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Subject: 2000 Montana Banking Report
Date: Sunday, August 06, 2000 16:02
From: Butterfly Bill <butterflyb...@grapevine.net>
Newsgroups: alt.gathering.rainbow

I was visiting Information for the first time on July 25. Marken was setting up the posts for an experimental structure they had brought, they called it a yurt, but it was a canopy of clear plastic over a frame of PVC pipe resting on logs set upright, open on all sides. It looked like a huge prehistoric jellyfish. They were later to move the whole structure, then give up trying to keep the wind from tearing it apart, leaving the posts in place with a pile of wadded up plastic beside.

Within a few sentences of the start of our conversation he asked me if I would like to be on the Bank Council. I had done it with him two years earlier at the National in Arizona. I had come to the Gathering wanting to get involved in a movie this time, the last Gathering I had deliberately spent just blissing and playing, taking a sabbatical from involvement in the Rainbow bureaucracy - and had started to feel in the end that it was getting boring. Better to be entertained by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I was wondering what trip it could be, and quickly settled on this one when it was offered. I said yes.

The Banking Council is the group of people that looks after the money collected in the Magic Hat. They count it, and decide who gets it. If they are good, they keep records of the gettings and givings, and if they are dedicated they spend time down at Main Circle during dinner actually carrying the Hat around and saying words of encouragement to the people as they sit being served.

It is one of the few places in the otherwise free form and anarchistic Rainbow Gathering where there have evolved traditions of strict discipline and centralization. To begin with, there are amounts of dollars in the thousands being handled, with many temptations to take some or all of it for one's own interests - and even if this doesn't happen, there are many other temptations for others to accuse you of doing it. Even if there is no malice aforethought, money can be miscounted or misplaced, and people can get especially emotional about any of these matters. Money can make people around it flammable, and safety procedures have been found advisable. There are practices that people have started in response to all these pressures, they are passed on to people newly getting involved by the more experienced, there haven't really been any councils and consensi about them, they have just become traditions that few people question.

There are many rituals where two or several people repeat the same act and do it in front of witnesses. After the Hat and its helper hats at Dinner Circle have been brought in, all the money is dumped together in one pile, and several people sit around - first separating the bills into stacks of the same denomination, then counting them and then giving them to another to count again. If there are differences in counts of the same by two different people, they both recount while a third does it again. Two people keep two separate ledgers of amounts contributed and given out. This isn't like the Babylon practice of "keeping two books", one for you and another to show the tax auditor, but simply two different persons recording the same events and comparing their results with each other to spot mistakes. In the evenings the money in the Magic Hat bucket at Information is counted in a similar manner, out on the ground, behind the bliss rail but fully visible to passers by, by at least two people.

The money is then gathered into one place, one bag or container, that usually is in the keeping of one person. That person carries it wherever he or she goes, some of the Shanti Sena folks are notified to pay special attention to that person's safety, and the identity of that person is mostly kept secret from those not directly involved in the supply and banking movie. It is very easy to start losing money if too many people have access to it and the power to pass it out. One person can find a request reasonable while others don't. One can have a plan that relies on money being there that another has passed out without the first's knowledge of it. It is also easy to lose track of it if it is spread out. You want to count it all, but there are amounts in places you can't find at the moment. And sometimes money is needed for some emergency or to seize an opportunity, and people want to find the person with the money fast. This centralization is done for efficiency and accountability.

There is often not enough money for everybody who might be wanting some of it, and as a result competition to be one of those chosen to receive any. To spread the pressure, collective decisions are made on all money disbursements. The Hat holder is not to give anyone any money unless such a decision has been made - a specific request has been discussed at the Banking Council, or the Council has authorized the holder of the money to give whatever a supply person requests. All the times I've been on the bank our Council meeting took place every evening in Main Circle just after the counting of the money, and all requests were taken and considered at that time.

