Here's the Sonoma West article on the first Town Hall. The next Town Hall is scheduled for January 9th.


Occupy Sebastopol moves forward with town hall meeting:
More town meetings, actions planned for the New Year


https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...html?success=1
Posted: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 2:03 pm
by David Abbott Sonoma West Editor [email protected]


David Abbott
TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’
Barry Chertov (pictured left) discusses the changes brought
about by the Occupy movement. The mass protests have
been going on for nearly three months and many of the
citizens of Sebastopol have joined in.
More than 120 people attended a town hall meeting for Occupy Sebastopol at United Methodist church last Thursday evening for a two-hour "World Café" style discussion to determine where the local movement is going next.

The meeting was hosted by www.WaccoBB.net founder Barry Chertov and the Leadership Institute for Ecology and Economy.

Reverend Judith Stone introduced the forum, praising 700 protestors arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge and the instant communications that allowed images to be disseminated.

"It's wonderful to live in a time where we could see it immediately," she said.

The event to which Rev. Stone referred was a mass arrest of Occupy Wall Street protestors and police violence that took place on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 2.

The police action codified support for the movement, garnering international support and a series of Occupy actions that have been ongoing since the movement's inception in mid-September.

On Oct. 15, Santa Rosa had the largest per capita turnout for an Occupy event, drawing about 4,000 people to Santa Rosa City Hall.

On Nov. 5, Sebastopol's Downtown Plaza was occupied, but all that remains of that occupation is an information tent that is sporadically occupied during official park hours.

The town hall was seen as an extension and evolution of the movement.

Former Sebastopol councilmember and town hall organizer Larry Robinson introduced the forum, telling the gathering that "Listening is probably more important than speaking."

"Listening is how we connect the neurons," he said.

Robinson then turned the meeting over to "process professional" Joseph McIntyre, who moderated the forum.

McIntyre explained the process, directing the gathering into groups of four to discuss the question "what has the Occupy movement awakened in you?"

Answers to the first question included "hope," "aspiration" and "awakening."

Ben Browner, a 26-year-old Santa Rosa resident who has been involved in the movement since its inception, said that Occupy represents "a new system of governance" and "translocal learning nodes."

"We're educating ourselves," he said. "I've experienced Occupy to be like a college course in facilitation and governance. To be in an Occupy encampment is a fast track to transformation."

The second question addressed what was going to happen next, and for the next two hours the groups discussed the questions, regrouping every 15 minutes.

Browner said that while the movement may seem to go away over the winter, he expects another phase to begin in the spring.

"Through the winter there is growth happening underground," he said. "Like mushrooms coming to fruition, bodies will come up in the spring."

While some advocated becoming "hyper-local," organizing local resources in defiance of the national economy, others advocated for political action and "systemic changes," seeing those as natural outgrowths of the Occupy movement and the only way to affect real change.

Chertov said that political actions such as those ending "corporate personhood" and "money as free speech" are vital if the movement is to have any long-term effect.

"Money is not speech and corporations are not people," he said in a subsequent interview, adding that "the organizing principle is about redeeming our democracy."

He sees the next phase as a political one, with citizens bringing forth well-crafted local legislation - such as those created by several Occupy contingencies working in concert with local governments to direct public investment away from multinational banks and advocate for publicly-funded elections - in order to affect change from the ground up.

More town halls are being planned for the future and Chertov hopes to have one on Jan. 9, but it is still in the planning stages.

"I'm excited about the town hall aspect and broad-based action," he said. "Through the town hall, we can create concrete proposals. It's consciousness raising; getting people aware of the issues."

Chertov also expects major actions next May, when both the G-8 and NATO will meet in Chicago at the same time.

Robinson ended the Dec. 8 meeting by quoting Sophocles.

"Something is afoot here," he said. "We don't know where it's going to go, but we get to decide that."