so much meetings in the world

Today, the library working group held not one, but two different meetings. Here are some notes from the 2nd meeting that took place in the café of the Barnes & Noble at Union Square at 6pm.

Library storage space
Top of the agenda was getting the library collection out of SIS before the end of the month. Folks from the first meeting at Carmine secured a storage space for the books. A detailed list of rules and regulations (from the storage company) for the unit will be sent out to working group members & interested parties on the email lists. The space has 24-hour access and is intended for storage of the library collection. There are two sets of keys and the group consensed that the keys will remain with Zachary and James.

Moving books
Monday at 5:30 we will meet at SIS to move the evidence books to the agreed upon safe location. On Wednesday we will meet at 11 am to move the rest of the collection from SIS to the storage facility. Come help us move stuff! Cars especially welcome. Rumor has it one of our favorite Canadians is going to be in town–maybe he’ll make an appearance? We love you Sean!!

 

 

 

 

 

May Day
There’s a lot going on for May Day. We will be setting the library up in Bryant Park in the morning, Madison Square Park later in the day and doing other exciting things that we aren’t going to be discussing on this website. Want to know more? We’ll be having another meeting next Sunday after the Town Square pop-up at Union Square. We’ll meet at 6 pm near Gandhi, weather permitting.

 

Community Agreements

Hey library peeps, spring is upon us and I’m interested in finally nailing down a community agreement within our working group. We’ve danced around this for months now and I think we should finally be finished with it and agree on laying out our expectations of each other and what acceptable behavior in our working group looks like. Below is a copy of the agreement that recently passed Spokes Council. I think it’s a good template for us to work with.  As Scales recommended awhile ago, I’m posting this on the blog so that we can discuss and hammer it out transparently, not just behind the veil of email.

-Betsy

STATEMENT OF INTENTION UPON ENTERING THE SPACE
(in multiple languages)

I enter this space with an open mind, heart, and attitude.

I ask for and respect the consent, boundaries, and needs of those around me.

I support the empowerment of each person in order to subvert the histories and structures of oppression that marginalize and divide us.

I hold myself accountable to community decisions and will work for, care for, and defend our community.

If I violate community agreements, or act in a way that harms the community, I will remove myself from this physical space.

COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS
(a living document)

• We amplify each other’s voices.
• We commit to making spaces physically accessible to all.
• We do not use drugs or alcohol inside this space.
• We do not bring weapons inside this space.
• We use all tents communally on a rotating schedule.
• We accept only in-kind donations.
• We get explicit consent before interacting physically or using others’ belongings.
• We affirm that consent is not just the absence of a “no,” but the presence of a “yes.”
• We will call the police or an ambulance in a serious situation only after careful consideration in discussion with any person harmed as it can put individuals and the community at risk.
•  We respect everyone’s names, preferred gender pronouns, and expressed identities. We make no assumptions about someone’s race, gender or class identity based on their appearance.  We also understand that no one is required to share information about their identities.
• We speak only for ourselves and commit to hearing each other and creating opportunities for all voices to be heard, especially those that have historically been marginalized or silenced.
• We commit to ongoing awareness of our prejudices, privileges, and the structures of oppression that affect our personal experiences.

COMMITMENT TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

We accept a shared responsibility in holding one another accountable to these agreements. If we feel that an agreement is not being respected we will express that concern without violence, judgment or assumption of intent by others. As a community, we commit to developing creative and transformative ways to address harm. In all cases where someone is harmed, we affirm the experience and decisions of the person harmed in guiding our responses and next steps, while allowing all parties involved to transform the cycles of abuse and violence.

If an individual disrespects community agreements we will collectively implement the 6-step de-escalation process, which may result in an individual being removed from the space.  We will work to coordinate with organizations that assist individuals who are overcoming addiction or who have committed abuse or violence.

Those who have committed harm in this space or who have been called out for harm in the past and whose presence limits the participation of others in this movement may need to leave until the harm has been addressed.

