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Jeff Thigpen to address crowd at “Save Our Community: Fight Foreclosure!”

March 5th, 2012 · Posted by
Click above to download flyers

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PRESS ADVISORY
Contact: Nathan Pius, npius20@gmail.com; 732-570-8847

Free Event: Movie Premier at Carolina Theater

“Let’s Lose Our House: A Modern Foreclosure Tale”

Film Stars, Robots, Crowds and a Red Carpet

Attendees at a free red carpet Premier for the locally-produced social and political action movie, “Let’s Lose Our House: A Modern Foreclosure Tale” scheduled at the Carolina Theater on Wednesday, March 14, will hear remarks from Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen. The web site FireDogLake lauded Thigpen, who has gained national acclaim as an advocate against fraudulent foreclosures, stating: “Thigpen’s investigation was one of the first systematic assessments of mortgage document fraud in the entire country,” and “The man is dedicated to pursuing justice for those who have been wronged by the financial services industry.”

In appreciation of his efforts Thigpen will receive autographs from the film’s robotic “Robo-Signers.” who will make a special appearance at the premier.

“Let’s Lose Our House” is a smart and funny look at the often misunderstood roots of the housing crash. This short film follows the “all American family” from buying their first home to seeing it foreclosed on and shows how banks and the large financial industry destroyed people’s lives through fraudulent practices. Produced by the Foreclosure Working Group of Occupy Greensboro, the event will unite homeowners facing foreclosure with available resources to understand, recognize and dispute fraudulent practices.

This is shaping up to be a huge civic action event in Greensboro so mark your calendars now.

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Updates posted to: http://occupyforeclosure.org

This event will be held Wednesday, March 14, 2012 7:00P.M. at the Carolina Theater in Greensboro; 310 South Greene St.

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Employment Working Group: March 4, 2012

March 4th, 2012 · Posted by

Ed, Al, and Amanda met in Glenwood Coffee & Books, 9:30—11:00 a.m.

Coming in, Ed said, teasingly, “Well, how many jobs are we creating today?”

As it turned out, that’s exactly what we discussed and decided to do! Soon, summer, there will be unemployed high school young men and women out of work, nothing to do, wanting meaningful work and a few bucks. What if we enabled them to start a business, a worker/owner/management co-op?

There are plenty of needy people in Glenwood for example, wanting their grass cut and other “handyman” chores – work they’re too feeble to do themselves (but can’t afford the prices big companies charge for helping). Moreover, we’re all trying to do for ourselves, rather than rely on Gov’t or Corporations! And we’re trying to create confident, experienced young people, especially in cooperative ventures!

After the meeting, Al spoke to his high school friend, Selena Gama, 18 in April; she would make the perfect administrator for such a project. “I’ll be in charge,” she thought, but Al explained the concept of working together, horizontal leadership, and everyone profiting equally (“gain share” like we do in the bookshop). Selena wondered if it would be too much for her, but Al encouraged her to try, to “crunch it down,” start simply with just a couple of tiny steps… Selena decided she was up to it, if her foster mother approved…

Respectfully submitted,
AL

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Art/Communications/Media Working Group: March 4, 2012

March 4th, 2012 · Posted by

Facilitator: Dave
Notes: Jo

Present Audrey, Nathan, Mo, Dave, & Jo

Agenda Outline

  • Forums onto the website
  • Facebook administrators
  • Foreclosure event press release
  • General website update
  • How do we relate to other organizations or groups who connect to Occupy Greensboro through the website? How do we reply?
  • How do we respond to the “About Us” section on the Occupy Greensboro website? How can respond or define “us” as a group?

Facebook Administrators
We reached consensus today on reducing the number of administrators for Facebook. We deleted some people who were not active and reduced the number of administrators from 17 to 12. We wrote a description of the administrator duties as:

  • Post events
  • Remove people
  • Add new people
  • Removed unwanted comments

We also decided that if you want to become an administrator you need to come and meet with the media group. We have still not worked out the kinks of people being unable to post on Facebook. Next week: What are we asking of our online administrators across the board?

Press Advisory
Nathan presented the press release that was approved by the Foreclosure group that will be sent out to TV, print and Radio. It was also approved by the Media group.

General Website Update

  • Website training-see Dave
  • Website is updated to highlight Foreclosure Group
  • May Day needs to get info to website as soon as possible
  • Integrating a Ride Share on website so that people can post if they need a ride or can give a ride to an event.

