Leadership in Queer Burners

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We held the first Queer Burner Leadership Summit (QBLS) in 2012 as the pre-step before the internationally attended Burning Man Regional Summit now called the Burning Man Leadership Summit (BMLS) and Regional Conference. There was a very important notable difference from this year to that is that there were some genuine issues that needed to be brought from one to the other; safety. [Link to the 2012 Summary]

In 2012 there was a nutty result of the way tickets were managed that was exposing Burning Man to an influx of people who were never part of the culture before or knowledgeable about the basic tenants of Burning Man (10 Principals) and have problems with personal and physical boundaries. The discussion was brought to the BMLS and we received a dicey reaction at first (the Org looked pretty bad as a result) but in the end Burning Man / the Org really came through! [report]

This year in 2013, we are focusing on the internal forces that make our community stronger. Yes, we Queer Burners are a community that is another chink in the mesh that makes us a stronger fabric of the whole quilt that makes us part of the Burning Man Community/Culture.

Leadership comes from a handful of people who are part of the unit. Successful leadership seeks out those others who are willing to help them grow into whatever wings they have. Do we have successful leadership under the banner of Queer Burners? I say yes.

In the above video there is something that is very prolific in how we are looking at the people around us and help raise people to get them to be a functioning part of our communities and units. What tribe does your camp members belong to. See how many are part of the 2nd Tribe versus the first. I dare say there are few in our culture that could survive as the 1st one. Check out this TED video and see what I mean.

Do these exist among leaders in this community? While we, as leaders, are looked to carrying the flag we need people who are self motivated to follow it. Often they cannot do it on their own and need a boost psychologically or by shifting priorities to help them get there

“The greatest road to enlightenment is
helping someone else get there first.”

The above quote comes from the Dahli Lama and plays over and over in my head when I think of success. Please check out the video and add your comments below.

Register today to attend the Queer Burner Leadership Summit through Eventbrite. Events on the weekend of April 6th include but are not limited to: [RSVP for QBLS on this link]

 

Tis the Season

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Everywhere… potentially starting with ticket sales or the Burnal Quinox, things are starting to heat up in all the burner communities. Queer Burners is not sleeping… nope! We have meetings coming up and are working on:

  • The Village Q goes to the Salt Lake City Regional
  • Queer Burner camping trip
  • Queer Burner Leadership Summit Apr 2013
  • Cargo Cult: Burning Man 2013

Site Update

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A lot of upgrades and changes were completed today, but there will be some ongoing adjustments going forward. Some feedback from members has been critical of navigation (which is a huge value) so I worked on making this make sense more.

Members can see more than non-members; so you have to be logged in for some camp and camping information. All members can post and post to the new calendar system. All the posting rules still apply when if comes to putting anything on the site.

That is not to say that I am finished working on the site. A whole update is coming to the camps page and then I will be asking you all for help with the content for that page. Thank you!

Tickets! Christmas Tickets!

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You knew it was coming but did you know it was going to be $650.00? That’s right! Higher price for the benefit of having that tickie in your hand. The upside, the money goes to The Burning Man Project… yeah.

From the JRS:

Early-birds can participate in our Holiday Sale, which allows folks to buy tickets in time for holiday gifting. PLEASE NOTE: Holiday Sale tickets are priced dramatically higher than our regular tickets will be and Black Rock City, LLC will donate 3% of the price of each ticket sold during this early Holiday Sale to the Burning Man Project, a new nonprofit dedicated to spreading Burning Man culture around the world. (In addition, Black Rock City, LLC makes other substantial contributions throughout the year to support the Burning Man Project, including contributing the proceeds from fundraising events and many other forms of support.)

So ... here are the details:

- 3000 tickets will be offered at $650 each for the Holiday Sale.
- In order to participate in this sale, you must pre-register at:
http://tickets.burningman.com/registration-holiday2013.html
- Registration is open NOW and will close at noon PST on Wednesday December 19th.
- Those pre-registered will be able to participate in the first-come first-served sale on Thursday December 20th, starting at noon PST.
- You may purchase a maximum of 4 tickets per person.
- These tickets are not eligible for STEP, but are transferable (you are welcome to resell them on your own, if you wish).
- The only payment types accepted are Mastercard or Visa credit cards, or debit cards with either the Visa or Mastercard symbols. If you don't have one of these cards, you will need to obtain a one-time use card.
- Physical tickets will be shipped between June 1 and July 15, unless you opt for pick-up at Will Call in Black Rock City.

(We will not be implementing identity-based ticketing (e.g. name-on-ticket) ... for more information, see this blog post from Larry Harvey: http://blog.burningman.com/?p=23887.)

As always, you can find find full ticket information on http://tickets.burningman.com, and answers to your questions in our Ticketing FAQ (http://tickets2.burningman.com/faq.php) and spiffy new online ticketing forum (http://ticketsupport.burningman.com/home).

2013 Theme Announced

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2013 Burning Man ThemeIt came out today and depending on your point of view… I think it seems pretty cool. So I am looking forward to what the coming year will bring with vision and creativity. Yay for us.

QueerBurners.Com also appeared in the JRS today. Well, I wrote the note that appeared because i am trying very hard to show we are radically inclusive. Why? Because someone (okay several someones) said we were not. Some of those were inside our own community.

Recently I made a x-post of an event and it was asked if it was being run by Queer Burners. It should never keep any member of the community at-large from being a participant. I did say community. That means the Burning Man Community and our LGBTQ++ community.

