COMBUSTION CHAMBER MEETING

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

FACILITATOR: Prost

STACK: Turtlebunnie/Bonobo

SCRIBE: Chim-Chim

TOPICS: Recycling (Pixie); Flipside without a Burn (Prost)

ATTENDEES: Problem, Adam, Danny, Olivia, Decibel, Izzi, Pixie, Turtlebunnie, Prost, Wrinn, Breezy, Princess, Chim-Chim, guest, guest 2, Henry, Monkey, Bonobo, Beth, Brently, Cydney, Clovis

7:59pm         MEETING BEGINS

8:00pm         LLC UPDATE (Adam)

–       WW weekend was cancelled this past weekend

–       Casey (Site Prep AF) –  Property in good shape; Cleanup work and maintenance are still needing to be done

–       Corral—Kit has cleared it out; twice as much useable space than last year; 80 x 130 yards; Awesome potential for art placement

–       Gate meeting will be scheduled

–       Need Leads all hands within next two weeks

–       AF meeting this coming Wednesday

8:04pm AF Update

8:05pm         TOPIC: Recycling (Pixie)

–       Thoughts on wanting to do this year?

–       Periodic topic: Theme camp started doing recycling themselves; Then, job got too big; Rolled into Earth Guardian area; Job was getting too big, again

–       There are (2) different positions now

–       Putting bins is considered in-the-past

–       Misconception—Recycling pays for itself; False belief; Not all recycling places take steel; 10 – 15 cents per ticket to cover bags $350/yr; higher or lower; Equates to 3-4 tix approx..

–       From a Volunteer standpoint—It takes 30 slots to run recycling

–       Impact on event itself—It does make a mess; Not as bad as it was last year; could have prepped better for rain

–       Impact on values and beliefs—Impacts self-reliance aspect vs. Part of don’t have self-reliance, but cooperation; Communal effort

–       From personal standpoint, it does help clean up; Helps sustainability

–       Feedback—Everyone loves recycling; Individually, some don’t like it; It’s the idea of recycling they don’t like because of the need to practice self-reliance;

–       Not as much with cans; glass issue; Cans, aluminum—choices? Simplified; Cans, cardboard, glass; Tin, steel, aluminum separate;

–       History—Didn’t used to be as separated; How much education getting out to community? As we get closer, will do more—Earth Guardians and Recycling

–       WRITE ARTICLE ON RECYCLING: Why it’s important? What do you take?

–       Some people don’t care as long as community takes care of it; Ideally, people would take care of their own stuff and thus having no site sign off at all;

–       Why should I pay 10 cents for everybody else to do it?  Part of communal effort and ethics for everyone to participate; Part of collective ethic to welcome people

–       Might not be using it, but eventually will; Convenience

–       Cooperation is one of our principles

8:27pm         Motion has been made and seconded to close stack; Motion passes

8:29pm         CC continues to support recycling; Motion and seconded; Passed

8:30pm         TOPIC: FLIPSIDE WITHOUT A BURN (Prost)

–       Milam County currently not under a burn ban

–       Insurance: Stumbling block on insurance: Insurance or no event; Don’t know insurance repercussions since Utah burn; What does Flipside look like without a Burn?

–       From insurance perspective: There is more concern with how other events handle theirs; Lawyers are more concerned about Art cars

–       A giant fire qualifies as an Obvious Hazard

–       In the past, someone has sued Burning Man; From liability standpoint, the biggest problem is a  Burn ban; There were two Flipsides (2009, 2002) where we didn’t have a Burn; Not a new reality; If Flipside continues, will have burn bans; Anyone submitting an effigy proposal will have to include a  “no burn” plan in proposal that includes a budget for hauling the effigy off the property if no burn exists

–       Question: How do we, as community, replace the catharsis we get from having a big fucking fire; we can’t put that all on daft lead to fill gap;

–       Alternative catharsis lead: Come up with someone else instead of ACL

–       Last time a burn ban came up, we had alternative solutions; However, people were unsatisfied with the solution

–       Implement Poll to the community asking for ideas

–       Alternate destruction needs

–       Consider having volunteer teams to take it apart and reduce it to several barrels; It’s not fair to put the job on Leave No Trace (LNT) department, or DAFT, in determining how the effigy is going to be moved

–       Alternative solution: Donate to Habitat for Humanity: Only whole pieces of lumber; If donating lumber is not an option, then make planters out of it: Most non-burn plans go take apart and haul and tiny thing on burn night instead

–       How to make non-burn plans better: Do whatever DAFT wants to do with it from poll

–       In 2002, “House of Cards”, there was a burn ban; The compromise consisted of the community running with sledgehammers, and taking pieces;

