The Collated WorkGroup Suggestion Collection

Hey gang, we've got a BUNCH of great ideas here, but they're so scattered around the forum that I'm having trouble parsing them all. I'm going to attempt to gather all the workgroup/committee suggestions here.

Also note that this evening, the Tech Committee will be meeting via Skype tonight to discuss a new website with greater functionality, a potential online voting system, and other geek stuff. We know that this forum is barely tolerable and really want to improve communication and transparency across the country for all people involved in this movement. People are calling for organization; I think that if we can maintain a semblance of order in this forum while we wait for the new, better website to come online, we'll be just fine. Let's not stress out, though, guys. It will happen, but it can't be instantaneous.

So here we go: (WG = WorkGroup)


Steering WG: this will be the leadership that will facilitate the flow of information and processes between the various teams.

Administrative Support WG These guys will help out with membership list maintenance, official and unofficial paperwork (aka 'thank you' letters and such) and otherwise loose ends

Occupy Relations WG This will help organize and maintain good relations with all of the Occupy movements around the country; it will help them to get involved as much or as little as they like.

Philadelphia Venue WG

Delegate Election WG

Delegate Transportation WG

Delegate Food and Lodging WG

Public Relations WG Oversees the following committees:

Fact checking and research WG. This committee will be in-charge of checking facts about the misinformation being put out by the opposition and also research facts that support our draft charter of demands. Other areas of research would be hard data showing the ties between politicians and corporations (campaign contributions/previous employment, votes on bills benefiting the contributing corporations etc)

Web/Blog WG. This committee will consist of writers and web developers (Could be two separate committees). The data and facts gathered by the research committee will be turned into blog posts by the writers. Writers will also help writing scripts for you tube videos. Establish a website/blog using wordpress with buddy press that is compatible with all browsers and has a mobile version. Also build a searchable database of all facts and numbers uncovered by the research team. You will need people with wordpress experience, Knowledge of CSS etc.

Graphics WG. This team will make motivational posters and other funny graphics from the data collected, would be great to have a cartoonist on this team. ("Art Committee" also suggested)

Youtube WG. This team will help with production of the videos from scripts provided by the writers and will establish a Youtube channel.

Facebook WG. This team will run the Facebook page. They will not only add links to the blog posts and Youtube videos from our website but will also upload graphics. They will use the data from the research team to create content like quiz, factoids etc to encourage engagement.

Twitter WG. Create tweets from data, tweet links from the blog and also attack tweets with misinformation from the opposition.

G+ WG. Engage the G+ community, add links, upload graphics and videos.
Reddit Committee. Upload graphics and videos.

Media Contact WG: Issue press releases and write letters to editors and be he spokespeople of the group.

Non-Profit Corporation WG

Group Voting and Polling WG

Archive WG They could send out a weekly newsletter with a summary of what has happened during the week (my note: to whom? Occupy GA's? The press?)

Legal WG

Finance WG

Grammar and Composition (of the Declaration) WG

Global/Historical Precedent WG: find the best systems in the world and emulate them, and share them not only among ourselves in the USA but all over the world. Think about it: an actual knowledge base of what works in the real world and what doesn't. Something countries and individuals could reference complete with mini-history lessons.

Fundraising WG

Grassroots WG This will help to get NON-OCCUPY people involved (i.e. the folks who can't or don't want to protest in the traditional Occupy manner)

That's all I could find for now. Please note that several of these committees (Finance, e.g.) are already nascent. Suggestions for others? Please add them here.

Tech work group Skype conference call, where can I join that call? What time? Where does one submit suggestions on this very relevant structure they'll be creating?

I'd combine some of these workgroups you mention, put fundraising under finance, twitter, facebook, YouTube all under p/r, that type of thing. In this way there is one single synchronized message.

DJequalityNash wrote:Tech work group Skype conference call, where can I join that call? What time? Where does one submit suggestions on this very relevant structure they'll be creating?

I'd combine some of these workgroups you mention, put fundraising under finance, twitter, facebook, YouTube all under p/r, that type of thing. In this way there is one single synchronized message.

DJ, here is the Tech Forum:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Contact Teri Bidwell, who is organizing the Skype call at 7pm Eastern.

I will organize my post above as suggested, though I think that Fundraising maybe should go under Marketing instead of Finance? Thoughts?

