Attendees: Sam, Henry, Stephanie, Charles, Problem, Christie, Clovis, Turtlebunnie, Effie, Mercedes, Adam, Bill, Edie Cosmos, Shortcake, Izzi, Prost, Janabanana
Facilitator: Prost
Stackinator: Sam
Scribinator: Prost
ACTION ITEM: Prost – Get with Izzi regarding current members listed on web site.
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Austin Artistic Reconstruction Update
Problem – Changed warehouse mask policy. Used to be linked to old Austin Public Health levels, no longer in use. Now in line with CDC Community Risk Levels: low/green, medium/yellow, high/red. Masks not required for low (green). If we hit medium (yellow), masks inside warhouse. If high (red), warehouse is closed except by approval of LLC.
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Regionals Update
Clovis – That Thing in the Desert happened. Probably superspreader. B’org emphasizing for post-op vols in addition to housing, food, etc., confirming they will be extra careful for your health.
Henry – Burnt Soup happened. They will continue doing water effigies.
Prost – Myschievia in 2 1/2 weeks.
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Area Facilitator Update
Edie – Still in slow period for site prep, starting to set schedule for work weekends. Will try to avoid Safetyside this year.
Charles – Getting ramped up as Communications Area Facilitator. Trying to find STicket lead, trying to get ready for this for town hall. Working with Izzi in her existing Communications role.
Izzi – Had retreat?
Problem – About to have it.
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Extending the Reach of the Combustion Chamber
Sam – Not proposing specific course of action. Want to extend reach, explore ideas that don’t suck. Combustion Chamber is very Austin-centric. Would like to serve a larger area. Could we use Zoom to expand our reach? Maybe recruit zoom coordinators who would attend our meetings, relay stuff to/from external communities.
Bill – Been doing some hybrid Audio/Visual work professionally. Takes a lot of good equipment to make a good hybrid meeting where everybody can hear.
Problem – Hybrid meetings even with really good A/V wind up making one group (internal/external) second class meeting attendees. In the past, have a had a lot of trouble getting other communities engaged, particularly since those other communities have their own advisory boards where they direct their energies. Think people would be confused about why they go to a specific contact to talk about Flipside.
Turtlebunnie – For the younger people that we would love to start seeing active, they may not even know about us. At a bar with two other burners the other night, approached by strangers who complimented our good energy. One from New Orleans. They didn’t know about burners, told them about Engulf. Need to go where the young people are. Not usual discussions about social media, rather meeting young people in person. Used to do road shows, had good attendance. But other communities (e.g., Houston) tend to be focused on their own burns.
Clovis – Would favor more a webinar style. People can watch, but they wouldn’t necessarily get in queue to speak, could submit questions and comments through chat. Still some privacy concerns. Also, if people aren’t leaving their house to come here, they’re already not doing that.
Henry – Sometimes attend church nights in other communities. Could carry an informational sheet/pamphlet. Solicit questions on their own turf.
Izzi – Is there a service for automated Closed Captioning? Is it possible to have mics in remote locations? Road shows, loved them. Speaking of ambassadors, could we have a cross-event big conversation once in a while?
Adam – Feel like Combusion Chamber (CC) input is not necessarily extra-regional. Think the perspectives would be similar to what we would find locally. CC has been going downhill for a while. Ten years ago, people knew what the CC was/does. Now community has no point of reference for what the CC is. We do publicize meetings, it does get brought up in conversation, but clearly we haven’t cracked public awareness of CC. Like it or not, community tends to argue about Flipside stuff on Facebook. Problem with how CC is constituted, had a number of thoughtful members who joined the CC, but got alienated because CC just talks about stuff, but can’t actually solve problems operationally.
Bill – Agree with Adam. We don’t engage with the theme camp leads enough, would be good if we could address the theme camp leads leads. These are the people who are paying attention. Even if we can’t get them to the meeting, would raise our engagement. Aware there may be issues with that as a tool.
Izzi – Do see some people making inciteful arguments on Facebook, maybe we could target those folks to come to a Combusion Chamber meeting, apply as members. Maybe we could have a theme camp-specific meeting and invite theme camp leads.
Henry – Combustion Chamber is an informational hub. We take in info and pass it along, it does affect operations.
Mercedes – Like the ideas from Izzi and Henry. Was previously City Planning, many theme camp leads were leary of giving out their contact info, needed guarantee that it would be limited to need-to-know City Planning info only.
Clovis – Think advisory is for the best. LLC has more continuity and is actually responsible for the event. Trust the LLC to act on our advice as necessary. B’org is much more top-down. Road shows sounded like good idea, but they were a lot of work and time for low return on investment. Meet and greets at the event had a low turnout, same with meet-and-greet at the warehouse.
Bill – Gonna test out how Flipizens Facebook group drives Combustion Chamber engagement. We will have a Sound Policy meeting in mid-October [Oct 16]. Hopefully people have had time to process and calm down. Will take time to let people know in advance, we will see what happens at that meeting.
Clovis – Town Hall tends to draw people concerned about the community. Should make sure we announce “Sound” and “Kids” topic at Town Hall.
Izzi – Ambassadorship is two-way. Our members could go to other meetings, or reach out to other persons of interest in those communities. As content person, could we do a Combustion Chamber feature, something small? If Combustion Chamber has specific info need to push, can add it to Announce/Flame/website.
Stephanie – Heard about Flipside for a long time. Met somebody who was an Uber driver. Got on Flipizens, found it to be useful but really overwhelming, toxic, etc.. Hard place to have first impression, but something needs to be there to introduce people to the community.
Clovis – Texas Burners group is a lot more tame.
Bill – Maybe Combustion Chamber should have a better name?
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Town Hall Walkthru
Date & Time – Saturday, September 24th, 2022. Tailgating starts at noon. Meeting starts at 2:34pm.
Event Co-Producers – Sam/Bill
Voting Coordinator – Turtlebunnie
Agenda:
- Welcome, Pledge, Leave No Trace
- Austin Artistic Reconstruction Update – Cooper
- Retiring and New Area Facilitators – Cooper
- Volunteerism – Tina or designate.
- STickets Contest – Charles
- DaFT Effigy Proposals – TBD from DaFT Selection Committee (Stephy chasing somebody)
- Theme Presentations
- Voting Break
- Pledge
- Warehouse Use – Turtle
- Combustion Chamber Update – Prost
- Community Announcement (Ignition Philter et al)
- Theme Announcement, Closing, Leave No Trace
Sound – Dave Demaris
TODO: LLC working on portapottie.
TODO: Bill will be Speaker wrangler.
Izzi – Do we know of theme camps coming to Town Hall? Would like to see more theme camps have a pop-up presence. Will add a blurb to the announcement.
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Combustion Chamber Business
Effie – Community member expressed concern their should be a bigger emphasis on art, not just volunteerism.
Sam – Mika has resigned from Combusion Chamber due to life circumstances, taking other adventures.
ACTION ITEM: Prost – Get with Izzi regarding current members listed on web site.
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NEXT NEXT MEETING – October 17
Topic:
- Sound Policy
- Town Hall Wrapup