Joe, Jeff and I have talked about this.

We are planing on returning next year and have stored much of the equipment needed, in Reno. One side of the discussion is how to scale down and make the set-up and tear down more manageable. The other speaks to building a sustainable community in the world - for a week.

We agreed that building a sustainable community was the way we would like to experience Burning Man, and not just be a loose group of individuals getting together for the greatest party on the planet. Burning Man is more than that, and this shared community is what makes it such a great event. If everyone just showed up in a little tent with their own food what we we have?

Each person choosing to join the camp should decide of they come to the Playa with the greater experience in mind or not.

We also discussed chores. Maybe we set-up teams; set-up team, take down team, kitchen team, party team. This way everyone knows exactly what they are expected to do and know one feels they are doing more than their share of the work, while at the same time being able to relax and enjoy the week.

We are planing on coming early to set-up and would like to work on camp design. This year the greater Blazin Raisin, Punta Mona, Solstice Grove, Sustainable Roadshow was to fractured and spread out. It was really four camps with two sharing a compost area. There were about 100 people. If 20 people were on each team the work would be less for each person and the camp greater. Plus the dynamic of the camp would be better if the space flowed and incorporated everyone in one camp. As a new person I was a little uncomfortable wandering into any of the other areas.

If we can establish a routine that works we can grow this community, if we can not it will fade away and the experiment will have failed. I am new this this year but feel the true meaning of Burning man, for the three of us at least, is shared sustainable community. Which by the way is the same message each camp is bringing to the world in name; Blazin Raisin - raising conscious, Punta Mona - sustainable community, Solstice Grove - commune/community and Sustainable Roadshow - name speaks for itself.

If we can not bring this group of very smart, capable, motivated people together once week for the experience of a lifetime we will have truly failed. (Maybe we just are missing the community building a good Mojito party would have created!)

A mission statement may be needed to make our intentions clear so when someone decides to join the camp, they know what to expect.

I hope I have made sense, especially a new comer.

Rob

adam i am glad that you have posted this topic and i hope that constructive replies and action emerge from it...

i will say that wherever people are individually and collectively on the the
Burnout to Totally Inspired Spectrum changes throughout the year----

energy morphs from a current midseptenber afterglow to winter/spring immersions in other nonburner related projects to some comic glaze in the summer when folks may have a few festivals and camping trips under their belts for the season and the blackrock buzz starts beckoning louder...

i sense that for many raisins the community that flows in black rock is part of a larger yet more dispersed but still active and important network of friends up and down the west coast.
for me intersecting with raisin world from the boondocks here in moab---its more like teleporting into a groovy insta-family and then exiting out with some cosmic glowing crystal soul-cyber ember to savor in the off season.

as i get older the role that BM has played in my life has certainly changed---its become more about people and community and higher potentials manifested than just getting all weird and wowed out in the crazy maelstrom

my main critique is that im left yearning for something that lasts longer in time (art, community, that feel good vibe, etc)

as for the specifics of what i think could help raisins--ill save it for another email and do my best to be as constructive and thoughtful and positive while pointing out things that i think work and dont work while being as gentle as possible with my words.

hee heee

later

pete

well well...
regarding the 08Burn and Blazin Raisins---it's along ways a way --but here goes...

i personally was pretty happy camping in the tool shed behind seed pod as some sort of Sandfords and Son-Styled yard dog---i am of the nature of pretty much just showing up, paying my $ dues, and filling in unoccupied physical and social niches---thats kind of my semi-improvisational role in alot of things in life...

if my spirit is large, my footprint is small and i hope that blazin raisins can and will always accommodate lone mutant burners like me (or duck etc...) who can just seemlessly and symbiotically "pod-in"

that being said --i know a certain amount of energy goes into making the whole village happen--both informationally and nuts and bolt materiology--

in terms of how much--i have no idea?
i have like--barely a window into that-- and im really really grateful it happens--

i thank everybody so much for your gifts and presence and hard work--i declare that you are NOT ignored and that your efforts are not in vain
--adam, aj, kt, brad, elana, rosie, feather nelson, naked ian, duck, etc...and all the names ive left out too...
i thinking this recognition of people is an important part of community--1st and 2nd chakra stuff---not taking things for granted...co-honor


im actually still really really blown away--
i mean --for me--with my meager year round lot in life---just just rolling through the gate at BM is still a pretty huge pie wedge expenditure of time, money, energy, intent,hopes, expectations, dreams, craft, etc

so to see the extra effort--wow!

