[Energy] [Occupybostonoutreach] Distributed March Idea
Maureen White
maureenclairewhite at gmail.com
Wed Nov 9 08:58:42 EST 2011
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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