My friend Bruce Lundeen down there in Harrisonburg VA seems to be opening a little more space. You may remember his and his colleague, Kai Degner (Mayor of Harrisonburg) doing community Open Spaces. The story continues.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: Bruce Lundeen [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 10:58 AM To: Owen, Harrison Subject: Occupy Harrisonburg (OH) Hello Owen, Hope you are well. I am part of the Occupy Harrisonburg group that has been present at the Harrisonburg Gazebo* on Court Square every day since we started (see http://occupyhburg.wordpress.com/category/meetings/. We are not an encampment - we have a presence at the Gazebo every day from at least 6 pm - 7 pm. This Occupation is high profile and more like a vigil with no limit. The Gazebo* is a great meeting place (easily seats about 20+ under the circular shelter). I proposed at an early General Assembly meeting that we apply the 4 principles of Open Space Technology so that we can all relax about attendance. Turn out has been good every Tuesday night when we have the weekly General Assembly meeting. After using children's chalk and marking up the sidewalks one night around the Gazebo we decided the next night to wash the place down and get an appointment with the Harrisonburg Public Safety Office and met with the police to get guidelines for our presence. I went with another member and we reported back to the OH group (see attached file and below). As the self-organizing working groups get established and we move into refinements of ' horizontal organization' with communication tools (e.g. Doodle scheduler for work group meetings and get our social media sorted out) we will likely hold an Open Space Technology meeting on a high priority issue. Kai is no longer the Mayor, but he is still on the city Council. By July 2011 he managed to get the Harrisonburg city Council meetings on streaming video for the public to be able to follow issues without having to be physically present. My suggestion to the OH group is to send one of our members to the Harrisonburg city Council meeting to formally invite interested elected officials and the community at large to drop by to join in on the conversation at the Gazebo. We may start using streaming video for our General Assembly meetings to link into the Occupy Wall Street hub for streaming video of Occupy meetings across the USA. With Kai's use of OST and my introduction of OST previous to his election and all the other community initiatives (e.g. Eastern Mennonite University's Peace and Justice Program and James Madison University's Gandhi Center) we are in a good place to move ideas to action applying your principles of self-organization. The Occupy Movement is not going away and thanks to you we have a good framework to apply. Regards- -Bruce _________________________ PS- Notes/ Agenda GA Minutes from last week <http://occupyhburg.wordpress.com/> Responsibility. Create Action. Repeat. November 22, 2011 General Assembly Minutes: 11/22 By <http://occupyhburg.wordpress.com/author/storydoula/> storydoula General Assembly Meeting Minutes from 11/22/2011 Submitted by Dave Pruett - Thank you, Dave!! 22 Nov 2011: The OH Tuesday General Assembly (GA) convened at 6:30pm and disbanded at 8. After introductions, there were ten agenda items, discussed in the following order (more or less): 1) OH process was reviewed for all, particularly for the benefit of new attenders: Tuesday general assemblies, decisions by consensus, use of hand signals, and stack. 2) OWS and 3) OH declarations. A working group (of 3) was formed last week to begin articulating a OH declaration. Mike is the contact person. Others may join as they feel led. Many Occupy movements have model declarations; for example, DC. Primary focus of OH declaration to be pro-people, pro-local, and pro-peace. Working group to seek input of GA as draft declarations emerge. 4) OH is using a bewildering array of social media: Facebook, Twitter, a list serve, and a blog. After considerable discussion, group consensus favored Facebook as the primary medium, at least for the short term. 5) Bob and Levi presented the current update of the New Bank Flier. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. OH GA very appreciative of their efforts. A sign up sheet was circulated to gather volunteers to distribute fliers at various nearby locations. Mike brought up that the legislature of New Mexico recently voted almost unanimously to remove all funds from large banks and move them to small banks and credit unions. GA decided to set aside first Saturday of each month for OH related activities such as distributing fliers. 6) Unions. OWS/OH and unions are natural partners on issues of economic justice. OH's hesitancy to move forward with a Dec. 3 social/political event with local unions "stunned" some union members. OH members tend to feel the need to establish personal friendships with union members before committing to joint activities. Outreach Working Group (Linda) and Levi will make contacts with various union groups. 7) Dec. 10 is worldwide Human Rights Day (HRD). US one of only two countries not to ratify a universal Human Rights document. A call has gone out to devise nationwide action of some sort on HRD, in which OH may want to participate, especially because economic rights and human rights are so closely linked. 8)Jim will maintain OH presence on Thanksgiving Day. He will help out at OCP [Harrisonburg's homeless center- 'Our Community Place'], then return to the gazebo. 9) Dave will facilitate next GA (Nov. 29). 10) Updates on US and world occupy movements: Several OH attenders expressed deep concern about heavy-handed tactics (pepper spray) of campus police against protestors at UC Davis. Most reliable news coming from social media in general and Twitter in particular. Paulette is putting links to reliable sites on OH Facebook page. Several progressive network sites including Ultranet cited as reliable sources of up-to-date info. Announcements: 1) Cole and Giles will facilitate 3-hour workshop on non-violence at EMU on Dec 3rd 2) OH has formed the following working groups: Non-violence, Banking, Declaration, Media, Outreach. Respectively submitted-Dave ____________________________ PPS- In interaction with Harrisonburg Police: ADVICE re: RULES for OCCUPY HARRISONBURG GATHERINGS Notes from Bruce Lundeen and Heather Banks Date: October 25, 2011 Re: Meeting with Captain D. Claytor of the Harrisonburg City Police Department As long as the group meets at the Gazebo on Court Square, there are NO RULES . About number of people . Length of time of the meetings . Signs (no permanent signs or signs on grass, however) The group would be permitted to walk around the sidewalk of the square. HOWEVER, no one is permitted to . Walk, sit, or lie on the grass (that is County property) . "Prevent free passage," that is, interfere with pedestrian or vehicle traffic (such as moving into the street or waving signs that obstruct traffic or keep people from walking past the group) . Cause noise that interferes with businesses (or possibly court cases) . "Deface property" (such as spray painting or writing messages in chalk or markers) . Interfere with other special events or activities that may occur on the Square (e.g., upcoming Halloween party) If persons are disrupting the group or behaving illegally (e.g., drinking in public), call 911 for assistance; do not try to handle the situation yourself. Notes: As with walking around the square on the sidewalk, "picketing" a location would require that people keep moving and under no circumstances move onto private property (e.g., parking lots, lobbies) or disrupt passage on sidewalks or streets. Most public meeting locations other than the Court Square Gazebo would require notice to and permission from various entities other than Harrisonburg Police. Bruce Lundeen 279 Newman Ave. Harrisonburg, VA. 22801 Tel (H) 540-434-3392 Cell 540-383-4718
Police_Hburg_mtg_10-25-2011.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document
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