Getting the World's Attention on August 1.

Logistics out of the way, this sounds good, but is very ambitious.

I would just suggest that you do it after people get off of work, so that they can join in. I never understood why so many events are planned between 9 and 5 on weekdays.

Actually wouldn't more people be showing up on the weekend? Maybe Saturday Night is better. Is there some kind of nightlife strip in Sacramento, where people would be on the street to see?
Occupiers say they don't want to make demands to a corrupt system but then they want to go stand in dead zones by office buildings in the middle of the day.
How can we reach the people, without inconveniencing them.
Best case: Inconvenience the 1% while the 99% is there to see.

One more thing. Discourage people getting arrested before hand, because it ends up sucking up any coverage, leaving the march unmentioned.

Aug 1 is on a Friday, perhaps both, the office zones Friday day with selected photo op solidarity sings and the nightlife strip Friday night. It could be orchestrated to gain momentum and strength with the apex being after sunset.Or even timed with the evening news.

Yes to different ambient audiences friday and saturday. I worked as capitol intern late 80s and saw this, still do. Fri is office and capitol workers, inerns, lobbyist, activits and related travelers. Are dead zones and live zones, and yes to comment about 9 to 5, they do find time and are curious. Those downtown to promote their power and money agenda at capitol would see this as very disruptive and probably vocalize their opionions.
Sat more residents, students, tourists; Old Town Sacramento is a nearby major draw. They have more leisure time and are likely to be more open.
Fri is end of week wrap up day for many, sat is seen by most as their day to be where they want. Seems to evolve around what people to reach and how. Local, national or international. More inconvenience can be perceived as more reaching the people.

I like the concept, but could we leave the specific day open for now? (except not Sunday). For example, if we did this on Saturday, we could discuss at Thurs and Friday GA's what specifically we want to do.

Not to be a killjoy, but this would take a lot of work, and not that many people would turnout. Do we want to look weak when it is seen how we cannot get the crowds out?

I recognize that this "Getting the World's Attention" business takes Sacramento by surprise because strong members of our GA, as well as Brother Carter, are not on Loomio. Also, not all could participate in some discussions that happened during our successful Three Days of Rage Against Monsanto which just concluded.

The strategy and tactics are complicated. As witnessed by the way I felt I had to explain in detail the difference between the letters to officials vs the press releases. The latter being about the former. About the reaction of both the officials and the press, both reacting to what happens in either domain.

I agree with Lisa and think Cathy may be overly pessimistic, perhaps because its hard to read all the encouraging stuff being posted on Loomio, and the encouraging stuff from other domains, which are hard to find. :-(

Still, its highly excellent that Cathy in particular is speaking out. A strong person who has important responsibilities that keep her from our GA. :-(
Lisa left for a month and a big hole was felt in Sacramento, which is now filling in. :-)
However neither Cathy's or Lisa's voices and ideas fail to influence how our press person handles things. I can assure all of Occupy that the GA thinks of them even when they aren't there, although Lisa usually is, as she doesn't have the same responsibilities Cathy has. :-)

Anyone for creating a Women's Council? Slightly different than a Fem GA. You can't imagine the trouble I felt I got in, in 2012, when I proposed the same idea.

The Workshop/Speakers/Structure working group is trying to sort out which days are "big days" and which days are people-driven session days. IMO, it would be nice if we could have two consecutive days (Friday and Saturday?) for sessions and have the first and last days (Thursday and Sunday) be the special/big days.

Why Friday?

Or are there big events and open sessions on each day?

Folks in Occupy Sacramento have plans that need to be heard. Let's give those on the ground deference, as they know their city and activists. They are working hard under pressure.

Let's first do no harm.

This proposal was started by Sea, whom I believe is a Sacramentoan.

Has this plan passed the Occupy Sacramento GA or is this autonomous?

Good question. Here's what I thought was happening. The OS GA literally and physically can't approve everything the NatGat planning group arranges. And vice-versa, The stuff called local logistics and event and location matrix, literally and physically can't be 100% in sync with the speakers program working group.

I did say that regardless of any plans, finalized or tentative, autonomous or consensual, that it was my experience that the State Police and the City Police -- because we will already be putting so much on their table -- will likely tolerate much autonomous and spontaneous random protest, sign-holding, marching, chanting, impromptu sit-ins and general redress of grievances. I could certainly be wrong about the latter. However I did do Security in 2011 and 2012 and will do it this summer. And obviously (correct me if I'm wrong) won't our Security team work under a flexible mandate? Further, the Safety Team that I hope Cal is part of, and Bradley from Barstow volunteered for, will enhance both planned concerns and unforeseen concerns.

