Emergency Proposal for moving the GAs indoors

[drlora]

Hi, this is Dr. Lora and I just verified that we can move our GAs indoors starting this Thurs, for 2 nights a week---yahoo!!!

UE Hall, 37 S. Ashland has said that we can move our GAs indoors starting this Thursday, Dec 1st and continue there, indoors, on Thurs and Sunday evenings for the rest of the winter until the Spring.

The cost will be $50 a night. We can go night to night, week to week or month to month.

We will get a 100 person capacity hall with 60 person capacity downstairs meeting area with full kitchen. People can come and go from the downstairs area to the main hall.

We can stay until 1am and open at 6-6:30pm
It is handicapped accessible for the main room.

There is ample and free parking on the streets around the hall and it is 5 blocks to the Blue Line L stop at Illinois Medical District, also Ashland Buses stop near.

UE is a very supportive Union who will not be endorsing Obama in the next election, they have already had their convention for this year and did not to endorse him. They are supportive of all of our work including standing up to Rahm! They will not withdraw their support of our work, they are with us 100%

We have the possibility to get some storage in the building if we enter into an agreement with Stand Up to share their small space, 20 by 20, just for storage. That would cost $190 a month, if we all agree and they are open to the idea, then we would get 4 free nights for the main room, so we would save $10 amonth.

The space that many of the Housing committee is looking at is 500 W. Cermak, it is very, very close to the Fisk Generating Station (power plant) at 1111 W. Cermak, this is a very dangerous area for anyone with respiratory disease, the respiratory challenged amongst us should be able to come to at least a few of the GAs to support our work. Pregnant women and children also should not go to 500 W. Cermak, the air is really not good for anyone but we should have some available meeting times for those whose health would be negatively impacted by going down to the Cermak location.

We need 1-2 people who would be responsible for the keys and willing to sign at least a nightly or weekly agreement, Carl Rosen of UE is willing to meet
us there this Thurs or at another time to help acclimate us to the space. We would be responsible for set up and clean up of the space. They have liability insurance for the normal use of the space.

So $50 a night gets us inside for our GAs on Thurs and Sunday going forward. That would be $400 a month for 8 GAs and other meetings. This is a centralized location and a beautiful historic Workers Hall.
My email is drlora2@yahoo.com.

[mattjohnson]

Why would we want to move the GA indoors to a new location for two nights per week? This will only cause confusion and problems for new participants and will cost us $100/week. Further, it becomes a hassle for folks who are used to being in the LaSalle/Jackson, Congress/Michigan, Grace Place area. This sounds like a really bad idea and I'm not sure why we would want to support it.

Also - when will this be voted on?

[Andy Manos]

I think we should put full faith in the Housing Committee's work on this. This proposal does not. The decision should made in collaboration with the housing committee and not against it.

[Bearhair]

Why would we want to move the GA indoors to a new location for two nights per week? This will only cause confusion and problems for new participants and will cost us $100/week. Further, it becomes a hassle for folks who are used to being in the LaSalle/Jackson, Congress/Michigan, Grace Place area

Because it is getting quite cold and it is unlikely that we'll have a move-in date for another 3 weeks or so.

Occupy Chicago has had events throughout the city and no one seems to have been confused. I have faith in the General Assembly's ability to follow a simple schedule.

[Bearhair]

I think we should put full faith in the Housing Committee's work on this. This proposal does not. The decision should made in collaboration with the housing committee and not against it.

The Housing Committee has repeatedly stated that it is the General Assembly's decision on where to hold the meetings.

Dr. Lora and I are on the Housing Committee.

Furthermore, the Housing Committee is so deeply divided and unable to reach a 9/10 agreement on the Cermak location (much less consensus), we will be resorting to a simple majority (51%) vote on Wednesday to determine whether to propose the Cermak location on Friday or continue to search for better alternatives.

Moving some of the GAs indoors immediately is a great idea. Once we move into our chosen winter location, the GA can choose whether they wish to continue to have some GAs nearer downtown or have them all down in Pilsen/Chinatown.

[Bearhair]

This . . . will cost us $100/week.

The location the Housing Committee is currently voting upon will cost us $5,600 a month. That would be $1,400 dollars/week or $187 dollars a DAY.

[Andy Manos]

If the Housing committee is divided and it will be voting on Wednesday to work through this, then it is inappropriate to bring it to GA tonight. The GA is not the place to play out differences in committee, the committees are that place. Furthermore, given from what has been said, I cannot see how this is an emergency proposal. It can wait until Housing decides what it wants to do and then go through the regular procedure.

[mattjohnson]

The location the Housing Committee is currently voting upon will cost us $5,600 a month. That would be $1,400 dollars/week or $187 dollars a DAY.

That has NOTHING to do with my concern. You aren't proposing for us to rent housing. I'm also opposed to that decision, but this is not the thread for discussing that.

Occupy Chicago has had events throughout the city and no one seems to have been confused. I have faith in the General Assembly's ability to follow a simple schedule.

Having a one-off special meeting is nowhere near the same thing as regularly moving the GA to a different place on 2 days during the week when it is somewhere else during the other 5. One of the big strengths of Occupy is that people can go to a main location that is easily accessible and you don't have to check the schedule to know where it is. By creating a schedule that has rotations, we are privileging people who have the ability check the internet/twitter/etc and who can be at all the GAs to hear updates. In addition, moving the GA indoors at all makes us close ourselves off from spontaneous participation from passers-by. Further, I think all proposals to move things away from walking distance of HQ will make this movement more insular and exclusive. I oppose all efforts to do so.

[Bearhair]

THIS PROPOSAL WAS NOT PRESENTED TO THE GA.

THE PROPOSAL THAT WAS PRESENTED CAN BE READ HERE.