(Un)Occupy Abq
General Assembly Minutes
Sept. 20, 2012
Six people gathered at Yale Park (including John—welcome back!)
The only agenda item was working on the 1st anniversary party, scheduled for Sat Sept 29th.
Advertising: A copy of the flyer, made by Tina, was reviewed and consensed on. Everyone liked the design. But we also want to have ¼ page flyers to pass out. This would need less text than the current flyer. Our goal is to have flyers for Sunday’s GA so we can get them around town. Before printing, we should make sure info is accurate such as the use of Yale Park.
Media needs to be contacted. Andy B. is writing something for the Alibi about it.
Speakers: Ben confirmed he will speak for IWW. Aztatl contacted several of the groups and has confirmation from CopWatch. We want speakers to be less than 5 minutes. We talked about how to hold people’s attention for the many speeches. Thomas suggested that we have specific topics that are different rather than speakers saying same things. We expect the speakers to talk about their year of resistance in their groups. We discussed putting music inbetween speakers but Sayrah felt that didn’t work well on MayDay and people were used to chatting during the music so kept chatting during the speakers.
Emcees: Maria and Enrique agreed to co-emcee.
Permit: Do we have confirmation that we have a permit? We thought someone from SOAP was asking.
Music: Loren is very concerned that we don’t have bands lined up, nor a sound system nor electricity. Aztatl suggested that Enrique is in several bands and could be asked. Mala Mana was contacted and is not available. We do not know which bands will play. Loren will ask friends.
Sound System: We don’t know if we have electrical capability so we need a battery operated mic for speakers.
Film: is actually a powerpoint showing photos from the many actions over the year. Sayrah needs more photos from people so please email her: sayrahn@hotmail.com She can use her laptop but needs a projector and this might mean electricity. Suggestions for background music are wanted: “Revolution” by the Beatles is one suggestion.
Set Up: We want to have a lot of visuals like signs and the giant UNOCCUPY letters at the sidewalk.
Pinata: Loren spoke with the owner of the piñata store on Lead/Yale and he offered to donate one if we buy one. Anyone need to buy a piñata?
Noon protest: We will join the weekly protest against war on Central near the Guild organized by Armen. Sayrah contacted the Friends of Sabeel conference organizers to ask attendees to join in, as its during their lunch break and only 2 blocks from the conference. (Sabeel is Palestinian organization and Friends is a local group; the weekly protest is against Israeli occupation).The organizers said that lunch is a workshop, ironically on Activism, so they cannot ask people to join the protest against war.
We agreed we have a lot to get done at the Sunday GA to finalize details for the big day.
Things that need to be done:
· Permit—do we have it?
· Musicians—who is playing music? Any more bands need to be contacted?
· Sound system—do we have it? Electricity?
· Speakers—more confirmed?
· Pinata
· Food
· Projector for film—anyone have one to loan?
· Advertising—need a press release, contact community calendars, make FB event page, etc.
Please come to GA Sunday 1pm so we can all pitch in to make the event happen.