Participation in the Council, like all Rainbow meetings, is open to all, but the practical size of the Council is usually limited by the availability of people willing to come to Main Circle every night and put up with the other pressures and annoyances. Usually there are three or four who keep coming each evening for the whole length of the Gathering, with another three or four attending who come only intermittently. The core four at this Gathering were Marken, Iron Warrior, Mink, and myself, in frequent attendance were Sandy Andrews (who posts on a.g.r), and a friend of Warrior's who had the word Red in his name (cuz of his hair, I'm sorry I forget the rest of it).

The evening after my conversation with Marken, I went with him for the first time to Dinner Circle. I had memories of Circles at previous gatherings, with announcements going on interminably while the food got cold, and was bracing myself for a reprise of them, but at my first circle of this Gathering I was surprised to hear very few announcements, and what seemed like no more than a 15 minute wait from when the first containers of food arrived until the food started to be served. I first observed Eagle Feather, who acted throughout like the de facto master of ceremonies. He raised up his decorated staff and got the crowd to quiet down, then intoned a prayer of his own and then invited some more from others. This continued until it looked like all the food containers had arrived. Then Greg Sherill, who was to be another principal actor, said a few paragraphs about shitters and hand washing, then the Om was started, then everybody sat down and started to get served and eat. David Alexander English, for so many years a main player at Dinner Circle, was not in evidence at all.

This was a profound change to me. I commented on this to a few others, and they concurred that there had been a lot of discussion about speeding up the process and not "holding the food hostage". The next two weeks I was to observe a lot of experimentation, with a few failures resulting in minor chaos, but mostly many encouraging successes. Several days in succession there was a council starting about a half hour before the food was expected to start showing up, in the middle of the circle. Several ways of conducting the feeding were discussed, a few were tried out, and the following basic routine evolved:

Have all the servers assemble in the middle of the circle, inside a ring of rocks that had been arranged, then allow the other people coming to dinner to just naturally bunch up around them. While still together like this, some prayers were said, one person (usually Greg) would make "The Four Essential Announcements". They were, 1, a rap about how the Forest Service will tow you if all four of your tires aren't off the road, 2, boil or filter all your water before drinking, 3, no personal fires, and what to do if there is a fire emergency (come to the middle of the meadow if you aren't actually fighting the fire), 4, use the shitters, wash your hands, and go to CALM is you are injured or sick, and (actually a fifth) give to the Magic Hat. No other announcements were allowed other than these, those with additional ones were told to go around the circle after serving and talk to about 20 people at a time as they walked around.

After the Four Main were recited, another prayer was said, then the people were told to spread out and form a large circle. When this was finally accomplished, the Om was intoned, and the people sat down to be served. In amazement I timed the events several times with a watch, and it was never more than a half hour from Eagle Feather raising his stick until the food starting to be served. In the beginning the time of 7 p.m was chosen as the time for the food to have arrived and the ceremonies to begin, and they kept to this time very punctually. Then it stared creeping backward to about 7:30. The sun was always still up when the money count began.

This went fine until the thirtieth, when the circle started getting too big in diameter. The evening of the first there was a council that I found to be an electric experience. There was done something I had never seen before, but had long wanted. They decided that just passing the feather wouldn't get things done in time before the food came, so they chose a facilitator. The person suggesting this said it couldn't be he, and asked for a volunteer. A soft voiced sister in her 20's with blond dreadlocks took the feather, and pointed to people raising their hand to speak.

The proposal of concentric circles came up, there was some original pooh-poohing, but after only about 15 minutes all had been talked into trying. The sister said, "consensus by silence". nobody said anything, she said "consensus has been achieved for concentric circles". Another equally short discussion ensued about how to do it, the solution of "ushers" was arrived at, another "consensus by silence". It was all over after 25 minutes (I timed it with the warch), just as all the food had arrived. It was absolutely the most efficient council meeting that I have ever observed anywhere in Rainbow, a tantalizing vision of possibilities.

