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Press Release Occupy Baltimore Goes to the G8

Submitted by bemm on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 8:46pm
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For Immediate Release
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From Occupy Baltimore
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May 14, 2012
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The G8 retreated from Chicago to avoid the world-wide attention that the G99 protestors would bring. Despite claiming to be “Democratic” these leaders’ secretive actions are anything but. They are occupying the secluded and highly protected Camp David, making decisions without input from the people. The demand for change is more crucial now than ever. The world is in one of the worst economic crises in memory. Our food, courtesy of Monsanto, is toxic. People are starving, we are on the precipice of war, and corporations control our own and emerging economies, energy sources, the rapid destruction of the climate and so much more. The members of the 1% summit can take steps to fix these problems immediately and the 99% asks them to do so.
Occupy Baltimore will be in Thurmont for the G99. We will stand as witnesses to the present, reminders of the past and light the way into the future. We represent all of the people whose voices have been silenced. We offer the counter-narrative, the one written by the people. We will not disappear no matter how far these leaders run or how many obstacles they place in our way. We demand global justice and transparency. With peaceful, non-violent protests, Occupy Baltimore will occupy the G99 with our hearts, our bodies, and our most fervent desire for a better world.
We will protest from 8 a.m. to sundown on Friday, March 18th and Saturday, March 19th. We invite all people to join us
To learn more about Occupy Baltimore’s activities in Thurmont visit: http://on.fb.me/Jqerov.
To contact us via email: occbmore@gmail.com
Additional information about Occupying Thurmont can be found at: www.occupyg8thurmont.net

may day west side half sheet flyer

Submitted by flint on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 2:30pm
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May Day West Side flyer

Submitted by flint on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 2:19pm
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School of Occupy Notes 03-05-12

Submitted by groupuscule on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 10:20pm
General Assembly Notes
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-Report Backs
>Big Meeting
>Education Forum
>Space (need for serious approach)
>Food
>PR
> Infrastructure

-General Discussion/Ideas
>Soapbox & Literature (have available & on hand for new blood & curious. be outside more.)
>Organize action w/big-area educators; revel in the school-related energy
>Get people to vote!!!
>Amount & capacity of infrastructure

-Announcements
>Tryout will be taking an emergency hiatus, until otherwise not on hiatus
>We have our 1st logo!
>Our consistency is improving
>Meetings have been moved to Mondays at 3pm

School of Occupy Notes 02-07-12

Submitted by groupuscule on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 6:57am
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-1st official meeting in new School of Occupy meeting space

Objective

-Take better notes, take notes often
-Post minutes from 2/7 on main Occupy Baltimore site; after online redundancies are in place

Long Term Goals

-Have weekly Day & Night Meeting

Actions

-Research lots for ownership, to occupy. Refer to professors for details.
*TABLED*-Approach D.A. (District Attorney) about promoting/supporting progressive legal system reforms.
-Talk to major schools & try to convince them to pledge to freeze tuition; produce report based on findings.
-Attempt to attend Inter-collegiate Occupy meeting.

GA Notes 1/31/12

Submitted by Rebecca on Thu, 02/09/2012 - 7:26am
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Occupy Baltimore officially endorses the National Occupation of Washington due to take place in April.

New GA times are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Sign holding is encouraged from 5-7 before GAs, especially on Thursday. People are also encouraged to bring food on Saturdays.

The Lafayette Monument (just south of the Washington Monument) was suggested as a daytime location for conversations.

There must be a third way for the movement between actions that rely on shock tactics and slow committee processes.

GA Notes 1/26/12

Submitted by Rebecca on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 5:04pm
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GA Notes 1/26/2012 8PM Galleria in Food Court
In attendance: about 12 or so
Moderator: Zack Minutes:Tom

Reports:
Flint had an update on the latest house foreclosure (Flint you'll need to fill this out because my computer was not in word processing mode when you were talking)

Agenda Item: Occupy Baltimore Website
Beth: Existing OB website not being updated. Got passwords from Dan and did some updating. Took out old references to McKeldin and camping phase of Occupy.
Suggest new website be made using Wordpress. Wordpress allows multiple webmasters. Wordpress does not require knowledge of website (HTML) coding. I know this system.

Will allow more accessibility for group and updating. No single person has ultimate control. If consensus, happy to keep existing site.
Ed: People involved with website should be here; not represented.
Zack: WYSWYG for Wordpress?( What You See Is What You Get)
Flint: Current site has positive and negative atributes. I know website coding.