Isn't it the case that our discussion of how we make decisions and the use of the Block, seemed to result in there always being wiggle-room. I believe Tricia said that finally, it could only develop organically, when she thought I was trying to "micro-manage". That would also have indicated some autonomy by individuals viz-a-viz OS GA finalized decisions and NatGat planning group finalized decisions. Thank you NikiV.

The Getting the World's Attention business came out of the third day of our Rage Against Monsanto, when I was able to talk to an Occupy "Black Team" that does security with radios and first-aid and other important stuff. There was also an influential person there who may not have joined our discussion here yet, who can be considered a veteran expert on how to do civil-disobedience.

I also thought it was shaping up that the First and Last days were gelling. The issue it seemed was how, during California's Stage-2 Drought, we could make a splash. :-) Certainly no Occupier would not want what we are doing to not be the "shot" heard round the world.

So, yes and no. The "Big Day" will be eventually approved by the OS GA and the NatGat group. However even then, organic is as organic does. I think Lisa from Sac said that she approved of the concept in general, but would like to hold in abeyance whether we "Get the World's Attention" on Fri or Sat.

Finally, the Sacramento GA follows Occupy Wall St hand-signal and Blocking rules. Unless it is deemed an "emergency", passing proposals take two weeks because we only meet every other Sat. OS GA makes few but decisive, and sometimes autonomous decisions. In 2011, April Junio got a motion through the GA, which said that persons could, indeed, act in the name of Occupy, without official approval, because we work on the basis of trust.

This is a good discussion, however I hope people will vote on the two proposals that Help Cres Focus the World's Attention, cause they are specific. Sorry.

Maybe Tricia can close this as a proposal and leave it as a good discussioin about either of Helping Cres discussions.

Please don't compound the mistakes I made here. Please don't vote on this discussion. Please vote on the Cres discussions. There you get a choice to vote directly for either Aug 1 Friday, or Aug 2 Saturday.

Given what I'm reading here, including John's comments about doing this in a dead zone, it seems that the weekdays (especially Friday) might be better for workshops/speakers/conversations, i.e., sessions created by occupiers.

Also, if someone has a big proposal idea, find two other people (preferably not all from the same Occupy) and present it. I don’t have any stats, but it seems like most of the proposals brought by a single person don’t seem to go much of anywhere. Many of them seem to close with only 1, 2, or 3 people voting on them. This is Occupy! Co-create, collaborate, partner with others. [IMO, too many individuals saying "Who's behind me?" (the old dominant paradigm of leader/follow), not enough creating together. My 2 cents.]
And the best way is to start with a discussion, let things percolate and coalesce for a while, develop the idea with others, and then you may find that something wonderful may emerge, that might get some traction when proposed.

I'm not sure what John meant by a dead zone. Again, I'm the eternal optimist, so I can say just about anything and believe its true. So I'm going to take this opportunity to repeat the idea that came out last weekend regarding getting the world's attention. The way I see it, dead zone or live zone, Fri or Sat, if we don't really really get the world's attention, we're wasting our time. And getting their attention requires us to decide soon on what day we want them to focus on, and then we can use the other days as we best can.

press does not cover much of anything on a Friday; government, politicians, business folks use that to their advantage and release bad news then. (OTOH, Warren Buffet deliberately releases Berkshire Hathaway financial information then, knowing that it will be relatively ignored and that individual investors will therefore have a more-equal chance to analyze along with the professionals.)

Do people really think that "getting press" is that important? Do you think their corporate overlords will send them off to cover it?

I don't. I feel this is more of an "in-reach" event for activists than "outreach" for attention from the MSM.

But to better our chances, let's play by the book and give them what they need.

Who will make a fact sheet to distribute. Who can make "press folders" with relevant info for reporters?

I disagree that "if we don’t really really get the world’s attention, we’re wasting our time."

Thanks Tricia - I couldn't find the words - while media attn might be nice, that is not what this is about.

Its not the investors or the corporate media that we need. Its the people of the world. They know that Occupy has made a minute blip on the radar screen. They also know that if we can leverage our power through the most progressive Capitol in the world, they and us can change the world.

