OccupySacto.org

Dear fellow Occupiers,
If you have struggled with setting up a Spokes Council in your community Occupy, I wanted to post the results of our Spokes Council Working Group at Occupy Santa Rosa. We have now successfully created a Spokes Council, after some difficult negotiations and planning. If you have not yet had success, maybe seeing our final mandate may be able to help your group.
In late January, after six planning meetings, the OSR General Assembly approved our mandate:
“The Spokes Council functions as a forum for coordination and dialogue between all groups so that they can be supported in the work that they do. Recognized groups have a reserved spot at the table for purposes of deliberation and decision making, as it relates to the above function.”
Notes about the mandate: Our decision was to have the SC be a coordinating body, not a decision making one. The most important concept in our design was that Working Groups should get mandates from GA to do their work on their own. Good communication and overall organization between the Working Groups is then strengthened through the Spokes Council. The Spokes Council is about strengthening that network, not about introducing hierarchy.
Also, our wording of “Recognized groups” was intended to be vague enough to include all relevant Occupy groups, while allowing us flexibility to not include just any group under the sun.
We were able to avoid creating hierarchy, and able to address the need for a well-organized network. It has been a positive step forward for us, and we continue to see it grow in relevance. Please feel free to contact with questions.

Good luck!
Sky Nelson, member of Occupy Santa Rosa, theskyband at gmail dot com, osrga.net

We have that, It's called the CWG. Coordination Working Group, but spokes council sounds way cooler.

Awesome! Does the Coordination Working Group have representation from all the other working groups, or is it whoever wants to join?

In theory, the CWG, the coordination working group, is supposed to be made up of two members (representatives) of each working group, committee, or affinity group of Occupy Sacramento. Your mandate you quoted was spot on for how we think of our group. Seems like it must be a pretty organic process for the Occupations, realizing that we need some way to help one another, and not step on toes, and simply coordinate!