Tent City/Logistics/Winterization/Minutes/27 Oct 2011

Winterization Public Meeting,  10/27 evening

Sage, Lydia, Brian, Noah,  Cat, Poncho, Honi, Justin,  Sam, Eric, Chris, Anna, Calin, Bobbie,

$1500 discretionary funds passed at unofficial GA TONIGHT, w/o  quorum
Monica/Minutes. Livestreaming

Emergency blankets vs.regular. Discretionary funding does not include tent structures

First agenda item - Saturday 2pm next meeting. Following meeting: Sunday 3:30.
Open house brunch 12-3pm at Mel King‘s house, re winterization.

Justin - Inspection report noon tomo re sanitation, fire hazard.

Communication
Recap from last week
Indiv. Report re actions since last week

1. Communication

Mayfirst listserv?
For now, email list.
Winter@lists.occupyboston.org

Poncho – don’t have internet
Noah - Notes in library, and we have 2 meetings. Mayfirst listservs: mayfirst lists, click your list and log in (make one to become a member w existing email address). Digest, never get email options, no multiple list options. When you get list, option to choose between these once you get invite, you can send this invite to other people to sign up.

Sam- Ross will set up list

Justin – I will admin.

Cat - Wiki page: Wiki.occupyboston.org. Winterization WG page.
N – bare minimum: proposals, minutes from meetings.

Cat - Howtocamp.org (“How to occupy” site winter page there)

Eric – logistics taking stocks of what we have, going to buy things we lack right now about 300-500$.
N- trainings as a group?
Sam –scheduled? Yes.
Cat – print out and post in library.
L – occ handbook?
Justin – I have a camp guide! Map - local resources & shelters & web & bathrooms late night…

2. Recap

E – mtg schedule. Reports of action (Eric, Chris). Ideas – cost money. Course of action & outreach plans. Prices on tents (Chris reports) - $800 for 16x32ft (3x bigger than logistics). Also sold in auctions but those not always available. Concrete …tents: double-duty tarp, needs to be bought. Eric reports – fire marshals meeting, need to clean up hay (not yet cleaned, tomo afternoon fire marshals be coming). No smoking in tents/tent space. Propose this at GA?
Eric – greenhouses over tents we have? Using fanblowers to keep them inflated. Greenhouse in garden? Black greenhouse mesh flooring. Signage about no smoking, fire safety plan…Firemarshals said best no combustion on site, but if we took tents through inspection, which costs a few hundred $. Sustaining foods report – starchy, micro… Incorporating on-site support. Heating outside water and bringing it on-site to radiate heat inside greenhouse structures or big tents. Outside support: UU Churches. Soup trucks for food, veggies, chili. Could use them for hot water also.
L – talked aobut using them at night, borrowing from clover etc.
E- also LWG working on adopt a camper. Jennie working on this. Shifts at OB. Influx of homeless community – need to prepare for that. Get in touch with soc workers. Rachel  met with Mayor M,
Array of batteries enclosed outside of tents w/ extension cords running into tents.
E – specific things we want to spend money on. (list on minutes from previous meeting). Then we decided outreach plans:
Brian – reach to architects

L – architects at MIT

Karen – outreach to international electrical workers

John Ford – fire safety plan

Bobbie – work on group announcements but I did them today at emergency GA.

Eric – reached out to charitable orgs, UU Churches etc. bit of progress there but we need more ideas

