[occupyaustin-it] Occupy Austin has no approval system

[Brian Overman]

This is my personal opinion on your meeting:

Occupy Austin has no approval system. If the IT team ever bothered to
participate in the GA's they would know that. The ONLY thing that requires
approval is anything that would restrict or dictate the actions of the
ENTIRE group ( i.e. agreements with the city or official affiliations with
other groups) and resource commitments (i.e. budget items for finance).

The system in place is the General Assembly which is at the heart of the
Occupy movement everywhere. And it is shameful that the IT department has
chosen to bypass it so quickly having never asked for anything from the GA
that was not approved. This "complicated" approval process you are speaking
of....have you ever been asked to provide anything to the GA? How
complicated is that? Have you ever asked for anything from the GA that you
have not received? Have you ever asked for ANYTHING from the GA for
OccupyApps? Not that I am aware of.

Is this because we asked if IT was working on anything that would be
considered for profit? Or be sold to other Occupations the other night? Did
you determine that OccupyApps would be something that is sold and therefore
try to remove it from the local movement so you didn't have to give
anything back to occupy Austin once you started selling it?

I will not stand silent while the IT to be used as an R&D department for
money making projects that are then taken out one by one while giving
nothing back to the local movement. Because, unlike you state, the GA does
not have an "approval" process, there is nothing that can be done about
those who have this abusive mentality, expect raise our voices. Occupy
Radio Austin is developed internally and then transferred to
OccupyRadio.fm.. OccupyApps is developed internally using our movements
resources and then in a small meeting moved out to the "national movement."

The phrase "national movement" seems to be a catch phrase meaning we can
sell it with no accountability to anyone on what we do with the money.

We need to see a commitment by our existing IT team that you are working
for the betterment of the local movement and not just using our best IT
resources to develop personal projects for profit.

Why are you guys adding to the divisiveness going on? Why have
you separated yourselves so completely from the OA community this entire
time? Your lack of dedication to the REAL movement on the ground, the
struggle of the people against a system in which their voice is silenced by
the likes of the money hungry is disappointing.

>From the beginning my feeling was that this entire occupation was a meet
and greet opportunity for like minded people to come together and work on
independent projects. People shouldn't be coming to the GA to ask for
permission to do things. They should be going out doing things. But the
said part is people aren't doing things on their own. They are claiming to
do them for OA until they milk all the resources they can for ideas that
never would have had any steam on their own, and then they are taking their
projects off into the private sector.

The GA is not a governing body. If you came you would know that. Almost
EVERY GA we have to tell someone...that is not a "proposal" it is a report
back or an announcement. Because they don't have to ask permission to do
things. If you came you would know that. But if you are going to make money
off of it, that money (or at least some amount of it) needs to come back to
the actual movement. THAT is what you don't want to get involved in, not
some "complicated approval process" that doesn't exist. So why not just
come out with the truth?

Quit saying you are volunteering your services to Occupy Austin's IT Group
if you are really just using your title as an IT person with Occupy Austin
to flesh out your personal projects. It hurts everyone. It hurts the
movement. It hurts the people who really care about Occupy Austin, and
hurts your reputation.

Good luck in all of your endeavors. . And if you are not in this for Occupy
Austin, please just leave now before you cause any more division within the
group. There are "national movements" out there for you to fill up your
bank account with.

Worst. Activists. Ever.
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