Is there a 501(c)(3) work Group ? If yes, where is it? If no, I would like to suggest it to be a Work Group.
This is a top priority to negate liability, solicit funds and obtain non-profit tax exempt status ASAP.

Is there a 501(c)(3) work Group ? If yes, where is it? If no, I would like to suggest it to be a Work Group.
This is a top priority to negate liability, solicit funds and obtain non-profit tax exempt status ASAP.

I'm merging this with the Collated Committee thread so that we all can see what's being suggested. I've added the suggestion to the list above.

Molly Carmody wrote:

Is there a 501(c)(3) work Group ? If yes, where is it? If no, I would like to suggest it to be a Work Group.
This is a top priority to negate liability, solicit funds and obtain non-profit tax exempt status ASAP.

I'm merging this with the Collated Committee thread so that we all can see what's being suggested. I've added the suggestion to the list above.

Thanks Molly! How do we join a Committee? And where are they located?

We're working on that right now! We're working on the website, forum, etc. It's a long process, LOL.

I'm going to add:

Philadelphia Venue Committee

Transportation of Delegates Committee

Philadelphia Delegate Food and Lodging Committee

We should add a Delegate Election Committee to come up with rules to select Delegates to the Convention.

BrenW wrote:We should add a Delegate Election Committee to come up with rules to select Delegates to the Convention.

Would you say that it would be different from the "Voting and Polls Committee"?

Molly Carmody wrote:

BrenW wrote:We should add a Delegate Election Committee to come up with rules to select Delegates to the Convention.

Would you say that it would be different from the "Voting and Polls Committee"?

I assumed the Voting and Polls Committee was for the voting and polls we do here to decide stuff. If it's for putting together the framework for electing Delegates to the Convention, then count me in for it! However I would suggest ou change the name to reflect they are in charge of coming up with a mechanism by which the Delegates are chosen, such as Delegate Election Committee. It seems more precise. By the way, good work keeping us all moving forward you guys, I know it's a lot of work and you are constantly under attack, so know that I appreciate what you do!

BrenW wrote:
I assumed the Voting and Polls Committee was for the voting and polls we do here to decide stuff. If it's for putting together the framework for electing Delegates to the Convention, then count me in for it! However I would suggest ou change the name to reflect they are in charge of coming up with a mechanism by which the Delegates are chosen, such as Delegate Election Committee. It seems more precise. By the way, good work keeping us all moving forward you guys, I know it's a lot of work and you are constantly under attack, so know that I appreciate what you do!

I see the difference; I'll add it to the list above!

Molly will there be a need for an Administrative Support Committee (basically a good old-fashioned Secretarial Pool! ), or will each Committee be handling it's own mailings?

I am also wondering if the 870 Delegates will be snailmailed letters, informational brochures, tickets, etc? If yes, then volunteer secretaries will be needed to wordprocess and merge letters and envelopes, and to maintain databases of the delegates snailmail addresses, phone & email contacts.

Also, when this group has been established as a 501(c)(3) NPO, will secretaries be needed to type and stuff envelopes for fundraising mailers, and maintain a contacts database for such a purpose (most likely ALL the members of the99delegation organization, not just the delegates themselves) ? And also for general correspondence, thank you cards and letters, etc?

aspiesmom wrote:Molly will there be a need for an Administrative Support Committee (basically a good old-fashioned Secretarial Pool! ), or will each Committee be handling it's own mailings?

I am also wondering if the 870 Delegates will be snailmailed letters, informational brochures, tickets, etc? If yes, then volunteer secretaries will be needed to wordprocess and merge letters and envelopes, and to maintain databases of the delegates snailmail addresses, phone & email contacts.

Also, when this group has been established as a 501(c)(3) NPO, will secretaries be needed to type and stuff envelopes for fundraising mailers, and maintain a contacts database for such a purpose (most likely ALL the members of the99delegation organization, not just the delegates themselves) ? And also for general correspondence, thank you cards and letters, etc?

Golly I hadn't even thought of that. Great idea; I'll add it above. (The idea of the 501c3 hasn't even begun being debated yet, by the way. There are people who feel very strongly on both sides about this issue. I'm hoping that when the new website gets going, we'll have a way to properly debate and vote on something this important.)

I agree, great idea on the Administrative Work Group, I hadn't thought of that one either.

