This site went online in the weeks prior to to the existence of any group calling itself “Occupy Ann Arbor”. It has since been operated and maintained by a single Ann Arbor resident who has a long-standing interest in pursuing solutions to the many problems that plague our country thanks to the corruption, greed, and short-sightedness of our leaders in both the government and private sectors.
Originally intended as an information channel for local “Occupy” events, the site is currently being transitioned to the custodianship of the current group calling itself “Occupy Ann Arbor”.
A Little History
The “original” Occupy Ann Arbor group (which first assembled on October 6, 2011) rapidly evolved, with early organizers forming other local Occupy groups fairly early on (you can learn about them here). This left a rather skeletal core group behind, operating mostly as committees, and staging only small actions, with no general assemblies since early December 2011.
As of January 17 of this year, this core group decided it was time to refocus, clean up the confusing array of web presences left behind by these changes, and form a new “official” Occupy Ann Arbor group, one that works autonomously, but in solidarity with the more specialized groups that sprang from the early gatherings.
Cleaning Up Occupy Ann Arbor’s Web Presence
As mentioned above, all this spontaneous and free-wheeling re-organization left behind quite a mess in terms of a clear set of web presences. To restructure and better facilitate group communication, we have opted to use the site you are viewing as the “public face” of the new Occupy Ann Arbor, and for those who would like to get involved, we have set up discussion forums at forums.occupyannarbor.org (off-site link).
We are also in the midst of coordinating the existing Facebook presences, i.e.: the group page and the cause page, and hope to repurpose the partially abandoned site at Occupya2.org, which originally was going to be the group’s main site.
Get Involved, Or Get More Involved
If you’re interested in getting involved in the local Occupy scene, or if you’re already involved and would like to take a more active role with these plans for refocusing, drop us a line, come to a meeting, visit the forums, or simply watch the calendar and take part in any of the local events being posted. Although there are several groups operating locally that have slightly different areas of focus, there’s a lot of overlap between groups, and a lot of common vision.
