IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT RE THIS LISTSERV - PLEASE READ THIS

[OSC]

Occupy Sonoma County is no longer operating as a group.  As the OSC Earth Action listserv moderator, I am planning to migrate this listserv over to the Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (SoCoCAN!) listserv, and I have consensus from SoCoCAN! as well as OSC to do that.  

I will be continuing the Earth Action In The News newsletter as SoCoCAN! so you will still be getting that newsletter, but on the SoCoCAN! listserv instead of this one.

For the many folks here who are already on the SoCoCAN! listserv, this change will mean fewer emails for you.

For the folks not on that listserv, that will mean more emails.  The SoCoCAN! listserv is a lively hub of discussion and activism with posts daily.  To adjust to this increase of emails I suggest that you switch to the Digest version in your preferences, or contact me if you want me to do that for you.

Of course you have the option to leave.  I could consider creating a bcc mailing list just for my newsletter if there is a demand for that.  I hope that you will stay long enough to check out the SoCoCAN! listserv because there is a lot of good activism happening there.

Little by little OSC is closing down, but the Facebook and Twitter pages will be the last to go because I have built a huge following there and I love having a place for my social change activism online that goes beyond climate change.  

The OSC website will remain online as long as we have money to pay the hosting fees.  That is our only expense now and we still have a little money in our bank account.

Nothing bad happened between us at OSC.  I have included the report that I gave at the SoCoCAN! meeting that is a succinct version, from my perspective, of what happened to our group. 

I will post this announcement a few times before changing everyone over to the SoCoCAN! listserv.  You don't have to do anything.  I will be switching everyone over automatically.  I haven't set a date for that yet, but it will be in a few weeks.

I will be continuing the May Meat Challenge campaign and I will continue to participate in Plastic Free July; our two annual campaigns will continue in some new form.

Before this listserv closes, feel free to share memories, stories, photos... my report at the SoCoCAN! meeting felt like a eulogy.  I am a little sad to say goodbye to OSC, but everything changes and it's time to move on.

Thank you to everyone for being here and for the awesome work that you are doing to make the world a better place.

It has been an honor to be your listserv moderator.  

Love,

Emerald

Here is my report and proposal that I made at the SoCoCAN! meeting earlier today:

Report and Proposal from Occupy Sonoma County by Emerald

In March 2020 we canceled our teach-in with Susan Lamont on abuses of power by law enforcement in Sonoma County.  In May 2020 we canceled our teach-in with Terry Harrison on regenerative agriculture and carbon farming.  We also had teach-ins planned for July and November that year, and put things on hold waiting for the COVID quarantine to end.  None of us wanted to have meetings or teach-ins on zoom so we waited for it to pass.  

Occupy Sonoma County put on 6 events a year for seven years, including the Sonoma County Climate Activist Summit in July 2017 that drew 73 people representing 24 local climate groups that became SoCoCAN! a few months later.  We were a very active group with meetings every Monday, issuing press releases, organizing campaigns, writing literature, building our website and social media... we did a lot.  We organized three big March Against Monsanto protests that drew over a thousand people and took over 4th Street and Courthouse Square, and we put on two more March Against Monsanto protests as part of a global movement against GMOs.  The ballot initiative that banned GMO crops in Sonoma County in 2016 was not our campaign, but it would not have passed without us because several of us dropped everything and worked full time on that campaign.  Our events were well-attended and our teach-ins can still be viewed on our Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmJoCP-ePUTPWNgHZwtBelg.

Our last event was a jam-packed teach-in with Daniel Solnit on Effective Strategies For Climate Change in January 2020.  Many of you were there.  

Since that time I have continued our two annual campaigns online and kept us on top of our work supporting Measure P and independent oversight of law enforcement with regular consensus with my group by email.  

By the time that the quarantine passed everyone had gotten busy with other things.  Two people from our small group joined the board at the Peace & Justice Center and I was more focused on SoCoCAN!  We all thought that we would come back together as a group and resume where we left off but we were all so busy it was hard to even find a time to meet.  Nothing bad happened between us - we are all still friends.  But our group is not a group anymore so I have been collaborating with them to end our group but keep and share all the resources that we built.

Some of you are aware that I put together a weekly newsletter called Earth Action In The News as part of the OSC listserv.  I would like to continue doing the newsletter and I propose that I now do that newsletter as SoCoCAN!  If that is approved, I will announce it to the OSC listserv, and then migrate that listserv over to ours.  Half the people are on both listservs and the remaining people will have a chance to decide if they want to join our listserv.  If you are not familiar with my newsletter and want a chance to check it out we could do this as a trial until the next meeting, but I would like to close down the OSC listserv and migrate those people over to ours.

Does anyone object to me continuing my newsletter as SoCoCAN! and is it okay with everyone here for me to bring the OSC listserv over to ours?

This proposal reached unanimous consensus along with many words of encouragement and support.

[OSC]

Occupy Sonoma County is no longer operating as a group.  As the OSC Earth Action listserv moderator, I am planning to migrate this listserv over to the Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (SoCoCAN!) listserv, and I have consensus from SoCoCAN! as well as OSC to do that.  

I will be continuing the Earth Action In The News newsletter as SoCoCAN! so you will still be getting that newsletter, but on the SoCoCAN! listserv instead of this one.

For the many folks here who are already on the SoCoCAN! listserv, this change will mean fewer emails for you.

For the folks not on that listserv, that will mean more emails.  The SoCoCAN! listserv is a lively hub of discussion and activism with posts daily.  To adjust to this increase of emails I suggest that you switch to the Digest version in your preferences, or contact me if you want me to do that for you.

Of course you have the option to leave.  I could consider creating a bcc mailing list just for my newsletter if there is a demand for that.  I hope that you will stay long enough to check out the SoCoCAN! listserv because there is a lot of good activism happening there.

OSC is closing down, but the Facebook and Twitter pages will be the last to go because I have built a huge following there and I love having a place for my social change activism online that goes beyond climate change.  

The OSC website will remain online as long as we have money to pay the hosting fees.  That is our only expense now and we still have a little money in our bank account.

Nothing bad happened between us at OSC.  I have included the report that I gave at the SoCoCAN! meeting that is a succinct version, from my perspective, of what happened to our group. 

I have posted this announcement a few times and will be changing everyone over to the SoCoCAN! listserv within the next week.  You don't have to do anything.  I will be switching everyone over automatically.

I will be continuing the May Meat Challenge campaign and I will continue to participate in Plastic Free July; our two annual campaigns will continue in some new form.

Feel free to share memories, stories, photos... my report at the SoCoCAN! meeting felt like a eulogy.  I am a little sad to say goodbye to OSC, but everything changes and it's time to move on.

Thank you to everyone for being here and for the awesome work that you are doing to make the world a better place.

It has been an honor to be your listserv moderator.  

Love,

Emerald

Here is my report and proposal that I made at the SoCoCAN! meeting on July 29: