Burning Man Leadership Summit

Next week starting April 1st will be the annual Leadership Summit and Regional Conference in San Francisco. Many issues will be discussed as well as tools provided that will help some of us with the things we do with our communities. I discovered this last year while it was underway and was determined to go the next time it was on!

Stephen RaspaWhy was I invited? Well, at first you might say I impressed myself because I wanted to meet and learn from Stephen Raspa. If you do not know who he is then… well, then you don’t know Burning Man. It is not unlike saying who is Marian Goodell and who is Larry Harvey.

Well, another reason I was invited is because I am a candidate for a Regional Contact position in Vegas which has been a process for a few months now following an extensive interview process. That is a story for another day.

The Question

So I ask you; Do we as the queer burners have any special needs/considerations/positions that needs addressing? I would love to bring anything from OUR sub-community… is that even the right word? Are we really integrated with the Burner community as a whole or are we that politely acknowledged presence of the would be super-liberals…? HA HA HA… not so much a serious question as cankerous nudge in the ribs of anyone wondering about social dilemmas. (No, I don’t really know either).

We the People

There is a full schedule of classes ranging from event setup to dealing with social and political issues in the community. Some classes I would take are layered on top of each other which means I had to choose one or the other.  For example, Fridays classes are “Mailman Training” v. “CORE Project Leaders” which was a simple choice in my case with the CORE project off my grid at the moment (Mailman refers to keepers of community lists and how much should be throttled and moderated).

Classes range from Public Relations, Event Planning, and Ranger resources… a lot of arms to this thing we call Burning Man and how to hopefully strengthen the community and the resources of same. The community is Black Rock City, all the Regions beyond that, then the pods/cells/fractures within. I know one question being asked is how do we deal with the fractures within communities and should we?

Conclusion

So, I will be posting about this as I go and be on my cell at all times. Feel free to text me or email.

Gay Camp Placement

Gay Village MapsA couple people mentioned in posts and email that they did not really know where the gay camps were concentrated… or more-so where or what the Gayborhood/Gay Ghetto were. The map attached to this piece from the 2010 Metropolis is a rough estimate of just those.

MalMart is loosely marked there as well as Pink Heart. This does not mean 2011 will see the same exact placement, but it seems to reflect 2009. Having spent a lot of time in both regions I can say I had a lot of fun and met a lot of amazing people.

The map is just generally informational and I will look to post something a little more comprehensive after July 1st when the theme camp list is published and we get a list of the gay camps projected for 2011 Rites of Passage.

The reality is that gay camps are all over the place, but these small concentrations of familiars feels like a pool of water in the middle of the desert when we are seeking to make connections.

I personally pledge to visit and spend time in every camp posting here to some degree and be there to support whatever I can. We are a single part of a whole and I look forward to spending time together once again!

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If you feel like adding… I was doing 2010 pics only