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By Katie Meta
1. Intro and motivation
The Occupy movement began in New York City's Zucotti Park in September 2011, as a protest against economic inequality and specifically against the banks of Wall Street. Occupy quickly spread, and around the world camps were set up in public spaces, protesting against economic inequality, and organising themselves non-hierarchically, with decisions made in leaderless General Assemblies. The occupations are notable for their lack of a platform or list of demands, as shown in this statement from Occupy Oakland:
To the Politicians and the 1%: This occupation is its own demand. Since we don't need permission to claim what is already ours, we do not have a list of demands to give you. There is no specific thing you can do in order to make us "go away". And the last thing we want is for you to preserve your power, to reinforce your role as the ruling classes in our society.
What does it mean to say that "This occupation is its own demand"? I would argue that this expresses a desire for Participatory Democracy; a political system characterised by a lack of hierarchy, in which people participate directly in making decisions that affect them. This is in contrast to Representative Democracy, in which people vote for their rulers once every four or five years but apart from that have few opportunities to participate in decision-making. At least for some participants, the purpose of Occupy is not to influence government, but to replace it.
However the form of participatory democracy practised within the Occupy movement is far from perfect, and despite the best of intentions what happens in General Assemblies falls short of full and equal democratic participation for all. Many people are drawn into this movement by the promise of openness and equal participation, and so when these promises are not realised, people drift away.
In this article I'm going to look at how participatory democracy is practised within Occupy and related movements, show some of the problems that often come up, and suggest some improvements. I'm also going to talk more generally about how Participatory Democracy can be used in other types of organisations. Finally I'll argue that Participatory Democracy isn't just something that just happens in meetings, and that is requires a cultural shift in the way we think and related to each-other. This shift requires hard work, but in my opinion it's definitely achievable.
I'm not involved in the Occupy movement. However I was involved for several years in the UK Camp for Climate Action, which had a similar organisational structure. I'm going to start by describing this organisational structure in a somewhat simplified and idealised way – every group is different so this won't perfectly match any particular group.
2. Organisational Structure
The main decision-making bodies are Assemblies (or Main Meetings or Site Meetings, as we called them in Climate Camp) and Working Groups.
Assemblies / Main Meetings
This is a large meeting, usually held once a day, which everyone is welcome to come to. There may be several hundred participants. The meeting is guided by a facilitator, whose job is to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to make their voice heard. The Assembly is the only group that can make big, important decisions that affect the whole group. In order for a decision to be made, everyone present must agree to it.
As well as being a decision-making body, the Assembly provides an inspiring experience of seeing everybody all at in one place and feeling the power of being in a large group of people with common goals.
Working Groups
The Assembly decides broad policy, but since it's very difficult for a large group to make detailed decisions, the detailed work is done by working groups. Working groups report back to the Assembly to make sure that they are doing what the Assembly wants them to do.
An example of how this can work in practice: during the preparation for the 2009 Climate Camp, some people were concerned that the Media Group might say things to the press that did not reflect the views of the whole group. Members of the Media Group replied that they couldn't possibly take every press release to a meeting to be vetted before-hand. So a solution was found: the whole group agreed to three key messages for the Media Group to use in all their interactions with the press. The Media Group was then free to write press releases and do interviews, within the framework of sticking to those key messages. In my view this was a great solution, since it gave the Media Group freedom to do their work, while giving the rest of the collective confidence in what the Media Group was doing.
As well as assemblies and working groups, there may be other decision-making bodies, groups who have a particular identity, theme, or purpose. This could include: affinity groups (small groups of people who go to a protest together with the intention of sticking together and supporting each-other) groups based on a particular geographical region (such as the Neighbourhoods at the Climate Camps), groups based on religion, feminist groups, or a group such as Decolonise Wall Street. These groups might hold their own meetings, and send a representative or delegate to speak on behalf of their group in the Assembly.
3. Problems with decision-making
Problems with consensus decision-making in large groups / General Assemblies
We usually talk about consensus as if it was a switch that can be either on or off; either a decision was made by consensus, or it wasn't. In my view it's more useful to think of a spectrum, ranging from "bad consensus", through "OK consensus", to "good consensus".
Good consensus: All members of the group are empowered, treat each-other with respect, and have all the information they need to make a good decision. They have plenty of time, and they have a comfortable place in which to hold the meeting. Everyone understands what the problem is, they listen thoughtfully to each-other's ideas, and work together to come up with the best possible solution, taking everyone's desires and concerns into account.
Most people who've taken part in consensus decision-making will recognise that it doesn't usually go that way. But when it does, it feels great, and leaves people feeling excited and inspired.
OK consensus: The decision was made in a way that was less than ideal, but everyone in the group is pretty much OK with it. Perhaps some members of the group didn't know what was going on, but didn't feel confidant enough to ask questions. Maybe the group was running out of time, and so the facilitator put pressure on to make a decision quickly, without exploring all possibilities, but no-one thinks the decision that was made is terrible.
Bad consensus: The decision was a "consensus" in name only; in reality some members of the group are really unhappy with it. There are many ways a bad consensus can come about, here are a few examples:
- Some people in the meeting couldn't understand or couldn't hear, and so had no idea what was going on; the decision ended up being made by the small group of people standing closest to the facilitator.
- The meeting stretched on for hours, discussing a controversial topic without reaching agreement. Finally most people left for dinner or bed, and the small group of people who remained made the decision, even though it was a decision the rest of the group was unhappy with.
- The group was pressed for time, so the facilitator put on pressure to decide quickly, When an agenda topic was introduced, a confidant, experienced member of the group said: "I propose we do such-and-such" and everyone agreed, since they didn't want to be the person who held up the whole group.
