Seattle Embassy - Meeting Notes - January 09, 2020

Meeting Notes 

Date: 01.09.2020

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Jay, Alex (Remote), Aaron (Remote)

Meeting Opener/Land Recognition: Brandon - A great recognition of the watersheds of Wallingford where we are meeting at. And the indigenous names of the local bodies of water. (Lake Union, Green Lake, Sammamish, Duwamish & Green) 

Recap: Aaron presented an offer from Dog House Leathers to use their meeting room for Cascadia events for free. 

Jay is feeling better after the NYE plague. Brandon also caught the plague, but is starting to feel better.  

Trevor has been working on a “2019 in Review” for the State of Cascadia 

Jay has been working on data for the State of Cascadia 

Branon has been working on bioregional mapping. 

Aaron has been looking around the parking lot and is looking forward to events in 2020, and would love to analyze which events we should have this upcoming year. Also, thinking about how we get out information. 

Alex has mainly been working on the Chinook Wawa and website updates. Lots of going for Wikiwalks and Google Translate to get more information about the other separatist movements. 

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020…

Jay: Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was an official printed Cascadia Voting Pamphlet that folx could return to us with a vote/State of Cascadia? 

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was a Cascadian Arts Festival? 

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was a Cascadian Quilt Festival? 

Aaron: Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was more outreach to through specific communication and documentation channels. 

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 Greta Thurnberg named Cascadia the coolest place on the planet.  

Alex: Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was a Cascadia centric take on the news cycles. A stronger focus away from the corporate news cycle. 

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 if the Cascadia movement doesn’t lose steam after the general election. 

Brandon: Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020..

• More Cascadian brands

  • DOB as a platform (governmental body) to get people active. 

    • Restart the Yes Cascadia Page / Campaign to get 

    • Cascadia Bioregional Party / Direct Democracy, Bioregionalism 

    • Cascadia Upraising / More platform 

    • Cascadia Underground / Media Outlet, Print Journal 

    • Cascadia Study Group 

Trevor: Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 we successfully had more video/audio media going out.

Updates from Brandon:  

Mighty Network hosting our own social media network. Researching participatory platforms 

Something we do as a kickstarter every quarter. 

Brandon going to Sacramento for the CalExit conference. Weekend of February 3rd.  

Doing a bioregional mapping project with his Mom; a bioregional atlas of Vashon. Launch on March 15th. 

Meeting with Judy at the Planet Drum foundation. 

Cosmopolis property got the grant for the culvert removal. 

Working with a group of organizers for an event in Tacoma around the Art of Resistance. This will be sometime in October.  

Start doing a regional organizing conference calls. Start a delegative system/spokes council. Have another call for new members. Aaron would like to collaborate around how to make new members feel welcome. 

Seattle Embassy - Meeting Notes - December 19th 2019

Date: 12.19.2019

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Alex (Remote

Meeting Opener/Land Recognition: Trevor

Recap: How to Vote Cascadian Guide has emerged as a model project. Let’s do it again.

Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020…

Alex - Wouldn’t it be skookum if in 2020 there was a huge ground swell of interest in Cascadia?

Brandon - Wouldn’t it be skookum if there was a 2030 Cascadia World’s Fair between Seattle, Vancouver & Portland to feature Cascadian innovation?

Trevor - Wouldn’t it be skookum if there was a CONIFA World Cup hosted in Cascadia. Having a high speed rail to connect the three cities would be perfect. 

A discussion around what should be in the HOUSE PARTY pack ensued. 

Alex is formatting a blog post on “How to vote Cascadian”

Trevor is making an Otter recording of his introduction to the Department of Bioregion 

Brandon is defining what the HOUSE PARTY pack will be like. 

Discussion about what an active DOB groups looks like

• Hold a regular meeting 

• Take notes 

• 3 people 

  • Need to sign Diplomat policy guide

• Anybody who wants to be a diplomat or start a department

  • Must agree to terms 

  • Must watch the video 

• Hold an event sign-up

• Designate 1 person to act as a point person

• Be clear about fundraising 

• Partnerships 

• Social Media 

  • Shared access

  • Policies 

    • How we handle complaints, abuse or concerns 

    • Disbanding process 

    • Removal process 

• Provide Templates to people. 

