Re: What to do with the money
occup...@gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 25, 2012, at 12:39 AM, Educated Austin Alliance <edu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey yall,
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> Sounds like someone out there is working on a Finance proposal for an upcoming GA.
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> If that is not you, then please ignore. If you are, thought some of this might help:
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> I have a concern with giving the money to a lawyer because that positions OA actions towards civil disobedience. While OA supports civil disobedience, the core values do include "when necessary." The money may need to be used for a direct action that involves materials like yarn, rather than bail bonds. Imagine what we could do with $2k of yarn!
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> Also, I just can't shake this sense that we are "out-sourcing the problem" to the working groups, making them solve the problem individually. I feel like we would also need to suggest some viable solutions for them to get funding for OA projects.
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> So a proposal might be something like:
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> + The Finance Working Group (WG) is free to continue researching setting up a non-profit and helping other WGs with that goal.
> + OAs money will be converted into X [some non-currency system]
> + Individual WGs can then acquire funding by A, B or C.
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> There were/are several ideas for X [some non-currency system]
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> 1) ATEN: I think this would involve us donating to ATEN in exchange for a block of hours to be spent in their system, coupled with training sessions on how to get involved. It sounds lofty, and I have some doubts if it will work. The translation value is not always easy, and we would still have to raise money for resources.
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> 2) Kickstarter: This seems like a good solution to me. It does require a computer & internet. OA would want to encourage Media/Twitter WG to make regular announcements about WG's Kickstarter pages, and likely someone should run teach-ins on "How to Kickstart a WG".
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> 3) An idea that came up in OASouthBy fundraising was a TXT fundraising campaign. This would involve getting a special OA phone number that people could SMS (text) a message to and $1 would be charged to their account. Lots of people could sign up for alerts from this number. Each working group would then prepare txt messages to go out to prospective sponsors. I don't have a clear picture of how all the details work for this, but it is an interesting idea.
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> 4) Phrog suggested a proposal for an alternative currency. These can work and have been done in many places. I do know how to set these up. It would take 1 person or a small group to start a company that provides a currency-based voting system; lets call it the Exchange. OA money would be invested in the Exchange. The Exchange would distribute the money at a GA, then the money could be "cashed out" of the exchange at the end of the GA. The Exchange is not liable for GA activities because they are providing a service, available to anyone. The GA is a client who can decide to use their money any way they want. This would absolve the money holder of any liability, but of course OA would still have to trust the Exchange to not go bankrupt or disappear with the funds.
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> Let me know where I can provide more details to help this process reach its best possible conclusion. Of course, I support whatever the GA does.
> Bishop Z
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