Occupy Vermont Communications Working Group
Greetings to everyone who sat in the circle before, and who gathered during, our first state-wide GA, and those who are coming on board later!
The reason to circle and talk, for any one of us, may be different from the reasons of the person who called the meeting, may indeed be unrelated. The only definition I offered was "networking, media and outreach", which meant many things when we talked about it, so I hope everyone felt free to express their ideas. If you had a hope you didn't express, or felt was not heard, please put it on the table.
My aspiration for this group springs from my aspiration for Occupy, the global movement, to empower the transformation of our political, economic and social relations, so that we all become - so the plants and the animals and the rivers and mountains become - important and worthy of the opportunity to persist and live with integrity and vibrancy.
From this broad vision, my aspiration for Occupy Vermont is to empower us all to participate in the transformation of our state and country, and for each of us to participate in our mutual empowerment, through the tools and opportunities that Occupy makes possible. My aspiration for this group, is to create the channels of communication which joins us all together, into one movement, in a way that is not dependent upon an office staff and a newsletter, but operates directly through each of us, through our shared participation.
If you have a different, or additional, reason to come together, under the rubric of "networking, media and outreach", that is your reason for joining, please tell everyone.
These are my thoughts about what we might do and offer the movement:
The reason to circle and talk, for any one of us, may be different from the reasons of the person who called the meeting, may indeed be unrelated. The only definition I offered was "networking, media and outreach", which meant many things when we talked about it, so I hope everyone felt free to express their ideas. If you had a hope you didn't express, or felt was not heard, please put it on the table.
My aspiration for this group springs from my aspiration for Occupy, the global movement, to empower the transformation of our political, economic and social relations, so that we all become - so the plants and the animals and the rivers and mountains become - important and worthy of the opportunity to persist and live with integrity and vibrancy.
From this broad vision, my aspiration for Occupy Vermont is to empower us all to participate in the transformation of our state and country, and for each of us to participate in our mutual empowerment, through the tools and opportunities that Occupy makes possible. My aspiration for this group, is to create the channels of communication which joins us all together, into one movement, in a way that is not dependent upon an office staff and a newsletter, but operates directly through each of us, through our shared participation.
If you have a different, or additional, reason to come together, under the rubric of "networking, media and outreach", that is your reason for joining, please tell everyone.
These are my thoughts about what we might do and offer the movement:
1) Provide immediate channels of communications between local groups - In the short run provide human infrastructure for that communication.
2) Build, strengthen, lighten, install, systems of communication. This has two dimensions:
a) human
b) technological
Human Infrastructure
My mental picture of this network is of a ring - like a circle of people in a room talking to each other - where each person is talking to their local people - as if you had a phone link to another circle that included your local people. These local people may or may not have subsidiary rings, like particular working groups, etc.
Any person could step into any ring at any time, and identify as a person to channel information from and to the rings of people at their particular locality. There would likely be redundancy at any level in the network. This redundancy is helpful, in that it would offer multiple channels and opportunities for communication. It could be problematic if people think "not me not today, so-and-so can do it.", without communicating with the other person about the particular communication. These people in the same node - is anyone wondering what a node is? - would need to be very clear with each other about task division. "I'll pass that message."
In this vision, our role is transparent and rapid communication. The state would be divided up into self-identified regions, each with its own "Occupy" group. Each region would have its own person or persons in the state-wide ring. These persons would have responsibility for ensuring they are known to all of the people in their region. Alternatively, these state-wide-ring persons could identify region level contacts, such as point persons for a GA or working groups, through whom communications could travel. Local structure would be up to the local people. The goal is to be sure that everyone knows someone in the network, who can get a message through the network to anyone anywhere.
Presumably, many of these messages would simply establish direct links. "Hey, I'm in direct action in Burlington and I want to talk to people in direct action in Rutland. Here's my email." Our Burlington person would forward the message through the state-wide ring to the Rutland person, who would forward it to the Rutland direct action people. At this point we have done our job and step back.
Another use is a rapid response announcement system. "The police are closing on our encampment! Come help!" A message like this would activate the phone tree - the same network only using telephonic messages.
There will be two core responsibilities for anyone who intends to actively participate in communications rings. Keep awareness of everyone in the main circle (have both email and phone contact info), and make sure everyone you know in your area knows that you are connected to the state-wide ring. Actively offer to help connect people.
This human infrastructure then provides the means by which we consult, share, recruit, cooperate, quickly and efficiently, in those cases where an electronic medium is not optimal. Be sure you build your human infrastructure in your local area, so that when a message comes through, especially a phone tree message, you can send it along to the persons who need to get it!
Any person could step into any ring at any time, and identify as a person to channel information from and to the rings of people at their particular locality. There would likely be redundancy at any level in the network. This redundancy is helpful, in that it would offer multiple channels and opportunities for communication. It could be problematic if people think "not me not today, so-and-so can do it.", without communicating with the other person about the particular communication. These people in the same node - is anyone wondering what a node is? - would need to be very clear with each other about task division. "I'll pass that message."