The weather that evening was intermittently rainy, with the sun intermittently peeking thru the clouds. Once one of the prayers was answered by a burst of thunder, followed by laughter. When we started going around with the Hat, we sometimes had 4 or 5 hands at the same reaching over it. I could tell early on that we were going to collect a huge amount. When we counted it, it was $2,647, the most I have ever seen from one Circle. It took about two more evenings to finally get the forming of the concentric circles together, the first try was a bit chaotic. The way to do it turned out to be having ten or so people on all sides of the circle barking orders like sergeants.

The evening of the third, the author Ram Dass was rolled in his wheelchair to the edge of the inner circle. Michael John introduced him (with a look on his face like teenage girl showing off the millionaire fiancé she had just landed to all her girl friends). He said a few halting sentences (he had had a stroke and his speech was slow), then Glowing Feather presented to him a brass pipe with some ganj in it. Dass held the pipe while Feather lit it, he took a long toke and blew a big white cloud of smoke out, then held the pipe up in an offertory pose while a big cheer came up from the people all around.

The fourth was a freaky experience. There had been some doubt over whether there was even going to be a Dinner Circle that evening, the drumming and dancing from the breaking of the Silence was still going on, there were people milling about every where. Marken, Warrior, and I had gone down to look, concluded that it wasn't going to happen, and had gone back to Info. Then I decided to walk around Trading Circle, and while there saw some people carrying 5 gallon buckets down Main Trail toward the Circle. I followed them, and heard in the distance people singing "Magic Hat, Magic Hat". I went down to investigate, and found several musicians from Granola Funk walking around with a garbage can lid gathering money. I went up and told them I was on the Banking Council and tried to ask them where they were taking the money, but they paid no attention to me. The money looked like it was going to start falling out, so I scooped some of it into the hat I was wearing, and their response to this was to grab the hat out of my hand and start emptying back into the shitcan lid. None of them recognized me, and they started doing to me Shanti Sena procedures for dealing with wingnuts. They started whispering to each other, "Don't let him get it", and politely grabbing money away from me as soon as anyone in the crowd gave me any. One of them started beckoning and saying to me in a soothing voice, "Do you want to step over here and talk about it?...."

I saw I wasn't getting anywhere, so I hotfooted it back over the ridge to Info, found Iron Warrior and said "Get over to Main Circle quick, they're collecting money and they don't recognize me". He promptly took off, and I went to my tent to get the multicolored "official" hat that we had been using. I got back, tried again to join the group of pirate passers, and they didn't recognize the official Hat either. I started throwing a hissy fit, saying "why don't you believe me", and finally one of them said with great sarcasm, "Do you want to talk with the council over there?" I looked over and saw Warrior and some others counting money, and went over. As I was sitting down I heard Eagle Feather just bellow, "YES, HE"S ALL RIGHT!!!" While I was regaining my composure, Warrior related to me, "I came over and said, 'What the FUCK is going on? I called Shanti Sena on them right there'". I said later of them, I should probably thank them for collecting $1200, but the whole experience left a colossal bad taste in my mouth. How easy it was to go from respected banker to wingnut with new people who didn't know you. How insecure a reputation can be.

On the fifth everything settled back to anticlimactic normality. There were few enough people that only one circle was needed, the food got served promptly with no incidents. The sixth was the last time we passed the Hat at dinner, I, among others, wanted to go to Vision Council starting the next day.

The first few days I felt like mostly an observer to the banking movie. Tommy and Marken were keeping the records, Iron Warrior passed the Magic Hat, using the one that had been on his head. (Soon we started using a big top hat with red and white polka dots on one side and a purple and yellow checkerboard pattern on the other, furnished by Marken.) Tommy was holding the money in his worn on the belly fanny pack. These three pounced on the money to count it when it came in, making it a little hard to work my own way in. This was soon to change dramatically. On the 30th. Tommy started complaining, saying he didn't to be carrying the Hat any more, and placed the bag on the ground. I reached for it, and had Tommy give me his records. Now I was smack in the middle of it. I carried the money in a black canvas purse with a shoulder strap everywhere I went for the next nine days. I wasn't really so scared about being robbed, if anybody had tried, I would have been yelling "Shanti Sena" like a cat with a scorpion up its ass, and would probably have gotten lots of assistance very soon. I was more worried about myself spacing it out. The first day I caught myself leaving it behind two times within five minutes, then managed to stay disciplined until it was time to give it up to the cleanup crew.

