(posted this morning on the yahoo list.)

This is written because I am responsible to the Burner community for things done in their name.

Evolution and status of this idea.

Last year I volunteered at Pride and was dismayed by the litter at the festival. I recognized that part of the reason for my dismay was the LNT influence of Burning Man. My reaction last year was to grab a trash bag and pick things up when I didn’t have anything else to do. This was noticed.

I enjoyed and respected the folks I worked with at Pride and intended to volunteer in the same capacity this year. However, it seemed to me that I might be able to assemble a crew of Burners to strictly pick up litter.

There are many areas of mutual interest between both communities, and in addition to the litter issue, I thought it might be a good idea to establish a conscious link between the local Burners and the Pride folks.

It was just an idea, and I wasn’t all that motivated to implement it. However, I informally presented it to some of the Pride folks I’d worked under. There was interest in the idea.

In a meeting with some of their honchos I presented a simple (KISS principle) concept of getting a few Burner volunteers to do anti-litter stuff. These would volunteer thru the Pride volunteer structure with perhaps a badge or some other piece of regalia identifying them as Burners. This seemed entirely within my personal capabilities.

During the meeting I learned that Pride was short on volunteers, and judging that there would be no significant objection in the community, suggested that I could post a call for general volunteers on the SD burner yahoo group and on tribe. They liked that.

After the meeting I called Gadget to let him know what was going on (a courtesy) and perhaps see if there was some way to get Burner regalia for the volunteers I found for the anti-litter work. Much to my surprise, he mentioned the possibility of financial support from the LLC or BWB. I pretty much dismissed the thought at the time, except for swag stuff.

The Pride folks liked the concept I was presenting. I hadn’t known how that would go over with them, so for the first time I started doing some serious thinking along those lines. By the next day I had an amended concept that involved two person anti-litter units doing pickup and a little street theater.


This Sunday I went over to Gadgets and briefed him. I didn’t go there for money. I respect his ideas and his commitment to the Burner community and would have consulted him anyway. The only reason I hadn’t mentioned it to him before was that I considered it to be long shot.

Brady came up with a concept vastly superior to mine. In addition to individuals picking up trash, he suggested a goon squad that would go to heavily littered areas, clean them up and then plunk a trash can right there.

He also suggested that this would be a great Burners Without Borders project and that BWB might want to fund it. I felt that the LLC needed to be clearly involved. If there were a formal Burner connection with Pride, I thought it would be important that the connection be seen by them as local, rather than with SF based BWB. Brady was apparently convinced of the validity of that point.

We discussed the 120 dual trash containers Pride had for the festival, and thought that wasn’t enough. Thinking it thru, we came up with a loose idea of what would be really helpful: 500 additional trash boxes with liners, a rented gator to move the goon squad around and moving the trash we collected. Swag for the volunteers. A field shower. A few bells and whistles. Maybe $1500 or so.

It was a better idea and I agreed to contact the Pride folks to make sure it was consensual. However, I realized the vast change in the nature of what was being proposed. Instead of Hank presenting and implementing Hank’s idea, I was now acting as the representative of two different Burner organizations: BWB and the LLC.

It meant some changes in how things would happen. For one thing, as Hank I had no problem with wearing the Pride volunteer T-shirt, which has corporate logos on it. As someone representing Burners ideas and value, I had to tell them we would provide our own volunteer T-shirts.

A few years ago, Pride apparently had a problem regarding a volunteer who was also a molester. All volunteers have to provide name and SS# in order to be accepted. As a simple Pride volunteer, I was quite willing to do this. As a representative and negotiator for Burners, I looked at this issue and said to Pride: “We police our own.”

After some thought, I realized the way to make this possible was if, instead of being normal volunteers, Burners became an exhibitor at Pride. We would exhibit ourselves by doing certain specific anti-litter things, and coordinate with their efforts.
A theme camp, in a way.

The Pride folks agreed to rent us a booth for a token amount. Initially, it was 79 cents but I talked them down to 59. (They will also provide food support, drinks, etc.)



Pride happen 7/18 and 19. My decision to implement the KISS concept was made at the meeting with the Pride folks on 6/12. The talk with Brady was on the 14th.
Currently, this idea is being discussed by members of the LLC board, various folks in the Burner community and Carmen at BWB has been contacted.

There is not a lot of time for either the simple concept or the much better one to be implemented. I need to make a decision about when I commit my efforts to either idea. If I can’t get informal but clear agreement of support from the LLC and BWB (and trust them to follow thru) I will choose the KISS idea. I don’t know if they can move fast enough, or let go of formal procedures fast enough to make it work.

I’m trying to arrange for an informal majority of the LLC board to agree to support the idea. Operating this way is not how I like to do things. I believe in total transparency and maximum input from the community. What I am doing is communicating with a small group of shakers and movers in the Burner community for the sake of quick decision making.

If I had known there was so much support for getting involved with Pride, I’d have put this out for the community to discuss months ago.

However, I am pragmatic, and political philosophy is not really what I want to think about now. I want to think about how to make something good happen. I want it to be beautiful. And if I can bring in some Divine Absurdity, all the better.

Here is the story. Do with it what you will.

And if you want to work hard and laugh and make an indelible impression on the Pride folks, get hold of me personally. You can be a Special Litter OPerative - a SLOP.

Hank (AKA Tom Pain-in-the-Ass)

Assistant Political Commissar

knackman@yahoo.com.