June 1 Gathering Update

Happy June Everyone!

As we’re all working on fixing our cars or working out rideshares with each other, I just wanted to take a minute to update you on a few things.

If you are offering a ride or have a ride to share, please take the time to meet with the people you’ll be traveling with ahead of time at your local coffee shop and work out the travel rules: smoking, no-smoking, who pays what, who drives, etc. Please make sure your car is 100% legal and you have a valid driver’s license, registration and insurance. The last few years there have been checkpoints coming into the gathering and people have been hassled pretty badly. Last year in Arkansas, a brother even got a mandatory court appearance ticket for a broken taillight. So cross your ‘t’s and dot your ‘i’s and you’ll come home safely. Many people seem to be using their local Craig’s list for rideshare.

The Undersecretary for the United States Department of Agriculture, Mark Rey, wrote a letter outlining the United States Forest Service guidelines for creating an “unpermitted” yet “legal” gathering. If you want a copy of the letter, visit SCROLL Wyoming Info.

The next conference call with Mr. Rey and his staff is taking place on June 6. To participate, on Friday, June 06, 2008 @1:00 PM-1:30 PM US Eastern Time. Call 866-742-4928 and then enter the code 6246993. This has been toll free call and you can be an anonymous caller.

From one of our earlier conf calls this year there was the suggestion that we come up with a list of the most offensive LEO’s - who we would like to 'be assigned duty elsewhere' during the whole of the gathering time. If you have anyone that you have found especially difficult and won’t be able to make the call, please send me the person’s name, the gathering, and a summary of their behavior that you found problematic. Or feel free to share the information on the call yourself.

A great brother has been in contact with the Governor and Attorney General for the State of Wyoming and invited them to a town hall meeting that hopefully will happen shortly after Spring Council so public relations work is happening.

There’s a small huddle of gatherers working on a media campaign – doing outreach to print and broadcast media. One of their goals is to do a daily press release from the gathering. To that end, they are looking for someone(s) who plan on spending the bulk of their gathering at the Front Gate to count the number of cops coming in every day so that this information can be included in the daily briefing. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll hook you up.

I started a blog to share useful information with people for this year’s gathering. I’ve included most of this updates I’ve been sending out, but also many other cool things like links to some awesome videos and general chatter of interest to all. I even have a poll going, which asks the question ‘Are you going to the gathering?’ Visit the blog if you like: http://wyominggathering.blogspot.com/ and would love your vote.

And in the world of Rainbow and politics, Vermin is not the only Rainbow running for public office. Election Day in California is Tuesday, June 3. If you’re in San Diego, there is actually a candidate who has been to a Rainbow Gathering and has very long dreads – and you thought San Diego was all military – At any rate, if you’re interested in checking out Eric Bidwell, visit his website at http://revolutionarymayor.com/.

Please share this information freely. Ignore all rumors of cancellation and organization. Be the peace you wish to see in this world.