On the 27th. Mink started showing up. Iron Warrior had just passed the Hat, and had gotten 200 and something dollars, and Mink started complaining, "The hat went by way too fast, you've gotta stop and make eye contact, you have to PLEAD with them." After hearing Iron declare in a loud voice that once was enough, I quietly suggested the others into letting Mink go with it again, and he brought back over 600 more dollars. I remember a point where he had stopped in front of a man who gave him a 20, then another, until finally he had been talked into giving six of them. After that there was no objection from anyone to letting him run the Hat again. And he had a routine. "DIG DOWN DEEP into your pockets, give 'til it hurts. This is what brings us all their fine food to eat. We need it EARLY, don't hesitate, give it all up now...."

Vermin Supreme also showed up several times to pass the Hat. He went around shouting, "Folks, we know how much we despise filthy Babylonian currency and how much we hate to have to ask for it, but we all know how this is necessary in this decadent materialistic world we live in. But think how your despicable dollar bills can help fulfill the wonderful purpose of feeding our family. Yes, folks, this is SPIRITUAL MONEY LAUNDERING, and you have the opportunity right here...." Diamond Dave, as he does every Gathering, showed up a few times, to walk around with his fedora and talk in a voice reminiscent of Jimmy Durante. "This is the Magic Hat, which keeps us fat. Give 'til it hurts, and then you can go to CALM and they'll make you feel better." One evening a sister named Sara who had been in an accident putting her in a wheelchair wanted to roll around passing the Hat, and we assisted her. The Granola Funk musicians went around on the second as well as the fourth (making more all the more astonishing they didn't recognize me).

There was the dramatic show that Mink put on that first night he did it, but in the thick of the Gathering I couldn't really tell which of various Hat passing styles was more effective. With Iron Warrior, who didn't put on much of an unusual act, just saying, "Magic Hat," I seemed to get as much as with the histrionic performers.

I didn't have any routine of my own, I just served as straight man for the actors. The first few times I played a little drum with the guitar player that was always sought out by us to go with us, but I soon figured that wasn't really needed, and instead just held the Hat in one hand while I carried the little saucepan I used for an eating bowl in the other, getting spoonfuls of food from the servers as I passed by. Two years ago in Arizona I was able to get satisfactorily filled up passing by Kiddie Village and the Portland Krishna devotees while on the way to Main Circle, where the feedings didn't start until late. At this Gathering all kitchens were in the other direction from Main Circle, and the feedings were starting promptly and early, so if I didn't get fed at the Circle it would be few hungry hours before I could get anything elsewhere. I picked and chose as I went by the servers, passing up the beans and rice and potato soups for the salads, spaghetti, Lovin' Oven buns, and fruit cobblers - and let the others eager to count the money do so for a while I ate up.

In the early days there was controversy over fulfilling a request from CALM for funds. Tommy and Warrior didn't think anything other than food was appropriate to be bought with Magic Hat funds. The rest of us disagreed. They then said they didn't want to be paying for "herbs and other New Age mumbojumbo, just real medical supplies". Finally the brother sent by CALM agreed to make a list of specific items, justifying their costs. The next night he not only came back with a long list of things like 2x2 bandages and bottles of peroxide, but brought Water, singing on the rocks, who went on in a slow, grandfatherly, and authoritative voice about how CALM has always used money from the hat, and how much things could be expected to cost from his long experience. This performance finally swayed the objectors, and we gave a young brother from CALM $250 (after he had patiently sat thru three Council meetings).