Alex proposed creating thank you packs for businesses and organizations that have represented and supported the Cascadia movement. 

Alex and Brandon formatted the How to Vote Cascadian Guide and published it.

Trevor edited a script for a Department of Bioregion Introduction video, read it aloud and took feedback. The goal is to create a video of around 10 to 15 minutes that is evergreen and cab be used when folx would like to volunteer, become organizers.

Seattle Embassy - Meeting Notes - December 5, 2019

Date: 12.5.2019

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Jay, Alex (Remote), Wesley, Matthew

Meeting Opener/Land Recognition: Trevor

Recap: Dougsgiving was awesome! Nice to do something outdoors and unstructured, and that was accessible to friends and new faces in an un-intimidating way. Thanks for bringing new people, delicious food, and celebrating together!

New Project (Trevor): Cascadian Solstice Survival Guide (holiday survival guide) - about having a warm winter together and how to maintain your communities in Cascadia when faced with the usual headaches of the holidays (cost, time, capitalism).

• Includes things like how to consume responsibility, bioregional gift giving, Cascadian cookie-making, repurposed materials/upcycling (including junk mail as wrapping paper!)

• Occupying a positive space that addresses seasonal blues or struggles

• Delivery: out into the world next Friday (13th)

  • Cookie-making next Wednesday, hosted by Diplomat Claire!

  • Re-purposed wrapping paper next Thursday (at Diplomat meeting at Wallingford House), organized by Trevor

We Need: Basic infrastructure resources, such as how to define Cascadia, run a meeting, what it means to be a Diplomat. Online versions as well as in-print versions that can be accessed by people who

Wouldn’t It Be Skookum If….? (2020 version!)

• Trevor: We built meaningful relationships with outside groups (like-minded folks), that those groups would start participating in our meetings and events - bioregionally focused in terms of groups (“Collaborate with us”) - regular communication or blog posts. Note: don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.

  • Diplomat field trips/outings?

  • Goal: getting new voices/from different groups on their issues from a Cascadian perspective or towards independence

• Alex: We had a Cascadian Voter Pamphlet (“How to Vote as a Cascadian - Core Values”)

  • What are the implications for Cascadia, initiative-by-initiative

  • How to evaluate politics from a Cascadian perspective

  • I voted Cascadian (stickers) with the flag

• Wesley: We could record, transcribe, print, and mass-produce “Indigenous Voices of Cascadia” and use it as an organizing tool within the bioregion

  • 4-5 solid interviews that can be transcribed and published in a small booklet or pamphlet

  • Producing them and giving them to the tribes as a resource

  • Different stories of colonization in order to address and bring to light traumas, show differences even within our own region

  • The importance of human-to-human connection

• Brandon: We had entire resource kits available for new organizers: a simple and straight forward way for them to connect in, report back/log into the website, and to engage with our mission - an empowerment kit

• Brandon 2: Gathered a petition with signatures demanding independence, and had a small group that hand delivers the petition on a selected day to their local capital (per state/province)

• Brandon 3: Active groups with point people, with some kind of regional body that decides on campaigns that go to all groups

• Matthew: We had an organic organizer in each of the 75 ecoregions/9 regions within Cascadia! Each running their own meeting!

  • A diplomat in each region that acts as someone who outreaches with groups and like-minds in their local area

• Jay: We could get some politicians to wear the Cascadian flag on their lapels (publicly!)

Tonight’s Project(s):

• How to Vote Cascadian (Jay, Alex)

• Indigenous Voices of Cascadia (Wesley, Trevor)

• Infrastructure: How to Host a Meeting (Brandon, Matthew)

Seattle Embassy - Meeting Notes - November 14, 2019

Date: 11.14.2019

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Jay, Uriah, Matthew, Alex (Remote), David (Remote), Claudia (Pre-Meeting Attendance)

Meeting Opener(s) and Land Recognition: Trevor, David

NEXT WEEK’S MEETING: The first ever Doug-sgiving! Please bring a regional meal, made with local seasonal ingredients bought from a local grocer or farmer’s market, ideally plastic-free and free-trade. Location TBD - check message thread. Digital attendance encouraged. Please note that we have vegetarians and vegans who participate in our meetings. More info to come in the group chat!

