Announcements
There were several reports of recent events attended by various group members plus announcements of up and coming events. James and Jed bravely attended the monthly Tea Party meeting which was on health care and reported the reception was civil and courteous. They found broad agreement with the TP folk about the actual problem and even found some enthusiasm for the term corporatism, but had a sharp divergence about the solution. Theirs is “true privatization” of our current “socialist” system. Several people also went to the Health care forum held last Tues. and found it extremely informative. There will be another meeting Tues. 12/6 at 6:00pm in the Nevada Theater. There was a brief report from folks in the foreclosure announcing a rally this Mon from 11:30 to 1:30 in front of the Nevada County Courthouse. The other announcement that is still timely is Jed’s local business outreach working group which will meet 12/8 at Café Mekka, 11:30am. Jed also showed us his ingenious solution for not defacing dollar bills which is little stick-ons that says “To: My favorite business From: Occupy Nevada County”, plus a heart around “99% Local”.
There were several reports of recent events attended by various group members plus announcements of up and coming events. James and Jed bravely attended the monthly Tea Party meeting which was on health care and reported the reception was civil and courteous. They found broad agreement with the TP folk about the actual problem and even found some enthusiasm for the term corporatism, but had a sharp divergence about the solution. Theirs is “true privatization” of our current “socialist” system. Several people also went to the Health care forum held last Tues. and found it extremely informative. There will be another meeting Tues. 12/6 at 6:00pm in the Nevada Theater. There was a brief report from folks in the foreclosure announcing a rally this Mon from 11:30 to 1:30 in front of the Nevada County Courthouse. The other announcement that is still timely is Jed’s local business outreach working group which will meet 12/8 at Café Mekka, 11:30am. Jed also showed us his ingenious solution for not defacing dollar bills which is little stick-ons that says “To: My favorite business From: Occupy Nevada County”, plus a heart around “99% Local”.
Goals
Per the agenda the group took up a 30 min timeslot to discuss a mission statement. The discussion was long and lively –at least 20 min over- reflecting both deep existential views about our mission as well as specifics about its purpose and intent, such as how does the mission statement of the Ed/Goals group relate to what the Mission Statement working group is doing. The discussion began with a long one sentence condensation presented by James of all the ideas the group emailed him over the previous 2 weeks. After much discussion and temp checks it was agreed that our mission statement is a combined statement for both Ed and Goals, but is not intended for the GA. In terms of format it was also agreed that we would begin with a simple one sentence declaration followed by clarifying bullet points. To that end the group consensed on a working version of the one sentence declaration: To educate ourselves and the public about issues affecting the community and inspire people to turn ideas into action. The ideas and issues suggested were economic and social justice, current political realities, environmental problems, inclusivity of the 99%, and promoting the general welfare and equal opportunity and a more uplifting spirituality. It was agreed that we would take up the mission statement again in two weeks to give us time to come up with ideas for a final draft.
Education: Economics
For the remainder of the meeting, per the agenda, we broke into three smaller groups for an open ended brainstorm on 3 different economic topics. This was preceded by a fairly lengthy and lively discussion about what those specific topics should be and who was going to be in what group. This was partly due to the fact that no one had sent James any topic suggestions over the previous 2 weeks as agreed in the last meeting.
Per the agenda the group took up a 30 min timeslot to discuss a mission statement. The discussion was long and lively –at least 20 min over- reflecting both deep existential views about our mission as well as specifics about its purpose and intent, such as how does the mission statement of the Ed/Goals group relate to what the Mission Statement working group is doing. The discussion began with a long one sentence condensation presented by James of all the ideas the group emailed him over the previous 2 weeks. After much discussion and temp checks it was agreed that our mission statement is a combined statement for both Ed and Goals, but is not intended for the GA. In terms of format it was also agreed that we would begin with a simple one sentence declaration followed by clarifying bullet points. To that end the group consensed on a working version of the one sentence declaration: To educate ourselves and the public about issues affecting the community and inspire people to turn ideas into action. The ideas and issues suggested were economic and social justice, current political realities, environmental problems, inclusivity of the 99%, and promoting the general welfare and equal opportunity and a more uplifting spirituality. It was agreed that we would take up the mission statement again in two weeks to give us time to come up with ideas for a final draft.
Education: Economics
For the remainder of the meeting, per the agenda, we broke into three smaller groups for an open ended brainstorm on 3 different economic topics. This was preceded by a fairly lengthy and lively discussion about what those specific topics should be and who was going to be in what group. This was partly due to the fact that no one had sent James any topic suggestions over the previous 2 weeks as agreed in the last meeting.
The 3 subjects consensed upon were: Alternative Economic Models, Central Banks and the Present Economy. After approximately 25min the three groups reported back. The Alternative economic models group suggested we all read “Agenda for a new Economy” by David Korten. It was agreed that several copies will be purchased so we can all read it. The Central Bank group reported on their discussion about a brief history of central banks with a focus on the Federal Reserve. It was recommended that we all read the “Creature from Jekyll Island” by Edward Griffin, a history and critique of the Fed. A DVD is also available. The Present economy group discussed the need to have a basic grasp of classical economics starting with Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Miller, etc. so as to be able to respond intelligently to the more recent conservative iterations that the Tea Part likes to tout such as Ayn Rand (who by the way had zero academic training in economics). To that end James volunteered to host informal “ pizza and economics” meetings at his house starting this Mon evening, time to be announced. There seemed to be one unifying theme for all the groups that it was impossible to talk economics without talking politics; that they were inextricably linked.
Agenda
It was agreed that suggestions for the following week’s agenda would be posted on the working group website and discussed online. This is in the hope of saving time at meetings. Forum is here.
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