Important Update from the Logistics/Finance Committee

At our regular meeting Tuesday night we discussed what the authorization process should look like as we head into spring – having pretty well finished reimbursing people for expenses at the VAG and a few other minor items flowing from it. The following is a brief summary of our consensus observations and conclusions.

• There is a lot of good activity already getting underway organized through committees and workgroups. Bill C-30 protest, Cortes Island campaign, Environmental Justice work and much more.
• These actions and budding campaigns do not appear to be hampered at all by the fact that both the GA and SC seldom if ever achieve quorum
• This lack of any official decision making body is probably not a problem for any committee or workgroup except ours. We are the only committee that cannot simply “do our own thing”  as we have responsibility for the financial and material resources of the movement as whole.
• We do not feel it is right in this situation to simply take the “safe” route and refuse to provide resources for any project, no matter how worthwhile, without “official” approval.
• We therefore decided that we will continue to commit to be being present every Tuesday night at 7 pm for Spokes Council at W2. If there are logistical or financial proposals/requests presented to our committee (beyond the routine matters handled at the committee level) we will discuss them with whoever else is there from Occupy Vancouver and see if there is consensus. And we will act on that consensus, whether that means loaning out materials we have in storage or writing a cheque.
• If there are more than a handful of people so a little organization is needed we will use the kind of informal consensus-style facilitation that has worked very well for our committee since the beginning of the occupation. If there are enough people to justify a full Spokes Council meeting we will present the proposals with our committee recommendations or comments. Extraordinary major or controversial decisions can be taken to a General or Special Assembly with recommendations from this meeting.

Our hope is that as activity picks up and people feel the need for greater coordination and joint decision making they will begin turning up again in significant numbers. We think this will be more likely if a simpler and more informal consensus model grows organically out of our work together and the lessons learned over the last 5 months or so.  

In any case, spring is on the way and we have a world to change. Come hell or high water the work of the logistics/finance committee will go on as always. We look forward to seeing many of you on Tuesday nights. If not next week, perhaps the one after. In the meantime keep up your spirits and your efforts. Occupy something!