ReVision: Mission 1: DC Gear Reset
Friday May 28 & Saturday May 29
Mission Plan:
Mission 1 . DC Gear Reset . Mission Brief
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Several members of IAMU Leadership crew went to our Beltsville, MD storage facility to kickoff our reset / revision of IAMU / HRV. Besides being our first mission and getting together in a very long time, this exercise got us clear on what we have at hand, and get it action ready for whatever we decide comes next.
The group included 3 new members, Alessandro, Svetlana, Fred as well as Charles. After sitting in storage for more than a year and a half, we are happy to report that 1) the DC area gear, which we keep locally for regional deployments, was all in GREAT shape, 2) Gear was generally very well organized when we got there, 3) We have more gear and infrastructure locally than we thought, which means we have more flexibility and options to create great new spaces and contexts than we had anticipated.
The mission also confirmed some assumptions about what we feel needs updating or servicing (basically, a little work on the main and backup dual fuel generators) and that we have the components and materials we need, basically at hand and in the collective, to expand (as in, double) the solar battery array for IAMU / HRV’s modular, scalable, rapid deployment green energy grid.
A few photos and stories from the day…
Alessandro Federici drove down from Pottstown, PA to participate in the Reset mission, and to work with Charles to learn about the IAMU / HRV modular, scalable green energy grid. Alessandro has 2 batteries from his Van Life project that can be integrated into the camp’s existing system with components we confirmed having while organizing our gear.
Alessandro and Charles arrived first to assess the mission scope (we were going in somewhat blind after more than a year). Not only was out gear in great shape and well organized, we found and remembered some new and additional gear folded into our gear inventory from items abandoned and unclaimed at the DC Container, like this 15’ x 45’ heavy duty sail shade.
Fred Troncone takes a 60 second break (he moves fast, and a lot!) to enjoy the full meta-ness of a bin of moving dollies and hand trucks on our pallet jack. It was nice to find that our long term dream of getting all of our gear on wheels was coming true. It allowed the 4 person mission team to get everything done with a minimum of physical effort had we not had the material moving capacity.
If you combine a wise woman with a comedian with a systems / process analyst with a parkour monkey you get Svetlana (and Fred too, to be fair). Svetlana and Fred single handedly opened every box, recombined like with like, repacked and staged in first out / last in order all the IAMU / HRV’s local structures, water system, camping gear and consumables. This is the first time that all of our gear has ended up with line-of-site organization. It really paid to have a whole team with JUST enough OCD to combine into a small collective superpower.
Design / Logistics Porn: The heavy duty cart near the wall now has all of the consolidated green energy grid boxes ready to reconnect. The cart in front of it are all the cables, tools, lighting systems and replacement components, everything, ready to go. Both of the DC area spaces are organized with carts near the door that, once pulled out, offer direct access to more optional gear and infrastructure.
Alessandro, Svetlana and Fred admire in relief that all of our respective OCD-ness has paid off, and will pay off again. Three rascals are some of the new members IAMU / HRV have added to our ranks and leadership since Burning Man was cancelled, twice. This mission was a first step in re-embodying who and what we are against the backdrop of an uncertain future. The only way to really do anything about uncertainty, is of course to make up the certainty we wish to be.
