The Need For Transparency

Thats cool Chris, I agree with you as well. At the end of the day we are burners thats what we do...and we are an awesome community that I am proud to be a part of...

Peace

Bystander

Whatwhat ... the more I reread your post, the more pissed off I get. Just because some of us do not have the physical ability to do the hard work, and some have actual jobs which preclude leading the community DOES NOT mean we do not have informed opinions and good input. I will NOT shut up.

A drug-addled fuckfest? Not for me and mine, buddy boy. Sounds more like ... oh, shall we say, I exercise restraint and just delete the rant I wrote?

I just attended Dark Skies. They've had problems of their own, but managed to pull off a nice little event. Cameron Grant was in charge, and he worked his ass off. SOBER, visible, attending to details and going from camp to camp, touching base with the participants, making sure the event was everything it needed to be. Some will disagree with me, but Cameron is what I look for in a sober, responsible, involved leader. I repeat: SOBER and INVOLVED on site.

As for E-11, the rangers are expected to do their shifts sober and rested. As fuel masters, me and mylarry stay sober for the burn. Why not the leaders of the event? Can't be a party-hearty participant and do your job. Same goes for the organizers. Sorry, that's the way it is.

And gee, who the fuck are you, whatwhat? Inquiring minds want to know who's who.

You're not spouting anything that I don't already know, so I suppose your identification on this forum is not important. You've well covered the past, albeit laced with negativity and blame. E11 itself turned out to be an awesome event through the efforts of ALL the people who volunteered. Thank you for the recap.

My call for transparency concerns the present, and the concerns of a community that is still simmering and volatile just under the surface after the recent blowout. I am not placing blame, nor am I seeking to start shit. I am looking for information: what just happened, why did it happen in that way, and where is the general direction this is going in? My fear is that things may end up being a little more than a bit politicized and that some may be marginalized by personal associations.. this is quite against the idea of radical inclusion, no?

As for me, I'm just another freak on the playa. I am but one, and I do what I can. I have my own gifts and talents, which I am still exploring and realizing. I've considered stepping up, but after realizing I am already pulling two jobs - both of which involve medical care for animals and euthanasia, mind you - and full time school towards a linguistics degree, I figured that taking on a co-regional slot might be just a bit much for me to swallow right now. I really would just like to create art and be part of the problem out on the playa. My concern is that without transparency, communal effort and civic responsibility, there might not be enough of a problem for myself or anyone else to go to... and THAT, my dear whatwhat, is my long-run concern.

There can be no sense of community, participation, and civic responsibility when the community is left in the dark about the reasons and motivations behind recent events. Instead there is rumor, speculation, and bickering, and the notions of immediacy and radical inclusion seems to have been forgotten for the time being. The questions are already asked. The speculation is happening. All I am calling for is transparency in action. If that's too much to ask, then maybe I need to leave the so-called drug-addled masses and set out on my own.

"FuckFest 2009"

Dude, where's my fucking gift drugs?

Hmmm, well, I think many of my questions I was saving for the next community meeting have been satisfactorily answered. Me thinks we've all be had. I was under the impression VIVID was to be an extension of E11 with VIVID helping to promote community awareness, art, etc, with E11 in the forefront and being the "showcase" for said art, much like Burning Man is the showcase for much BRAF art and its largest supporter.

I'm still not feeing the love that Hope necessarily put her ass on the line, tho. Was VIVID in place at the time of E11? If so, all those permits, etc, should have been signed by the entire board with VIVID, LLC named as the responsible party. This was the whole reason for creating an LLC in the first place, was it not? It should/would take the liability away from a single person and place it on the assets of the LLC (not the individual or their assets). That is unless someone was foolish enough to sign all their assets over to the LLC.

Arrgh, I'm working myself into a froth again. The happy news, I have tons of faith in this community and all of you. If, in fact, what appears to have just transpired, did, I'm sure we can rally together and get us another baby!

Wolf, not all of us were clued in that Vivid was a separate entity. Now I know that. And yes, I do wonder what the connection will be between LLC and community. Do we run of the mill burners still have a voice?

Wolf, and others-
maybe a little history might help here. This is an attempt to answer some of your questions based on what I know and have learned since becoming captivated by this crowd in about 2000 (argh! has it been that long? It sure has been a fun ride!)
anyway.. (and please, anyone who knows different please correct me and/or add to what I've said here:

"What of the community's efforts (and resultant spoils) from before Vivid was organized"
Historically, the only "spoils" that might have been involved were any left-over money from the annual Utah Regional Burn (originally "SynOrgy", then re-named "Element-11" three years ago). These funds, if any were left over, were generally entrusted to the event producers whomever they might be. Originally, Hope, Tom Price (now moved on up to the big leagues ;- ), and Michael Aaron were the main organizers. I'm not sure when admission was first charged, but I think it was the first year the event moved out to SeaBase. The purpose of the Decompression, pre-compression and re-compression parties was generally just to get together, but it might have crept in the last couple of years that there was some intention for those parties to raise money on the front end or raise money to pay debts on the back end. Another important point is that up until now, most people have been remarkably uncurious about the money. Maybe because the event organizers have been (and still are, I think) "just us", and because there's been no outrageous reasons not to trust the people who have been collecting the receipts. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad, and maybe now it's different (or maybe not). But, the purpose of the event has never been to make money (how much money do you think you can make at $40/head, compared to costs?), but more to make the event pay for its own expenses. And so far people have hoped that it has (so the event will be able to happen again the next year) but haven't really paid much attention if it hasn't. And for the record, I suspect that Dave and Adriene moved on from being organizers (and regional reps- more on that below) more out of desire to do something else with their energy because they sure weren't getting rich because of it.

