The #OccupyPortland Interfaith Guild of Chaplains Dec. 15, 2011 Weekly Planning Meeting Location: Mt.

Tabor Presbyterian Church, 5441 SE Belmont St, Portland, Oregon Attendance: Tim Graves, Catherine Alder, Amanda Schueler, Sarah Morrigan 1. The City Hall 24/7 Occupy Vigil Earlier this week online votes were taken to officially endorse the vigil. It has been continuing for over two weeks, but the organizers are increasingly exhausted physically and requested wider participation. Sarah had set up an online scheduler on Wikispaces http://cityhalloccupyvigil.wikispaces.com - where anyone can put their names. This afternoon, the police had raided the vigil site (city hall plaza) and removed the pop-up canopy. The table and other items remain for the time being. The vigil will continue indefinitely until the city council either suspends or repeals the anti-camping ordinance. 2. Spokes Council The IGC participates in the Spokes Council through the Faith & Spirit Caucus (FSC). It has been discussed and decided last week that the IGC would send one rotating delegate to the Spokes Council to vote with the FSC. Spokes Council under current schedule meets on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays; this will change when the newly adopted meeting format takes effect and will make the Spokes Council twice a week. IGC members able to attend a Spokes Council meeting should announce their availability and intent in the Facebook Group at least a day in advance; the point of this is to have a different person representing the IGC to the FSC and Spokes at each meeting, and it does not have to be the same person rotation every week. 3. The Winter Solstice Peace-In As discussed and voted on earlier this week online, this event will now take place twice to allow for a wider participation. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 9-9:30 p.m. in front of the City Hall Thursday, Dec. 22, 5-5:30 p.m. at the Director Park Alethea Deva has taken charge of programming and coordination; however any input and help would be appreciated (may still need a musician, etc.). 4. #OccupyChristmasPDX Ten days to the event date, the challenge is to secure a location or locations. Possibilities are also explored to make this a progressive occupation, in which the event occupies different places throughout the day, and also a possibility of using a tent or tents on a private land (such as parking lot or farm) with owners consent, as it is highly unlikely that the Portland Bureau of Development Services would engage in any enforcement action on Christmas and we would be dismantling all structures before the morning of Dec. 26 in any case. Sarah will get the words out with committees (particularly Action), affinity groups (particularly the Tribes), etc. as they may have more contacts as well as people to help out with this event. Aside from this challenge, most everything would be very similar to the #OccupyThanksgivingPDX -- except that we prefer the Christmas event to be somewhere shielded from the possible bad weather. Food donations could be also diverted from Food Committee, if they are still getting donations on a daily basis (which is questionable at this time). 5. Other action items

We have decided to launch a letter campaign with an official IGC open letter to the mayor and city commissioners. Catherine will be drafting the letters, which would be discussed and marked up in the next regular meeting. 6. Visioning and long-term planning This will be worked on when we reconvene in January. With the St. Francis building the movement is regaining stability (or at least less volatility) that would allow for a longer-term planning and visioning. 7. Other stuff Friday, Dec. 16: Flash Mob at the Salmon Street Springs, The Biggest Occupation Ever at noon. Saturday, Dec. 17: Immigrant rights Mega Marcha at the Shemanski Park, 10 a.m. Next regular meeting will be on Thursday, January 5, 2012, as next week will be preempted by the Peace-In, and TaborSpace will be closed all week between Christmas and New Years Day.