- The agenda was long and many complicated topics were discussed. A person came to the (large) meeting wanting to talk about a particular topic that was important to them, but they couldn't figure out who to talk to to get it put on the agenda. Or they talked to the facilitator, who said, "We'll fit that into the section on X", but there was only 15 minutes allotted for X, with the result that the person ended up sitting through a long meeting, and didn't get the chance to talk about what they wanted to talk about at all.
There are many more examples. Lazy, thoughtless, and unplanned meetings will usually result in bad consensus. Bad consensus is the default option, while good consensus takes work and effort to bring about, and a particular decision can seem like a good consensus to some people and a bad consensus to others.
The consequences of bad consensus are sometimes invisible. The immediate consequences can be that the group makes a poor decision. Not only do people feel frustrated, but they do not feel motivated to back up the decision with hard work and enthusiasm, and they feel less committed to the group. People who feel this way tend to drift away silently.
A group that mostly does "bad" consensus isn't really a functioning participatory democracy, it's probably run by an unofficial in-group. They certainly want to be a participatory democracy, but the reality is that people in the in-group will find it easiest to have a real say. The group tries to be open and partly succeeds, but people who have ties to the in-group (through friendship networks, or similar backgrounds) will find it easiest to get involved. This is what usually happens; not deliberately, but because it turns out running a real participatory democracy is hard work.
I'm going to look more at problems arising from the way meetings are run, and specifically with the role of the facilitator, in part 5.
Problems with Working Groups
Working Groups are set up to do a particular task. For example, some of the Working Groups we had at the Climate Camps were: Alt Tech, Kitchens, Water and Plumbing, Kids' Space, Workshops and Entertainments, Media, Indymedia, Police Liaison, and Tranquility (like Security, but nicer).
There's a tendency for Working Groups to be run by a small number of very dedicated, very hard-working people. These people gain lots of skills and knowledge, work 14-hour-days, get burnt-out, and don't have any time to spare for training others. There is a problem of professionalisation: if you're the only person who knows how to do the job, it's much easier and faster to just do it, than to train someone else. And if you're used to doing the job to a certain standard, it's hard to step back and let someone else take over, when they might not do it as well as you would like.
The most interesting and empowering tasks are done in Working Groups, and while these groups are theoretically open for anyone to join, in reality it can be hard for outsiders to get involved. Outsiders sometimes have trouble finding out what working groups exist, what work they do, where and when they meet, and how to get in touch with them. This can lead to complaints that there is an invisible hierarchy doing all the interesting stuff, while "outsiders" are only invited to do the more boring and menial tasks.
There can also be an (unintended) lack of transparency and accountability. Since it isn't clear to everyone what a given working group is doing, the working group could do something that some members of the wider group strongly disagree with.
To conclude section 3: one of the main reasons people join a movement like Occupy is the promise of being able to fully participate. However as a result of all the problems discussed in this section this promise is not fully realised; our movements grow to a certain size, and after that point "new" people find it increasingly difficult to participate fully, and to take on interesting and challenging roles. Our participatory democracy has a scaling problem, where our groups can't grow past a certain size.
This problem seems even worse when we recognise that, not only do our movements tend to include informal in-groups and out-groups, but these often line up with existing social hierarchies of race, age, gender, sexuality, ability, class, etc.
However I think these problems can be overcome, and I'll start talking about how to do that in the next section.
4. Transparency / Open Source Organising
Some (but not all) of the problems described in the previous section can be solved by doing transparency really well.
The purposes of transparency are:
- To make sure every sub-group of the organisation is accountable to the wider group, by making sure that everyone can easily find out what the sub-group is doing.
- To help the organisation grow by making it as easy as possible for people who are interested in an organisation to find out what the organisation does, and to get up to speed as quickly as possible in order to join in with the group's activities and decision-making.
- To make it possible for the work done by a group or sub-group to be replicated or improved on in future, and thus to prevent mistakes from being repeated, and to help the movement as a whole to learn and grow.
The UK Climate Camps and Occupy London (and I'm guessing many other groups as well) intend to be transparent, but don't fully achieve this, because achieving transparency takes some work and some co-ordination. That being said, being transparent isn't really all that difficult – it mostly consists of typing up notes about what you did and putting them on the Internet somewhere. I'm going to look at the nitty-gritty of how transparency works in practice.
For an organisation that holds Assemblies, an important step is to put the minutes of the meetings in some publicly accessible space (probably online) in a timely fashion so that anyone can read them. An example is provided by Occupy London Stock Exchange. Occupy LSX also live-streams their Assemblies to the Internet. They've put real effort into being as transparent as possible. Nevertheless, it would be pretty hard for an outsider to quickly learn about what decisions have already been made, because they have posted what seem to be word-for-word transcripts of their Assemblies, which go on for pages. An improvement would be to add a short, readable summary of the main points from each meeting, so that people could quickly get up to speed. An example such a summary can be found here: Climate Camp National Gathering minutes Glasgow (PDF). (I admit this is a cherry-picked example, most of the time Climate Camp minutes did not include nice summaries like this, and sometimes we didn't even manage to post minutes at all!)
Transparency is even more of a problem for working groups, because often they don't meet regularly, and people often don't know what they're doing, or even that they exist. Since working groups do their work in an ad-hoc way instead of in formal meetings, it's not as clear how to become transparent. I like the idea of a lab notebook: in high school science class I was told to write down everything I did, clearly enough and in enough detail that another person would be able to repeat everything I'd done just by following the notebook. Instead of a notebook, I'd suggest that working groups could have a space online where they write down everything they do, in enough detail that someone else would be able to replicate it.
I was about to write that I don't think any group has managed to implement transparency at the working group level yet, but then I did a quick Google search and found that Occupy Santa Cruz has an impressive page of notes about the activities of their working groups!
Sometimes the activities of a working group need to be secret in order to protect the safety of the working group's members, or for some other reason. This always leads to a less-democratic system, it's a trade-off.