Other than this, there were no real controversies about who got money. After the big collections of the first thru third, just about anybody who asked (but got somebody over to actually collect it (as some didn't)) got what they asked for. Reimburse the brothers who bought and brought the water pipe, no problem. Even radio batteries got approved without the controversy of earlier years.

In mid-gathering, in Bus Village, a middle aged sister came up to me, asked if I was on the Banking Council, I said yes, and she asked me if we had money for car repairs. She needed two R45 something or other tires or she couldn't get out of the Gathering. I started to tell her that requests have to be made to the Banking Council, it was a good idea to wait until cleanup, etc - and she burst out crying and walked away saying "I thought we Rainbows were here to HELP each other" I think the same person asked me again if I was on the Council, after I had given the Hat up. I just said, "Used to be, but not any more," and the conversation ended.

About a week before the first, there appeared on Main Trail just after passing supply a large sign, with a picture of a school bus, announcing it was being raffled for a dollar a chance, the drawing was to be on July 5th., and "the proceeds will go to the Magic Hat and clean up". Nobody talked to anyone on the Banking Council about this, and I tried asking some people, who supposedly knew those doing it, to have them talk with us about it. After receiving no responses by the second, Iron Warrior set one of his friends to track them down investigate, and he was unsuccessful. The afternoon of the fifth, the bus was gone, and no money had come to the Magic Hat or any of us on the Council. A cook at Handi Camp across from where it was parked in Lower Bus Village told me a story about how they had let someone buy 1,000 tickets, and he of course won. The owners of the bus took the money and ran, and the whole story on the sign turned out to be a scam.

On the seventh I was getting ready to walk away from Info when a heard a call from someone. "Are you on the Banking Council? This man wants to talk with you." Diamond Dave also came up, and a man in short hair, western shirt, and jeans gave us business cards and said he was a Beaverhead County commissioner. He then gave what he said was a bill from the county to the Rainbow Family, that charged us money for police protection, hospital, landfill dumping fees, and a few others, totaling over $150,000. It included an itemized bill from the county hospital, listing 52 cases of people allegedly from the Rainbow being treated there. None of the individual case fees was less than $100. I remember several instances of $112 being charged for treatment of "strep throat". The man was not really belligerent at all, he was almost apologetic, saying that he had to consider pressures he was having from his constituents, and he wasn't really expecting all of it, but at least some gesture of responsibility.

Dave and I immediately decided to take it to the attention of Plunker, and he offered to take the man to Tipi Circle to see if he might be there. I chatted with him on the way, telling him honestly that our Magic Hat usually gets about 15 to 20 thousand dollars, said his dumping fees (a few hundred bucks) could probably be payed with little problem, but then even got away with frowned commenting on the high amounts being charged by the hospital. Plunker wasn't there, so we cordially said goodby and thanks and we'll see what we can do, and promised that someone would get in touch. I located Plunker a few hours later and gave up all the papers the commissioner had given me to him. (He said he was going to post the contents on a.g.r., so I trust if he reads this he will be reminded.) He said he was going to contest every bit of it in court, as I expected, and I didn't worry about myself doing anything with it any more.

On the morning of the ninth I was walking into Montana Camp kitchen, and heard a voice from behind, "Barry and Iron Warrior are looking for YOU." I soon saw both of them together, and they asked "Have you got the money?" (I had spent the previous two days all afternoon until sunset at Vision Council, and I guess they never though to look there.) I said, "Yeah, you want to get it out of my life?" I went back to my tent to get my book, then went into a tipi with them and laid the cash out for them, in bundles of quantities wrapped with rubber bands. I told them the amount left, $6241, Warrior said, "This looks like six thousand bucks all right," and I asked who was taking it. Tommy looked around at the others for an instant, then said, "well, I guess I will. I'm staying until the end of cleanup." The other two didn't object, so I watched him take the silver bank bag into his own belly fanny pack again. Then they all gave me powerful hugs and heaped words of appreciation on me, and this moment was the reward for me. I walked out of the tipi in a rush of relief and feeling of achievement.

