First, I want to shout "SOLIDARITY!" out to Melborne. Regroup, reform, repeat!
Second, Occupy St Louis is going well. Small-group dynamics aren't horrible and the Facilitators are doing good work with the GA's. I got to speak at length with the main daily Facilitator and let him know that I was very impressed with the work he was doing. There is a sense of 'moar equal' coming from some folks, but nothing truely serious or dangerous to the local movement.
More after teh sexually active cursive ampersands...
One of the issues raised was that there should be scheduled daily marches on BoA, from 3pm until 4pm. This grew into a discussion about not having a set target for 3pm marches, with 'targets' being voted on shortly before the marches start. this went up for a vote and there were no blockers.
Second issue that was raised was NOT using funds from the movement's coffers to buy hot food every night. This caused a major discussion, largely from the food committee who had passed a resolution to close the food tents after dark to reduce food-based confrontations. Discussion and amending the resolution took the rest of the GA. At the end, consensus was not met and the resolution will continue to be hammered out until everyone's equally displeased. ;)
It was fun seeing folks deal with the concept of GA. I know that many of them had been through them before and they have been running for a while but it seemed like some were feeling their frustrations with doing things 'by committee'. Progress is being made and things are still moving forward.
Small group dynamics can make or break a movement. I'm glad to see relative patience is winning the day and folks seem to be getting some measure of rest.