While implementing transparency is hard work, it's actually the low-hanging fruit. In the next sections I'll talk about even bigger challenges.
5. Facilitators
In any big protest group there are people who have specialised skills. Some people know how to cook for 300 people. Some people know how to put up a marquee or build a compost toilet. Some people know how to design a flyer, and some know how to build a website. As much as we value skill-sharing, it isn't possible for everyone to learn to do everything.
Facilitating big meetings is another specialised skill; knowledge, training and practice are required to do it well. However I'm going to argue that facilitating is fundamentally different from other areas of expertise. Facilitators know how to run meetings, how to make sure everyone's voice can be heard, and how to make consensus decisions. In short, facilitators know how to do participatory democracy. But if you think about it, participatory democracy can only work properly if everyone in the group knows how to do it. So I'm suggesting that, in order to make our groups more democratic, we need to make sure everyone has the ability to facilitate.
I'm going to give some concrete examples of problems that arise from the situation where meetings are run by a facilitator who has specialised skills and knowledge that the rest of the meeting participants lack.
- Unconscious bias: Ideally a facilitator tries hard to be neutral and fair, but they inevitably have their own views and preferences which colour the way they run the meeting. This isn't such a big problem if there is a large, diverse pool of facilitators, since in that case the different sets of biases can more-or-less cancel each-other out. However when there are only a few facilitators, especially in the common situation that they all know each-other and have similar viewpoints, the bias can become systematic.
- Agenda setting: In large meetings there are generally lots of people with topics they would like the group to discuss, and not enough time to discuss them all, so the facilitator has to have some sort of system for soliciting agenda items and deciding which ones go on the agenda and how much time they get. This process can be mysterious to others – people might not know how to go about getting an item added to the agenda, or why some items are included and others are not. Not knowing what's going on leaves people unable to meaningfully take part. A transparent process for setting the agenda is needed.
- Power struggles: Here's a common scenario in big meetings: the group has a decision to make, and an experienced activist and respected member of the group, who I'll call EA, already knows what the best solution is. EA keeps interrupting the discussion, and behaves in an increasingly dominating way out of frustration at watching the group go through a long and, from their point of view, unnecessary, discussion. This leads to a power struggle between EA and the facilitator. EA keeps interrupting and saying things like: "this is a waste of time, I already know what to do, let's just agree to do it my way and move on". The facilitator keeps saying things like "please wait your turn to speak" and "can we hear from someone else please". EA becomes so frustrated and angry that it's truly painful to watch, and ends up stomping out in disgust partway through the meeting, thinking "This consensus stuff is a waste of time, next time I need to get something done I'll just get a few of my friends together and do it without wasting all this time in meetings."By this point EA and the facilitator probably loathe each-other. EA thinks that the facilitator is a power-mad bureaucratic time-waster, while the facilitator thinks that EA wants to use intimidation to make the group do what she wants. In fact EA and the facilitator both want what's best for the group. The conflict arises from their different understandings of what the purpose of the discussion is. EA thinks the purpose is simply to make the best possible decision. She knows what the best decision is, so the group should just agree to that. End of story.The facilitator is concerned with having a good process for making the decision. From the facilitator's point of view, a confident, respected person might be able to convince the group to agree to their way of doing things without really understanding it, but this wouldn't be a "good" consensus. It wouldn't leave people feeling empowered and committed, and in fact it would contribute to an invisible hierarchy, where only people in the in-group really know what's going on.After EA stomps off, the group continues its discussion and quite likely ends up arriving at the same solution that EA had proposed from the start. From EA's perspective the discussion was a gigantic waste of time, but from the facilitator's point of view the discussion was an important group learning process which led to a "good" consensus; a consensus that everyone understands and agrees with and feels committed to.In this scenario a lot of struggle and frustration could have been avoided, if EA and the facilitator had had the same idea in mind of what the purpose of a meeting is.
- Making sure everyone can participate fully: Part of a facilitator's role is to be aware that some people find it much harder to speak and be listened to than others. The reasons for this include: individual self-confidence, belonging to an in-group or being an outsider, and social hierarchies along lines of race, gender, sexuality, ability, and others. A facilitator should pay attention to who speaks and who is listened to, and uses various techniques to create a space where everyone can participate fully. These techniques could include taking hands (to avoid a situation where only people who are loud and confidant enough to interrupt can be heard), using a progressive stack, doing go-rounds where everyone gets a chance to speak, or specifically asking for someone who hasn't spoken much to speak.In my opinion the work of learning about the different hierarchies that exist in our society, learning to notice who is speaking a lot and who is silence, and actively looking for ways to create a space where everyone can be heard, is too important to be left to just the facilitator. This work needs to be done by everyone in order for a functioning participatory democracy to be possible.
I've argued that the skills and knowledge needed to facilitate a large meeting are also the skills and knowledge that everyone in the meeting needs in order to be able to participate fully. This leads to the conclusion that we need to focus on providing more facilitation trainings, and encouraging everyone to get trained up, and making sure everyone gets practice running meetings in order to develop these skills.
It's not quite that simple though: lots of people in our movements have no interest in learning to facilitate. Furthermore, lots of people disagree with the way meetings are run. If they did attend a facilitation training they would probably say: "That's nonsense, if I run a meeting I'm not going to do it like that".
So we have to start a conversation. We need to talk to those who have no interest in facilitation and try to make them understand why we think it's important for them to gain these skills. We also need to listen to criticisms of the way we run meetings and make decisions, and be willing to make changes and experiment. The way we currently do consensus decision-making isn't the only possible way to do it, and instead of unthinkingly following the consensus process we were taught, we need to be willing to question it, and accept that some parts of it might not make a whole lot of sense, and might not work in every situation. Those who hate meetings and hate facilitation have a wealth of insight to offer the rest of us into how we could improve.
Basically, we need to start working towards getting a consensus on how we get consensus.