Look at the inertia against us. We need a big lever. Moonbeam might be our fulcrum. This in-reach vs out-reach is just another version of New Age hooey like "vertical vs horizontal" decision making.

We have the most compelling argument Water. If we don't focus the world's attention that we can do something about it now, we are wasting our time, unless people really don't have better things to do than sit at their computer or attend quite often insane GAs.

Caveat.
There is a place for inward and outward, not in opposition. The trouble is that horizontal and vertical seem to be similar. Not all New Age stuff is hooey.

In the Sociology discussion I'm trying to imply science. I've suggested a science discussion or unit, which I think will effect our relations with Moonbeam.

Bluntly though, horizontal and vertical are geometric ideas, which few discount from science. Inward and outward is more Sociological. However, so far, I don't think there has been a response to that discussion, as I thought I had framed it sociologically, in terms of measurement and feeling. Few discount measurement from science. Feeling though is very hard to fit into science.

Bluntly again, we can't apply science to a sociological situation unless we measure and we can't apply feeling to science, unless we also measure. That's why its deceptive to talk of horizontal vs vertical in our decisions, because we are misapplying geometry. We confuse correct sociology (inward and outward) with incorrect science, (horizontal and vertical)

This is where "Brown's Book" comes in. Did you notice it in the Script for Homer discussion? BTW, I don't know where that discussion went. I think it was mini-miracle saving us from getting even more confused.

We need to do inward and outward stuff, but that doesn't happen with misused geometry, since we have to get feeling into science. Karl Marx discovered this when put forth S/V. You'll find that in the first 11 Chapters of Das Kapital.

I think getting the world’s attention with a 4-day (or 5, or 6, counting Wed. and/or Mon.), is grandiose and doomed to failure. HOWEVER, I do think we can recharge ourselves, make contact with local folks who may not be already involved, get some good livestreams to folks who cannot get there in person, make some plans, learn stuff, get out in the streets (and into the offices) and get noticed, and maybe get some press coverage. If we do all that, I will count us a success.

Sorry to chime in late. As a former capitol wire service reporter and mainstream news guy (a long time ago), I repeat that Friday is the worst time for actions (because media folks leave early, etc.). Generally. However, if it's the best day for us, then it's the best day. Weekend news crews tend to be younger, different folks than weekdays, so that's a separate day to consider in addition to whatever happens Friday. Plus, the more than happens (arrests, rallies, etc.) only serves to "excite" mainstream media. It's what we did during Occupy in 2011-12 here in Sacramento. If a TV station missed an action one day they made sure and came out the next even though nothing "exciting" happened. But they had to file something so it gave us a chance to talk about why Occupy exists, etc. Those who cover the arrests or whatever came back the next day (and the next and the next) because they wanted "the" story.

In short, MORE "stuff" - especially if "exciting" (read newsworthy) begets MORE coverage later even if not exciting.

Homer emailed me and said he would bring all of Hollywood to our mother of all protests. That Linda Ronstad would serenade us. Hilllary might show up!

More, exciting, newsworthy will beget more coverage
A guy in the store said he sees our Gathering a lot on the internet
Things are moving faster and faster
The Governor's Office positive response to my inquiries is an exciting sign
we're running a marathon, few can keep up.
I say try to get international coverage
yeah

This isn't from Homer!

I learned that we have already taken out a permit for the Capitol on July 31, believe it or not The Governor's office itself told me. ;-)

That's Thursday. So we could all meet there on our first day and decide what to do from there. And still have the Mother of All Protests on Aug 1, Fri. We might get a lot of coverage on Thursday that would carry over to Friday and the weekend. What if we made it look like everyone would be in town, especially the Caravans, on Thursday.

Above it was said do more, exciting, get something on one day that can help for the next day. Sally made it seem like she could see some wisdom there. A week or so ago it was said that the Caravans ** could demand action on Water and other things as they approach. Action on Water could endear us to Brown

;-) fiction: ** "The Snakes moving toward Sacratomato, testing with their flickering tongues, seeing which officials are vulnerable, that plagued Moonbeam in his dreams, that got Abe, er. Homer to the Capitol steps and which helped Mooney run for president, after Hillary of course." end of fiction. ;-)

We're already going to be here on Wed for the sensitivity/training. Folk must definitely RSVP for that if they want to camp for sure on Wed night. Limited space. They can still come anyway and I hope they do regardless of being able to easily camp. Where is All Streets?

We could have local events on Tuesday because The Sac GA loves to march, and it has Street Theater..

The vulnerable officials that the "Snakes sense with their Tongue Radar" will be working those days.

Maybe Tricia would delete my three comments discouraging voting on this proposal. Maybe it is a viable proposal after all.

If we can get the Governor's sympathy-help, which I am strongly saying is possible, we could do a whole week of action.

I agree that we need attention. In this neck of the woods, everyone thinks that Occupy is dead...it is a running joke. Armchair activists. Anyway, it is necessary to prove that it is still a viable group with viable grievances!

By dead zone, I mean a place where there is a corporation or government entity to protest against, but few pedestrians to see or participate in the action. The left is forever marching to Foley square in NYC which surrounded by courts and a jail, and hardly ever has anything but a few lawyers wondering around. Even a large gathering looks small in a an empty canyon of buildings.
Occupy should be trying to reach out to the public, and giving them a fun and unscary way to participate.

If people are dying to get arrested (which I suggest you aviod) do it the day before the big protest to generate media interest (as per Cres) or the day after to keep it going.
If everything went better than expectations and thousands of people were arriving daily to save the world, than the last day would be the biggest protest, so that is how I would plan it. This is Occupy after all.

Tricia, would you please delete the three comments I made saying not to vote on this proposal? I made a mistake with my email address and I can't delete them.

I’m rethinking water. Our Gathering is going to need the support of the Sacramento Central Labor Council and LACLA. The Sacramento GA wants to protest local banks, police brutality, homelessness, and Monsanto, in conjunction with our Urban Outreach Committee. Dispossessed sovereign nationals need their water back, and descendants of slaves need Congress to make good the “bad checks it issues”. The reason I emphasize water, is because Elders say it is above and beyond other issues, in importance. If Congress made good on checks, certainly they’d only do it for a few people. And if California allowed the Wineman Wintus at Shasta their water by not raising the dam height, that’s all they’d get. How can we learn from the Elders which would mean focusing on water – we desperately need to learn – and also pay the checks? IE, what kind of civil disobedience can we do in Sacramento, that would defend the Wintus, put pressure on Wells Fargo to pay checks, and mobilize the power of the Sacramento GA and Urban Outreach? And also get the Labor Union’s support?

i have seen discussion of events at media locations on Friday for getting locals to join us on Saturday and Sunday; how does that relate to this?

I thought I chimed in on this discussion a day or 2 ago, but maybe it was another thread. Truthfully, the more actions the bettter. Friday and the weekend aren't the best for coverage (many fewer news crews), and viewership and readership is way down (except the Sunday daily). But you can't plan these things completely anyway, and from a legal standpoint (I'm a co-coordinator of the NLG here and a former ACLU board member), if people are "planning" to break the law (not that anyone is doing that here) they are subject to felony serious charges, not just simple misdemeanor charges as in a protest. I think I will abstain - whatever is decided by groups on the ground closer to the date will be more spontaneous and good media people can make it work. I would just suggest that if media coverage is at least part of the goal, people take into consideration news deadlines. Often makes all the difference on whether they cover it or not...not bias or anything else. Deadlines.

Cres, I'm not aligned with "the more actions the better." Wearing people out with actions on several days isn't the idea (not to mention the oppressive heat, the likes of which most people outside of Sacto will have never experienced). And then there's the matter of there being on a tiny handful of people in Sac who are behind this attempting to pull off some major events.
This is a national gathering, primarily for and about the people from different occupys to come together. That's different from it primarily being a national rally or march (though it certainly could include an occasional action and certainly garner attention from the media). What makes the gathering a gathering IMO is that people from different occupys come together to explore "things occupy." It was lots of people-driven teach-ins, conversations, brainstorming, planning, etc. on the grass in Philly that made it meaningful for many people.

This is a national action. so were the other two. the difference is that now Occupy has done it's job of raising awareness and winning the fight for civil rights. It's time to reassert ourselves outside in public spaces.

Non-violent and civil and coordinated... we don't have to disobey to gain attention.

I don't think we need another conference or retreat or to preach to the choir. We need an open hearted safe space where a mass movement can come together to join forces and make a stand.

Letting it be more "unprogrammed" and allow concurrent actions. We could have a daily schedule that keeps things fluid and don't have to scurry to put the final schedule in the pamphbook

This leaves room for the guy who wants to play guitar and the artist who wants to paint and the speaker who wants to speak.