Wordpress could easily shut down site if it wants. Present site is more secure to outside shut down. New site would require all present content to be edited and transfered. I could take control myself but need to know who to contact.
Leo: Give website to Beth.
Ed: Can we do both original site and Wordpress site at the same time for awhile?

Zack: 3 proposals up for temperature check:
1. Scrap original website and go for Wordpress
2. Maintain original website
3. Start Wordpress site while still maintaining original site

Iris: A lot of people use exisitng website so any new site will need to have a good redirect code. Important to keep our original URL.
TEMP Check:
1. Scrap original website and go for Wordpress: NO
2. Maintain original website: YES
3. Start Wordpress site while still maintaining original site: SO SO

Dorothy: Existing website used so long why get rid of it?
TEMP Check: Moving forward to keep original site? :YES
Ed: Not comfortable moving ahead but will stand aside.

OUTCOME: Keep original website and get more administrators.Announcements:
Beth: Twitter workshop 6pm tomorrow 1/27/2012 Red Emmas Media group meeting 5:30pm Saturday 1/28/2012 Red Emmas February 2nd 4pm rally at Wells Fargo bank

Debrief:
Iris: Next meeting should be in a pinball machine! Too noisy hear anyone at this location.
Adjourned 9PM

GA Notes 1/19/12

Submitted by Rebecca on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 9:06am
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Agenda: Report Backs
Office Space
Announcements
Evaluations

Report Backs:
Occupy Congress: D.c. action was successful. There were a lot of people from Occupy
Baltimore.
Sopa: Internet blackout was very successful. Over 4,500,000 people signed petitions from
Google alone. We won this round.
Youth Jail: Action has been very successful. There was a lot of media coverage on Monday
and a lot of people came out.

Office Space Proposal from Zak:

1. That Occupy Baltimore commit to selecting and obtaining a dedicated
indoor space for Occupy Baltimore to legally use exclusively.
2. That the space will be selected during a GA or (if assigned by GA)
working group meeting two weeks ahead of approval of this proposal,
flexible one to three days before or after that date.
3. All members of Occupy Baltimore will be enabled to submit and
present proposals for spaces, if said proposals have the following
confirmed details:

>1. Address
>2. Name/contact of owner/operator.
>3. Square foot size/configuration. Include a floor plan diagram, if available.
>4. Roughly representative photos of the space.
>5. Rent/cost, if any. Must be a confirmed offer with owner/operator, otherwise publicly-listed asking price is what must be considered. Ideas for negotiation/discounts/etc must be done and confirmed prior to the meeting.
>6. Estimated utilities. (The owner/operator should be able to quote this. If they do not provide this, then n/a is an acceptable submission.)
>7. Handicap accessibility.
>8. Nearby mass transit options, if any.
>9. Things that need to be fixed in order to inhabit, if any. If possible, provide cost estimates (cost estimates are not required but may be available from the owner/operator.)
>10. Any space stipulations. If this space is part of a friendly organization's building, then what are the hours we can access it? What are the limitations? Will they sign a lease, or is it a verbal agreement?

Note: None of these details have binding requirements that qualify or
disqualify the proposal. If, for example, a space is not accessible to
handicapped persons, the proposal can still be brought forward,
discussed and voted on. However, it is the responsibility of the
advocate to have that information fully available. If a space is
selected by GA with false information, then GA must later reach
consensus on allowing the candidate space to move forward. If
consensus cannot be achieved, then the next runner up is what we move
forward with.

4. When the spaces are being selected, people will have an up or down
vote on each specific proposal. The proposal with the highest amount
of support and least amount of opposition wins. For example, if space
A receives 31 yes votes and 11 no votes (+20 difference), then space B
with 25 yes votes and 4 no votes (+21 difference) ranks higher. This
will allow us to process an entire list of proposals in a democratic
manner, acknowledging individual desires and prioritize spaces if the
top or second selection cannot be secured for an unforeseen reason.
This method has precedent in being used to select our delegation to
the mayor's office.

5. This proposal does not bind Occupy Baltimore to specific uses of
the space (whether GAs, meetings, etc are held in the space.)

Call for consensus

Coordinating assembly for space search:
-Discussion of merits/demerits of different space ideas
> Paying rent
> Size/space uses
> Location
> Accessibility

-Dividing into sub working groups:

> Donated space search group?
> Neighborhood-level search groups?
> Proposal facilitation group? (ensuring that all space proposals have the information they need and get to the highest quality/chance for support as possible.)

Proposal discussed and passed with the addition of a "Null Option" for voting. This means that people will be allowed to vote for no office space if they do not like any of the choices.

