OSD GA Notes, Wednesday July 18th

Moderators: Cristie P, and guest Occupier from Occupy Maine

Committee anmnouncements:

• TPP - Debrieifing and review meeting in the works, sometime very soon. TPP was our best action to date, and relied heavily on coalition building and goal-oriented teamwork and deliberation.
• OYC - Join us in the Gay Pride Parade this Saturday 10am, Unversity Ave and Park or at CFAC (check the FB event page); also join us on a trip to Occupy Encinitas! Occupy the Coaster! Occuoy the beach! 
• Occupy with Mexico - Next week will begin the first joint march against the bought elections in Mexico. Ask Carlos for more details on what might be done.
• Camera Politics - Consent with your feet is the legal standing in California, and we suggest working with that. If someone is recording, move behind the camera if you don't like it. 

Agenda Items:

• Endorse the Walmart Rally in SD
• Occupy the Empire "Weekend Against War", Oct 5th - 7th
• Change our Quorum to 15
• Occupy The Candidates

Announcements:

• Report Backs from: Europe, Bohemian Grove, Fort Bradley Manning
• Dante Anti-Repression League
• ASD Radio

Agenda:

1. Call to Consensus for OSD to endorse the September 22nd Walmart Rally in San Diego - PASSED
2. Call to Consensus to OSD to form a committee to create a weekend of actions for October 5th - 7th "Occupy The Empire: A Weekend Against War" - We will celebrate our one year Anniversary of our Occupation and call attention to the 11 year Anniversary of the American occupation of Afghanistan, specifically, and teh entire Military Inducstrial Complex and it's series of manufatured, tax-paid wars. We intend to highlight the Neoliberal war agenda, the "poverty draft", and the local San Diego connections to the war machines and it's drones. A group will meet after GA to decide the 1st meeting day. (Stack) - PASSED
3. Call to Consensus to change Quorum to 15 - Now that we finally have enough people, let's make the decision making process easier by lowering the quorum to 15, or go to a "dynamic quorum" that uses the average of the last three GA counts plus a few. (Stack)  - FAILED
    - Points against: Keeping 20 gives incentive to show up; lessens the chance of the agenda being driven; Higher consensus breeds more community; New Haven went to 15 and less people showed up; people come for important things; the internet acts as a tool to include more to come down when necessary. 
    - Points for: the Wednesday GA only people are disempowered; we are always at a standstill; why not split the quorum 15 for Wednesday/20 for Saturday to reflect numbers? Or have decisions have to go through both GAs to pass? 
    - General points: Visitors say our GA is the biggest they've been to lately (yay!); different GAs have different formats to meet their actual needs to get things done; a Facilition Working Group needs to be restarted. 
    - Friendly Amendments: Uma suggested why not have items go successfully thru three consecutive non-20-person GAs to pass, unless a 20-person GA happens first? - FAILED
4. Call to consensus to support Occupy The Candidates Questionnaire from Ray - The proposed questionnaire would go to candidates asking them to answer yes or no questions that are catering to the ideologies and interests of the 99%. (Breakout groups, Stack) - FAILED 
    - Points against: It goes against our statement of Political Autonomy on various points; It gives the politicians another platform to use; It is an affront to Occupiers who stood their ground for months in the cold to assume that politicians are not playing a manipulation game.
    - Points for: It is something Ray can do autonomously, without the OSD name attached to it; it can be connected to the  "We The People" Campaign; it can be correlated with the 99% Grading System from last Fall 
    - General Points: We did not do away with hard blocks.

General Announcements:

1. Report back from Europe - Tracey: "STOP TPP made TV and print news in Sweden, UK, Occupy London, Occupy Amsterdam, Occupy Gottenburg!" "Americans are seen as slaves to their government in other countries" "Occupy London is seen as a terrorist org and now only work through phones and media, the UK is a Security State, no fun." "Not Voting is a Political Statement most take on now in the UK to show no faith"
2. Report back from Occupy Bohemian Grove - Jason: "A secret society of influential millionaires and political people doing arcane rituals and sym,bolic sacrifices of their compassion for others"  "Interesting collection of Occupiers and activists who were there for the truth" "Got right up to the gate while Riot Cops protected the ritual inside" 
3. Report back from Fort Bradlet Manning - Jason: "A great event with 4 bands and many Occupiers from all over" "About 50 people, cops took away tents the first night" 
4. Dante Cano Repression League: Dante will be out in 13 days;  Postcards were sent, please send a few more; Fill his Facebook page with love.
5. ASD Radio station: ASD is starting a radio station, meeting are the 1st and 3rd Thursdays; they are looking for content, music and hosts.