19 February 2012 Meeting Minutes

Library working group meeting minutes

19 February 2012
60 Wall Street Atrium, 6 pm

Present: Antonia, Josh, Germ, Dee, Dylan, Charlie, Darah, Frances, Betsy, Danny, Mark, Jaime, James

Facilitation: going rogue: this meeting is freestyle

Introductions

Agenda:

Illuminator: description– debut in the park Friday 3/3. who wants to step up for this? maybe Danny maybe Charlie. Q: will we get arrested? A: Betsy will find out about arrestability & reportback.

Tucson: 7 books banned. details of our action. operation book bomb w/Occupy Tucson. we’re having a book donation drive town square 2/26 sunday in tompkins square park—spanish language books. books on mexican history, latino culture. we’re hoping to have teach-ins: Mexican history/culture. now looking for folks to do teach ins. 11-5 pm. it might rain. bring tarps and bags. need help with collecting and transporting books.

2^nd event: Thursday march 1^st 176st and Broadway 4157 Broadway at WordUP. with Chris Hedges. I know folks have beef with Chris Hedges right now. If you’d like to have a word with him, please come to our event on the 1^st.

Donated books are coming into SIS. pls leave them in the boxes and don’t tag them.

Q: how are we getting books to Tucson? A: as cheap & green as possible. libro traficante hasn’t gotten back yet. they’re driving from TX. our goal is the collecting the books & having teach-ins. the situation in AZ is really grave right now. stories coming out every day abt kids coming home & illegal immigrant parents being deported…solidarity w/AZ. how this is racist bullshit. please help on Sunday.

We need to load books from SIS Friday or Saturday depending on when they’re open. empty bins and tarps. Frances will find out when they’re open & report back. POI: Gina lives nearby—maybe set up there.

Richard Delgado is sending a bunch of books—his and a bunch of others. Molly’s drawing a new flyer and a stamp. Don’t stamp Tucson books, we’re gifting them.

Q: what about bookmarks for the books? A: great idea. Catherine sent an email. we’ll get back to her.

Any leads on wheels for Scales? talk to bike coalition. talk to mandolin.

F29 major action: Occupy Portland call to boycott ALEC– legislation that attacks unions. American Legislative Exc alecexposed.com 50 occupations involved. will target alec members in their cities: BofA, Pfizer, Koch brothers. all right on 42^nd nr bryant park. Koch bros farther north. occ town sq is doing 26^th, on 29^th we’re asking all working groups not just DA but OWS—set up in Bryant Park

Q: what abt ice rink etc? A: 9 am start on stairs. gathering place for OWS as a whole. marches will start from there. however, any march doing high risk activities will not come back to pop-up occ. they’ll meet farther away so it doesn’t affect. an occupation to gather, start marches from. F29 9am. wrap up around mid-afternoon. teach ins, fun actions: plus brigade, bike coalition.

Corner libraries w/Colin. who has spaces they can work with. what’s worked & hasn’t. if anybody’s got a good spot, let’s talk. different tactics in different neighborhoods.

Chicago: move-in starting May 1^st eventhough we’re doing things here as well. G8/NATO! Jaime will be there 18-21^st probably. 2 purposes: librarians from other occupations will get face-time w/each other. also organizing: count yr people and form affinity grps. form them ahead of time, start talking in March—circulation and reference. Radical reference & other radical grps. arrestability levels. who can go & who wants to go. Occupy Chicago library has indoor space. FYI: it’s going to be a fucking mess. know that. high security. if you’re zero arrest—don’t go.

Carmine Street space: Un-oppressive non-imperialist bargain books. Charlie reports back—our library satellite branch should be up and running in the next 2 weeks. it’s getting cleaner.

Revolution Books is excited about us, has books to donate. They’re glad we still exist.

