Proposed Communications Guidelines

Would like to take this up at Sunday's GA:

Current Guidelines: (passed without the input of anyone on the communications committee other than Clarke)

1.  The OccupyDSM facebook account, The OccupyDSM twitter account, and www.occupyDSM.org are the official property of and media outlets of the OccupyDSM General Assembly.

2. The OccupyDSM facebook account, The OccupyDSM twitter account, and www.occupyDSM.org are for distribution of factual information via of the General Assembly. Opinions are not to be stated. Only factual Information from the General Assembly. NO unapproved posting.

3.  MOTIONS...There will be a "unique" posting for every passed, blocked or tabled motion on facebook, twitter and www.occupydsm.org  (this one was never implemented due to lack of resources)

4.  EVENTS...There will be a facebook event created for every event passes
by the General Assembly. The event will also be posted on twitter and
www.occupydsm.org. The exact text about the event must be read to the
General Assembly and passed before the event will be created.

5.  CAMP NEEDS...the daily camp needs will be posted on facebook, twitter,
and www.occupydsm.org  (this one was never fully implemented due to lack of resources)

Proposed Communications Guidelines:

1.  The Occupy DSM Facebook account, The Occupy DSM twitter account, the Occupy DSM Livestream and Occupy DSM website are the official media channels of the Des Moines General Assembly.

2.  On the Occupy DSM website, the following areas are the official areas of the Des Moines General Assembly, Des Moines General Assembly Information, the Occupy DSM Events calendar, and the Occupy DSM daily schedule.  All articles other than the minutes posted in this section will be approved by the Des Moines General Assembly.  For Facebook and twitter all official posts from the Des Moines General Assembly will start with these words "DES MOINES GENERAL ASSEMBLY OFFICIAL MESSAGE".

3.  Minutes from the meetings of the Des Moines General Assembly will posted on the Occupy DSM web site.  Individual motions and the results of those motions will not be posted.  In addition to the minutes, all General Assembly session will be shown on the Occupy DSM Livestream, with sufficient sound and video quality for people to watch and hear what is happening.  And all sessions will be recorded for future playback for people not able to attend the General Assembly meetings.

4.  A Facebook event and Occupy DSM Event calendar entry will be created for all events sanctioned by the Des Moines General Assembly.  The Events and Actions and Communications committees will work together to create the details for those entries based on general principles approved by the Des Moines General Assembly.

5.  Camp needs will be updated on a regular basis when the information is provided to the Communications Committee.  It is the responsibility of the Food and Supply Committee and other committees to make sure those needs are communicated to the Communications committee

6.  The Communications Committee is empowered to create wording for press releases and other materials based on general principles approved by the Des Moines General Assembly.  All press releases will be posted to the Press Release section of the web site in the DSM GA Communications Committee section.

7.  Other than these guidelines the Des Moines General Assembly will not be asked to approve postings to the Occupy DSM web site, Occupy DSM Facebook page, the Occupy DSM Twitter account, or the Occupy DSM Livestream.  The Des Moines General Assembly can and should give guidance on what they would like to see posted on these various media resources.  All postings and content should reflect the general principles of the Des Moines General Assembly, Occupy DSM, and the Occupy movement as a whole.  There are also specially designated free speech zones on the Occupy DSM web site which will remain open and people will continue to be allowed to post on the Occupy DSM Facebook page and create content for the Occupy DSM Livestream feed.

8.  In the spirit of we are on all of the committees, people are strongly encouraged to create their own content, such as flyers, articles for the web site, letters to the editor, and whatever else they can think of to further the mission of Occupy DSM and the Des Moines General Assembly.  There are two guiding principles in this.  First, do not speak for the Des Moines General Assembly unless what you are saying has been approved by the Des Moines General Assembly.  Second, use “I” statements when creating content or speaking to the press.