On the Work Groups, one thing that I'd just suggest is that we call them Work Groups or Working Groups, maybe Working Committees, something like that, but I think we want to avoid calling them committees. Committees calls to mind corporate structure, these are the people's work groups. I'm gonna call this wg's, for this post, but I'm open to something else, and even committee if that's what is decided.

Also I went through the list with like a fine tooth comb and here is what I came up with. It sounds long, forgive me, I have an administrative background, which just wants to help us avoid confusion as we move forward. So here's my list of suggestions/additions for the list.

I'm not sure we need a Coordinating WG. Groups will be responsible for executing their own work, or directing it to the group which should implement it, and I think they can just coordinate with each other. Then again, as I'm thinking about it, I guess they won't necessarily have posting privileges in each other's wg, and will need somewhere else to communicate with them. SO yes, maybe a coordinating forum where the different wg's can consult with each other as needed, and which each wg must assign a person to keep an eye on for any incoming communications. Moderators could also alert a wg if a request for a liaison with that wg has been made. That makes sense.

Nonprofit Corporation should probably be under Legal?

How about making Transportation, Food & Lodging, and Venue all as subgroups under Convention WG? (keep Delegate Election WG separate)

Change Name of Group Voting and Polling Committee to Quorum Rules for the People's Work Groups?

Make a separate wg for Quorum Rules for Delegation?

Change Grammar and Composition to Declaration Drafting Committee?

Change Global/Historical Precedent Committee to The People's Universal Think Tank?

Combine Occupy Relations with Grassroots under Community Outreach, with subforums for Grassroots Outreach, Occupations Outreach (or Outreach to Existing Occupations), and an additional subforum for each state's Community Outreach Team, which will be responsible for executing all outreach efforts in their states and implementing/executing the delegates' elections?

Add a Website Facilitation Team for moderators and maintenance crew?

Add a Tech Team WG?

Add an Admin Team WG as suggested.

Change the Archival Committee to a Newsletter Team WG under Public Relations. I'd send a newsletter out either biweekly or monthly to everyone who ever signs up in any way to the site. Probably monthly would be best, for now at least.

The Fundraising wg should be separate, as you suggested, yes, I agree. Too big and ongoing a project which wouldn't attract the right participants under the umbrella of Finance wg.

Marketing I'd like to just call Public Relations. We're not marketing anything, we're just relating with the public. Fine line, again just don't want to use terms with corporate connotations if we can avoid it.

Under Public Relations all of the following I suggest, close to what you had, just a couple of changes.
Media Outreach and Press Releases
Newsletter Team
Web Content (website)
Social Networking (twitter, facebook, etc)
Video Production (youtube, etc)
Art & Graphics (team ready for use as needed)
Youth Outreach (good idea)
Literature Handout Prep (Fliers, Brochures, etc)
Presentations Prep (Presentations of the People's Delegation (or whatever we call it) for in person usage)
Public Relations Research & Fact Checking (for P/R use only, Issue Debate wg's will have to do their own homework)

We're probably still forgetting a few things, lol...

Work Groups for every Broad Issue Area? They can have more specific subforums as they see fit. I once counted 12 broad areas, lemme see-

Main Street Economy (Tax issues, fed issues, monetary policy issues, subsidy issues, budgetary issues, labor union issues)
Election Reform
Revocation of Cit United (I saw as separate from Election Reform)
Jobs and Infrastructure (I saw as separate from Main STreet Economy)
Civil Rights (Gay marriage, Immigration, Dicrimination)
Education
War, Military and Foreign Relations
Agriculture
Environment
Healthcare
Social Nets (Social Security, Unemployment, Disability and Welfare Programs)
Government Program Oversight (Issues regarding other govt. programs like homeland security, cia, fda, fema, drug and weapons dept, etc)


Next we need to discuss quorum rules for all of these workgroups...

rofl, ikr?

DJequalityNash wrote:rofl, ikr?

LOL. I'll put up the changes tomorrow, when I have the energy.

I'm really impressed with the new organization! You obviously did go over the messages with a fine tooth comb D.J! You have fantastic organizational skills! :-)

I want to work on the research and writing aspects please. I'm a powerful writer (so I'm told) and I'm good at editing and rewriting for better comprehension.

You can get a lot of good research information to support this movement from the Zietgiest movement organization. (zietgiestmovement.com)

Rewriting for public consumption is definitely going to be an important task, Ray, as is research.

Molly, head's a little clearer this morning. Hopefully I get these thoughts up before you change anything.