"Do these funds belong to the community?"
Well, that's a good question. My answer: Philosopically maybe, and technically, probably not. As I mentioned above, there has never been much concern about it, and I think most people's take on it has been that any remaining funds were being plowed into the next year's event. So in that sense, the funds maybe belong more to the event, with different drivers taking over the reins. Also, since there has never been a "community board" empaneled to represent the community, complete with signatory authority over a bank account, I don't see how a "community" can possess funds in this respect. We're not paying dues to be burners.

"Who has a say on the funds and where they are used"
Again, the event directors/slash/regional reps had authority over the funds, and pretty much had the say-so over their expenditure, based primarily on community faith that they were being used responsibly and lack of reason to distrust them. Putting it another way, I think that most people have been so happy to have events like this to go to, and so understanding of the effort that goes into pulling them off, that they were not going to make a big deal about the lack of a monthly financial report from the organizers. Trust seems to have gotten us this far.

"If so, where is the accountability?" despite the answer above, I guess the answer to this one is: if people are going to demand accountability in trade for their participation and buy-in, the people with the bank account are probably going to have to pony up. But put the shoe on the other foot (if you haven't already)-- how quickly (and with how much enthusiasm) would you be able to pony up your income/outgo records, and how difficult would it be? Granted, we gave them our money, but remember that in return they produced a festival. When you buy a CD or a tomato, do you demand to see the financial records behind its production? And having said that, I know that Hope and Chuck were pretty careful with receipts and I expect that they will be able to produce a pretty good report, but not necessarily "right now dammit." Just guessing here, but if they let expenses run away a bit in the last week, when it was probably assholes and elbows just trying to get things to hit the playa, or if they ended up letting more people in on comps than they intended because it was easier than subjecting all involved to the ticket issues, I would totally understand and am not going to agonize over it. Maybe, if I'm ever involved in this at a deeper level, I might try to learn what happened in hopes of not getting to experience the same amount of angst, but I'm also keeping it in the perspective that the event was bigger, it was the first time that the folks doing it had done it, and oh yeah, it was a blast and I think most people would admit that they got their $40 worth.

Now we get to the questions that I have simple answers for:
Who has a say on those funds and where they are used? I don't know. Good question.

Was there an agreement that Vivid would use the spoils of past community efforts to keep the continuum flowing? I think there is an expectation among the community (defined as the people who are interested enough in this stuff to come to meetings on Sundays) that this would happen based on past practice, but there has been no formal agreement both because no one has wanted one before and also (and this could be a big issue moving forward), who would speak for the community enough to participate in a formal financial agreement?

If so, where is that agreement, and how is is being implemented? see above

And now, we get to the INTERESTING questions:
If not, then what IS the agreement between Vivid and the community?
What is the level of interaction between the community and Vivid?

Those are darn good questions. Because Vivid is kind of a new beast in Utah burnerland, a non-profit that has intersecting interests with the Utah burner community (i.e., producing a kick-ass festival), but also other interests that various members of the community may or may not share, or may or may not choose to support, or may or may not gain benefit from. I think the interest in having financial and other decision-making clarity stems from the fact that so many of us put so much volunteer time into the events, and we all (including the event organizers) know that the event wouldn't happen without our efforts, and we all basically just want to know that a few people are making money based on our unpaid efforts. It's fine for them to make money, but if I'm giving and they're getting, I've got other things I can do with my time-- including making money for myself. I think that's where most people are coming from, no?

In short, I think that those last two questions are the crux of the biscuit, and I think that collectively we will figure something out. If Vivid turns out to be a big rock in our river, we'll start filtering around it, and will likely figure out some other way, and place, if necessary, to have our festival. If Vivid wants to do something that will require the community, but they can't engage and enroll the community, it's gonna be tougher for them to make it happen.

and finally--
And what of the meeting where the community expressed interest in moving forward with Vivid, only to have those discussions end up in limbo? Does the discussion held in that meeting not count for anything?

Objectively, I do think that the discussion held in that meeting does not count for anything other than an opportunity for people who care enough about things to get together and talk about these issues, which could form the seed for some other Utah burner-flower to spring from the soil. Vivid is a non-profit organized by a couple of people, so if those people didn't call the meeting and weren't there, I think it's pretty inescapable that that Vivid is not obligated to move anywhere on their say-so.

I hope this helps. If one door closes, another opens (and there's probably a lot of paths around the door, too).

PS-- I need to stress again that this is all entirely my opinion, my words, and my conjecture. I speak for no one but myself.

This may seem out of context because it is a cross post from the Yahoo Group, but I wanted to get it up here...


Wolf, in your quest to help control the direction of the event and make it perfect for all of us you actually are having the tendency to derail it. I am not sure why you feel so inclined to make such a big deal of things. Have you been wronged in some fundamental way? Has something so bad and miserable happened that I am not aware of? Did someone steal your money or your soul? Did you not have any fun at all? You're acting like the end of the world is near. I also find your tone to be condescending and self-righteous, so I think Chuck is right on in his evaluation. You may not see it that way, but others of us do. You may think you are acting in the interest of the community, but in some ways I feel you are acting for yourself. I definitely don't think you are acting for me.

This was my sixth Synorgy/Element 11. I thought it was awesome. Some hiccups apparently, but what event doesn't have that? Seriously name one. I think it went pretty darn smooth overall.

I think the community should have some say in the direction of things, of course, but