Audrey felt that there needed to be a place on the website for general conversation like Occupy Raleigh has. Discussion was had that to make it feasible for a bulletin board type area on website people would need to invite at least 5 other people to join. Dave gave some examples of possible bulletin board type of areas for the website for social networking. He asked that next week we work on a proposal that could be presented to the GA about building a forum for interactive conversation that could be used for facilitating working groups, message boards, etc. What would be used? How would it work?

The question also came up about how to handle emails received through the website.

  • How do we answer these questions?
  • Can we and how do we build interactive hubs of OGSO working groups?
  • How does the Media group relate to other groups?
  • Can we have a stock answer to some of the basic questions that come in emails through the website?
  • Would direct questions from website be sent to the working groups and how would people feel about being contacted about their working group?
  • Listserv media discussion, how do you get the info to the right people and right working groups so that they are not getting wrong information?
  • How do you hold and build a natural hierarchy with Occupy and how to marry both concepts?
  • How to handle media with groups not represented. Media vs. group vs. individual.
  • Mo talked about making a movie with individuals from Occupy Greensboro telling what brought then to Occupy with photos and quotes to be put on website to tell our story. Tell also what we have accomplished.
  • What do we want to say to describe “us”. Possibly a list of proposed actions, past actions, we are the 99% logo or Occupy Together logos as descriptive.
  • How do we get to the large group and standardize our communications with contact with the outside world so media group has control? Question to GA, how would you like us to communicate with the outside world now? Next Sunday try to write a proposal and present to GA and have an open discussion.

Summary

  1. Talk about whether an interactive discussion site with structure is needed on website.
  2. Need to draft “about us” text for the website. How can we tell the public about us on the website in a way that respects our diversity and commitment to inclusion?
  3. Need to work on listserv and email management with other working groups.
  4. We made 12 people Facebook administrators.
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Collective Access/Anti-Oppression Working Group: March 3, 2012

March 3rd, 2012 · Posted by

Paul facilitated. Al was the Minutes-Taker.

We congradulated Todd on his NPR interview. Lynn saw to it lights were turned out in the bookshop to save electricity. We met from 5:30 until 7:00, and nothing was carried forward from the previous meeting.

Check-in.

Two topics were considered: (1) Al’s report and a discussion about the April 28 “Rule of Law” Conference, here in Greensboro; (2) Recent break-ins in Lynn’s neighborhood and the entire subject of what could a community do to protect itself and respond to crime with minimum or no police involvement.

New ideas that came up during #1 (above) were “Bagdadization;” a protest at the new sheriff’s department multi-million-dollar jail; community self-reliance.

During “Reflections,” Lynn brought up the question of why a second topic or any topic but the first seldom has a chance of being adequately discussed at Occupy Greensboro.

It was thought that if we were more conscientious about time and had a time-keeper, than topics further down the list would have their chance. We consented to try this strategy at our next meeting.

Respectfully considered,
AL

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General Assembly: February 28, 2012

February 28th, 2012 · Posted by

Announcements:

Please sign up to assist with Canvassing the Glenwood Community on Energy Issues! We need your help! Every Sunday (except when the weather is below 40 and raining) from 2-3:30 pm, meeting first at Glenwood Coffee and Books.

Proposals:

Proposal for Occupy Greensboro to co-sponsor an event on April 28, 2012 with Beloved Community Center entitled “Our Responsibility During the Collapse of Law.” This is a summit of local community members and organizations to discuss the impacts and responses to the militarization of the police. This event will feature Chicago-based civil rights attorney Flint Taylor.

It was decided due to the small group not to ask for consensus on the proposal at this time, although a temperature check was taken and all present were in support of the proposal. The proposal will be presented again at the next GA for further input.

Discussion:
Foreclosure Working Group requests help in the following areas to make the March 14, 2012 “Save Our Community, Fight Foreclosure” event a success (this was a long announcement so it was moved to the discussion area of the meeting):

  1. People are needed to flyer in the broader community
  2. We need committments for people to personally contact or phone at least 10 people and ask them to attend.
  3. Make announcements at church or civic groups about the events (contact the Foreclosure working group if you would like one of them to help you present this information)
  4. Keep sharing the Kickstarter campaign – more than $550 has been raised so far!
  5. Go to GGNA Thursday night (Lynn will attend)
  6. Go to Flatiron on Open Mic night an announce
  7. Flyer at the W-S protest on Wednesday and announce at the event

Several people volunteered for the various activities!

Open Discussion Topic: Is there something that Occupy can do to challenge the way that christianity and other religions are used in political discussions as a force for conservatism and work to make them more humane?
Many people commented and shared their viewpoints on this topic. In fact, during the course of the conversation everyone participated! Thom is going to start a discussion/working group around this topic.

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