Wouldn’t It Be Skookum If…?

• Trevor: More songs representing local teams/groups

• Brandon: We had a team of 20 people writing about things they cared about from a bioregional/Cascadian perspectives (on our website)

• David: We had a service that guaranteed people housing in Cascadia in alignment with their exact needs. Period!

  • Different cultures providing housing in a way that that addresses their specific cultural needs and identities

• Matthew: Establish a “Cascadia time zone” (like Cascadian Time) where we don’t adhere to Daylight Savings Time

• Uriah: We had an official alternative to Thanksgiving (Dougsgiving) - Bioregional feasting! (Seasonal guide)

  • Note: include indigenous elements (lots out there

• Jay: We were the touch point for the news in terms of the issues we care about (on the sound bite “short list”)

• Alex: We developed guidelines/helped grow regional artists (like Canada does) where there was a % of “required” for Cascadian content makers

  • Wouldn’t it be skookum if we filled that void

Things to do today:

• Brief interviews that are filmed: why we’re Cascadian, what we’re passionate about, why it’s important to do what we’re doing, and why now?

  • Start with Diplomats but then taking it to the streets!

• Ongoing tasks: Outstanding onboarding work (Diplomat bios, blog posts) - Matthew, David

• Start on: Dougsgiving Guide (Bioregional Seasonal Feasting) - Jay

• Movement pages - Alex

Ideas of things to do:

• Needed resource: How to be visibly Cascadian (a guide)

• Report back: Cascadian recent election results

• Proposed task: Translating “bioregionalism” into other languages

  • including ASL? -> reaching out to the deaf nation and asking how they would translate it

  • Note: in French, “region” has a political context. Would a direct translation loose the anti-politically-defined aspect of bioregionalism? (Would “watershedism” translate more accurately?). What about Sasquatchism?

Seattle Embassy - Meeting Notes - November 7, 2019

Date: 11.7.2019

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Wesley, Jay, Uriah, Matthew, Alex (Remote), Aaron (Remote), Claire, David (FB thread)

Meeting Leader: Trevor

Klahowya! Tillicum: friends, people, folx. When Chinook was spoken more widely, it was sometimes pluralized, but this is incorrect. It is already a plural word so does not need an “s” on the end (like “fish”).

Wouldn’t It Be Skookum If…?

• Trevor: If “Flag Day” was co-opt’d by Cascadians as a Doug Flag day

• Brandon: If we had a 15-20 min presentation that had a synopsis of the DOB

• Wesley: If we recognized tribal treaties

• Matthew: If we had a ski club

• Uriah: If we had vertical gardens downtown

• Claire: If everybody had a safe place to lay their head to rest; what if we raffled off a tiny house to a person in need of a home

• Jay: If we Cascadian communion! (and other ritualistic behaviors that are fun to plug in with, create shared language and actions, plug people in with each other at events and meetings)

• Aaron: If we had more representation of people north of the 49th at Cascadian events (Canadians/Alaskans)

• Alex: If the Doug Flag was known more as Cascadian and less with sports association

Things to do today:

• List of Indigenous groups and First Nations within Cascadia

  • Thanks to Matthew for an awesome starter list of Cascadian First Nations!

  • Information on BC First Peoples’ groups and mapping: http://www.fpcc.ca/ and interactive map: https://maps.fpcc.ca/

• Cascadian voting results report back (Note: all data is not in yet for WA/OR)

  • Jay - OR, Brandon - BC, Uriah - WA

• Fleshing out new bioregional/movement pages on the DOB website

  • Alex (currently working on multiple pages)

  • Wesley: filling in relevant information on existing pages based on interactions/interviews from this week with First Nations persons

    • Part of a larger project of Indigenous perspectives on de-colonization

  • Claire: Helping with editing on the website

• Aaron: working on social justice lens

• Outstanding diplomat onboarding with Trevor

Politics / Political Outreach:

• Pro-Cascadian people have been voted in (final vote count pending) locally that are friendly to us. TASK: follow up on these leads

  • Note: one of them took a PAC :(

• Political outreach advice: research the candidate and see what their few key issues are (Wes). Running topical campaigns can also be effective (network activation rather than singular person engagement - such as lobbying day).

