Unconference on Community and Bioregional Resilience

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What could make a real difference for resilience and sustainability in the Eugene area and the Cascadia bioregion?

Bring your ideas, questions and projects about local resilience and sustainability to our self organizing “Open Space” Unconference

Saturday March 31, 2012
9:00am-5:00pm
City of Eugene Campbell Community Center
155 High St., Eugene, OR 97401

**Volunteers and food donations are needed! Please contact Lauren at asprooth@gmail.com if available **

This will NOT be your ordinary conference. Open Space events like this are participatory and self-organizing: YOU will make it the exciting gathering it will be. There will be no official speakers and no predetermined workshops or panels. Anyone who wants to create a session for any topic related to the question above will announce it in the first 30-45 minutes. Then we’ll just get on with it. We’ll be all together at the start and the finish – but in the middle we’ll each be doing exactly what we really want to be doing. And it will probably add up to something amazing.

Come to learn, share, explore, collaborate or organize around whatever has heart and meaning for you. We can make breakthroughs together because our diverse passions, group knowledge, meaningful conversations and new collaborations will make us far more smart and effective together than we are separately.

But this is important: Only attend if community resilience and sustainability are important issues for you. You may have more questions than answers – or more answers than questions – but it is your passion that counts here. This conference will ONLY succeed because of your energy and the energy of everyone else who comes. The participants will make this the thrilling event it is going to be.

SO please come if you find yourself thinking about things like…

• building local food systems…
• launching community currencies or credit clearing systems…
• nurturing the expansion of gift economies…
• developing peer-to-peer sharing and barter systems…
• strengthening your community’s “buy local” dynamics…
• promoting sustainable, sensible transportation systems…
• advancing local energy systems, local manufacturing, local entertainment, local celebrations…
• nurturing stronger relations among neighbors…
• reaching beyond the choir through media, community leaders, demonstrations, the arts, occupations…
• developing indicators of community well-being…
• bringing more heart, spirit, feeling, movement and vitality to sustainability activities…
• catalyzing conversations about how to get our needs met and live richer, more enjoyable lives without money…
• any other activity, idea or question that could strengthen the sovereignty, sustainability and vitality of our cities and towns…

Do you find yourself excited about things on this list? Then come to this Open Space conference March 31. We need you. We need each other. Your interest, your knowledge, your questions could make all the difference. And we need to make a real difference soon…

* Your participation in this event has been paid for by prior donors to the Co-Intelligence Institute. Instead of paying us back for a service rendered, you may pay it forward to help us to provide such services to others. If you wish to pay it forward, you may do it online or at the event.

Check out the event Facebook page here!

For more information about “Open Space” events, see here

Occupy Eugene Medical Re-Occupies Downtown

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: press@occupyeugenemedia.org
occupyeugenemedia.org, @OccupyEugene

Occupy Eugene Medical Re-Occupies Downtown

Occupy Medical is on the move again. Beginning February 5th, Eugene Occupy Medical Team will offer free medical services downtown. The Occupy Eugene Medical Team will be setting up a tent in front of the Federal Building at 7th and Pearl to serve the community. The Medical tent will be staffed by volunteers from various branches of the medical committee: doctors, nurses, EMTs, and alternative care professionals. Occupy Medical is open every Sunday 12-5pm.

This press release is from the Communications Committee of Occupy Eugene that has been empowered to speak on behalf of the larger Occupy Eugene body.

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Also available in : Spanish

Who owns Lane County’s Forests?

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Conversations on the Forest

Who owns Lane County’s forests, and how have they changed over time? How does forest management, on both public and private land, benefit and impact Lane County residents? Can we sustain the forest, and all its many benefits?

The forest is central to our regional identity, ecology, and economy. Competing public and private interests have driven growth, decline, and political division for decades. In a series of five discussions, join public interest forester Roy Keene, and ArchitectureWeek editor-in-chief Kevin Matthews as they explore the past, present, and future of our forests with a depth and openness rarely seen.

When: First MondaysFebruary 6, March 5, April 2, May 7, June 4

6:00-7:30pm

Where: Cozmic Pizza, 199 W. 8th Ave. in Eugene

Free Class: Understanding the Constitution

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Professor John Davidson from the UO will be leading, however it is less of a lecture and more of an interactive discussion.

This weekly class will be held with John Davidson from the UO. The intention is to break the Constitution down so that average citizen can understand what it means and what it means in their lives. Thinking about how a governing document might serve the People better, what mistakes and victories throughout history got us to where we are now, what our rights are to change laws and legislation, and how we might go about making our ideas for change a reality? Any and all ideas for discussion around this topic are welcome. We expect a variety of teachers and community members to be leading these weekly classes as they continue. Open to the public. If you would like to submit ideas for future classes, please post to the forum at: http://occupyeugenemedia.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=551

Where: Growers Market Eugene, 454 Willamette St.

When: Sundays, 12pm-3pm

12.31 OE News Years Eve Extravaganza!

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Saturday night at 8:30 New Year’s Eve come one come all and meet up in Free Speech Plaza for an “opposites” march.