Brian – food trucks

Chris – will look at prices for things we need

3. Indiv. Reports

Sam – I’m here for only a bit! I’m going to do an info dump. Many tents are easy to tent in over winter, bc smaller. Larger dome-style tents hard to keep warm. Better smaller tents. Cots not a great idea, if you’re doing that you should be sleeping off-site, cold air underneath. Brown, Cheap foam  - buy large quantity at supplier store and cut it ourselves. Zero-degree bags  and check if people already have them.  Tips: boots, take them off and put in bottom of sleeping bag. Do this with clothes, anything worn next day to make it warm next morning. Cell phone also, so it doesn’t die.
Most tents here are camping tents, so you’re not gonna need bigger tents to put them in.
N - Proper tent setup is huge
S - Replace big tents with smaller ones or larger military tents. Regular inspections of tents and gear to make sure people aren’t doing something they shouldn’t be.
B – or not waking up
S- So if it snows next day, it won’t be freezing. Every 3 days, every 5, every 7.  Best to stay on ground even if 2 ft of snow. Dry materials underneath hay or straw
B –we can’t
J –open space is antying that allows air under you –pallets etc. camping on concrete – all those have to go. Concrete…tents don’t seem trustworthy to me.
B – is camping out there the same as in the woods?
S – concrete is never good idea.
E – ground tent city is on is over tunnels.
S -  you’re still on ground. It’s effectively a sandbox. This is better than being out on the actual square. This is something to look into, might be a bit colder, not sure. But should be easier than concrete.
P – do you have contact info for tents etc?
Chris – yeah I have that
Justin –
S – something you need to say to everyone: doesn’t matter who it is, if you are wet, you are going to get sick, get cold really fast. You need dry clothes, go to logistics.
Bobbie - Can we make clothes tent rotate? Bc they close early and people are
Sam – my Irc name – dirk
N – comm org Vida Urbana has been occupying foreclosed homes. Having a national call right now. One of our rad librarians is doing this. I’m gonna get a report from her.
Carin - Transparency mtg two weeks ago, a guy was looking at lands outside.
N – P.O.P.  this discussion could broaden too fast.
N – tomo night there’s a discussion of tactics with Ideas Group 7pm instead of GA. Visions of how we can continue, if we’re not committed to occupying in winter.
J – two things. We have contacts with local shelters, so if people want to temp stay indoors, we can set them up. Instead of having $1500 budget every time,  I’m going to put forth proposal for a trash-picking group, to find things we need for free (insulation boards etc)
Carin – everybody should have wool socks. Team members socks. Teas and herbal care and deep immune system care.
Bobbie – I can help. Can we get money in that? $100 for herbs?
Cat – two things I’ve been doing. Contacting other groups to share info, haven’t heard much yet although there’s twitter etc. awareness of the howtocamp site. Nobody has started to pitch in yet but there’s sharing resources. It’s only been a day and I’ve gotten in direct contact with maybe dozen groups.
E – someone in media group has been working on outreach with other occupies
C – put up post in dailypost about this. Got a bit of feedback there. Got personal info on how to dress warmly, on marching on concrete in the cold. Put link up on wiki – we can boil it down and make a
I’m an architecture for humanity volunteer, we’ve been thinking about how to help the tent city (bamboo and tarps?). they’re in the loop. They also got contacted by somebody else’s outreach message (maybe yours, Lydia?).
Emily – Im just here absorbing, it’s my first mtg. heard eric talking about different churches. Is that for money?
Eric – no, for physical spaces e.g for heating water. Or having a blizzard preparedness place.
Emily – have connections and energy for this.
Karin – trying to find a generator for morning and evening. Talked to …food people. Boston veg event this weekend – I’ll talk to them. Can we heat up bricks? Artists in area – kilns etc.
Bobbie – sometimes they explode
K – trying to work with off-site meeting spaces like churches and unions.
Eric – ibew contacts?
K – called them, there are some meetings coming up.
B – I’d be willing to do research, need access to computer. Can do research assignments. I’ve concerns that things are walking out of the camp. We need to tighten up security because things are disappearing.
Lydia – outreach to MIT assignment. This is a major strategic options: jan Wampler. Specializes in creating sustainable arch for impoverished people. Built village in Haiti. Currently recruiting a design team at MIT of students and postdocs, though it’s a busy time at MIT. They want to know parameters and budget. Next week they can assess the situation. This means giving him money, but then he could make a prototype for other Occupies. He’s used to integrating a project like this, unlike others. He has MIT resources, can come up with a realistic proposal and budget. This thing couold come together very quickly. Design team can use materials for free. Workshop – we can refer other people to them. If an MIT architect (called Whitman of architecture) – makes it much harder for Mayor to shut down.  He thinks that building large structures would upset city. They’ll come up with tent-scale habitation, don’t know how they’d do that yet. They’d create prototype. MIT worried about liability – GA needs to indemnify MIT and etc. city could be concerned with large building. This is different from wiki research collective stuff, different from fragmentary approach. What I want to propose, however, is for him to coordinate it, and send everyone to him.
N – this needs GA approval.
L – but if he has a proposal, this could raise funds. He could make a lot of money. Would treat the Occupies as a new way of life. I feel like I’m talking to this guy who is really interested, but we are interfacing with an anarchistic group – do they want to go along with a coherent plan requiring cooperation.
Chris – I’ve been looking at prices for boots, thermal underwear. Sleeping bags – 60-100 range. Military sleep system. (Thermal?) Tops and bottoms $25. Numbers not in bulk. Individual foam pads for 10bucks. Sam mentioned websites but they aren’t same materials on the wholesale sites. They might be just as good. Polypro -- didn’t find change in price. Sam says a lot of tents we have out there are suitable for 4 seasons, but people need to be sleeping in pairs or more. We can pack in 12-14 people in 10-person mil tents. Having people waking up in tents is ok, body needs to turn and have heat, people can check up on each other.
Eric – bigger tents – almost everyone liked the idea.  People are ready to winterize in general. Reached out to churches. they had specific questions that I didn’t have answer to. I met with food guys to see what they need for food tent. I asked about water, hot bricks or logs. I didn’t have specific numbers for that.
Justin – last census of tents I took was 130 total. 3 days ago.
Brian – sent out mass email to MIT staff etc. got one person back saying I shouldn’t send so many emails. How do I link back to mayfirst? Confused about how to communicate with people without overwhelming. My whole thing, is to ask for help in a compassionate way, occupy their minds. I’m going to recruit help.
Carin – emails are so tricky. Once you get on a list you’ll get on a bunch of lists.
Brian – want to connect with trucks. Churches.
Karen – asked clover, no other food trucks.
Lydia – oh! pressure washers! Shampoo trucks! They’re made to heat water to clean carpets!
N – tomo’s discussion is on broad-scale tactics. Right now we occupy Dewey Square.
-is group willing to spend sig portion of money on winter occupation?

