[Energy] [Transparency] [Occupybostonoutreach] Distributed March Idea
Nadeem Mazen
nadeem at seriousbusiness.co
Wed Nov 9 09:13:43 EST 2011
Here's my vote for Nov. 17 - tedxcambridge is on nov 19...selfish reasons
:/ I want to be in this amazing distributed march ravi!
Nadeem
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Maureen White
<maureenclairewhite at gmail.com>wrote:
> Sounds awesome. I was on a conference call two days ago with 150 other
> occupy organizers across the country, and I learned that Nov. 17 is a
> national day of action. OWS is planning a huge action, and a bunch of
> other cities are planning something too. I wonder if this is something we
> could do for that? Could it work on a weekday evening?
>
> I am one of the people helping to plan the Occupy Boston Summit from 2-6pm
> on November 19 (location still TBD). My own hope for the summit is that we
> can get a huge number of people who arrive fresh and energetic to dive into
> the discussions that will happen there. If the march can happen in the
> morning, and wrap up in time for people to grab lunch and get to the
> summit, and will leave them feeling fresh and energized, then I think it
> could be an awesome combo.
>
> Cheers,
> Maureen
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 6:09 PM, Ravi Mishra <ravi at occupyboston.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I've been discussing this concept with Nicole from DA, and we wanted to
>> present it to all of you. Pulling this off is going to require a lot of
>> people and support, so the goal of this email is twofold:
>>
>> 1) Let me know if you'd like to join an affinity group to start planning
>> (or just if you want to be part of the march when it happens)
>> 2) Respond with feedback/recommendations
>>
>> We were thinking either this weekend (unlikely) or next weekend (the
>> 19th) to do this. Without further ado...
>>
>> Distributed March - First Draft
>>
>> Concept: Instead of having everyone in the march in one place (where the
>> only people who take notice are those in the immediate vicinity plus any
>> media coverage), the Distributed March will aim to put people all
>> throughout the city and will focus on both marching and outreach - talking
>> to people about the issues. The goal is to have a group of people on as
>> many of the major blocks as possible, hopefully within eyesight of each
>> other (think all along Newbury or Bolyston). Depending on our turnout, we
>> can assemble a list of the most trafficked areas of town (T stops, tourist
>> destinations, thoroughfares, etc.) and organize so that we have a sizable
>> contingent (5-30 people, perhaps) at each area. With as little as a few
>> hundred people, we can really get a lot of visibility all around Boston.
>> Ideally, we could work with other Occupies to get town centers in some of
>> the suburbs (especially via Occupy the Hood and Ocupemos El Barrio).
>>
>> The goal is to give people personal interaction and connection with the
>> movement. The vast majority of people have had no firsthand experience of
>> the protests, and have only heard about the issues through the media. By
>> taking to the streets in a friendly, welcoming fashion, we encourage the
>> public to learn about the issues and get involved. Our tone is very
>> important - we should be friendly and welcoming, willing to listen and
>> educate about the issues. Some people will be turned off no matter what we
>> do, but many, I think, want to hear from us.
>>
>> We can start the march at camp and then have people simply peel off at
>> their respective locations, or we can just meet at our designated spots.
>> We'll likely need a (or multiple) "Group Coordinator" at each location who
>> are aware of how many people are at their location and can be a point
>> person to relay communications. Organization will be tough, and we will all
>> need to be vigilant and alert to respond to situations that come up.
>>
>> Personal ideas/recommendations:
>>
>> 1. Encourage educational training before the event. We want to put an
>> articulate, intelligent face on the movement to win over the mainstream.
>> Structure the march so that there is at least one (and hopefully many)
>> trained person with each group (the Group Coordinator, perhaps), who can
>> then train the people in his/her respective group. The training will focus
>> on major, irrefutable talking points of the movement and how to and listen
>> and be friendly and personable. The more charismatic, the better. :)
>> 2. Prepare materials - signs are great, but flyers and handouts could
>> be even better. We could put out a call to have anyone and everyone help
>> create flyers for the march, and people could pick which flyers they like
>> best. One idea could be to have different flyers for different industry
>> verticals or big ideas. (Ex: Financial Services, Environment, War, Racism,
>> etc.)
>> 3. Include a variety of voices - reach out to groups like Occupy the
>> Hood or the Women's Caucus and encourage them to prepare materials and
>> attend the training, so that their voicers are included in the process.
>> 4. Be conscious of appearances and image. Like it or not, by engaging
>> the public in conversation, we will be judged by our dress, our conduct,
>> and countless other things. We should do everything we can to put our best
>> foot forward.
>> 5. Don't raise money (or, at least, don't publicize that we are). We
>> don't want to be the GreenPeace people who are always stopping you and
>> asking for money. People get very turned off if they feel like they're
>> being asked for money, and we want to send a clear message that we're just
>> there to help educate about the issues and the injustices that are
>> happening.
>> 6. Encourage working group mixing. From the planning committee to the
>> individual groups at each physical location, this march is an incredible
>> opportunity to foster relationships between people from different working
>> groups.
>>
>>
>> Looking forward to hearing from all of you!
>>
>> ------
>> - Ravi, from my OccupyBoston.org address. Please use this email for all
>> Occupy-related emails. Thanks.
>>
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