–       Cleanup will not disassemble effigy; DAFT does it or knocks it over;

–       Everyone enter a raffle to win effigy; and raffle for steel;

–       Alternatives: Find land for trench burning for disposal

–       Regarding the catharsis issue: DAFT came up with plans: In 2011—the idea was to destroy the  bridge by destroying its railings; Pieces would have been given to the community; Beast—saw horns off head;

–       Catharsis of freak; Face collapsed and there was a fire next to it

8:55pm         REGIONAL UPDATE (Clovis)

–       GLC in couple of weeks; Same weekend as work weekend; 2^nd weekend in April

–       Meet n greet went well

8:59pm         Facilitator: Turtlebunnie

Stack: Pixie

Scribe: Chim-Chim

Topics: Cultural Appropriation (Bonobo)

9:00pm  MEETING ADJOURNED

—

Combustion Chamber Meeting Monday, March 9, 2015

Facilitator

Decibel

Stack

Pixie

Scribe

Chim-Chim

Attendees (15)

Izzi, Prost, Adam, Chim-Chim, Decibe, Augustin, Breezy, Turtlebunnie, Pixie, Doug, Wrinn, Henry, Bonobo, Clovis, Psyche

8:00 MEETING BEGINS

LLC UPDATE (Problem)

• Emails on ticket confirmations will be sent out this week
• North Texas Town Hall road show went well this past weekend; Not as big a turnout as the Houston Town Hall Road Show
• Work weekend March 20

8:03pm AF UPDATE (Wrinn)

• Reminder Safety Side sign up form is still open.

365/24/7 AF UPDATE (Augustin)

• Warehouse host training will be this Thursday, March 12, at 7pm
• All interested in being a host, please contact Augustin
• This is a liability position

8:04pm TOPIC: RESPECT (Doug)

• Currently have names from Undo Racism Austin
• Marisol Caballero (sp?), Julie Gillis, and Asante Todd would be the speakers
• AI: Set dates and approve people
• Topic started from heated exchanges related to the community
• Tentative dates: April 2, 23, 30; More info will be provided upon confirmation

8:15pm TOPIC: COMBUSTION CHAMBER TERM LIMITS (Doug)

• Idea is to help clear rosters and set expectations of members
• Currently there are (3) LLC email lists; CC has similar lists
• Current policy on attendance: Expect at least 70% attendance; If someone is not showing up, then members should speak with them in person
• There is a duality to the nature of the CC: The community is poor at writing stuff down; The only thing we have is in our brains; Challenge is how to cycle new blood without losing the tribal knowledge
• Scribe usually presents attendance sheets at the end of the year
• All CC is discussing is the ability to vote; Term limits act as a guideline only; It’s an institutional view towards wisdom where we honor the old voice and welcome the new; There is a constant lap of mentoring
• Recruitment of new CC members should take place at all times
• Not an obligation, but a limitation aspect
• Abundance vs. scarcity; What makes volunteerism work? What cultural shifts are taking place?
• People from the outside-looking-in see the Combustion Chamber as a topic-driven forum; One of the things people are interested in is an open forum where people can bring up questions or topics they’d like to discuss; Consider having an open forum and invite people to participate
• Currently have a database on theme camps; Consider having a theme camp meet-n-greet in efforts of recruiting for leadership positions in the CC; Bonobo would be interested in talking further about this in the next meeting
• Have Church Night as a challenge to get someone to come to the next CC meeting with a question/topic

9:13pm REGIONAL UPDATE (Clovis)

• Midway project is happening instead of Souk and Caravary (sp?)
• Burning Man Global Leadership Conference (GLC) is April 9-12 in San Francisco
• Same weekend before CC meeting; Some may not be in attendance for the CC meeting
• AI: GLC debrief beforehand on input

NEXT MEETING: Monday, March 23, 2015

Facilitator

Prost

Stack

Turtlebunnie/Bonobo

Scribe

Chim-Chim

Topics

Recycling (Pixie); Flipside without a Burn (Prost)

9:18pm MEETING ADJOURNED

Attachment: Week of Years – Recommended Guidelines for Term Limits.

Recommendation for Term – Week of Years / Sabbatical rotation
Seven Year Cycle
Two Year “minimum commitment”
Five year max
Two year sabbatical (Two Flipsides) An LLC seat would restart the clock

Current Configuration
Recruitment, 2 Year Commitment, self imposed retirement*

5 Year Rhythm
Year) 1 Novitiate Year (orientation and internal critique)
Year 1-3) Initiative years
Year 4) Recruitment
Year 5) “Mentoring”

Implementation
Begin with Volunteers who have served over 5 years. Rotating out no more than 2-3 per year till cycle catches up. People considering stepping down should be aggressive about recruiting and encouraging participation in CC meetings before they step down.