As was discussed at length in the threads "Cleanup 2000 Help Needed" and "What happens to Magik Hat money after the gathering?" on alt.gathering.rainbow, Tommy apparently changed his mind about staying, tried to get someone else to take the Hat, couldn't find anyone, then waited for a day both Plunker and Iron Warrior were off the site to gave away a few thousand dollars in twenties to people he met at random on the trail, before leaving with a still undetermined amount. There was an appeal on a.g.r. for more money for cleanup, then a long and acrimonious discussion fanned up by Your Favorite Insect here when I asked what happened to the six thou. The cleanup crew was still able to accomplish cleanup, but a lot of the nice things that people wanted to do, like compensate a few locals who had been victims of damages by people who forgot for a moment they were Rainbows, or give some bucks to All Ways Free, never got done.

Usually the bank is emptied at the end of each gathering, and no money is kept over the winter. What has not been spent on cleanup goes to certain appreciated people to help with their travel expenses home. There is usually a council on the last or second to last day to decide where it goes.

When there aren't rules and written out responsibilities, much of the success of the system depends on the individual judgements and ideas of morality of the individuals who take up the burdens. If it isn't a rule of law, it's a rule of men, as they would say in the law school. Most of the time the people involved with the Rainbow money are meticulously moral, but sometimes people can be overcome with emotions to the point of forgetting principles. Myself, I never even think of taking any of it because I want to be able to keep coming back to future gatherings, something I will want to do a lot longer than the time it would take me to spend anything I stole. It's just an abstract toy when I handle it at a gathering. Really, after a while I can get tired of the musty dirty smell of a bunch of old paper money. I want to wash my hands after handling it. What goes on in other people's minds can often be predicted, but not always.

I question now the practice of putting ALL the funds into the hands of only one. There were a few (but not many) times I got a little 'noid about carrying around as much as 7 thousand bucks. In AZ we gave the Dinner Circle money to Gypsy, cuz he was the one actually doing the supply runs, and had Marken hold the proceeds of the Info Hat. Gypsy paid for all the food, anything else was paid for with the money Marken held - and this system worked.

I will confess to one act of embezzlement this Gathering: I kept out a complete set of all eight state quarters when I counted the change. I will never do the bank two consecutive years. I want to have some years that I am not committed to going thru Dinner Circle every evening - and I don't think anyone else should either, because of the ease with which in-crowd accusations can start. And continuing a tradition started the last time I did bank, I regarded as adequate compensation for spending every evening hustling up money from other people the privilege of not putting a goddam cent of my own into the Hat the whole Gathering.

The total income of the 2000 Montana Magic Hat was $17,653

Of this, $12,852, or 73% was collected at Dinner Circle,
and $4,801, or 27%, was from other sources, mainly the 5 gallon bucket at Information.
New York Kitchen gave $1,000 for the fruit feast on the fourth.

$11,412 was spent before July the 9th

Of this, $9,189.71, or 81 %, was spent on food items,

$243.17 was spent on gasoline for vehicles making supply runs, and $24.50 was spent on propane,
making the total fuel cost $267.67, or 2 %

$1,924.61, or 17%, was spent on miscellaneous items,
including $400 to Beaverhead Co. for dumpster dumping, $175.96 to rent a large U-Haul truck for a massive produce run on the 3rd., and three Rainbow recipients: $700 to the bringers of the water pipe, $300 to Rob Savoye for Shanti Sena radio batteries, and $250 to CALM.

$6,241 remained on July the 9th.

-Butterfly Bill

Magic Hat Collections

Montana National Gathering

(1) This donation, for fruit in Main Circle on the 4th of July, was in memory of Vern Helper, Mickey Zwieg and Mike Rainbow, who all passed away in 2000 before the Montana Gathering.

Magic Hat Payments

Montana National Gathering

June 16 - July 9, 2000

Remaining on July 9: $6,241