Winter Newsletter

Looking for BITF Production Leads

The Burn in the Forest Production team is still looking for a couple of associate producers and team leads! Are you looking to contribute even more to our community, to take your radical participation to a whole new level? If you’re either experienced or looking to grow your skills in leadership, organizing, planning and coordinating, this is a great opportunity for you. If interested, please submit an expression of interest as soon as possible. For more information, see the following link: https://burnintheforest.com/leads/.

Dustcovery
 
For the first time in its history, Dustcovery sold-out and saw 1650 participants party the night away! The new venue at Vancouver Convention Centre was a hit, with two sound stages, fire show, theme camps, chill spaces, and a wide variety of fun, interactive art. Congratulations to Producer Andi Candi and her crew for an amazing event!

Call-out for Recharge Leads
 
GVIAS is still looking for volunteers to lead the crew for our upcoming 5th annual Recharge event in the Spring of 2019. Recharge is a one night, burner-inspired crowd fundraising event where attendees get to choose which project their money will fund! For more information, please see our post on the GVIAS website: http://gvias.org/callout-for-recharge-leads/.

Conduct Committee Update

The Conduct Committee leads began working with the GVIAS board in March 2018 to establish the committee’s mandate around community Accountability and Restoration.

Great thanks go to the Calgary (Freezer Burn), Toronto (BurnT), Seattle (RAC) and Vermont (Firefly) community members’ progressive work and their generous permission to model/adapt their conduct materials!

Since late spring 2018, the Conduct Committee has been working on key missions, documents and procedures such as the Code of Conduct, Reporting Form and a Frequently Asked Questions guide (that explains how to report an Incident and what happens after a report is made).

We’ve also done some important training such as the Community Accountability Practices workshop with Marty Dinn (RAC) and Restorative Justice workshop with Chastity Davis.

At a public Town Hall in June 2018, the Code of Conduct was shared with GVIAS members and the great feedback was integrated into the present code: https://gvias.org/participant-code-of-conduct/

At another public Town Hall in October 2018, the Reporting Form and FAQ guide were shared with GVIAS members and the detailed feedback was integrated in November. (We are finishing the final revisions this December.)

What’s Next:  This December, the Conduct Committee will establish our Charter (describing who we are and what our mandate is) and our internal protocols for attending to incident reports and restorative practices. January 2019 will be a reading month so members can study the trauma-informed, consent, restorative justice and accountability resources that we’ve gathered. In February, the FAQ guide and Reporting Form will go live and an exact date will be announced for that soon.

Much appreciation to the GVIAS board and GVIAS members for your patience and faith in our undertaking. We are doing our best to honor the depth and complexity of this work as we organize for the launch in February!!!

Your Conduct Committee Leads:  Kim Dee, Andrew Martens and Little Woo
Your Conduct Committee Members: Kale Gosen, MakeDo, Sylvia Nicholles, Vesna Bokic, Joseph Lunderville, Lauren Ham, Alison (Runs with Scissors), Janna.

Venue Committee Report 

This past spring, GVIAS initiated a venue research committee to develop a list of potential sites for both weekend (BITF) and single-night (Dustcovery, Recharge) events. BITF’s move to Cheam in 2015 was quite chaotic, and the formation of this committee is the realization of an outstanding action item to develop alternate options in order to insulate the events from the risk of losing our venues at the last minute.
The committee commenced discussions in September, and in early November attended a site visit at a prospective venue for a weekend camping-type event like BITF. The committee is pleased to report that the site is a viable candidate, and has availability during summer 2019 if the need arises. GVIAS now has redundant options for BITF. The committee will continue to seek further venues for all event types.
If you are interested in helping with the Venue Research Committee, please contact: [email protected].
 
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!
The GVIAS Board
(Brodie, Ryan, Sarah, Jennifer, Jennie, Monica, Tyler and Adrian)

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We are guided by the 10 principles of Burning Man. These principles guide our interactions with one another and the environment and have a strong ethos of participation. As such, our events and the society are entirely dependent upon community participation.

Membership isn't required to participate, but members enjoy a number of perks including access to a community of doers and dreamers.

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