6. Participatory democracy requires a certain kind of culture
In previous sections I've argued that participatory democracy requires everyone to be able to participate fully in decision-making (which, I know, is pretty obvious). In section 5 I mentioned that social hierarchies exist in society which make it harder for everyone's voice to be heard. I listed some of the strategies a facilitator can use to mitigate this, and I argued that in a functioning participatory democracy everyone must learn these strategies.
I'm going to take it further, and say that it isn't possible to just challenge social hierarchies within meetings, without also challenging them more generally in our day-to-day lives. Participatory democracy isn't just a particular organisational structure and it doesn't just happen in meetings, it is a particular kind of culture. The work and the collective learning process that needs to be done to create this democratic culture occurs in all parts of life, not just in meetings.
Various prejudices are "baked in" to our society, and microaggressions which marginalise and hurt people are normal parts of our day-to-day interactions. In fact, these microagressions are so normal that we sometimes do them without meaning to, and without intending to marginalise anyone. However if people find themselves marginalised within an organisation, they probably won't stick around very long. Thus marginalisation doesn't just go against our ideals, it also stops our movements from growing. Unfortunately this isn't just an abstract idea, it's easy to find examples of people who have experienced racism, sexism, or a lack of awareness of the particular problems faced by minority groups, which left them feeling marginalised and unwelcome in the Occupy movement. Often these are people whose passion, ideas, and desire for social change would be extremely valuable. Here are a few examples turned up by a quick Google search:
Racialicious: Private Danny Chen and why I will never again reach out to OWS about something that matters to me
In Front and Center: On being Muslim: The hijab and social activism
AmericanPaki: Why I am not protesting at Occupy
In Front and Center: Letter to the Occupy Together Movement
Occupy Patriachy: Petition to address sexual assault at Occupy Boston
Occupy Patriachy: Objectifying women has no place in the Occupy movement
In most of these instances, the marginalising behaviour was carried out by individuals, not by Occupy Wall Street or any other organisation. Some instances took place within meetings and some took place outside of meetings. When organisations are challenged about these problems, the responses are often "that's just one person's opinion, it's not our official policy", and "we can't control individual people's behaviour". These responses aren't good enough. No-one wants to be part of a movement where they are officially equal but where in everyday interactions they are marginalised. In order to grow, our movements have to collectively take responsibility for combating marginalisation that happens on the level of day-to-day interactions.
This doesn't mean that we have to police each-other's behaviour or conduct a witch-hunt every time someone says something racist or sexist. In my view, a very good start would be for groups to agree to a statement such as "We commit individually and collectively to countering marginalising behaviours. We will help and support each-other to do this work." Further possible steps could include making information and resources on how to do this work available to everyone involved in the movement, and carrying out other educational activities to support each-other in this work. Many groups are already doing this work: for example Occupy Boston replaced one of their General Assemblies with an anti-oppression training. It probably isn't possible to completely remove hierarchy from our movements, but the more we work on this, the more our movements will be able to grow.
I'm not an expert of how to challenge oppression, in fact I'm just learning about this stuff myself, so I'll just list some links that may be helpful for people who are just getting started learning about this sort of thing:
"Check my what?" On privilege and what we can do about it.
In Front and Center: Anti-oppression resources
In Front and Center: 5 Tips for White Allies in the Occupy Movement
7. Conclusion
In this article I talked about Participatory Democracy in a somewhat unusual way. I didn't just look at formal decision-making structures, but also at culture, and the way people relate to each-other both in and outside of meetings. I also suggested that Participatory Democracy isn't like a switch that can be turned on or off, it's an ideal; it's probably not possible to get it 100% right (this would be a situation in which everyone is fully able to be heard and to meaningfully participate) but we can always strive to get closer to this ideal.
I made four recommendations for organisations such as Occupy which want to become more democratic:
- Transparency: record all decisions and actions in a publicly accessible space
- Aim to have everyone in the group able to facilitate through lots of training, mentoring, and also making space for having discussions about how we run meetings, and working towards a situation where everyone understands and consents to the way meetings are run.
- Individuals work on themselves to remove hierarchy from interactions both in meetings and in day-to-day life.
- Organisations collectively agree to support individuals to do this work (perhaps through offering trainings or information).
One thing that's become clear to me in the course of writing this is that to move towards a functioning Particpatory Democracy is not easy, in fact it requires a huge amount of effort, both on an individual level and on the level of organisations. However this shouldn't come as a surprise; after all, we weren't born knowing how to survive within a society based on capitalist competition, most of us had to spend 12 years in school being taught how to do this. It's not surprising that learning a completely different way of organising society takes time and effort.
I also want to acknowledge that making changes within large organisations can be very difficult. Even if you agree with the recommendations I've made, others in your organisation may not agree, or there may not be time and space available to even discuss this. So even while I'm making these suggestions, I recognise that it might not always be possible to carry them out. The truth is that, while I do have some ideas about how to take these ideas forward in my own life, I'm pretty sure that what makes sense for me in my particular set of circumstances isn't going to make sense for others. So at this point I'm going to trust whoever is reading this to think of ways forward that make sense in their own lives.


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suffolk wrote:Hope they arrived ok Seatallen
Mamta wrote:Made a boiled fruit cake in my Panasonic bread maker. It tastes pretty nice, moist and sweet. It is for a birdwatching trip to Titchwell Marsh, lets see what my fellow travellers think . We will need it, bad weather is predicted. But it is a pre-booked trip, so we will go anyway!
earthmaiden wrote:I have had most success chopping with a sharp knife in the way that you might chop herbs. Short blasts in a food processor can work as long as you keep removing all but the remaining pieces which need to be chopped. Nowadays I would go for the dark choc drops which can be found in the baking section of the supermarket. There are some very good quality ones amongst the nastier cooking chocolate and they save a lot of faff.
