please post concerns or blocks to the proposal discussion page, not here. Here's the link:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/nationalfacilitationtest1
A Proposal Regarding A Process for International Consensus
Whereas, the Occupy movement is decentralized, with local organizing practicing direct and representative democracy through general assemblies and other forms, and
Whereas, the Occupy movement has shown interconnectedness through organic manifestation of various regional, national, and
international communication, and
Whereas, there is power in numbers, an injury to one is an injury to all, and local Occupy groups benefit from support by other groups, and
Whereas, the reliability of the interconnecting systems is unknown and in early development, and
Whereas, the ability to coordinate inter-occupy actions shows tremendous coordination and power,
Proposed is a process to develop international consensus. To wit:
1) Proposals are sourced from local Occupy GAs. Consensus must be reached by a local GA, after threshing by a working group, that a proposal will be forwarded to the Inter-Occupy Facilitation Group (IOFG) for global consideration. No second is required. Proposals are submitted at
http://groups.google.com/group/interoccupysubmitproposal
1.a) Proposals contain educational statements and reasons (whereas) and action proposed. The Occupy group submitting the proposal and the date of local consensus are noted. Names are optional. Timelines are optional and should include length of discussion period and need-to-decide-by date if necessary. Proposals are archived if time limits are reached and may
be resubmitted.
1.b) IOFG is a mutually self supporting volunteer group best suited for volunteers with time, consensus process skills, online discussion facilitation skills, patience and humor. IOFG strives for facilitation rather than influence. To volunteer to facilitate online consensus process please join
http://groups.google.com/group/interoccupy2) On receipt, the IOFG will support a facilitation team ("clerks") to coordinate online discussion.
2.a) Subject to change, the IOFG will support no more than three consensus processes at a time until modified by the consensus of the IOFG.
3) The proposal, along with instructions for participating, will be forwarded to all local GAs. The proposal will be read in local GA by
a "growler", who is anyone who volunteers to read the proposal and instructions. The proposal is discussed or not in the local GA, and concerns are posted through the offered mechanism.
3.a) When local GAs consent to the proposal, consent is noted on the proposal's discussion consent thread.
3.b) The establishment and maintenance of an accurate email distribution list of growlers is an essential responsibility of the movement and may or may not be the work of IOFG. IOFG will maintain its own growler list and seek subscription. Growlers may subscribe at
http://eepurl.com/gVLuX
4) Concerns, expressed through the internet forum, are addressed by the proposal authors or others who have joined the discussion. Blocks stop the proposal and the blocker is contacted for greater understanding and possibly a revised proposal.
4.a) Concern for provocateurs, trolls, and distractors:
Identification and censoring of provocateurs plays right into their hand. They want divisiveness and as soon as they are "outed" they go into high gear to question perception, and widen the wedges. Provocateurs are best ignored.
Consensus itself IS an antidote to infiltration. If the reasons for the block are spurious, it will obviously show. Provocateurs have an interest in maintaining their cover, so they probably will not take up an inordinate amount of process time on a wonky block, because they are making themselves obvious.
If a serious case of agents provocateurs shows up, it is best that the IOFG keep their perceptions to themselves and handle the situation with delicate finesse.
Occupy participants are encouraged to reearch and learn from the experience of Black Panthers, AIM and Earth First!
5) Threshing continues through the online process until all concerns are met, blocks are addressed, and consensus is reached by the participants in the online discussion.
6) At this point the proposal has "online inter-occupy consensus," because any occupier's concerns have been answered. This can be the end of the process. The proposal is published as possessing online consensus.
6.a) For further solidarity, commitment, and confidence in the proposal, the "growlers" read the ammended proposal to their GAs and report back consent by each local. Consensus from local GAs is noted as arrives.
8) If new concerns or blocks are generated by review of amended proposal, go back to step 4
