Howdy fellow Occupiers. The Occupation Workgroup has called for a meeting on the Courthouse lawn at 11am, Saturday. This meeting will discuss the ongoing efforts to winterize our Occupation and provide a way for those who haven’t been onsite in a while to plug back into the onsite encampment.
We are engaging in a concerted 3 week effort to dig in and plan for the winter. We need all of OccupyMissoula to commit to helping the Occupation succeed, and to do so we are asking for you to not just retreat into your winter comfy zone, if you have one, but to commit to spending time at the Occupation on a regular basis, and to help focus OM on our encampment and what it brings to our movement.
As a result of fundraising efforts earlier this week to winterize the Occupation, we have purchased a 16×32′ military grade tent! We will put it up tomorrow, so any help is greatly appreciated! Many thanks to Taryn for spearheading this effort, and everybody else who donated and helped out. We also have a porta potty onsite, thanks to Missoula County. How exactly that came about, I’m not exactly sure, but it is welcome.
We need many supplies and donations to help raise the tent, and get it warm, light and comfy for the winter. We need sandbags for ballast to hold down guywires–we can’t be pounding stakes into the ground, as there are underground irrigation lines close to the surface.
Here’s a list of immediate needs:
- At least 3 coleman fuel lanterns, and bulk coleman fuel
- A couple of dozen chairs
- Sandbag ballast
- Warm things to place on the ground. Throw rugs are great.
- Good blankets
In addition to this, we need people to help out prepaying our accounts for propane at Axmen, and our food account at the Good Food Store. You can call these businesses and donate to the Occupation. Call the Good Food Store, (406) 541-3663 and Axmen at (406) 728-7020 and tell them you want to help out OccupyMissoula and add some funds to our prepaid accounts.
And the Occupation needs general donations. Taryn put up a page on her website where she outlines our needs, and provides avenues to donate: http://www.plutocracyfiles.com/2011/11/open-letter-to-friends-of-ows-movement.html . We haven’t been able to get our WePay account working properly, so Taryn has offered to handle this for us while our finance committee gets reorganized. She is one of our Occupation’s lawyers, and as such is bound legally to be accountable and transparent.
Thanks again for your commitment to the Occupation, and helping it to thrive through the winter, and providing a focal point for OccupyMissoula!
OCCUPY Missoula 