Couldn’t help noticing, as I passed by the Tank yesterday on my way home, that someone has painted a sign for a retail establishment on the Tank! Remarkable!
This is a beloved community ‘bulletin board’, not a retail marketing venue. All I can say to “Passionate For Pies” is…..really?? You’re really advertising on the tank??!
Tom Welch
Olga
Just noticed this violation of trust on a rare trip to Eastsound, and I was shocked, to say the least!!!
This is not on in our community, and needs to vanish as quickly as it appeared.
Irmgard Conley
Olga
Paint another event on top…
I’d like to know who gave permission to the pie business to advertise on the tank. Tacky!!!!!
Nobody “gives permission” to pain the tank. You just do it, but it’s on the honor system. No commercial ads. Thank you for bringing it up, Tom. I hope that the library fair folks quickly paint it over.
I also noted this commercial intrusion into the comunity “bulletin board”. “Passionate for Pies”, in my opinion, is a welcome entrepeneurial asset to our culinary and business communtiy. Sometimes, however, newcomers are not so well versed in the tom-toms of our subtle community norms. Perhaps we should tread gently and be more open-minded and less protective. I think we should welcome new ideas and businesses and in the process strive harder to inform newcomers of the ins and outs of our common sensibilities.
Has anyone talked to the “Passionate” people about this infraction? Do they get it? I can see a new business enthusiastically eyeing the tank while using every wrinkle imagined to promote, while being clueless regarding local sensibilities and historical use. Moana is absolutely correct – no one controls the tank! I can recall it’s use over 40 years from everything from businesses to political campaigns. (It even went away at one time, and was respositioned under community pressure….even though it no longer served a county road purpose for oil storage. It became simply a bulletin board – The tank’s history is another story!) This is nothing that a heartfelt conversation could not reseolve. (Who’s in charge of that is another question.) Meanwhile, while a trite spendy, I heartily recommend PfP savory pies….and respectfully suggest that their Tank advert is inappropriate…but someone needs to give those girls a clue.
Sorry – just one other note (you know how it’s always the last thing you think of that you neglected to include :) I would say -Let’s be compassionate about the Passionates, and welcome them into our community with big loving arms, along with all of the other marvelous start-ups that we are witnessing around our island, many of which are spearheaded by young, idealistic entrepeneurs, like “FIRE’, “Orcas Outfitters”, Zack Lech, all of the farmers, …this is really bad, because I can’t begin to name them all – help me, please….let’s work on honoring these fresh ideas and brilliant dreams. Maybe we should start a column or a list with all of those marvelous amazing people? And if anyone “strays”, how about a conversation?
Teach the history.
I agree with those above who take the “let’s enlighten” approach. The sport of major league baseball has over a hundred years of ‘unwritten rules’. The inside joke is often, “Where can I find those (written)?” The owner of P.P. I know would have been very open to an informative phone call and a quick paint-over.
Good points, Marcia and Rick. I’m guessing that either the Passionate for Pies folks (who are very nice and make wonderful pies) didn’t know, or that someone painted it as a friendly gesture to them, given the rest of the messages on the tank. Benefit of the doubt.
Moana: You are correct.
The owner of P.P. just returned my call, and was unaware of the discussion on this site regarding the “Tank”. She does not know who did the promo painting. This is a busy business day (Saturday) for her, with deliveries for wedding/parties. I know she wants to, and will, address the community about this.
I think the discussion here has been very good for all islanders. I support the approach that lets newcomers know of how certain island traditions work, and not assume there was any intent to ‘violate’ those. And it sounds like this might have been done by folks other than the owners. Benefit of the doubt works for me. We have other issues more pressing to worry about.
I really like the result of this post! Encourage and enlighten! When we were considering painting the tank for a nonprofit event a while back, we heard lots of conflicting “rules”–perhaps now someone can post them. I know (1) not-for-profit events only; (2) how long before an event? (3) if the event has not yet occurred, can someone else paint over? Those were the questions we were trying to figure out.
What a great discussion! I’ve observed that the tank operates under the general understanding of sharing a community resource, relying on common sense and consideration. Here’s what I understand about the unwritten rules:
1) Nonprofit or personal events only (occasionally birthdays, weddings, declarations of love or support (probably what’s going on with the current Passionate for Pies decoration), I saw at least one prom invite).
2) No profanity, no tagging.
3) Don’t hog the tank — don’t announce your event more than a week or two beforehand because…
4) Don’t paint over someone else’s event before it has occurred.
5) Don’t swipe a freshly blank tank; whoever painted out the previous announcement is planning to add their own to the fresh canvas.
Bonus points for pretty artwork and clever wording. Sympathy for painting right before it rains and runs your paint job. Keep it simple and legible with large letters that can be read from a passing car.
It’s OK to use the back side or end of the tank if the front-side painter has left them blank.
Additions?
Astonishing the fervor devoted to our sacred tank. How enriching it be, if truly weighty issues gained equal consideration. Purely, we all are blessed to have neighbors amongst us with truly sincere passion for pies.
Kudos: Moana, Rick, Lance and Peg
Oh, for Lord’s sake! With this country threatening to default on its debt and on a serious decline economically and politically, with cut-backs in educators and curriculum, with inflated property assessment of Orcas in 2008 and no new assessments in sight to factor in the downturn in property values, or any of another dozen topics that should engage the community is open discussion, it takes an advertisement on a “public” tank to get people motivated to write commentary and opinions??? No wonder Washington (D.C.) politicos feel they can abuse citizens with impunity.