-how are we going to accommodate people who are not occupiers, how do we incorporate their voices into decision about what we do with camp winterization. Do campers decide this themselves?

-are we committed to physical general assembly in D square forever? Does it allow people to be included?

- we’re not making specific plans before the essentials, except for emergency funds. What level of outreach are we willing to do with city, with Rose K gnway – should this be outreach also?

Weather reports! We need to do that.

-morning GA weather reports. E – this was in amendment to today’s proposal.
Carin – we need a nice proposal for GA.
Eric – there are big radical ideas. There are also small ideas – how can we work with water drainage, outreach etc.  we can still incorporate MIT and get prestige from that.
L – the guy will be designing the whole way of life
Eric – I’m concerned GA wouldn’t want to put their life into someone else’s control. Folks at MIT, we can continue to outreach to them on smaller ideas.
L – if this guy coordinates it, all those questions will be answered, even small things like sleeping bags. Need to be part of a whole.
Carin – there’s a thing with MIT being a corporation. Intellectual property issues etc. maybe with indemnifying we will need to do
L – they’d come up with proposal and present it to GA.
N – what I’ve seen in GAs  is that people resist ideas they’re not part of crafting. Your job would become gathering input. Flowing input to design team. Making people feel like they contribute.
Eric – we should continue our outreach.
N – can we get someone to come to our group meeting?
L – I’m supposed to give him parameters etc. he’s gathering people right now who will come to check site.
N – what do you need for him?
L – tent count and budget per tent.
Eric – we don’t have all 35000 for winterization.
N – we should pursue people who want to match funds and sponsor. So that GA can know how much we need to spend. First priority is safety.
B – temporary and mobile.
A – do we pay for their plan/model?
L – nothing paid upfront.
Angela – what are thoughts about how to involve us in this quickly? This is a community that will resent anything that goes too far beyond them.
Eric – we need to make sure that everyone’s bodies are comfortable. $20 Boots, warm socks. Those are simple proposals to GA – sleeping bags, smaller purchases.  As to items walking away from camp. Most in-kind donations go through logistics tent, most supplies etc. We need to ask people for their tent numbers.
N – is logistics working on finding out who is staying in the tents?
B – medical is doing this.
Eric – this is really difficult.  But we can do it as people come in to logistics to get things. Talk about tent size etc.
Angela – but what is the answer for my question?
Noah – ideas non-GA debate on tactics. Tomo.
Eric – we need people to contribute ideas, how to encourage participation.
N – what level of participation do we encourage in camp?
Justin – we need to make it to winter. We have issues to deal with now.
N – let’s talk about immediate plans right now. For next week, etc.
B – can we get this to go on agenda first?
N – yes. So for next week:

• Hay cleanup! Tonight?

J: we can’t do it tonight with all the mud. We need a system in place for knowing where resources are going. We need to tell people to lock their tents. We need to look to other groups
B – as winterization, we need to ask medics to check on people.  To see if people are sick etc. can we use the info they get from their inspection?
N – let’s assign someone to reach out to medics, safety and logistics. Let’s include their efforts in our next meeting. If we have those people in our meetings…
J – point out dangerous people to police (…?)
N – let’s spray-paint sleeping bags etc with logos.
B – clothing tent needs to be open more for clothes.
Eric – locks on tent is a good idea. Combination locks for community tents?
N – those not great in winter.
B – look up winter combo lock.
Eric – we have $1500 for 3 days. I just threw that number out. We spent $500 on blankets before, and ran out that night. Is there anything else we need money for, outside of my list for $1500? (tarps, blankets, plastic drop cloths – on bottom)
N – cheap foam?
Cat – that’s a separate issue.
Eric - that’s a zero-degree thing.
J – most immediate issue is wetness.
N – does 1500 include laundry budget?
Eric – when we have enough drop cloths to line tents after we’ve dried them. There’s a way of drying tents. Line inside of tent with plastic drop cloths under tent, but fold cloth away from  tent, underneath the cloth.
N – we can consider ductaping also.
J – one of the cheapest things to provide is information. We need to provide information to people.
N – maybe we should devote time on sat for a quick training, then going out to the site and train other people on-site.
Eric – one thing logistics didn’t do so well, is that they ask people to come to them.
N – let’s do a direct action thing in this group, go out talk to people & teach. Tomorrow?
Eric – ground will be wet.
Justin – ductape has min use when it’s wet.
N - Saturday rains. Sunday is sunny.
Eric – there’s 2 concerns: lots of hay. Still lots of wet tents. Let’s incorporate the training with this. Drying out tents etc. we can clear out hay when we lift the tents. Let’s get rakes.  Etc tomorrow.
L – do we have ponchos?
Eric – a bit.
Eric – we don’t have inventory really. We have usually one person at the tent. We don’t have a reg meeting time.
N – groups should be merged?
Eric – I don’t think so. A lot of log people don’t have a lot of interest for this, I feel. Log needs to be on-site, keeping tent organized etc. they don’t have interest in decision-making.
N – but we’re discussing how to distribute donations etc. why not merge these two groups?
Eric – I’ll bring it up. My concern is that people aren’t around at same time. Different shifts. Even during meeting, need people in the tent.
N - leave a big piece of paper : what do you think about combining groups with winterization?
Eric – ok.
Bobbie – do you think MIT can help us winterize?
L – they can be a source of info. They won’t be here on-site but they can be a source of knowledge.
N – they’re working on holistic issues. Let’s not ask them small questions.
Angela – vets for peace orgs are coming to other sites to help. Military tents etc. they’re also doing trainings about how to make your own gas masks… they may be a resource. Wentworth institute of technology is a bit more practical-focused.
Justin – and military vets.
Eric – how are we going to spend emergency funds?
N – you have a list of things you want to spend money on. Do you need to  amend this list with our suggestions?
Eric – we didn’t allocate this budget specifically.
Carin – the GA added $500 for boots etc. Let’s use the $1000 -- blankets tarps drop clothes. Let’s use that also for shovels.
N – let’s discuss what solutions we have for specific problems.  People are wet and cold, they need blankets, tarps.
B – and laundry.
Angela – some tents are well-tarped. But some tents are not tarped, or barely. Can you look at which tents don’t have things.
Noah – 3 agenda items. Developing items on emergency funds list. Outreach to campers – waterproofing, involving them in this process… and figuring out who does which outreach.
Eric – blankets, tarps, plastic dropcloth, padding, shovels, brooms, rubber boots, socks, gloves, hats, scarves.
Justin – we use trash cans for carting out hay.
N – concern about padding, that it’s longer term.
Eric – at 30 degrees it’s not emergency funds. Yoga mats are one idea. [……] might run low in a few days.
Justin – suggestion on spec blankets: space blankets, thermal heat blankets. Not alum foil but mylar. Wool blankets, also. Retain heat even when it’s wet. Fleece instead of cotton.
N – recycled wool.
B – make sure they’re labeled. Otherwise not DDT-free.
J – buy in bulk on ebay.
Brian – we can’t spend til we know the lowest cost.
Eric – we might run out while that happens.
N – dollar a pound at Garment District. But not on Halloween.
Rachel – at GA, we talked with a city commissioner (?) we need to establish protocol for checking out tents at certain times of night. Bc cops told us they will do it for us if we don’t.
E – Medical is working on this.
N – we need to assign pricing to different people. Mylar and DDt-free wool blankets.
Lydia – Rachel (?) talked to homeless shelters about wholesale suppliers for blankets.
Rachel – diff Rachel, but I will do this.
Brian – roll of neoprene.
Justin – will do mylar.
Rachel – heavy duty fleece is really good. Nonallergenic, wet but stay warm.
N – someone should do all of those.
Eric – what if we run out tomorrow?
N – can we get consensus on Logistics buying things until then? [consented on]
Justin – what size tarps? To cover Log or Food or bunch of small things?
N – these are minutae. Let’s do this online.
E –crowdsourcing on twitter!
[consented on changing objective right now to thinking about outreach before next meeting]