Purpose for the imposition of limits.
To promote more proactive recruiting for participation in the CC
To foster more diversity on the CC that correlates with the evolution profile of the event
Communal context
17 Years – a community coming of age
“Create a forum” [Communication, participation? Communal Contribution]
Potential development of a *venue vs forum (context plus location) participants

CC Profile with relevance to participating seats.
Non Seasonal / Event driven
Non-binding
Conciliary
Not for Profit / Non-exempt
Principle Driven (Not Goal)
Non Operational – Task affiliated.
Traditional – Emeritii Eligible
Volunteer – Unpaid
Self Selecting – Non review

Questions
What if we are short on people?
A) You won’t be B) These are guides not rules
What if someone wants to come back and it’s a big council?
A) Solve the problem B) Postpone return 3) be too big D) Inquire about others

COMBUSTION CHAMBER MEETING 02-23-2015

FACILITATOR

Henry

STACK

Pixie

SCRIBE

Chim-Chim

ATTENDEES (11)

Problem, Princess, Adam, Izzi, Gyseka, Pixie, Chim-Chim, Henry, Wrinn, Decibel, Clovis

AGENDA:

• LLC UPDATE (Problem)
• AF REPORT (Wrinn)
• REGIONAL UPDATE (Clovis)
• TOPIC: TOWN HALL WRAP-UP (Pixie)
• TOPIC: SURVIVAL GUIDE LANGUAGE (Problem)

7:42pm LLC UPDATE (Problem)

• Ticket openings was completed
• Overhead tickets (difference between our self-imposed ticket cap and the total number of tickets that we’ve sold and set aside): 294
• Total ticket requests received: 2917
• Tickets will be sold during the Flipside Town Hall road shows in Houston and Dallas
• Emails will be sent out regarding tickets within the next week (or two)
• Secondary market
  • Tickets will be available during the Flipside Town Hall road shows
  • There is currently no official secondary market; There has never been an official secondary market; Not Not Bob’s List has been a community-based unofficial secondary market; It’s not clear whether it will be active, or when
  • Announcements on tickets will be forthcoming
  • There is a Facebook group dedicated to ticket exchanges and rideshares: ‘Central Texas Burn Event Ticket and Rideshare Group’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/306116439584458/
• Flipside Town Hall Road Show in Houston is this weekend, Sunday, March 1st. https://www.facebook.com/events/1562397324026633/?fref=ts
• Work weekend is this weekend
• Town Hall was a success! Thanks to all the theme camps that helped with set-up/breakdown and parking and our 360 team

7:51pm AF REPORT (Wrinn)

• Work weekend coming up
• Volunteer signup page is currently being worked on

7:52pm REGIONAL UPDATE (Clovis)

• Souk announced their project
• Global Leadership Conference (GLC) is coming up
• Safetycide is coming up
• March 9: To-do topics and scheduling
• TexBECs (Texas burn-event coordinators) meeting is this weekend

7:53pm TOPIC: TOWN HALL WRAP-UP (Pixie)

• Theme camps were AWESOME
• Few issues: beer bottles and food left on tables and several chairs; We would like to stress ALL warehouse events are Leave No Trace. If you bring it, you are responsible for it
• There were plenty of lines at the booths; People are excited to volunteer
• NOTE (for next year): Sound was limited in the warehouse during the official meeting; People in the back couldn’t hear as well; Some people missed the meeting completely; SET UP SPEAKERS OUTSIDE NEXT YEAR

8:01pm TOPIC: SURVIVAL GUIDE LANGUAGE (Problem)

• Current Survival Guide includes guidelines for lasers (p. 11)
• The new survival guide goes live this week in PDF form
• Questions/Concerns over the changed format should be directed to the AAR/LLC

NEXT MEETING: MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015, 7:42pm

Facilitator

Decibel

Stack

Monkey

Scribe

Chim-Chim

TOPICS:
– Respect (Doug)
– Combustion Chamber Term Limits (Doug)

ACTION ITEMS:

• Reschedule TOPIC: Arts Fest (Maybe similar to EAST) (Kate)

8:09pm MEETING ADJOURNED

COMBUSTION CHAMBER MEETING: Monday, December 15, 2014

Facilitator

Doug

Stack

Henry

Scribe

Chim-Chim

Attendees (22)

Doug, Henry, Chim-Chim, St. Tiki, Gyseka, Ren, Onako, Princess, Pat, Prost, Kate, Clovis, Problem, Izzi, Adam, Monkey, Turtlebunnie, Pixie, Decibel, Bonobo, Psyche, Beth

8:09pm MEETING BEGINS

LLC UPDATE

• Mass Gathering Permit (MGP)
• Discussion before end of the year
• In process
• Getting announcement on ticket price and window before end of year
• SHORTEST LLC UPDATE EVER!!!

