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Permalink Reply by KellyAngelPdx on November 28, 2011 at 1:30pm

Notes from Kelly Caldwell re: First Occupy Café  11/25/11

We had a great event with at least 140 folks.  Feedback was really good and people are excited to get moving on planning the next event.  Our event was essentially FREE with a donation jar that was low key.

Event Description:

Come build community and the movement!

We will have coffee, tea, food & entertainment by donation. No one turned away for lack of funds.

There will be spaces for people to "booth', live entertainment, and arts & crafts. Conversation group kick-offs at 4:30 & 5:30. Our intention is to hold space for small groups to discuss topics of shared interest. People are also welcome to just hang out and relax, as long as they are respectful of the other activities in the space.

ABOUT OCCUPY CAFE:

Occupy Cafe exists to inclusively connect people, to share and listen.

The more we share and hear our individual and collective needs, wants and visions, the more powerful our initiatives to create real change become. Real and meaningful change for good comes when we, the people, stand, speak and act together, cooperatively and collaboratively. The agenda is open within the theme of building community and a movement.

(This effort has connections to some great online & conference call resources too! See OccupyCafe.org to learn more!) This is in the spirit of "World Cafe" and "Open Space Technology".

Let us know if you want to volunteer or can bring needed items.

 

Time Window for Organizing  Occupy Café Pdx 1.0 was about 2.5 weeks.  I recommend that as an absolute minimum and encourage more time. (six weeks is ideal).  Get the Day/time/place identified & start getting the word out about that ASAP & everywhere.

 

Here is what I/we did to advertise: 

Kelly spent about  30 hours doing outreach!

Facebook Event Page – See Description

Multiple posting on multiple FB group pages, including stealth announcements

Posted on Wiki &Occupy Portland.org Calendar

Listed on CNRG (non-profit list: Community Networking Resource Group, 3000 members)

Many personal invites & hooking people in by asking them to do x,y, or z for the event.

Attended rallys & marches & invited people there, asked them to take the invite back to their groups

Announcements made at related community meetings, (Action Work Groups, GA, Spokescouncil)

Flyer didn’t get generated until 2 days before (but guess that was fine!)

I tried to get SpokesCouncil engagement and a list of committees & contacts & meeting schedule. That didn’t manifest but I think the outreach effort got a significant “active occupier” representation.

Generally speaking I find personal invites get the best response.

 

Conversations:   The structure  was very open. At half hour into the event (4:30)I announced people could participate in optional conversation topics & I announced the topic and identified the focalizer for each by pointing & hand raising.  People could raise new topics and were added to list for re-announce every 3o minutes or so.   In addition to those listed in the booth section we had:  What is Anarchism?   Shared Decision making models and a short session on visioning towards the end.

It may have been better to have more signage & instruction to shape discussion, but it worked out fine.

 

Boothing: I invited people I knew to bring info.  And do one of three things  1)leave it on info. Table

2) host a conversation  or 3)booth.     We had the following:  An action committee (A4EJ) Shared Decision Making,  State Bank Information, Health Care proposal info., Mothers Against Pepper Spray, A display made to gauge folks priorities, a map to indicate where occupiers came from (this one not as successful).   KBOO  (community radio station) & Heidi Lambert and here “Why I Occupy Video Project responded as well. Over all people responded very well to this component.  It created buy in, upped the numbers & meant people felt prepared to talk about specifics on various topics.

Entertainment:  We organized edu-tainment but in retrospect I would dispense with that aspect.  There was most interest in dialogue, so there was some competition.  Plus it didn’t help the entertainment was hardly promoted (not confirmed until a few days before).  I was really glad the performers were there but felt a bit bad for them.  (Belly-dancers, Accordian player, spoken word, Miriams Well, Blues/rock/union songs).  We also had Origami Lady at craft table which was good for kid engagement.

 

Draft Ground Rules (did not actually get posted, but got communicated verbally)

No Drugs/alcohol/weapons

Respect others & the intention of the space.

Use Inside Voices.

Vote With Your Feet

Do your part to keep it positive and productive

Drama is in Caberet only (upset? take it outside!)

Bus your own dishes

 

 Volunteer Needs:

We had one planning meeting just shy of two weeks beforehand. 

About 4 people on set-up

2 people at welcome  desk                                                                                            

About 4 people serving/dishes

3 people Clean-up (not enough- we could have used more)

2 volunteers transport help.

2 people low-key security

Entertainment co-orindator

Announcer/timer/facilitator person

8-12 people pre-arranged to bring info. Art their piece

1 planning meeting with 6 people

3 people, prep on-site (learn coffee machine, site layout planning etc.)

1 site coordinator/problem solver (Kelly)

A misc. variety of other volunteers doing this or that.

 

 

Listing of Topics & Issues from Siobhan’s Temperature Check Project:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/233379443391220/doc/245923402136824/

Areas to Improve:

Signage for conversations, bit more direction

Ground rules (post them)

Feedback Form

Entertainment was not needed.  More volunteers on clean up would have been good.

Flyer re: Occupycafe.org

 

Café Supplies

Sharpies

Pens

Nametags

Notepaper

Table tents

Dots (for voting or creating groups)

Spare cardboard for signs

 

Beverages

Coffee/Tea/Chai/Hot Cider/Hot Chocolate

Creamer/Sugar

Spoons/Stirrers

Cups/plates/napkins

Food: Whatever is available?

We had ample free donations, made bread pudding, some potluck items. If you do not have access to free food you night to tightly organize folks bringing items or have a bigger food budget.

 

 

Budget:

Space Rental ($80)

Any Food Costs ($80) we could have spent less because we did not know what would be available)

Flyers- no money pent, perhaps a few $$ by individuals

After expenses we netted $120. This will be put towards the next Café in PDX. I would caution against an event with upfront costs unless those monies were in hand before the event so no one is put in a bad spot

General Outreach/posting Tips:

Always announce the date/time/place (or nature of the request)

and a bare mininum description from the get-go.

Put name/date/time/place  etc. on their own lines to increase visibility

and make the info. stand out.

 

Also make it really obvious how people can call or email to ask questions or

discussion RSVP or whatever.

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