Get dressed up as 1%ers out for a night on the town!

They will be carrying silly signs saying, “Greed is good” or “Save the Economy; Shop til you Drop” or “the Family that Shops Together Stays Together” or whatever.

Periodically, these 1%ers will shout out their Resolutions for the New Year “As CEO I promise to double my salary this year and increase stock earnings by 50%. In order to do this, I promise to cut all employee salaries by 30% and stop carrying emmployee health care”. The march will hit the downtown hot spots before marchers go off to revel with the 99%ers.

Occupy Eugene members will meet at Occupy V (1274 7th ave) at 10:00 to help bring in the New Year

Entertainment will be provided

Bring snacks and drinks to share

Eugene’s Homeless Back on the Streets for Christmas

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For 75 days, in one of the longest running occupations in the US, Occupy Eugene provided a legal place to sleep, three meals daily, professional medical assistance, job skills trainings, and most importantly, a community for hundreds of homeless folks in Eugene. Simultaneously, we have explored with the city how Eugene might better serve homeless people.

This week, the city of Eugene unilaterally shut down the site at Washington Jefferson Park, and after two nights of the Wheeler Pavilion being open to provide beds for those coming from the Occupation, folks are back on the street again, just in time for Christmas.

Occupy Eugene appreciates that the city has put forth additional funds, created a task force with seats for homeless people, and expanded the car camping program by adding sites and allowing tents. However, these efforts do not add up to the far greater support that was available at the Occupy Eugene site, and none of the city’s efforts are happening on a community basis among equals, which was more respectful than a government handout.

The alarming number of people who are homeless is a consequence of our deeply unjust economic and political systems, systems which Occupy Eugene is dedicated to changing. In the meantime, we are proud to have taken on the task of helping some of the people most affected – entirely with volunteered time, and as a community.

Occupy Eugene remains strong, renting an office in the Grower’s Market Building and making use of a donated warehouse on 7th and Polk. Plans to participate in the national Occupy the Courts protest are underway, and the unfair foreclosure of many Eugene homes presents another opportunity for Occupy Eugene to support people impacted by unjust systems.

We invite the community to join in our efforts to address systemic injustice while we continue to occupy the minds of Eugene.

This Press Release was approved by the general assembly of Occupy Eugene.

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Also available in : Spanish

12. 25 Christmas Potluck Sunday!

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Occupy Eugene will be having a holiday potluck Sunday, December 25th at 2pm in the new Occupy 5 building (7th and Polk).

Bring a dish if you can and a space heater if you have one!

There will be a projector and we will be showing holiday movies (bring some of those too :)

And remember to shop local this Christmas and avoid big box stores and corporate chains, Occupy Christmas!

12.24 Open Assembly

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Occupy Eugene Open Assembly

When: 4:00pm

Where: 1274 W. 7th Ave. (7th & Polk, Occupy 5 building )

All are welcome! Come help us plan the next steps of Occupy Eugene.

Occupy Eugene, Community Saddened by Death of Rick Adam Youngblood

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:press@occupyeugenemedia.org
occupyeugenemedia.org, @OccupyEugene

Occupy Eugene, Community Saddened by Death of Rick Adam Youngblood

Occupy Eugene is extremely saddened by the news of the death of Rick Adam Youngblood, who was involved in a fight at the Occupy Eugene site late Monday night.

Life on the streets is rarely easy. The unfortunate and hidden truth about homelessness is that it can be violent and dangerous, as we saw in the microcosm of street life that sprung up at Occupy Eugene. As a society, we condone and promote this state of affairs when we push the unhoused into the shadows on the periphery of our community and limit the resources available to them. The fight which ended Rick Adam Youngblood’s life was an unsettlingly common event; of a type generally dismissed by society.

One aspect of the Occupy Eugene camp at Washington-Jefferson park often overlooked by media and the police is the sense of community and place that it provided to the unhoused who lived there. Many of the unhoused individuals and families residing at the camp testified to the dramatic increase in safety and security that the location provided. It is unfortunate that this aspect of the camp’s function will not be replicated or replaced by the “transitional services” the city is attempting to coordinate for the camp’s residents.

In Younglood’s situation, the Occupy Eugene volunteer medics on site were able to respond more quickly than other emergency medical personnel would have been able to, and worked with police personnel to assist Rick when they arrived. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances and location of the fight and the severity of his injuries, they were not able to provide assistance in time.

We thank members of our community, and Eugene police who did their best to tend to his injuries, and we send our condolences to Mr. Youngblood’s relatives and friends.

Occupy Eugene is holding a candlelight vigil in memory of Rick Adam Youngblood and other victims of street violence at 6:30pm today, December 23, at the Morse Free Speech Plaza.

This press release has been approved by the General Assembly of Occupy Eugene.

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12. 23 Vigil and GA at ParkBlocks

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Occupy Eugene is holding a candle light vigil in memory of Rick Youngblood and other victims of street violence at 6:30p today at Free Speech Plaza.

There will be a general assembly to follow at 7:00pm.