in terms of everybody who goes the extra mile/marathon i do ask you to answer this question:

"are you getting a good return on your investment?" yes capitalism among hippies!

particularly among the tool mcgyvers of our group-- i know that extra time money and labor is put out there in the heat building and fixing and unbuilding and its a lot of work--sometimes for naught---most for good...

but it may leave you really spent and burnt out-and thats probably a drag at times---i guess what im saying is that when you are feeling overexerted and too taxed--you need to say for yourself STOP...and thats the best thing for everybody...

you/we may also ask do we really need that much bulk out there--is there a more efficient streamlined design? i think there can be...

the core crew also needs to consider that the nature of the mcgyver builder psychology may be such that even if we do go more streamlined and more simple in terms of size, complexity and number of physical projects--you may still fill your mind or have inertia with the notion of:

" i need to make/build/improve something" or "i need to tinker and construct for the community" "i need to be seen as a leader" even after its already all up and done and in coast mode...
yah?

so when that pheneomeneon happens--keep in mind that then--that its not work anymore--that it becomes more subtle craft and labors of love as opposed to labors of neccessity/ obligation and that it becomes artsy expressions of your lovable quixotic nature and is just extra icing on the cake...

i know that the destruction of the two ship masts and parachutes affected a huge layer of how the raisin village would unify---it siphoned energy away from our thursday party and layed the vibe of a lush raisin city block into something a bit more ghetto than intended---of course many folks were looking forward to at some point being perched 40 feet up on a peg leg of a balanced crows nest tower gazing out on BRC and feeling like the top of the world--
well it didnt happen--oh well---people made the best of it--and we still kept rolling really well in different vesions of being the top of the world

i think the masts and chutes were salvage and recycled surplus --so good points on the ecology--but in terms of the masts' sturdiness ---it wasn't--and in terms of the parachutes fabric quality as offering otimal shade --there may be better materials

over the years ive lived or poked my nose into raisin world i have thought that the large floor area contained under the parachute was a bit too big and vacuous and tended to spread folks to a degree than didnt have the frothing saturated feel even during the peak raisin one night party of the week --

whatever considerations for a future grand communal shaded space i suggest to be smaller in height and be based on something like a central scaffold or pyramid---something really really sturdy so when its set up it can truly withstand huge winds and nobody has to worry--also it wouldnt take the whole village of 80+ people to put it up (even though in some sense that kind of demand does make a great unifier/teambuilder among us---we could replace that with some form of circle/blob ceremony at some point mid week in terms of bringing us all together as an inclusive but defined tribe for a few special moments)

and although its nice to be up 40 feet---20 feet is fine too--all you really need for a view of the city is to get just one level above the tops of vehicles---

a scaffold is of the nature that if people want to go higher--you just add a module the next year kind of thing---so its flexible in that it works at whatever scale you want

in terms of the general physicality of blazin raisins---i think it could be a bit tighter sure in terms of the seams where different pods intersected--seemed like a few 10-20 foot dead zones checkerboarded into the final unfolding...

so whatever raisin designers rescheme and reconfigure for site footprints in terms of balancing social/communal space with more private nooks...take these dynamics into account...

individual space.
space for groups or 2-6.
space for groups of 6-20.
space for everybody, 100 or so.
yeah yeah

the seed pod kitchen and core living structure was totally bomber! safe and secure...cozy but fluid--the eating area could maybe be slightly larger...but maybe not--its kind of fun when youve got like 15-20 people jammed into that thing and all the ldifferent levels of interactivity superimposed on one another---


i do like that everybody is essentially responsible for their own food and clean up but i dont know how much inadvertently slips through the structures and ends up being forgotten about and taken care of/cleaned up by another...

im really really minimal impact when it comes to food/kitchen needs...but the fact is most peoples real living rooms are in their kitchens so--- i thought it was really sweet



most importantly
in the end for many of us--spirit trumps stuff even if the stuff helps enable the spirit--

this is my 3 cents worth and i hope it is all well received
ciao ciao
p-Mo