Eric rereads proposal from emergency GA:  + Galoshes
Blankets, tarps, drop cloth, padding, shovels, brooms, rubber boots, and socks, gloves, hats, sacarves.
We will report on expenditures after they are made @ second hand stores.

Justin – large rubber gloves to go over other gloves. Waterproofing.
Rachel - NO COTTON anything.
E - Logistics tries not to say no to anything.
Jennie – use “prefer”/recommend

Recap of who is doing what:
Rachel – Medical. shelter commissioner making list of local shelters for us. I’m in touch with a lot of them
Brian – outreach to Boston building materials coop.
Justin – army vets staying at camp. Safety WG.
Emily – outreach to non-UU churches?
Cat – outreach to other occupies

Bobbie – we should do church potlucks.
Carin – that’s long-term
Bobbie – inspection coming tomorrow
Rachel – inspectors’ demands fulfilled. Fridge gone. They’re setting up a handwashing station tomo. I’m setting up flu clinic early morning. I’m point-person for it.
Noah – my mom does this
Justin – three-tiered program. Contact going around to every tent; Teaching groups; Information packet.
Rachel – most info people are offering us are for wilderness. There’s nothing out there for a situation like ours.
N – we should create our own guide. Gather info and put on wiki. Determine bets solution for things, and make handout available for people – how to stay warm and dry and winterize tent, clothes. Our first step is to put everything online.
Rachel – Jim Greene asked cell phones and email (Eric and Justin). Asked to be in touch to help. He’s a social justice guy.

N –
Saturday 2
Sunday 3:30

Friday 9am cleanup of tents. Meet at Logistics.
Also Sunday morning 10:30 for tent cleanup.

All meetings meet at Gandhi.  I will put those mtgs on occupy calendar (Noah)
Take notes at in-reach thing with tents.

E - John F put together fire safety plan
N – will put together email list with mayfirst.