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The Comfort group is charged with finding out what basic necessities campers need, like thermal underwear, and then raising money by soliciting donations on the street.
“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash.
The Finance Committee dives on whatever dollars are raised by all the OWS working groups, said Smith, and doesn’t give it back.
The Comfort group has an allowance of $150 a day, while larger working groups, like the Kitchen group, get up to $2,000.
“What can I do with $150?” said Smith. “We have three tons of wet laundry here from the rainstorm -- how do I get that done? We need winter gear, shoes, socks. I could spend $10,000 alone for backpacks people need. We raise all this money. Where is it?”
Pete Dutro, 36, a Brooklyn tattoo artist who is getting a master’s in finance and sits on the Finance Committee, said big purchases like Smith’s can’t get immediate approval.
“We don’t have the power for that. They have to go to the General Assembly. If it’s approved, we pay out that amount and make sure everything is accounted for,” he said.

Within the next few days, the Financial Committee will release a detailed report, he said.

(snip)

Yesterday, a huge flat-screen TV went up in Zuccotti Park for a movie night and pajama party with popcorn. Organizers hoped it would attract new recruits -- even as some long-timers complained that the movement was getting too diffuse after yesterday’s lackluster showing at a police-brutality event in Union Square that barely attracted 50 participants.

“I think it’s getting too spread out,” said John Glowa, 57. “My sense from where I live is that it’s losing steam. We gotta plug the holes.”

Some activists, like those in Pulse, the committee that represents Zuccotti Park drummers, are a bit worn out by all the collective activity.

This is priceless. Priceless! The anarchists are falling out over money! We're getting a micro-lesson in governance and corruption. So people are already getting exhausted and frustrated and with no one formally in charge the "community organizers" are grabbing up the cash. I can't wait to see how this shakes out.

Somehow I wot that Obama's shock troops are blowing their wad early and by this same time next year the hard-core black bandana crowd will be utterly spent and discouraged and disinclined to burn cars and break windows for what even they will know to be an utter fraud and exploiter.

Furthermore, they have smeared their feces on any sympathy the general public might have held for them. If the Messiah's minions try this same stunt leading up to the election those big city mayors and city council-critters will make haste to lower the boom on them--or else.

I predict 2012 may just see as big a shake-up in local politics as on the national level as voters in these "occupied" burgs decide that their local government was clearly not working for them and needs to be changed.

If this was supposed to be a warm-up to the main event, I rather think it is having the opposite effect.

As a side note, it is interesting how the adults in the crowd naturally gravitated to the responsible positions. Furthermore, it looks like maybe the participants are NOT getting regular wages.

“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash.

If paperwork is not kept in order, at some point someone will claim that money was misappropriated, usually with a strong implication that it went into someone's pocket.

This has happened repeatedly after natural disasters. If the government distributes aid rapidly and efficiently, IOW without a lot of paperwork to establish qualification, by definition some (or many) of those who get it won't be qualified. Criticism ensues.

If careful procedures are followed to make sure all rules are implemented, distribution is by definition slow and inefficient at getting to those who need it NOW. Criticism ensues.

But the critics never seem to recognize there is a direct tradeoff between procedural exactness and efficiency.

Same thing applies in business and life, BTW. If you follow all the rules and document them meticulously, the odds are you won't get much of anything else done.