Zosherooney wrote:I made a sort of baked ratatouille and then with some minced turkey, chopped onion, garlic and a T spoon of mixed spice poked walnut sized meatballs in amongst the veg. Oh, and there was a lone sweet potato that was cubed and added as well. 2 aubergine cups with mince inside adorned the corners and there should be enough there to last us a good few meals.
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September, 2012
Contact: Johnny Van Heest, Public Relations Manager
215.893.9456 ext. 102 | email@example.com
The Wilma Theater will screen Audition, directed by Miloš Forman as part of A Tribute to Miloš Forman, a 15- city retrospective of the acclaimed director's work in celebration of his 80th birthday
Presented in cooperation with Peter Rafaeli, Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic
What: Screening of Audition (Konkurs), directed by Miloš Forman (1963)
The film explores the life of amateur musicians and candidly examines talent competitions. Konkurs is in fact two shorts welded together: If There Were No Music (Kdyby ty muziky nebyly) and Audition (Konkurs). Forman and his friends, cinematographer Michal Ondřiček and co-writer/assistant director Ivan Passer, began shooting a 16mm documentary about Semafor Theater. They showed their footage to the Šebor-Bor production team, who would oversee all Forman's Czech films. After seeing the footage, the production team asked Forman to expand the film into a 15-minute short. When Forman returned with 45 minutes, the only way it could be distributed was with the addition of another short to make a feature-length program, hence If There Were No Music. The film is 77 minutes, in Czech with English subtitles.
A Tribute to Miloš Forman is a US-wide project where the Czech Honorary Consular Corps in the United States, the Czech Center in New York, and Czech Foreign Service Posts, including the Embassy in Washington, DC, will screen a film by award-winning director Miloš Forman and host an evening exploring a particular theme in the film that has impacted society. The goal of the project is to present a retrospective of Forman's films throughout the United States. Through Q&A sessions, lectures with leading experts, and discussions with the community, the purpose of the project is to highlight the vibrant films of renowned Czech-American director Miloš Forman, pay tribute to his success, and explore themes in Forman's films that continue to play out in today's society: including questions of personal freedom, social conformity, and the oppression of the individual, among others. The project is part of the Mutual Inspirations Festival 2012-Miloš Forman, celebrating Oscar-winning, Czech-American director Miloš Forman's 80th birthday and work, the best of Czech cinematography, and the accomplishments of the transatlantic film industry.
Milos Forman is well known for his directorial work for award-winning films such as Amadeus, Hair, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The People vs. Larry Flynt. Screenings of these films will be held in various cities across the country. For more information about the festival, please visit mutualinspirations.org.
When: Monday, October 8, 2012
Where: The Wilma Theater
265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tickets: This event is free and open to the public. Please call The Wilma Theater box office at 215.546.7824 or email email@example.com to reserve seats


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By Gianmarc Manzione
Originally published on BOWL.com
The greatest times Mike Edwards has had on the lanes were preceded by some of the darkest moments of his life. It was only fitting, then, that the first major title of his career, the 2012 United States Bowling Congress Senior Masters, was preceded by the darkest moment of all.
Even Edwards's decision to become a PBA member traces back to misfortune—a busted knee that derailed his aspirations of acquiring a college football scholarship.
"I could hear it snap," Edwards said in 1985 of the injury sustained playing for Tulsa Edison High School. "It looked like spaghetti on the x-rays."
With football out of the picture, and a need to figure out what he would do to get by in the world, the strapping son of athletic parents returned to a familiar haunt.
"I remember the first time I met Norm Duke, he was 14 years old," Edwards recalls of his days bowling action as a kid in and around his native Oklahoma. "We butted heads over in Edmond and even here in Tulsa. I remember one time Norm came to town with all the Texas guys like Bob Benoit and Del Ballard. Anytime we bowled each other, it was a tough match.
"I think bowling stuff like that helped me when I was just starting out. You know, times when you need a strike and you don't have a dime to your name and there's a couple thousand dollars on the line. I kind of miss those days, staying up all night bowling action. It was the thing to do back then."
Like any young hotshot who thinks he's got the kind of game you can take on the road, Edwards quickly learned the bridge between ambition and reality is a tough one to cross.
"It took me a year-and-a-half just to make it out of the rabbit squad," he recalls. "I was like a deer in headlights. I thought I was just going to go out and run everybody over. That was not the case."
It would not be the case for years to come, in fact. A devastating break at a place called Forum Bowl in Grand Prairie, Texas, made sure of that.
There, Edwards stood a mark away from defeating one of the greatest PBA players of all time, Hall of Famer Mike Durbin, for his first title at the PBA Quaker State Open. What happened next haunted him for years.
"I couldn't understand why it didn't strike," Edwards says of the ball he threw in the 10th, a shot that should have been a high-flush strike but instead left him with a 4-9 split he failed to convert.
Durbin walked away with the trophy; Edwards walked away destined to join the unflattering ranks of the PBA's "winningest non-champions."
"I had several really good chances to win after that, but I gave them all away," Edwards says of the next nine years of his bowling career. "Every time I got there, I thought too much about what might happen instead of staying in the moment."
Then came a PBA Tour stop called the IOF Foresters Bowling for Miracles Open in Ontario, Canada in 1994. What better place to make a long-time dream come true than at a tournament named for miracles? But this is the life of Mike Edwards, where dreams only come true just when they seem farther from reach than ever before.
"I just bowled awful the week before," Edwards recalls. "It was so bad that I flew home and did not pick up a ball for a week. When I got to Canada, I don't know, it was just one of those things where I said 'Well, I can't do any worse than last week.'"
Maybe lower expectations make for happier outcomes. Whatever the explanation, Mike Edwards called himself a PBA champion that day for the first time since joining the tour 13 years prior.
"I didn't know whether this day would ever come," he said at the time.