In this vision, our role is transparent and rapid communication. The state would be divided up into self-identified regions, each with its own "Occupy" group. Each region would have its own person or persons in the state-wide ring. These persons would have responsibility for ensuring they are known to all of the people in their region. Alternatively, these state-wide-ring persons could identify region level contacts, such as point persons for a GA or working groups, through whom communications could travel. Local structure would be up to the local people. The goal is to be sure that everyone knows someone in the network, who can get a message through the network to anyone anywhere.
Presumably, many of these messages would simply establish direct links. "Hey, I'm in direct action in Burlington and I want to talk to people in direct action in Rutland. Here's my email." Our Burlington person would forward the message through the state-wide ring to the Rutland person, who would forward it to the Rutland direct action people. At this point we have done our job and step back.
Another use is a rapid response announcement system. "The police are closing on our encampment! Come help!" A message like this would activate the phone tree - the same network only using telephonic messages.
There will be two core responsibilities for anyone who intends to actively participate in communications rings. Keep awareness of everyone in the main circle (have both email and phone contact info), and make sure everyone you know in your area knows that you are connected to the state-wide ring. Actively offer to help connect people.
This human infrastructure then provides the means by which we consult, share, recruit, cooperate, quickly and efficiently, in those cases where an electronic medium is not optimal. Be sure you build your human infrastructure in your local area, so that when a message comes through, especially a phone tree message, you can send it along to the persons who need to get it!
Technological Infrastructure
Besides providing the human infrastructure for communications, by providing those other services, we will have a heightened awareness of the demands we might place on our technology. We can help design and implement the internet based system which will help us all stay informed and make decisions at a distance. Right now there are several platforms, of which the blog-like web site managed by Occupy Central Vermont is one of the better. There is also a platform being developed by NYCGA which is designed to facilitate communications between individuals and occupy groups, and Burlington's Ben will have more to say about that in the future.
If you want to be part of this network or just part of the conversation, please sign up at the list-serve, https://groups.google.com/group/occupy_vt_com_dev, so that we can all talk without bogging down in a long list of email addresses.
If you want to be part of this network or just part of the conversation, please sign up at the list-serve, https://groups.google.com/group/occupy_vt_com_dev, so that we can all talk without bogging down in a long list of email addresses.
Loose ends
Here is a list of everyone who signed up over the weekend, and as we get active, as more people come on, you can add names to the list using any editor like Word, or Open Office, as a text document or as a spreadsheet. If there is information missing from your line, please add it, and send it around. Also, it would great to know what the issues are that the rest of us might help with. In the near future we will want to go public, meaning, tell everyone we're in business. Please tell everyone on this list whether you are on the main ring or just listening to the conversation, and what Occupy group you are part of.
I hope you are as excited about this working group as I am. I look forward to staying in touch and learning more about everyone.
I hope you are as excited about this working group as I am. I look forward to staying in touch and learning more about everyone.
| Name | Phone | Occupy | Town | State | On the Ring? | Interests, Notes, Facebook name | |
Chuck Gregroy | 802-885-5711 | ?? | Springfield | VT | No | ||
Diane Peel. | The 99% Group | Newport. | VT | Yes | |||
Nick Cohen | 603-709-7066 | nbc@sover.net | Upper Valley | ? | NH | Yes | |
Marie Countryman. | 802-498-4817 | Montpelier | VT | Yes | Photography | ||
Emily Peyton. | 802-579-5524 | Putney | Putney. | VT | Yes | EmilyPeyton.org. | |
Sandy Marmar. | 802-295-7234 | UpperValley Occupy | Quechee. | VT | Yes | ||
Paul Fixx. | NEK | Hardwick | VT | ||||
Jennifer Steckler. | 802-276-3839 | Central VT | Brookfield. | VT | Yes | ||
Laura Simon. | 802 296-8318 | Upper Valley | VT | No | |||
Kathleen Krevetski. | 802-779-1485 | Rutland | Rutland | VT | Yes | ||
Stephen Marshall. | 802-922-1446 | OBVT (Burlington) | Burlington | VT | Yes | Extending identification with the Occupy movement | |
Leslie Sullivan | 802-763-8459 | Sage Alliance | VT | Yes | Anti-Nuke Alliance | ||
#Scott Chernoff | 609 605 0137 | sjchernoff@Verizon.net | Pownell | VT | Yes | ||
Yeshua Boyer | Yeshua@occupycentralvermont.org | Central Vt | Montpelier | VT | Yes | ||
Emily Reynolds | 802 595 2680 | Inter-Occupy | Burlington | VT | Yes | Provides contacts to non-vermont resources |
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