUR RIGHTS…right to remain silent, right to a lawyer etc. Our legal team will make sure to provide us with all we need to know.
• At this point we turned the floor over to Rafael of the media committee to fill us in on what they talked about.  The first thing he mentioned was that we want this to be local while staying in line with the national/international movement (How can we focus on the impact on us in our region?).  He talked about documenting all aspects of our movement for the website and we took a group pic after the meeting (sorry I was not in it. I had been cleaning up and missed it.).  The media team will be doing press releases for upcoming events and talked about doing a piece on how the 99ers have been affected here locally.  The team will work on finding the local “friendly” media to help us out with coverage.  They also talked about tying the non-violent history of Roanoke into our movement.  Another goal of the team is to reach out to all races/ethnicity’s through neighborhood newsletters etc.
• Some final thoughts are the remaining part of the meeting.  There was mention of writing a letter to your editor about our movement.  Another thing we talked about was that some people in NYC were writing the number for The National Lawyers Guild on their arms/legs in case they needed to use the number.  I had written the number down and now I can’t find it…we will provide that number for everyone soon.  Next we talked about making sure we get constant footage of everything going on.  We are going to create the news first before the mainstream distorts what happened/happens.  We also talked about reaching out to religious organizations/homeless and needy organizations to unite with all walks of life that we can possibly unite with.
• The last thing we discussed and voted on was that our next GA would be at 7pm this coming Saturday downtown during our occupation!  Hope to see all of you there!!! I will unfortunately be late on Saturday because I have to work, but I will be there in spirit and will catch up with everyone as soon as I get off.  Thanks for everyone’s involvement and work in this!! Much love to all of you!