It would not come again for the next 18 years. Edwards may have gotten the break he always wanted in Canada that day, but the usual breaks resumed thereafter. He made more than a dozen shows in the ensuing years and came away with not a single additional title to show for the effort.
When word of the PBA's intention to switch to an exempt tour format for the 2004-05 season got out, Edwards did not just wonder if he ever would win a title again; he wondered if he ever would bowl for a living again.
"Around 2003, nothing was going right for me, personally or professionally," Edwards says. "I was going through a divorce that affected me a lot, career-wise nothing was going right, and then I lost my exemption."
Anyone else with just a single title to show for more than 20 years of toil on tour might have called it a career. Anyone, that is, except for the son of one James Morris Edwards Jr.
"I had a long talk with my dad," Edwards explains. "He always was my biggest supporter, and he said 'You don't want to go out on these terms. You want to go out on your terms.' At the time, I didn't know what to do."
It was not going to be easy, but when the PBA rolled out the Tour Trials concept, at least he knew what to do—pack his bags and head to Stardust Bowl in Merrillville,Ind., to bowl for his livelihood.
Edwards arrived in Merrillville with his worst season on tour in 20 years behind him and no idea what he might do with the rest of his life. But there's something about desperation that awakens the competitor in Mike Edwards; he proceeded to bowl better that week than ever before.
Edwards won by more than 550 pins, locking up the first of eight available exempt spots for the 2004-05 PBA Tour season. He averaged 240 for the week in a tournament in which he had to bowl on five different lane patterns.
"I don't know, I just felt like I had nothing to lose," Edwards recalls of that performance. "It didn't count as an official PBA title, but in my heart it did. Besides winning my first title in 1994 and the Senior Masters last week, it was the most satisfying win I ever had."
Edwards again found himself with nothing left to lose when he showed up to bowl the USBC Senior Masters in Las Vegas last week. The man who talked him into trying his luck in Merrillville eight years ago, the one he knew would never give up on him, no longer would be available for those long talks in times of need. James Morris Edwards Jr. passed away in November.
"It was very traumatic, the way everything happened," Edwards says. "Stuff didn't make sense to me there for a while. Bowling was the last thing I thought about; I really didn't care about anything at that point. But with the help of my wife, Sam, I was able to start getting past dealing with it. My wife is the love of my life; I don't know where I would be without her.
"But there are still times where it hits me that I won't be able to talk to him again. I think that will always be there. I always was able to call him after I bowled and talk to him. He would understand. There were some rough patches, even in the last two months when I was starting to get back in shape and get back into bowling again."
Had it not been for something his wife Samantha said to him, he might never have gotten back into bowling at all.
"She said 'You know your dad would not want you to quit,'" Edwards recalls. "'He wants you to do your best, and you need to honor that. You need to keep going.'"
Somewhere in the eternity it took a five pin to fall on a light hit in the 10th frame of the Senior Masters title match last week, Edwards may have wondered if it was worth it to have kept going, if this would be yet another moment when a title teased him before slipping through his fingers. But then that wobbly five pin fell, bringing him that much closer to his first title in 18 years, and Edwards collapsed to his knees.
"I thought 'Finally! One for the good guys!'" Edwards says. "Yeah, that made up for a couple bad breaks. I can still see it; I still think about it, that it actually did fall. I actually did catch a break."
But if you think his second national title in 18 years is enough to assuage the agony of so many times when the pins didn't fall, think again.
"It made up for some of the bad breaks, but it still didn't make up for a few others," Edwards said. "I am just going to use this momentum to get geared up for the last two senior stops in August."
Maybe by then the good guys will have more luck in store.


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Free iPhone App Giveaway via Twitter!
March 9, 2009 by Rob
Filed under Contests, News, Tips and How-To's, Site News
Our second ever Free iPhone App Giveaway is going. To win an app code is easy… just sign up to our Twitter tweets and watch for when they are posted. It's that easy. We like to keep it simple around here and this is about as simple as it can get… We'll start tweeting app codes any day now and we have quite a few to burn through. App code tweets could come during any time of the day or night or on any day (just to keep it interesting!). Good luck! and if you haven't already, follow us on Twitter!
Older Contest (discontinued):
Our first ever Free iPhone App Giveaway is now underway! So, here's the deal: Several excellent iPhone app developers have partnered with AppChatter.com to sponsor these contests. Apps include: Kitty Kannon, Infinite SMS, Blox, CompareMe and more (reviews are still pending).
To enter into the random drawing you must do one (or more) of 4 things:
- Leave a comment on any review… review only comments count.
- Start a thread or comment on an existing thread in the forums (yeah, they needs some help!).
- Subscribe to our twitter tweets.
- Subscribe to our email list.
Comments must also be relevent to the thread (highly subjective, we know), so a comment like "wow" doesn't qualify and similarly, new thread topics should be discussable topics relevant to our website theme (so, please don't ask about the weather on the apps forum!!). You can comment on reviews / threads in the forum as much as you want and each comment/post will count as an entry for that days drawing, however twitter and email signups will count once each but will be eligible to win each day we run the contest (your best value .
That's pretty much it. We have about 15-20 app codes to giveaway in our first round which we will do at a rate of two app codes per day. Winners will be notified via email (so yeah, your real email address would be important when commenting or registering), or a direct message via twitter (if you chose to signup to twitter).
Come back often to keep entering into the contests and increase your chances of winning one of these very cool apps.
Contest Rules:
- App codes are for the US App Store only, so for US Residents Only.
- If you don't like the app code you win you can consider making a friend by giving it away to someone else. (We'd like to discourage app code exchanges)
- Abuse and Spam will not be tolerated in any way shape or form. So, you may comment ONCE per review. However you may post multiple times per forum thread, so long as it does not appear that you are spamming it.
- Determining if you are spamming the forums or reviews is at our sole discretion, so be nice.