World Book Night— Danny heard about this on glisten (lib sch listserv—can we get on it?). Betsy’s trying to see if we can get free books even though the deadline has passed.

Q: who’s got a library that’s still standing. Nashville still has a camp. DC. Raleigh’s getting raided. general discussion ensues.

end of meeting

Weekly Working Group Meeting 1/22/12

Our weekly working group meeting of The People’s Library will be held this evening 1/22/12 at 6PM at the atrium at 60 Wall St. Come out and join us there!

Tonight’s meeting is cancelled–January 15, 2012

The working group has agreed that rather than huddle up in a meeting tonight we’re going to hit the streets to attend the MLK vigil. Please join us.

Schedule

» 6:30pm – Assemble at Cathedral St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave
» 7:00pm – Candlelight march to Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive (followed by vigil)
» 8:00pm – Speakers & performances at Riverside Church

Speakouts & Performances By

Patti Smith, Russell Simmons, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Stephan Said, Kozza Olantunji, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Reverend Stephen H. Phelps, Daisey Kahn, Norman Siegel, Sumumba Sobukwe, Malik Rhasaan & many more.

Dr. King said, “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas… and say: ‘This is not just.’”

This candlelight vigil kicks off more than 24 hours of Occupy Wall Street-organized events and actions including a march on Mon., Jan. 16th at 9am from the African Burial Ground to the Federal Reserve Bank for a rally for economic justice. For more information about the January 15th action visit http://j15global.org

Weekly Working Group Meeting

Come and join The People’s Library at our weekly working group meeting this Sunday, January 8 at 6PM at the atrium at 60 Wall St. We will be discussing our upcoming mobile actions, and talking about the exciting future of our library and our movement. We hope to see lots of new faces there!

In Light Of Yesterday’s Events…

And the working group meeting tonight 12/18 is CANCELLED.

Reconvene next week.

Lick your wounds, and remember how beautiful it was, if only for a minute…

Weekly Working Group Meeting for 11/27

Our library working group meeting will take place this Sunday, November 27th at 7:30PM at The Moonstruck Diner, 244 Madison Ave on the corner of Madison and 38th St. All are welcome to attend to discuss the future of the People’s Library and the future of our occupation movement. We hope to see lots of you there!

11/6/11 Meeting Minutes

November 6, 2011, 6 pm, People’s Library

Jaime=facilitator, Charlie=stack tacker, Betsy=minutes

present: Jaime, Bill, Charlie, Michelle, Stephen B., Megan, Betsy, Hristo, Frances, Hamaz (sorry if I missed anybody)

Setting the Agenda

• ALA conference in January

Jaime & Betsy: Who’s going and who wants to go, details. Betsy was invited by the ALA Conference Planning Manager to present at this year’s Midwinter conference. Betsy negotiated w/ALA to pay airfare & hotel for more of us to attend & present collaboratively. Betsy, Mandy and Zach are all scheduled to attend. We want to talk about who else wants to go, how to pay for it and to co-ordinate flight & hotel information so we can go together if possible. The conference is in Dallas from Jan 20-24, 2012. Our panel is scheduled for 8:30-9:30 am on Saturday Jan. 21st. I’ll email the group my flight details & hope Mandy & Zach can do the same. We decided to table this issue to discuss later because a lot of people were missing from the meeting.

• library-specific safety training

• spokes council orientation report-back

Frances: Monday night’s spokes council meeting at Murry Bergtraum High School 411 PEARL STREET (Just East of City Hall) at 7:30PM will determine whether groups are operational groups or movement groups. We discussed the differences between the two and worked on filling out the form we need to submit tomorrow at spokes council. Basically, operational groups handle day-to-day operations within the park and are different from movement groups which address/represent concerns that are movement-wide. We consensed (is that really a word?) that we are an operational group. It is essential that our space exists within the park, we serve a vital function & take up space in a way that is very similar to comfort or kitchen. We provide a safe, welcoming open space within the park. Being a caucus with other groups (like info or media) doesn’t mean that we lose power, it’s just a change in position within the spokes council. We agreed that becoming an operational group is the way to go & if that’s not possible for some reason, we would like to be an independent caucus. We occupy a lot of park real estate & have a lot of stuff. The library serves as a support to other caucuses.