GA Notes 1/12/12

Submitted by Rebecca on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 8:53am
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Agenda: Report Backs
Proposals: 1) Workshop scholarship
2) Office Space
3) Housing for Lela Working Group
Communication/Miscommunication Off-Site
Announcements
Evaluations

Process Note: Strong concern regarding proposals- process is not being followed- proposals are not being annouced 24 hrs in advance.

Report Backs: Youth Jails: Jan 16th-20th Occupy the Dream, Schools not Jails
Monday 20th: Start details TBD
If the camp is taken down events will still happen as planned. There
will be teach-ins, music, arts, etc. all week long.
Occupy Our Homes: A lot of lessons were learned. Lela left w/o her pocket book b/c
she was rushed her out unexpectedly. Ultimately, we won because the
Sherrif's department was scared of Occupy.

Proposals: Funds requested to hold CT Butler Consensus workshop in accessible/close location
600 dollars. 200 passed for workshop scholarship.

Office Space Proposal: How do we move forward? Proposal passed to hold next GA on 1/19/12
and devote it entirely to a conversation about Office Space.

Upcoming GA times and locations: 1/19/12 8:00 at Youth Jail Site and 1/21/12 GA also at Youth
Jail site.

Announcements: Outreach is phone banked for the Youth Jail action today.
Music is planned for Wednesday at the Youth Jail site, contact Iris to volunteer
CT Butler Workshop requests that people register in advance.
There will be canvassing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the Youth Jail event.
Please contact Zoe if you can volunteer.
Solid proposals for office space with specs, pictures, and contacts requested for
next GA.

GA Notes 1/10/12

Submitted by Rebecca on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 1:15am
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Agenda: Reflections on eviction defence and introductio
Youth Jail
Thursday GA
Announcements
Evaluations

Reflections:
Lane: My most fervent hope is that we keep the excitement going. We should not rest on our laurels.

Donna: I'm excited about today. I've had a rough week. I've seen so much apathy. I stopped by for GA on Saturday. No one was here. There needs to be more organisation. I'm never gonna give up. My life is Occupy.

Melissa: I was gone for ten days and I've been out of the loop. Its hard to watch what is going on if you're outside of here. Whatever I can do I will do. I can't type and I don't have a car. There are a lot of people in Occupy Miami. This is a little, intimate group, and there's a lot of energy that comes from a really deep place. Its really beautiful to me. Today was a victory.

Joy: I'm really happy about today. I'm sorry I couldn't be here. We really pulled together and showed our focus. We should recognise what we did to get this done. Yes, we need more organisation.

Elizabeth: I don't know anything about the movement. This is my first GA

Michelle: I'm happy. This is a victory. Its important that we have small victories. We have shamed the sheriff and now he's afraid. Also, its possible that she may still be evicted according to the Baltimore Sun. Just because they didn't come today, doesn't it mean it can't happen tomorrow.

AD: I'm glad we've won today. The state of Baltimore is not very good. We need to fix that.

Tai: I liked today. I felt like we actually did something after a long time of not doing anything.

Chyno: I moved to NY a few weeks ago. I'm really invested in Occupy Wall Street. What I can say is that this Occupy is far more organised and cohesive than Wall Street. There is more unity even with something like this. I commend you all for this. I walked away feeling really empowered. I've lived in Baltimore whree people make shit happen a lot with just a little. People who never say things are saying things.

Athena: I understand people's frustrations. I've been there. We do need to be more organised. Today was great. I think there needs to be a call for people to show up tomorrow. At least there's a concern that they should show up tomorrow. I'm really happy.

Michael: I've been with Occupy for a while. Its a great movement. I like the organisation. The grand scheme of where this movement is going needs to be planned internally.

Ed: I think we do need to set aside some time to focus long range about where we're going... shooting ideas at each other and get thoughts going.

Youth Jail January 16th-20th
There will be an MLK parade on Monday, January 16th. There will be a rally at at an unknown location on the 16th. We stand for erecting school instead of Jails. There will also be teach ins.

Thursday GA:
Chyno's proposal to hold GA in Penn Station at 8:00 1/12/11 passed.

Satuday GA:
Proposal passed to empower Joy to select a location for OB.

Announcements:
Jobs for Justice is marching from a Baptist church to Occupy DC on March 14th. A logistics meeting is happening on Thursday.

Request for office space proposals. Proposals should include contact info, specs, pictures, and any other helpful information. It should include an open floor plan. Contact Zak with options.

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