Hi everyone – unfortunately due to low attendance at the meeting on Saturday, we were unable to come to consensus on a couple issues that more people need to be involved in. I totally understand why attendance was low: Saturday was frigg’n awesome outside.

So, I want to post ideas here, please provide feedback and your thoughts, because we need to come to consensus by like Wednesday (or before Thursday at noon :) )

At the rally: we need to have a basic agenda, and here’s what I’m thinking:

We’ve asked people to show up at noon, I figure at 12:30pm we can start speakers. We should wrap up speakers around 2pm, then walk down to the waterfront to engage people in conversation, pass out literature, and generally do our best to educate the public about why this is important to them. At 3pm, we can end up at Terry Shrunk Plaza to discuss our next steps going forward.

Our biggest variable is the number of people who will be in attendance. We’ve gone through the process of putting together a big event: we’ve been promoting it everywhere, contacting the media, putting up flyers, reaching out to community groups and talking to people. Though: what will our results be???

You can call me pessimistic, but I’m expecting somewhere between 25 and 150 people, but there could be many, many more. I think this will be due to the holiday weekend and general awesome weather to expect, but unless we have a big media showing at the press conference today, I think our numbers will be low. If the numbers are on the lower end, then managing the crowd will be easy. I’d like us to collectively pick out a Master of Ceremonies to do the opening talk by 12:30pm and bring the crowd together, and then call up additional speakers who have signed up (did I mention I’ll bring a sign-up sheet?), then open up the stage and have people line up for an open-mic until 2pm.

If we end up having several hundred people, then I happily will MC the event unless there is an objection, because my name is all over this event (specifically: I’m concerned that if there is a liability, like punks smashing things, I’m likely to be held accountable). Though, I’m also happy to pass this responsibility to anyone who want to volunteer in the comments below!

Volunteers - everyone that’s showed up so far has been very mellow and awesome, but we could use a hand keeping an eye out for any trouble makers (one or two folks who don’t mind getting involved in a situation). We could also use a volunteer to collect cash donations. Depending upon the size of the crowd, we might come up with other roles, so a general volunteer coordinator should also be appointed. I’m thinking this volunteer coordinator should be YOU, so please reply below if you accept this responsibility.

That's all I've got, if you have any ideas or if you think I'm totally wrong about everything ever, please post below. The time to discuss these things is now, so write your comment now or forever hold your peace!