Dates for Myschevia 2008

yea, I need to hear a firm date, so I can let the boss know I want to "get off" lol I love you all. Miss you much Deb ahhhh ---Firm dates always welcome--- I work too hard....and too much I miss you guys....kiss kiss hug hug

Honestly, there may not be a Myschievia 2008. I'd love to be proven wrong, but we seem to lack the time, money, and energy to pull it off this year. And frankly, after the year I've had, I'm not so averse to taking the year off.

Very few people want to do any planning until after Flipside, and that's only if they're not going to Burning Man. This year, I think we're going to lose a lot of Myschievians to Dadara's project. I'm not upset about that by any means, but let's please be realistic. If we have it in October, we're going to be scrambling all summer long to get it done half-assed and then wonder why only 200 people show up. I don't think we ever want to be the size of Flipside, or even to a point where we have to set a cap on tickets, but it's frustrating to have no growth at all after three years. If we're serious about this event, I think we need to do some more serious planning. We need a real foundation, and people who really have the time to put into this. It CAN almost be a full time job, but if we're smart about our planning I believe we can spread out enough of the work so that no one person is feeling overwhelmed. I would be willing to take a year off if it meant we could come back with a truly solid, kick-ass burn event that would put even Flipside to shame. :)

At the last Town Hall in January, several people seemed unhappy with the early October dates, so we decided to put up a poll and let the community decide whether or not to change them. But our mistake was that we never identified who that "someone" was going to be to put up a poll, nor did we set a deadline...which is why, 4 months later, we still have no date for Myschievia.

So, what would y'all like to do?

As another relative newcomer, here are my thoughts: I really enjoyed both Flipside and Myschevia last year, and part of what I enjoyed about each was how different in size they were from each other. While BM has big rewards, it also requires a bigger committment than I can make at this point in my life -- otherwise I'd love to also experience something on such a grand scale. Likewise, I'd love to see some smaller, more informal local burner camping weekends. I think they all have their place.

I was really impressed with how well Myschevia 2007 was done and planned, and hope to attend every year in the future. Moderate growth, moderate reduction, it doesn't matter much to me. It was a great success, and doesn't HAVE to grow to remain a success.

The timing is great in terms of potential for decent camping weather -- but I'd go regardless of the weather.

I used to plan an annual river trip for about 50 people, and have also been a part of other groups. It is usually true that it gets hard to keep people involved and doing their share of the work -- but make it clear (as you are doing) that the event is at risk, and more people are likely to step up and work to keep an event that is of such personal value to them.

Just my opinions....thanks and keep up the good work!

Hooch

I had no idea there was any -serious- activity going over here on the tribe... I always monitor the planning email list. I'll try to talk to as many of these things as I can, but I'm not able to watch tribe consistently....

Columbus day is the second monday in October. This monday moves from as early as the 8th (2007) to as late as the 14th. (13th due to leap year for 2008)

It cycled back one week this year, so it is later in the year again, like it was the first year when we chose that weekend.

We went through the entire calendar to find a weekend that did not conflict with another tradition in our community.

Pushing any further back in October risks hitting the first cold blast or freeze, which usually hits by Halloween or just after...

The land we are on enjoys an incredible relationship with our landowners, and is a rare thing in the world of burn events.

If Myschievia were held in the rainier part of the year, things become very different on our current land. The land is prone to extreme floods that can destroy culverts and vehicles and worse... there is only one exit on that land. Think about it from a safety point of view.

The distance from DFW is a bit far, but this provides a benign filter that keeps it from being too easy to attend... Ie people that might not have any interest in playing along with our community standards. Also, by the nature of TX weather, Cass county is one other last counties in the entire state to enter into a burn ban during dry season or drought conditions. We we under threat of jail time if we had fires our first year when we were in Eastland county.

As for resources, yes the LLC is spread thin. Each year, one of us seems to dealing with things in the default world that make it very difficult to commit as fully as we would like to. It has not stopped us yet. I personally had a difficult time last year because I was moving, working and also went to BM for 4 days. I did not have any internet access until the week Myschievia was over, and 80% of keeping it together is done online. I do not foresee any obstacles like these to be in my life this year, so I am quite committed to putting on the event.

Changing the date involves many factors, and is not necessarily something we can snap our fingers to make happen in one years time.
Aside from that, we have no real leads for any closer land where we could burn, be loud, and all the other stuff that happens.

I do not want to ignore the input of the community... It is a difficult time of year to work on this with all eyes on flipside in 30 days... There are 5 months following flipside to put on the event... We tried this year to use the off season to gather input, hold town hall meetings and the like, but alas our community is exploding and even the off season has become very busy for our social calendar. Putting together a meaningful polling solution was chosen, but the momentum was lost... This happens in any volunteer organization... We just must strive to recover from it gracefully and find a way to work through it anyway.

We dont have self sustaining support structures like flipside enjoys, but we still try to build them... Ranger/Medical org, a webteam that is not overworked and has enough time to volunteer to carry it... FS enjoys a ready to go earth guardian crew and a legacy of leads who have taken on many different roles, as well as trained/knowledge transferred to new persons taking the role. Filside never has to worry about having enough folks for work weekends... We can fill these positions each year, but often the knowledge transfer falls back onto the LLC and a few core people... We get overworked quickly, end up taking on too many tasks, etc... But we believe in it, and have kept going... Are we world class managers? No. Do we always know how to delegate or the best way to bring in fresh people and viewpoints? No. Do we try our best? I absolutely try to...

Right now, one of our LLC is flipside's DAFT lead... So we wont have his ear until after flipside... That is huge and exhausting work and we are proud of it... But alas, in a burn community available volunteer enegery is way more volatile than the stock market, but we get by... Even at the LLC level...

I hope this helps answer some questions/concerns... Perhaps we need a monthly community night that steers clear of the party atmosphere so that serious things can come up in a conversational context and have their voice... I would make every effort to attend something like this each month if we got it going.

Looking forward FS... My house has become a community workspace, and it takes a lot of energy to keep it clean the rest of the time...

Tentative Columbus Day weekend event would be Oct 9th-13th
-Vern

Grayson County doesn't have a burn ban.

i think a great place for this event would be a mountain biking/camping facility called the breaks at bar h. this is the link to their website www.barhbreaks.com/
they have hosted 2 festivals in the past, festival de la paz and southern junktion....someone might want to check on this.