Minutes from 15/04/2012
Present: PC, MG, SuH (mins), MonB (fac), MMc, DT, KS, AS, RMcN
Apologies: RM, GM, TM
Welcome introductions
Hand signals
Previous minutes: all in agreement.
Checkbacks:
Feedback from OtF, notes from PC on People’s Assemblies, MonB wrote up notes re the Economy discussion. Still awaiting notes re Community/Sustainability.
OMG: a few problems regarding the timing (football) and time lost. However, around £600 raised, which leaves around £500 after expenses of flyers, posters and raffle prizes are re-embursed. MMc will seek to get photographs from event from SBF. Also, the money will be donated to Yorkhill this week, and hopefully a photograph can be used for publicity. A written summary will be sent to media sources.
PC was involved in a workshop in London on 25th March on Leadership Enigma (worldto win.net) from which there is an online discussion and workgroups.
SuH and MMc attended the Cumbernauld Community Forum on Tuesday to listen to and contribute to discussions regarding issues being raised in the town. A representative from the NHS came to talk, and gave some info which can be shared re stress busting classes.
SuH has created a local community group which will be holding a family fun day in the beginning of July.
Agenda:
May Day! Date to be finalised. Supporting the Union Strike action day on Sunday 6th May at 11am. Working group created to make more positive flyers. AS and PC, with material from MG involved. Others may join in the Outreach group.
Possibility of a day at George Square, tents, bbq, face painting, music, flyers discussed. Needs further discussion/clarification online.
MG was voted in as treasurer, and will take receipts etc. for outgoings. Fund raising is needed for upcoming events.
MonB talked about SHIFT-Staging the love revolution which involves CS and JS amongst others from Occupy, although it is not an Occupy group, but shares the same interests. It is an umbrella group covering compassion music, permaculture, Compassionate Communication and will be doing fund raising events to raise money for the Compassionate Communication weekends, including the upcoming one in Bute. There is a website currently being worked on, and other ideas like T-Shirts in the pipeline.
SHIFT will be holding their first fund raising music event on Saturday 21st April at Edinburgh University, The Wee Red Bar, 7-10pm.
The Compassionate Communication weekend will also be funded by the money raised by JS and others to buy tents in November which would have been given for use in Occupy Glasgow. This raised some questions within the group. Members of OG who had donated the money for the tents felt they should have been asked if they would like the money spent in this way. More transparency for future fund raising is needed, and JS would be contacted to clarify the tent money situation. *please read added note at the bottom for update on this*
MG passed information from MB regarding office space in PI. There was a discussion, and it was agreed there would be very little chance that OG would receive the grant to pay for the let, and, although a space which could be used as a ‘drop-in’ area would be good, the location, times of opening, and manning the space may not be viable at this point. The idea is still open for discussion if anyone would like to contribute.
Proposals:
MonB proposed using Yumma as an additional tool to try, in addition to the Occupy facebook and websites. It should be easier for finding links. Also, could there be a ‘Skills Bank’ added to Yumma for OG?
KS has been involved in a group which provided information on ‘Cultural Intelligence’ and has proposed that OG seek to receive a free talk/training for bridging and benefiting from cultural differences. Information leaflets were given out to read for next Sunday’s GA.
PC proposed a fortnightly email with updates on minutes, forthcoming events for OG email contacts. This was agreed with full consensus. SuH will seek the masterlist from BF.
MonB proposed using JS Occupy Glasgow website since this was more user friendly. Either that or update the existing .org site. To be discussed further.
Next Sundays meeting will be held at George Square (weather permitting). 1.30pm meet for 2pm start. If it rains it will be the usual place (downstairs in Caffe Nero).
This is the Glasgow link STEPS which does free classes on stress control etc. http://glasgowsteps.com/about/services
www.loesje.org, as mentioned by KS - about how to start up your own Loesje group, how to make creative text writing, final editing and lay out, you can find here
Yammer, not yamma, that MonB proposed to try. https://www.yammer.com/
*This was the letter received by the tent fund contributors.
Hi there
First of all an apology. This email should have gone out some three weeks ago when the idea first came into being. It was only partially cleared, and you were left out of the loop. Again, I apologise for that.
You may remember that at the end of last year you donated to the tent fund. After the camps broke up we were going to purchase a tent to take round to different communities, speaking of sustainability and other issues being mooted in the Occupy movement. Since then many of us have taken a step back into “self-occupation”, then moving on to work in our local communities as well as networking with other Occupy members.
One of the main areas of concern, particularly with the problems in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, has centred around methods and techniques of communication. A lot of time and energy has been spent looking at Circle Way methodology and also Non Violent Communication and its very close sister, Compassionate Communication.There are now weekly Circle Way meetings and there have been three Compassionate Communication seminars. The last two day Compassionate Communication seminar was held in Edinburgh, and was attended by 19 Occupy members.At a recent OG meeting held in Bute, it was decided to hold another meeting about Compassionate Communication, to enable time to explain how it could be used in the context of Occupy meetings.After contacting the trainer who held the Edinburgh seminar, I made the decision to offer OG members the opportunity to attend a full CC seminar subsidised by the money still sitting in what was the Tent Fund. This is the moment I should have contacted you to make sure that you were supportive of this move.I can promise you that anyone attending the seminar will benefit from learning powerful techniques in how to meet their own needs whilst taking account of the needs of the person or people they are communicating with. This can only help with all the communications that are going to be necessary as the Occupy movement moves forward through the next stages of its development. We have a full house at the seminar, but if you would like to attend, just let me know and I will see what I can do.If you would prefer to have your donation returned, please let me know and I will arrange it straight away.
Thank you for your time in reading this somewhat long missive *