• Importance of finding pan-Cascadian political issues (includes Canadian Cascadians!). What should we focus on?

  • Trevor: pipeline impact

  • Brandon: Gov’t accountability, increase access to governance, anti-corruption and money-out-of-politics movements, real food into schools/gov’t buildings

  • Wes: Something win-able and that can be mobilized

  • Uriah: Environmental issues / climate initiatives, partnering with NOAA

  • Matthew: What about the anti-BLM people? Land management in general?

Summary: Pre-meeting Call with Brett Pike (California National Party, aka the CNP)

• About: how CNP got to the legislature of California

  • Real value in making Senators look smart when they are int heir own meetings

    • They don’t have a lot of time to get data and information that supports their ideas about how they are going to vote

    • BIG TAKE AWAY Finding sympathetic legislators and provide them with information that they can use in meetings, as soundbites. They will use it!

  • Note: CNP did not focus on independence - instead focused on being a 3rd-party political party with political impact (progressive policies in line with the CNP platform)

    • Climate change and growth density strategies (zoning, rent control)

  • ADDITIONAL TAKE AWAY: Easy guide/info about the CNP so it can be easily understood (show they are not crazy, sympathetic views) - can also be done in video form

    • What separates us from the general democratic party? Independence and autonomy as our niche

  • Reaching younger generations through YouTube - we are already moving in this direction (Claire)

  • GROUP FEEDBACK:

    • Good idea to identify bills that support our views, then finding support with supporters of those initiatives and find support from the inside (finding allies in this way rather than cold-email)

      • Face-to-face: is it a doomed strategy?

      • How do we grow solidarity without being divisive?

      • Will there be people who are pro-independence that aren’t willing to say it out loud? What does that mean and how do we handle it?

Seattle Embassy - Meeting Minutes - 24 October 2019

Date: 10.24.2019

Attendees: Trevor, Brandon, Wesley, Jay, Uriah, Matthew, Alex (Remote), Aaron (Remote),  

Intros around the table

What we’re up to: 

• Trevor is working on back end stuff. 

• Jay is rocking the unsexy backend with forms and efficiency

  • Also working on an art project around bioregional food 

• Brandon

  • Forms for Diplomat Handbook

  • Newsletter going out within the week

  • Shirt designed for our members

  • Database work

  • Meeting with David Danos

    • Indiegenous sign language

• Matthew

  • Political Organizing

    • Initiative 502

  • Union organizing around Seattle

  • Moved back to Jet City 2 or 3 weeks ago

  • Politician Outreach - Legislative Department? 

  • Candidate forum sponsored by Cascadia 

• Yogi Uriah

  • Building relationships with businesses around U District & Wallingford

    • Top10 Toys

    • Choco Canyon

  • Scheduled a meeting with the U District Chamber of Commerce  

• Wesley

  • Outreach to Native Communities in the region

  • Focus towards Cascadia from National People’s Party 

  • What sort of dialogues can we have around colonization and decolonization? 

  • Reached out to three friends

    • Haida Friend

    • Lead advocate for Missing & Indigenous woman in Cascadia

    • Habanaki from Squaxin Tribe 

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi_Hilbert

• Alex

  • Working on Chinook Wawa word of the day

  • Adding content to website for different Independence Movements 

• Aaron

  • Seattle’s all latinx museum 

    • Working on a blog

    • Nearly 1 million latinx residents of Seattle

  • Looking at the Department of Ed through a social justice lens

Wouldn’t it be skookum if? 

• Alex: 

• Trevor: 

• Jay:

• Brandon:

• Aaron:

• Wesley:

• Yogi Uriah:

• Matthew: