1. Introductions-

  • I didn’t get everyones names, started taking minutes after this.

Sarah-Occupy Portland; Jack S.; Bruce-Olympia; Sinbad- L.A.; Port Townsend was present; Chris M.-Occupy San Diego; Leslie M.-Occupy San Diego; Shelly-Occupy Modesto. Please contact me if I left you out, as there were 13 people on the call.

 

2. Report from Occupy Olympia on preparations for the forum-

  • They want total solidarity at the Social Forum with all the occupies. It will be a place where everyone from everywhere can share share skills and information. It will be an open format. Planned to be an excellent weekend for everyone. There will be trainings, teach-ins, Direct Action trainings and targets for the American Spring. Olympia is also asking people to stay for Presidents Day as there are events/actions planned for that day at the Olympia State Capitol. There will already be lots of organizations present, its a progressive town overall.
  • This will be “Safe Place for All”- there is no agenda planned for this meet up, It is completely “autonomous”.
  • As many workshops, Teach ins, and Topics as possible, planning on possibly having teach-ins be 90 mins long (15 mins discuss topic, 70 mins? discussions) Want it totally open but structured. Movies, workshops, panels, teach-ins planned. There will be rooms also for any break out groups.
  • Please register any workshops ASAP- Contact Lee @

 

3. Report from Alliance for Global Justice on the “Occupy Express” Amtrak train

 

  • Occupy Amtrak Express has already purchased 20 tickets from LA-Olympia and back (round trip) they are selling them for $100, but we consensed to sell them for $99 to the 99%. When we sell the 20 tickets, we will buy more, and keep buying them as long as they are available. We ideally want to fill at least one whole Amtrak car (fits 74 passengers).
  • The $25 registration fee has been waived, and the ticket has been decreased a great deal for us (will be clarified on website).
  • Occupy Tuscon and Occupy Phoenix have confirmed support from their GA and will be coming, and Occupy San Diego, Hollywood, and a few others are proposing to GA.
  • The train leaves L.A. on Feb 16th @10:25am-arrives in Olympia Feb 17th @6:22pm and Leaves Olympia Feb 20th @11:24am-Arrives in L.A. Feb 21st @9pm

 

4. Discussion of what folks would like to see at the social forum

  • Shelly- Modesto has been working on foreclosures and Occupying Homes. They are in a very conservative town and would like some training and workshops on direct action and foreclosures and occupying homes.
  • Lee- Please email me to set up workshops, panels, speakers. Any input for planning is wanted. Please register ASAP so we can set up schedule and arrange times/formats. Email me @
  • Sinbad- Interested in setting up a workshop, will contact Lee.
  • Bruce- Concert planned for sunday night. David Rovicks(sp?), Jim Page, and Danny Kelly are confirmed to play-They are a folk band style. They are still looking for acts to perform, especially for Saturday night. Also going on that night is the Old Time Music Festival so we could get a good turn out. Also trying to get Mike Crenshaw who is a MC from Portland, also trying to get some MC’s from Seattle for Saturday. Occupy Wall Street will be present.
  • Jack S.-Looking for a website that lists all the occupies, will be going on the road and wants to outreach to all sites, especially the West Coast.
  • Sarah- Occupy coordination.org Has a list, contact the media team for list.
  • Bruce- In regards to Presidents day. There is a great chance for actions so please try to stay for monday. There will be a media presence, conference calls, independent media will be present. Planning a Die-In  on monday, will be training for Direct Actions on Sat/Sun, please go if interested. There will be “Golden Bull Fighting”, “Lobbying Lobbyists”, lots of broad targets.
  • Sarah- On Jan 20th Occupy Wall Street West did a “Die In”, possibly organize with them? They have 55 affinity groups. Can be contacted @ or call @ 415-937-7759
  • Trying to get as many people from outside of Olympia as early as possible.  Asking for involvement from everyone, try to get as many people to go from each occupy. Try to get endorsement from your occupy, want as many occupies to endorse as possible. Try to  earn funding asap so you can fund people to go that cant normally afford to go- if you can get 20 people to donate $10, you can at least be able to buy one person a ticket. You can find in google docs info for workshops>email Lee. Wide range of panels, geographically planning on going. Please contact Bruce about housing, trying to get numbers of people going from each group so that they know how much room they need ASAP. Also need to know if anyone is flying in, and if so how many people so that they can arrange shuttle service from the airport to Olympia for you. Also trying to do a confrence of pertinent workshops, trying to livestream to occupies that cant be present. Depends on time of workshops and capabiltities present of course, cant stream 3 workshops at the same time, ect. Maybe send out an invitation to other occupies to stream workshops, can participate that way, possibly makeit a party at outside occupies? and watch through livestream.
  • Sarah- Regarding workshop process, after you register what happens? Will recieve a call or email back. They are still working on times/spaces for everyone. You will recieve a conformation email and any questions in the next 2 days. Hoping to publish a paper for everyone that registered in time.
  • Jack S.- Collected contact info for Occupy San Diego
  • Bruce- We worked hard last week on the confrence call. We emailed out to 1000′s, but sadly there was a bad link for this call. Will fix and have a good link for the next call. The next call is Thurs Feb 2 @4pm, report back for the next call.
  • If you recieve General Consensus from your GA please email Chuck @  so we can list you in solidarity.
  • Is there a written formfor us to present to GA for consensus? The letter on the website can be used to present to GA for proposal. We want the whole Occupy to give endorsement. If that wont work request proposal from Chuck.

**CORRECTION - The registration for the social forum has not been waived, but rather no one will be turned away who can’t pay it. We hope that some people will be able to pay, and some are, because we will have to buy some food to feed participants and we have to pay some room rentals for meeting space and the shuttle to the Seattle Airport will cost money. No big donors have yet come forward to help fund the conference so registration fees are important, but again, not required.