I believe it's ok to be messy and go beyond "all things occupy" into something new and great.

Tricia, I think you are in agreement with the speakers/structure group, which has been advocating for lots of open space, as there was in Philadelphia. The daily day plans and facility (including the early days being told to hold nothing outside) kept that from happening as much as we wanted in Kalamazoo; some of us are concerned that Brother Carter’s plan of a lot of main-stage programming and marches might also limit the amount of open space (anyone who knows otherwise, please reassure us!). What is important to be more programmed are mealtimes (so folks know when/where to gather from any autonomous action in which they are participating), GA times and places (same reason)—there has been a suggestion of having dinner and GA overlap; reactions? These items and big marches, films, etc., should go into the guru/pamphbook, I believe, as most folks will either want to participate or to know how to accommodate them. We have also talked about a daily update page with announcements of changing things.

Tricia, you are saying that this is a national action as it if were a fact. I request that you state is as an opinion or your desire. We’ve billed this as a national gathering (though it can/will include some actions), not a national action or a national rally.

But if the planning group and Occ Sac both want this to primarily be actions, then we should stop pretending that it’s about us coming together to interact with each other, change the name to ‘national action’ or ‘national rally’ and stop calling it a gathering.

I concur with you about “don’t have to scurry to put the final schedule in the pamphbook”. The booklet can have a skeletal schedule, with daily update sheets produced the night before and made available each morning, plus the open space grid, which will include some things that people already know will happen and some things that people will sign up to do on the spot. This has worked really well and seems like a good balance between accommodating those who need to have what they’re doing in the pipeline set up ahead of time and those who want to be spontaneous/autonomous.

Result of the proposal was...?

The votes here were: 1 yes, 4 no, 4 stand-aside

It seems as though Saturday is preferred for the big day, as there will be folks arriving for the weekend. Not sure though, check with the group again.

The unified theme is: that when the oppressive forces are most acutely impinging on us is also when the reform forces can strike most assuredly. The iron is hot. Progressive Brown knew the unity our nation felt after World War Two and now feels the oppression, though many fault him for it. 99%Occupy is new on the planet and though there are huge obstacles standing in our way until July 31, a big tipping and rebalancing can happen then. We have to keep planning for a peaceful world-wide revolution, since our media rallies will be broadcast world-wide on all media outlets. This is what Laura is working on along with Cres. These can be unifiedly handled on both Aug 1 and Aug 2 and decisions as to which on which can be decided five weeks from now. Our legal team and “peoples” law-enforcement personnel in Sacramento are preparing to defend us. I'll be talking to them about filing Defensive Lawsuits against corporate entities, whom we have yet to specifically identify, as giving us the most leverage. I think Wells Fargo could be a major one, since their holdings go back to what was stolen from slaves and Native Americans.

Now, its hard to see the gelling where each meeting hall or space is directly and assuredly arranged. But we can see the two-mile radius grid around the Capitol, where the progressive Brown family is still very influential. The Christians prophecied an “end” in fire and brimstone. The more powerful Elders prophecie a beginning that is a world-wide reconciliation. Some of the groups like Allstreet and Mayfirst and 99Rise can yet be brought into our street-wise unification. Other supportive organizations will be easier to bring in during the coming weeks. Julia knows some of these groups. Her cruiser could also be parked nearby. But like Perry of Chicken Foot Ranch who's also the drummer for Fresh Juice Party, says, “we have to work like hell today and wakeup tomorrow and work like as though hell is freezing over”.

We're going to hold city-wide planning meetings here at the end of June and then Labor Unions can be brought on board. Evil corporations like Wells Fargo won't be able to withstand us once our as yet unrealized gelling / unifying happens during the next five weeks. And then we'll have a whole week to pump up the heat to strike even harder. I'll be able to provide quite small office space for persons to use a wire DSL internet connection. Only one on the DSL at a time however there's more than one computer so posts could be prepared while others send, and then a trade off. We could have three people including me working simultaneously. Schedule a time, bring laptops, do the work and trade off for fast posting on the internet. The posts will be prepared in wordprocessing and only cut and pasted onto the web. My computers won't be windows software though. And just around the corner there are internet cafes where folk could all trade off and collaborate and integrate in the office (my room) so a whole lot could happen starting on July 28 which is when our first press conference will happen. All within the unified grid, close to the media rallies.

ugh, just lost my post in progress. @oswgwhe : e-mail me about tech stuff.