Just thought we'd go agead and organize them by category, as we may want them to appear on the finished website.

Forum Topics
(Universal Must Read Work Groups or Forums Listed First)
Announcements
Polls
Goals and Objectives
Work Group Quorum Rules
(Next Section for Legislative Policy Drafting)
Drafting of the Declaration
Policy Drafting-
s/f's as applicable 12-20 different policy debate areas
People's Research Work Group
(next Section is for Delegation and Convention Planning)
Election of the Delegation
Delegation Quorum Rules
Convention Planning-
s/f Convention Venue
s/f Lodging and Meals
s/f Travel
(Next Section for Community Outreach, P/R, and Fundraising)
Community Outreach-
s/f Building Grassroots Participation
s/f Outreach to Existing Occupation Groups
s/f Youth Outreach Workgroup
s/f Literature Prep (for preparing fliers, handouts, brochures, etc)
s/f Presentation Prep Team (planning presentations to be done in person)
s/f State Community Outreach Teams (1 for each state)
Public Relations-
s/f Media Outreach and Press Releases
s/f Web Content (website)
s/f Newsletter Team
s/f Social Networking Team (facebook, twitter, etc)
s/f Video Production Team (Youtube, presentations, etc)
s/f Art & Graphics Team
Fundraising
Fact-Checking Team (for assisting P/R, Outreach & Fundraising)
(Last Workgroup section is for Administrative Teams)
Work Group Communications (for communicating between work groups)
Website Facilitation Team(for moderator team and maintenance crew)
Tech Team (ongoing programming etc)
Administrative Team (as needed for projects)
Legal Team
Financial Team
(Final section for Public Forums)
Legislative Policy Open Debate
P/R, Outreach & Fundraising Open Debate
Quorum Rules Open Debate
Delegation & Convention Open Debate
State Open Debate-
s/f's by state

I did move some things I had under P/R to Community Outreach, thinking they'd rather prepare their own presentation and handout materials. Moved Fact-checking off by itself to serve all other work group areas except for Legislative Policy Drafting, they all need to do their own homework. I didn't bother listing all the issue areas under Legislative Policy Drafting, either we can use the 12 or so broad policy areas I had put up last night, or we can go with 20 points already there or start over determining how to break that all down. My focus was on process, rather than issues. There are probably some necessary subforums under Fundraising, but I wouldn't really know, never been involved in fundraising before.

I do realize this is crazy big, especially with 2 sets of state forums, bringing us up to probably around 150 or so separate forums once you include the subforums, but I think it needs to be crazy big. Just not crazy unorganized. If we keep them all properly grouped, it won't seem so big and crazy.

Can we, do you think, kind of reorganize what we have here? Would this forum platform support this? I'm not saying go ahead and do that, just wondering if it's even possible here or if we need to wait till a new site is ready. We kind of will need an ETA, so that if it's too far out we know we gotta go ahead and get some things accomplished here without waiting. I think we gotta figure out rules of quorum next.

But I probably won't bug you guys again until at least this evening! Sorry for the excessive input, just trying to get things streamlined so we can make effective and democratic progress going forward.

Molly Carmody wrote:

Archive WG They could send out a weekly newsletter with a summary of what has happened during the week (my note: to whom? Occupy GA's? The press?)

Newsletter could be to the general membership with an opt out option. This would be a digest of everything that has happened during the week.

DJ,

I think it would be more labor efficient to reorganize the forum when we move to the new site, rather than reorganize it now and then move everything again. Not that we should stop what we are already doing in that area. I suggest we keep improving the reorganization plan until we move and can implement it efficiently.

I agree, completely, I hope I didn't imply we should start revamping everything, if so, not really what I intended. At the same time, if it's going to take weeks, then there are certain things we'd best just take care of here, whether or not we have a clear and efficient way of doing so.

Yer totally right, to revamp everything here for the short term would only add to the confusion.

DJ, I like that organizational structure. I would suggest that the Community Outreach WG be populated with people actively involved in their local GA, since they are on the ground in the communities. And we should be mindful to attach a sticky at the top of each closed forum with a list of the members of that WG and links for those not a member of the forum to connect by PM or email (whichever the WG member prefers) to each WG member.

DJ that looks like a good working structure. I'll make sure admin sees your post. I know that while this forum is temporary while we wait for our new home, we need to make the forum immediately understandable, so that people can go to their particular volunteer area to start work. Right now it's just a mishmash.