- Winners will be notified by email, so a valid email is required unless the winner is via twitter, in which case the winner will be notified by @user on twitter.
- If you get an app code to an app you already have or to one you don't want, make a friend and give it to someone else!
- Signing up for twitter means getting our tweets, which is whenever we post something to the site (about twice per day).
- Signing up for email means getting our updates via email. This is done via feedburner and goes out once per day. You may also see the occasional site update or newsletter, but so far we've never done any of these so don't count on them any time soon.
- Contest is over when we run out of app codes.
- Void where prohibited. Although, not sure where this would apply but you see this on every contest rules, so we thought it would be fitting here too.
- Do not email us asking for an app code… you will not get one. You must follow the above rules and enter the same as everyone else.


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Will a new temporary plate number be issued for extensions?
No, the same number will be extended. However, there will be an additional charge of $15.00 for the extension.
When can the 30-day extension be given?
The extension will be available 50 days after the tag is issued and will add an additional 30 days to the original expiration date.
How will transfers be handled?
The same as they are today, the new system is only for temporary tags.
Who should have user affidavits?
Everyone who will be using the system will need to complete a user affidavit. Please let us know if someone resigns, retires, etc.
Can we charge the $20 ERT fee for processing a temporary plate?
No, the $20 ERT fee is for the electronic processing of a complete transaction in which a title number and/or a permanent registration has been issued through a Service Provider.
What about when the system is down?
For temporary plates, we suggest that you sign up with both vendors. If one vendor is down, you can process using the other.
What if MVA goes down?
MVA has assigned both vendors a series of temporary plate numbers to be issued if the MVA system goes down. These reserve numbers could be issued to the dealerships and the owner and vehicle information would be transmitted to MVA when the system comes back online.
What happens if my internet connection is unavailable?
Since the temporary plate system can be accessed with a laptop computer there are several options for mobile internet connections, such as an AirCard or a wireless connection for a mobile hotspot.
Will the "insurance inquiry" flag stop the issuance of a temporary plate?
No, the inquiry flag will not stop the issuance of a temporary plate but an insurance violation will.
If the customer has an "insurance violation", will the flag stop the issuance of a temporary plate?
Yes, however you may contact MVA's Insurance Compliance Telephone System at 410 768-7431 to pay your outstanding violation. The telephone number is available 24/7. Once the confirmation number is given, the flag will be automatically removed and a temporary plate can be issued.
Do you have to have a laser printer?
No, laser printers are recommended but not required. An ink jet printer is acceptable for use with the new system.
If we have cardboard tags that are not eligible for a refund, do we destroy them or turn them in to MVA?
Turn them in to MVA.
Does the PoD temporary plate require signatures?
Yes, the customer must sign the temporary registration.
Can we use a laptop?
A laptop can be used for the Temp Plate Print on Demand System, but the full Electronic Registration and Titling (ERT) package requires a desktop computer in a stationary location.
How much are the plastic sleeves?
The plastic sleeves are available at no cost to you and are shipped directly to your dealership.
Do we have to order the plastic sleeves (bags) or will they automatically be sent to us?
The bags must be ordered from Maryland Correctional Enterprises. The order form is available on our website and can be faxed to 410-799-1370. The sleeves will be delivered directly to your dealership.
Are the temporary plate refunds issued as a voucher or cash?
A check will be issued to the dealership from the comptroller's office.
What happens if someone changes his or her mind after a temp has been issued?
The tag can be voided at any time prior to its expiration date.
Do we get a refund if we void?
No, once a temporary plate number has been issued the funds will be collected and refunds will not be given.
What type of documentation do we need to keep if the customer says they lost their tag?
No documentation is required by MVA, but we do recommend you have them sign a statement stating they lost their tag.


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October 19, 2017
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets is pleased to announce $1 million in funding for the Capital Equipment Assistance Program (CEAP).
This financial assistance program is available to support farmers to acquire new or innovative equipment that will aid in the elimination of runoff from agricultural wastes to state waters, improve water quality, reduce odors from manure application, separate phosphorus from manure, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. �Funding investments for equipment that will improve water quality is a vital aspect of our farm assistance programs. This program has historically supported many farmers in their transition to no-till or in improving their farming practices with precision agricultural equipment,� said Anson Tebbetts, Secretary of Vermont�s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. Tebbetts continued, �We�re excited to offer a new phosphorus removal technology funding category which will offer financial assistance for the installation of both physical and chemical mechanisms for the separation of phosphorus from manure.� This year, funding is available through CEAP for a range of innovative equipment such as phosphorus removal technologies, no-till equipment, manure application record keeping units, manure injection equipment, and more. Specific equipment that is eligible for funding as well as the corresponding funding rates and caps is available the Agency�s website at agriculture.vermont.gov/ceap The grant application opens October 18, 2017 and applications are due by 4:00 p.m. on December 1, 2017. Eligible applicants include custom manure applicators, non-profit organizations, and farmers. For the complete CEAP application, program details and additional information, please visit agriculture.vermont.gov/ceap or call the Agency at (802) 828-2431 or email: email@example.com ### About the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets: VAAFM facilitates, supports and encourages the growth and viability of agriculture in Vermont while protecting the working landscape, human health, animal health, plant health, consumers and the environment. www.Agriculture.Vermont.Gov


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Chris Brown adds selling pit bull puppies to his resume
NEW YORK (AP) -- Chris Brown is delivering more than hit songs -- he's selling puppies.
A rep for the singer confirmed Tuesday that Brown is selling two-month-old pit bull puppies on a website. Maureen O'Connor called Brown an animal lover and says the pups were born to dogs he keeps at his family home in Virginia. She says he's simply selling them to make sure they go to good homes, and it's not going to be a new business for the star.