• announcements

Hristo proposed we all get matching tattoos. Tabled for later discussion.

Bill reports that he was approached recently by someone offering the library office space. That person should be contacting us soon via email. We discussed and agreed that it would be nice to have a place to get some work done out of the cold as long as it’s within walking distance. SIS doesn’t really want us in their space anymore, even for cataloging.

Michelle: the Melville marathon reading is coming up Thursday at 3 pm at 60 Wall street. Let’s promote it. She’s going to make fliers.

Hamaz: there’s a Jazz club in Brooklyn at the Senior Citizens center that’s got a lot of civil rights activists involved. 966 Fulton Friday night. He proposes a field trip. C train to Clinton-Washington

Stephen B: the poetry anthology is now being printed, bound and sold at cost. It will be $10 plus shipping & handling and will be printed as ordered. It will be available in the library in the next couple of days. He would like help with setting up a link to a paypal account on the website. Also, he’s been invited to speak/read on Sirius satellite radio the night before Thanksgiving and would like people to send him 1 line of gratitude: what you’re thankful for to his email address so he can read it out on the show. stephenjboyer AT gmail DOT com

Frances: is making a library guide in google docs and would like everyone’s input. It will be a basic guide for people who are new to the library for our practices and ways they can help when they arrive. Please add ideas. Also, Frances will be occupying the Magic Kingdom for the next week.

10/22/11 Meeting Minutes

Following are the meeting minutes for the October 22nd Library Working Group Meeting. The agenda items are listed first, and the minutes are after the fold (click “continue reading” to see the minutes in full).

1. Finances, expenditures, and internal procedures regarding money, Up/Down vote on joining with GA finances (per consensus to do this at last meeting) (with GUEST from Finance)
2. On site electricity (partly a matter of item 1, so it will depend how the procedures issue is settled—Eric is invited to comment on how he wants this phrased)
3. Town Planning and the Library (with GUEST from Town Planning)
4. Guest speakers in the library (this is my thing, which I’d love to discuss, but I can table it if more important matters come to the fore)
5. Weather preparedness/library structures (possibly related to item 3)
6. Spokes Council and how it affects the library (please read the proposal in advance at http://www.nycga.net/spokes-council/) (with GUEST from Structure)
7. Occupy Wall Street Library at ALA Midwinter in Dallas January 21, 2012: who’s going, where’s the money coming from, our goals while there
8. Internet issues, the nycga site and Library, the Internet Working Group possibly hosting our site
9. Thaddeus and our policy on leaflets, zines, fliers, handouts, photocopied articles, and other forms of loose paper
10. Silent reading technology

Library Working Group Meets

On Saturday we had our first formal working group meeting at the library. Prior to this meeting, our decision making process has been to reach consensus within the group who are on the ground at the library or through conversations on this blog. On Saturday, we put the same process used by the General Assembly into use and spent three hours discussing the items on our agenda (agenda items were posted in advance here). Minutes from our meeting will be posted soon, in the meantime, here are photos of the process in action at your library.

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While the General Assembly meetings serve as a forum for participation, decision making and announcements about the movement and occupation as a whole (as well as report-backs from working groups), a working group is a decision making body for a specific project within the occupation of Liberty Plaza. Both General Assemblies and Working Groups use the same process for conducting meetings. The meeting is facilitated by a facilitator and a stack keeper. People are also responsible for checking the vibe (the feeling and response of the group) as well as taking minutes.

The process involves many tools for giving everyone a voice, for respecting speaking and listening and for using hand signals. This video on YouTube is a good introduction to how it works.