If you don't do this right, your voice can get drowned out real fast. You have to be prepared to fight propaganda. If you are not organized you won't be able to respond timely or effectively.

If the 7 o'clock news put's out video of interviews with idiots and only gets video coverage of the purple haired drum dancers, your just going to attract more idiots and purple haired drum dancers. People will come for the spectacle, not the protest. If you want your movement taken serious, you have to be serious. This is what is lacking in the New York protests, but it is apparent they are slowly building a core group. It will take time, but being afraid to bring professionals in because your afraid of "infiltration" is only going to get you labeled as leftist conspiracy theorists.

Let me give you an example of how communications works..

"I find it ironic that the organizers of Occupy Houston are afraid to network with professionals for fear that bringing on someone who may be viewed as a "leader" would some how damage the idea of general assembly, when the organizers are affiliated with a band, the Free Radicals, and are using the Occupy Wall Street movement as a means to promote their band."

Do you see what I just did there? Now imagine if this was in an opinion piece and posted to the Chronicles home page? How do you think that type of press would be received by the general public in Houston? Are you prepared to counter that? Do you have a spokes person to deflect attention from that to something else? You could find your movement getting bad press. That bad press would effect your turn outs and ability to attract a diversified audience.

If you guys don't allow professionals to help, your going to get eaten alive by the media. The New York protests work for New York.. We live in Houston.. not New York. The demographic is incredibly different here and though the tools of the trade may be the same ie: twitter, youtube, social networking.. your message needs to be tailored to the area you live in.

If the media elites and opposition groups are going to kill this movement, it's going to be done locally, not on a national level. They will try and hurt the organizations individually and locally.

I hope my comments don't offend, but I'm trying to show you how ugly the media can be. I have been following the Wall Street protests from the beginning. This is the kind of stuff that fascinates people like me in the communications world because it usually breeds new strategies in communication. Some people in my industry use their talents for good and others for bad, but the thing is we all know how both sides work. I have no desire whatsoever in leading anything, but I would love to help in my own special way. But I can't help unless you have spokespeople.

You are going to need spokespeople and good communications people if you want this to succeed. You will quickly find that trying to deal with masses of unorganized people isn't what you expected.

I agree that there are good leaders and bad leaders, but we're a very small and vulnerable movement at the moment. I'm worried that allowing any power differential into the process at the moment would be an invitation to overt or covert takeover. We all remember how the Tea Party movement was co-opted by Koch Industries.

You're expressing some very valid concerns and Im sure the NYC folks have addressed them to some degree, in ways that we could either adopt or modify for our local OH as we grow.

Oct 6th is only the beginning.

I don't mean to stir the pot unnecessarily, but my suggestion was taken from Naomi Wolf's advice to the Occupy movement. I'm not talking about sending one person to give their take on the movement, I'm talking about identifying a group of spokespeople that are prepared to represent our movement well, to be representatives of our group, not leaders. So that the camera doesn't find the person in the back and ask "What is this movement all about" and the answer is "I know, right, I totally don't know. I think it's, like, hating Wall Street and stuff." That wastes an opportunity that we could be using.

Although admittedly, I don't understand why the antipathy toward leadership of some kind. There hasn't been a successful movement/revolution/action throughout history that didn't have leadership in some form or another, either established on the outset or identified later. Leadership isn't the problem. Bad leadership is.

I admit that I'm frustrated. I want to help. I believe strongly in this protest. I can't meet with the GA group physically, but I can write. I can call. I can research. I would think that any help would be welcome. Surely there is some way that I can contribute?

I was actually contacted by a member of the media earlier today who tried to get me to produce the same thing. I told him. "I feel that nobody can represent the collective will of the people, and spokespeople would be in danger of becoming leaders." The very idea of leaders is contrary to fairness and the design of our General Assembly process. 

Sorry you can't be down here in person, Media is working hard to try and accommodate online participation, but there's only so much you can do without face-to-face contact.

Yes, I'm currently helping with the Research task group which is currently trying to keep in touch with other Occupations for just that specific reason.   

I would happily draft some responses for feedback if the idea is welcome. I can't come to the GA meetings because I work in Conroe, but you can reach me by email or phone. 832.671.2621

Also, is anyone in our group a liaison to other Occupy cities so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel and we have a network of communication?

Thoughts on these?

Dorian