There are certain points in this writing project when I understand why participant anthropology doesn’t get too involved. Right now, I am so busy with writing and researching for the People’s Bailout, and updating the structure of Strike Debt itself, that there’s very little spare time for reflection on what’s happening. That’s likely to remain the case until the Bailout on N15, the anniversary of the eviction of Occupy Wall Street. At that point, I begin six weeks of international travel, lectures, research and meetings with activist groups that might ordinarily look daunting. From here it looks like a nice relaxing period of downtime.

This kind of insanity is one of the reasons that Strike Debt has committed to revamping its internal organization. More accurately, for a group that has been improvising ever since its formation in Washington Square Park in late May, we’re defining how we might organize for the first time in a general, rather than specific or project-driven, way. Although the process of working through these decisions was disrupted by Sandy, the storm has given everyone in Occupy new momentum and energy.

Interestingly, given how much time and energy was devoted to process in the first year of Occupy, there’s a clearly emerging consensus on what people want to do. First, we need to be more open and welcoming to people who are interested in what we do but can’t commit huge amounts of time, as the key organizers have been doing. We need to offer child care so parents and care-givers can attend–perhaps the biggest smile of the day was for the idea of a Strike Debt People’s Bouncy Castle.

In more of a departure from previous practice, there will be defined spheres of engagement with specific roles and delegation. While this division of tasks has some greater resemblance to existing organizations, the idea is that people can choose what sphere of engagement they want to be involved in, and that roles would rotate. When I get back, I’m going to be ready to do some face-painting and child-care, for example, rather than dive back into “bottom lining” (taking responsibility). How all this will work is still to be decided. The reason that people feel comfortable going ahead is that there’s a lot of trust in each other after all the different ventures we’ve been engaged in together.

The Rolling Jubilee is creating a lot of additional interest in the campaign and we’re going to get to the point where it’s just not possible for everyone to be involved in everything (actually we’re already there) or even to know all about everything. While that troubles my OCD side a little, the overengagement is sufficiently exhausting that I’m ready to let it go now.

And for those who were hoping to come to the People’s Bailout but didn’t get a ticket in time, good news: free livestreaming parties with their own activities are springing up like this one in the East Village. There are streaming events in LA, Chicago, North Carolina, Boston and Philadelphia. This thing is blowing up: you want to be a part of it!