So, raise a glass with me at the next meetup and let’s look forward to an amazing new season.

We are <3

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Site Registration is back open today because of the article that appeared on the JRS today. I am so grateful we have the community that we have and I hope to see it blossom even more over time. Like Burning Man itself, this project is stronger with member participation. Join and help do!

It is IMPORTANT that you complete your profile questionnaire and answer the verification email sent to you. Any questions please use the contact form. 🙂

Project Update

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Right now my priority list is:

  • Quire: 2 or 3 Camp Outs for 2013/Regioanals
  • Quire: Queer Burner Leadership Summit 2013
  • Queer Burners: 5 years in 2013
  • Queer Burners: Massive Site Update

Members and participants are always welcome to give their input, take over some of the batons, or implement ideas. The Quire Page (linked above) has a place to start sharing projects and linking back to it from anywhere. Make a post for it as well! Just sign in and write it up. I will publish it after making sure the formatting is good.

Love & Light

New Membership Suspended

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All new memberships are on hold til January 2013. Use the contact form to request a membership that will be manually put in with: your user name, default world name and email address. I will give you a default password you can change… and all you have to do next is complete your profile.

Coming Soon… UPDATES!

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Since the last post there have been some cool things going in with some of the do’ers here on Queer Burners. The Quire: QUEER BURNER LEADERSHIP NETWORK and a lot of the dialog does take place on Facebook. It does seem to provide the easiest access for the general population. You will see many of those posts in the Twitter feed in the side column.

Quire is a space for the people who are willing to invest themselves on some level to help make the things that go on here happen. If this is not you, then enjoy the Gay Burners page (5 years old in 2013) and the Queer Burners Group (more social).

Enough of that! Let’s talk about some of the fun stuff coming up!!!!

Well, and some of the other stuff too!

With the upcoming 5 year anniversary goals for 2013 include: (Events Page on QB.Com)

  • Queer Burner Leadership Summit (TBD before April)
  • “Sweet Thing” Queer Burner Camp-Out /  Retreat
  • San Francisco Gay Pride Parade
  • “The Village Q” @ Element-11 in July 2013

For now that is it and this is an update to the previous posting.

Quire; Queer+Fire

There is a link to the Quire web site above in the tool bar. Be a part of it if you want to make great things happen. Yes… I said mutha-f’kin great!

BMorg (Burning Man Headquarters)

We have been described by some burners as isolating ourselves frim the rest of the Burner community which I feel is really a misconception. So I have taken steps to try and address this with the powers that be to show ourselves as a pro-active force when it comes to community and the 10 principles. Here is a letter I am working on that will be going out this coming week:

This is Scott K aka Toaster from QueerBurners [dot] Com also known as GayBurners [dot] Com … I have been in touch with the Regionals contacts in the past a few times and have at one time been a candidate for a Regional Contact role when I lived in Las Vegas. I created a network for LGBTQ+ Burners because there was a need I discovered to provide a resource for this segment of the Burner Culture.

I am writing hoping to engage in a dialog that will help us be a better part of the community at large. It has come to my attention there is an idea in the Burning Man Organization (BMorg) that the network I started, then let grow, is an attempt to segregate ourselves from the rest of the Burner community as a whole. I hope to show you and anyone inside the construct of Burning Man that this is as far from the truth as possible.

This notion that we were segregating ourselves came to me from a trustworthy and reliable source who heard this at Burning Man main office. We are interested in suggestions of what we can bring to the table to improve our relationship. This is not someone I would like to see exposed for passing this information on but I am thankful for providing insight into how we can improve our mutual understanding.

I did post this concern on one of our boards and got some very interesting feedback… it is on the Gay Burners Facebook Page and I invite anyone to look at it at their convenience.

We (yes, we) want to:

  • show that we art partners in the application of the 10 principles in every way possible
  • help convey the message from BMorg and other lateral communities into our community
  • be a part of the future of the culture and whatever direction that takes

On a side note from me personally (Scott aka Toaster): if there is a history that has affected our ability to develop projects together I would like to ask if we can suspend that and start over.

Expectations

None. By reaching out we hope to erase the idea that we are attempting to operate outside of the Burning Man principle Radical Inclusion. In fact, we have been striving to do the opposite.

What we bring to the table

  • maintaining our mailing list of 2000 people and network of more than twice that
    holding regular events with open invitations on our list and other burner networks of all camps and orientations
  • bringing our unique culture to the burner community much as the “Gayborhood” and other Queer pockets at Burning Man have done over the years

in 2013 we are looking at our 5 year anniversary and will be planning events of our own and will be going to support and participate in other regional events including Element-11; all detailed on our main Facebook; and a 2013 Queer Burner Leadership Summit

3 facebook groups, 1 facebook page and our web site

What we hope to convey

the Queer-Burner project is really no different than any of the regional communities out there with participants

  • the members of this community bring a lot to the table every year without need or desire for any special recognition because it is simply what we do to participate and gift when we can to the community.

Conclusion

Just on the few bullet points above and before the season starts making us all nuts can we arrange a meeting at BMorg with the Regionals Office, Placement and anyone else with an interest. I would like to bring Kitten from Comfort & Joy and Foxy from Camp Beaverton Home for Wayward Girls with myself. We come to listen and share with the effort to build a better relationship with the organization that started what we have adopted in our lives within our collective as part of the over all Burner Culture.

Burning Man Regional Conference / Regional Conference

I would like to attend this year again representing my community and bring some of my strongest partners including Kitten and Foxy. Thank you.