8:12pm AF UPDATE (Ren)

• Leads-All-Hands occurred last Saturday
• Approximately 30 in attendance
• Well received
• Have some brand new Leads as well as existing

8:14pm TOPIC: CC TRAINING CURRICULUM (Turtlebunnie)

• Concept: Process Manual
• Ideas to go in manual are welcome
• Would love to see stuff from retreat
• Possibility of having a CC mentor?
• Possibility of designating one CC meeting to a training session
• Currently soliciting ideas for what needs to be trained on
• Good idea to toss out idea through email lists
• To be a CC member, you should know blacksmithing
• Idea for manual: Put into .pdf format and download to all Leads for access; Use some sort of distributable content (e.g. Google doc) as an idea; Utilize multiple formats

8:18pm MOTION HAS BEEN MADE TO MOVE INPUT ON THINGS FOR TRAINING TO ‘LIST’; NO BLOCKS AT THIS TIME

8:18pm TOPIC: FUTURE OF SAFETYCIDE (Princess)

• The increased budget will be spent on food (over $3,000 approx.)
• Safety teams do a good job running it (Ghost, Sara, Mark, Jess, Sparky, etc.)
• In the future, they may have to do some re-organizational rearranging
• AAR did not cook breakfast last year so that they could attend trainings
• Lunch was provided
• This year, AAR met with Safetycide organizers
• 20 people attended from out-of-the-region
• Spending money on Safetycide is good for Flipside
• Many who come from other regionals also volunteer for Flipside

8:24pm MOTION TO CLOSE STACK ON SAFETYCIDE

8:25pm TOPIC: LASERS (Adam)

• When laser is shined on you, you will blink
• One simply cannot tell [lasers] apart
• During the burn of burnable art at Burning Man 2014, a Ranger was permanently blinded in one eye
• Researched on eplaya, and found cautionary discussions going back 10 years
• People have been worrying, and now this [blinded Ranger] has happened
• Burning Man will be issuing protective eyewear to Rangers in the future
• Discussion on installed lasers at Flipside
  • Possibility of getting blinded by lasers can happen to us
  • Even if we decide to ban lasers, it would be impractical to enforce that
  • Adding more rules is not our way of doing business
  • If people are going around flashing lasers in a wreckless way, then we can train them
  • If they persist, then we have other means to deal with the issue
  • It is possible to go out and buy a laser powered meter, but it’s too expensive to provide for the Rangers
  • There is currently a policy on lasers stated in the Survival Guide; However, we may have to look at it again
  • The Burning Man policy on lasers is currently under review
  • Green lasers at 5mW may not be eye-safe.
  • Red-colored lasers under 5 mW are considered eye-safe, but labeling is unreliable.
• Suggestion has been made on having a conversation on banning lasers
  • It wouldn’t be a rule in itself if it weren’t a considerable safety issue
  • Losing eyesight is a high risk and a real threat
• Consider changing wording in Survival Guide
  • Confiscation policy similar to sound—Take away if it arises
• Opposed to new rules, but hesitant on personal use of lasers not being part of an art installation or theme camp
• Lasers should be allowed for fixed display units; Only allow on fixed installations or commercial units
• Possible registration of lasers similar to art cars
• One cannot tell people that lasers are dangerous when there are art cars and giant art pieces
  • There are lots of dangerous things at Flipside
  • Part of the event is participation
  • People can do a better job at communicating and education
• Just because we may not enforce the rule doesn’t mean we can’t make a guideline to discourage use
• Problems with registering lasers: Once lasers are checked in, LLC has become responsible which puts a greater liability
  • If a guideline is to be put in the Survival Guide, use a serious tone
  • Putting rules in books that aren’t enforceable weakens rules overall
  • Possible ‘new technology’ section of the Survival Guide using a proactive approach
• Consider writing article for the Flipside Flame to get the word out
• Consider strengthening language in Survival Guide

9:11pm MOTION TO CLOSE STACK

• Consider adding as part of Ranger training where there is possible immediate confiscation
• Izzi stated she will attempt to write an article on Lasers with an emphasis on talking about lasers in regards to our three principles; Responsibility, Accountability, Cooperation; If anyone is willing to help write with Izzi, you are welcome
• Education is important; Community needs to be responsible and aware; BE THE CHANGE

Next meeting: January 5, 2015

Facilitator

Kate

Stack

Turtlebunnie

Scribe

Chim-Chim

TOPICS:

• Calendar session January 5
• Term limits for CC members (Doug)
• Volunteering staffing during post-Burn (Henry)

9:28pm MEETING ADJOURNED