[Street] [Proposal] Grow the movement + Outreach strategy session

Katie Gradowski katie at occupyboston.org
Wed Feb 8 17:29:28 EST 2012


Hey all!

Apologies for being out of the loop these past two weeks -- I've been sick,
and out of town, and generally trying to realign things so that they are a
little bit more manageable  (which has meant taking myself out of a number
of meetings and initiatives, and spending a lot of time at home, drinking
tea, and reading up on the financial crisis, yeah!)    Leaving that aside
-- I wanted to talk about an idea that I've floated to a number of people
on the outreach front!

This email my way of putting out feelers for an idea that I would really
love to see take root within Occupy Boston, which I expect would be of
interest to a variety of people on this list.   I'm emailing it out to a
wide number of people, as a temperature check to see if there's interest in
this idea, and whether people on any of these lists would be interested in
taking the conversation further...

With that said, here's the idea!

*******************************************************************************************************

In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of development and growth on
the outreach front -- a new WG to "grow the movement," a student occupy
summit coming up this weekend, new neighborhood assemblies popping up every
week or so, and a lot of movement BEYOND Occupy Boston proper, as
Occupy takes roots and evolves within the greater Boston area.   Outreach
is happening on a number of fronts -- and the movement is growing!    All
of these developments are pretty great, and a sign that Occupy is alive and
well in Boston.   That said, it would be great to have a forum to bring
everyone into the same room and have a wider discussion about how the
movement is growing in Boston, and how we can help it expand.

With that in mind, a proposal!

*Grow the Movement:  Outreach + Connection*
*(ideally this will have a better title)*
*
*
I'd like to organize an outreach strategy  summit -- scheduled for a
Saturday in February or early in March --  to try to bring these disparate
threads together -- bringing people within Occupy Boston together with
people from within the wider Occupy movement *in* Boston  (from the various
neighborhood assemblies, from students occupy, from various neighborhood
groups and community organizations) to talk about outreach strategy more
broadly -- where we are, what people have been working on, and how we can
work in conjunction with each other, between and across occupies, to grow
the 99% movement in Boston.

To be clear - I'm not proposing the be-all, end-all summit to figure out
"what it is we're doing," or "where we want to go" -- and I realize that
within and beyond each occupation, outreach frequently takes a back burner
to working through internal issues.    That's important -- but it's also
important to get beyond ourselves, and connect what we're doing to each
other, and how we can make our work relevant to the wider 99%.    In that
respect, the point is specifically to talk about outreach and
interconnection -- what initiatives are coming to the fore, within the
various occupies, how we can work together, and what outreach strategies
make sense, as Occupy moves into phase 2 in Boston.

What do people think?   Is this a thing you would be interested in
attending?   Is this rendered defunct by the existence of Students Occupy
and Mass Occupy?   Does this space already exist?  If not, is this a thing
you'd be  interested in helping to *plan* and *put together*?  If you have
thoughts along these lines, please respond to this email!

I've included some further thoughts below for what might be covered in such
a meeting, mostly in a brainstorming capacity.

*************************************************************

Some thoughts on what we might cover in such a forum....

* Grow the movement -  There are MANY occupies now, not just one -- how do
they connect to each other, and where do they intersect?   what are the
common goals?

* Look around the room -- who's occupying Boston at the moment?   who's
decolonizing it?   how do we expand the sphere of who we're tlaking to, so
we're all talking to each other?

* Grounding in anti-sexism, anti-racism, anti-oppression.   What structures
can we build to address various forms of oppression within our own
movement?  (crucial thinking about outreach to wider community) - how do we
help to build common ground here so we're all speaking the same language?
(this is obviously a big, big question)

* City-wide campaigns -- Occupy the T, Citizens United, Knockout Barstool
-- these have been great so far, how do we build on these and support each
other on ongoing campaigns?

* Connection to Mass Occupy and Students Occupy -- what forums already
exist for this sort of thing?

* Interoccupy + coordination between occupations -- how do we communicate
now, how can we communicate better in the future?   what spaces exist for
cross-talk between occupies?

* Outreach!  (beyond connecting to each other, how do we better connect
with the wider world?)  on a large and small scale -- what outreach
strategies are different groups working on, how do we build and connect
with the wider world?

************************************************************************************

Thoughts?   Feedback?   Interest?

This is a temperature check.    If any of this sounds good to you, please
respond "yes" to this email.
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