Meeting of the Minds

The volunteer coordination committee was born underneath pop-up tent on a tiny green space in downtown Portland, and Jimmy? Jimmy was it's father. He left his number at the information booth, and welcomed anyone with an interest in volunteer coordination to give him a call. To my surprise, many people did just that. Same idea. Same time and place.

You had to take off your shoes before you entered the blanket tent space. That made me smile.

We sat in a circle and introduced ourselves. There were a variety of personalities, backgrounds, methods & intentions gathered together in that cozy lil' tent. Some people were experienced with this whole anarchy meeting thing, and some of us were still a little wet behind the ears. Note takers? Attendance? POCs? annagrams? Already!? Who knew?

After we sorted through the bureaucracy, we started to get to the meat of it: How to Organize Volunteers for the Revolution. I felt, and still feel, that a healthy volunteer program is a key element to a successful populous movement. We want everyone to be involved, right? People need to know how they can best use their energies and resources to benefit the occupation. It only makes it grow, each new volunteer is a new advocate for the cause.

Essentially, Occupy Portland needed a volunteer program, and fast.

My ears perked up, 'Hm, I think I can help with that.'

I listened. I tried to listen. They had a lot to say. There was a lot going on. These people move fast. Everything was moving so fast. The camps were nice n' full. The committees were all formed. There was even a volunteer application up and running on the web-site! How was that even possible?

I felt like I had a lot to contribute. I'm in meetings like this all the time.Well...sorta.

It's a huge task. Occupy Portland was a round the clock, multi-program, high skilled volunteer event or festival, rather.  It required hundreds of volunteers at all hours of the day and night with all kinds of skills to do all kinds of tasks in all kinds of weather. Definitely not your average walk in the park.

My mind was spinning. Still is.  What everyone was able to accomplish in those two parks in in such a short amount of time was absolutely astounding. How does one even begin to try to coordinate such beautiful chaos?

#respect #solidarity #opdx