Brown's mother on Sunday tweeted a link to the site, which shows Brown cuddling a puppy. He's selling them for $1,000 each, and the site guarantees their health, shots, registration and more.
Online: http://cbbreeds.webs.com/


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The Celebrity 100
#90 Ana Ivanovic - The 2009 Celebrity 10006.03.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Ivanovic won her first Grand Slam title last year at the French Open, propelling her to the No.
|Previous: Eva Longoria Parker
|Next: Alec Baldwin
© Wilfredo Lee/AP
Ivanovic won her first Grand Slam title last year at the French Open, propelling her to the No. 1 ranking in the world before injuries derailed her during the second half of 2008. The 6-foot-1 Serb has the most visited Web site of any female sports star. Her Adidas deal expires this year; she's looking for a lifetime contract when she signs her next shoe and apparel deal.
Sort list By: Rank | Name | Pay | Web Hits | Press Mentions | TV Mentions
Celebrity 100 Videos
Jolie: Most Powerful Celebrity
Angelina Jolie's fame goes unchallenged, even by Oprah.
Jeff Dunham: Beyond Stand-Up
Comedian on his rise to stardom and expanding empire.
Brand It Like Beck
Glenn Beck on his cross-platform success and the state of punditry.
Being Diddy
The hip hop mogul on the power of branding and selling a lifestyle.
Natalie Portman: Hollywood 2.0
The Star Wars actress on how the internet will shape the movie industry.
How To Be A Celeb
Forbes Reporter Quentin Hardy caught the eye of the Paparazzi. You can, too.
Earnings estimates are for June 2008 to June 2009. Includes dollars earned solely from entertainment income. Management, agent and attorney fees have not been deducted. Figures rounded off where appropriate. Sources include Billboard, Pollstar, Adams Media Research, Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BookScan. Rankings are generated by combining earnings with other metrics: Web mentions on Google press clips compiled by LexisNexis; TV/radio mentions by Factiva; and number of times a celebrity's face appeared on the cover of 25 major consumer magazines.
Intelligent Investing | Data | Knowledge | Insight | Wisdom
CEO Book Club
Book Review Jacqueline Novogratz' 'The Blue Sweater'
Book Review
Kapferer and Bastien's 'The Luxury Strategy'
Lauren Sherman
Jean-Noel Kapferer and Vincent Bastien's ''The Luxury Strategy.''


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Europe's Week Ahead: Facing East a Little
The U.S. congressional vote over a strike in Syria and more talk on the start of U.S. Federal Reserve 'tapering' will dominate global financial markets next week, but data from China and Japan could also provide some direction. Photo: Getty Images
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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China's hefty fines Mr Francis discuss ... the the impact that it could have ... as the drug featuring this press conference saying ... things all still be traced to watch a taping discussions alluding to see what she tells us how that might also impact the link to ... that of the economy at closer to two pm the upcoming congressional votes ... was sitting in the US uses episode like could weigh on my kids we just saw this week that was the scans and this has to take a non aggression begun this week ... and the money just find just the very start of my time faces goes to show them I was a barrier word on this ... Obama has ended its twenty meeting ... this weekend and ... don't be trying to get international support to launch a strike in Syria is very divided ... some countries with and friends can investors in countries under the UK but he's here for coffee I feel that Congress behind him ... looks like the second question I get ... a cut price on the ... US um ... do you think that this can be stock picks me this really just need to ... step up even futher these expectations it will come to us and consumer confidence figures re Telcel's and things like that as well ... the thing to say far has been pretty strong we've had ... a strong showing from the ... unknown Many faction leaders said the suspects had ... that was that if you still expecting an actual downturn in its biggest but it didn't raise ... the money factor is set to be strong crying out of ... office space will miss T isn't the Fed base because WellPoint to see ... a recovery really taking hold at the right to do with examples of the answers are you going into the three percent on which really sort of indicates expectations for a knock on effect in Europe as well ... let's go to the spot to get ... so aam you recently this just might be avoiding its hard landing expected to be seen recovery ... is not going extinct yet we doesn't even PMI data this week in deals that had been thinking it's working on this no confidence in the coming at ... us next week we have the commercial production ... um what is and is one ... of these sales and inflation data and can typically be completed in the specially for investor protection ... this week was insane but that rates unchanged this Tuesday question along with a nice connection ... last month a semi lets bitcoin bid to keep rates on change of all the time to time comment didn't say ... another zombie policy setting committee to about two point two was that they think of it covers back on track ... which pushes ... the case for the sales tax increase next year ... that people might be leaning on ... on the government to to push this ahead in a fight the BOJ governor did say that by not doing so it was it would actually cause more Mahindra goes to the Japanese currency announcement continues ... to expect this week was also Europe quickly um ... you know to offset these ... teachings that ... I'm the thing in London for the simple things ... and and most of twenty nine is different here is the U K unemployment and ... I'd certainly in seven point eight percent in the Kingdom and Pacific if we get the placenta Belo's and this and it could start raising rates in the street to keep on ... suffering expectations as soon as that seemed to come to seven point seven percent ... and could be in this case the flight between this and it's a good show how much people all wearing because France is offset by coming to an effort to halt the Wilson a statement of people kind of creeping may be ... Connie would come out against two diaries but he didn't say maybe sponge cake cool for now ... because that it's a fun so lacking that it's the exact getting in both cases but the ECB in backing having problems with making policy on the heels of the relevant for them to be ... in a file a corporate swaps and makes me ... think what makes her forcing them to his next week and had very strong sales updates ... of the to prepare the trade as well which in which they now trade that profit guidance for yet but more importantly race Tatsuo expecting any surprises in times of the license of the results ... of what is interesting and why when mechanics and retail is in general ... is that this t think that with this recovery taking hold in the UK ... with that the women on the concrete thing aisles house prices rising consumer confidence ... will stop to pick up an off the tone of my straight ... into yuan to the