[Street] [Proposal] Grow the movement + Outreach strategy session
Monica Poole
monica.poole at gmail.com
Wed Feb 8 19:37:42 EST 2012
Getting people to connect to one another and grow the movement sounds awesome! (And I can definitely relate to trying to make one's life more manageable--good to "see" you again!)
Monica
mobile
On Feb 8, 2012, at 5:29 PM, Katie Gradowski <katie at occupyboston.org> wrote:
> 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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