[Ob-media-social] [Obgroups] FAWG invite to attend GA, on Tuesday, 3/13/12 -
obgroups at lists.occupyboston.org
obgroups at lists.occupyboston.org
Sun Mar 11 20:01:14 EDT 2012
Occupy Boston - please attend Tuesday night's (3/13/12) GA prepared to
discuss and to come to consensus (if possible) on some of these questions:
• does OB want to participate in a strategic planning process, and then
create a spending plan, accordingly?
• what to do about weekly stipends?
• and anything else GA wants to agree on, in regards to financial
matters.
*Background*:
On January 19, GA agreed to a FAWG proposal to freeze weekly stipends. At
the time, FAWG's energy was somewhat protective, in lieu of the post Dewey
reality of lessening revenues and increased expenses, i.e.," lets give OB
the opportunity to decide how it wants to spend this nest egg, before a big
chunk of it disappears." One week later, at FAWG's 1/26 presentation, we
announced the possibility of a strategic planing and participatory
budgeting process. Unfortunately, FAWG blew that suggestion/announcement by
not leaving enough time, at that GA, to get many questions answered.
Realizing this, and recognizing that such an endeavor would need greater
community buy-in, an ad-hoc group emerged, the Participatory Budget and
Justice WG, and held a series of open meetings to dig deeper into the
subject matter, discuss the pros and cons of the process. This group then
came back to GA, a week or so, ago, to present its findings and engender
more GA discussion. That presentation back-fired, for several reasons: not
enough time set aside to cover what was needed and to allow adequate time
for discussion and Q&A, poor time management on PB&J's part, PB&J failing
to provide a grounding (in to what led up to that night's presentation) at
the beginning of its presentation, and inadequate facilitation.
FAWG is very clear that it does not have the answers to the questions
posed, and other financial related questions, nor is it its purview to
propose answers to them. The answers must arise from the Community.
Granted, one evening of GA may not provide enough time for the Community to
make any decisions - if not, a dialogue is started.
In preparation for Tuesday's GA, please read this article:
http://stirtoaction.com/?p=1069 (first sent to Facilitation by Dennis
Fox), "Article by Marianne Maeckelbergh, a Dutch anthropologist/activist,
relevant to many aspects of our ongoing discussions," (and then forwarded
to PB&J).
Please read my colleague's - Rita Sebastian - response to this article,
below, and see the link at the bottom of (this quite long) email, about
participatory budgeting.
"Thanks for the article. I agree that Maeckelbergh's article is highly
relevant to this discussion (about Participatory Budgeting and Justice), so
I would like to respond to it. Marianne begins by stating that horizontal
decision making does not work if you start with the assumptions of (a) a
scarce resource sought by (b) competing groups; for (c) exclusive purposes.
These assumptions match FAWG's current dilemma: we have a dwindling budget
that is being requested by different WGs for their different actions. We
can either adopt a standard approach of setting a budget to disburse these
remaining funds, or we can try to adopt other ways of looking at these
issues such as those suggested in the article. In either case, FAWG does
not want to propose a solution to this issue, but rather we want to set up
a workshop with full participation from across OB that looks at this
problem with *all* options that anyone can suggest on the table."
For example, options to discuss might include:
*Should OB have a spending plan and a related budget? *
We currently follow a set of rules for disbursing funds that do not look at
budgetary targets. The question is whether this is achieving the goals of
OB. Our capitalist economy runs by a set of rules that transfer 70% of the
wealth to 1% of the people. If you use rules to control allocation of
resources, you also have to look at whether the outcome is social justice,
which is why we call this process PB&J. Budgetary targets may not be the
best approach to managing disbursements – they do not respond well to fast
changing situations like ours. But they do allow you to think in terms of
justice – whether the results of the processes are achieving the higher
goals of OB.
To be more specific – we currently disburse fund according to who is
submitting the spending requests, or who makes effective requests at the GA
for special funding (GM note: or, to an extent, who is liked by the GA
community.) But is this really the best way for OB to set its priorities?
The outcome of the workshop does not have to be a “budget” but rather can
be any strategy that provides FAWG with guidance as to how to manage
disbursements.
*How should the current assets be distributed? *
The money from Dewey Square may be a one-time benefit. Should we try to
stretch it to cover a few essential costs over a long period of time or
spend it quickly to help maintain the high momentum?
*Should OB do fundraising? *
The amount of donations has dropped since the end of the encampment, and it
is not clear if any future OB action will restore the level of public
interest that led to these donations. The amount of donations we are
currently receiving is not enough to fund what is currently called the
‘fixed expenses”. It is possible that we could address this shortfall via
fundraising. Many people within OB believe that fundraising conflicts with
the goals of the movement and that WGs can accomplish their objectives
without funding if they think more creatively. The “zero budget” option
needs to be considered in the workshop.
*Should WGs deal with their own funding, and if so, what is the role of
FAWG?*
We don’t want the availability of funding from OB to limit the ability of
WGs to carry out actions. As OB becomes increasingly decentralized, should
WGs raise their own funds, and if so should FAWG continue to remain as the
oversight mechanism for accountability to both the GA and donors?
* Should FAWG be disbanded? *
Taking the previous idea further, maybe we should shut down the centralized
accounting. FAWG played a vital role during the encampment, providing
transparency so that everyone knew the funds were being handled
responsibly. But the movement has become increasingly decentralized, and it
may be better at this point to disburse the remaining funds to WGs and let
each WG manage its own finances subsequently.
Marianne’s concept of the movement as a network of independent cells would
tend to support the decentralization of financial decision making and this
option needs to be considered at the workshop. But justice might be an
issue here - should funding go only to the WGs who are marketable? To have
the free market determine OBs financial priorities sounds like a capitalist
solution – which is what I thought we were fighting against. We're being
sued by Paul Carnes for depriving him of his right to make million$ off OB.
Having OB’s finances managed by people like him doesn’t seem like a step
forward.
In any case, everyone at the GA needs to understand that FAWG’s goal is not
to specify options or strategies, but rather to create a process that
provides the broadest possible participation in this effort. To make these
decisions requires a holistic understanding of the needs and capabilities
of all WGs, and to have an interchange of ideas where everyone can suggest
and explore different options. The workshop provides a time and place for
this exchange, and the PB tools for facilitating this process were
developed by people who believe very much in both horizontal democracy and
justice."
On behalf of the Financial Accountability Working Group, I urge you to come
to GA, on Tuesday the 13th, and voice your thoughts and opinions. I
apologize for the late notice.
Thank you,
Gregory Murphy
PS See note, below, from PB & J.
Note from PB & J:
Announcement: Participatory Budgeting and Justice Working Group (PB & J)
will be hosting a workshop/ teach-in, later this month (date TBA). We
welcome OB to attend. Budgeting will not be done unless OB chooses to do
so, however the workshop creates a perfect forum to discuss the above
issues, as well as others that will be identified. Come learn from experts
from the PB Project in NY.
Link PB Project: http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/
Thanks,
Rita
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