Update series #2: Inertia...

Well, the staff met on January 17th in Western Mass, from 10am to about 10pm. Long day, but we got a lot covered (and ate a lot of junk food) in the process.

My thanks to Brighid, who hosted the event at her home - it was wonderful!

So what did we cover? Basically, we decided on the nuts-and-bolts issues of operations and gathering structure. This includes:

1. Staff duties, both before and at the event
2. How to spread the word to new folks
3. What crew positions did we need this year (what specific on-site jobs were needed)?
4. What did we want to accomplish with the workshops, and which of the current proposals fit those intentions?
5. Schedule - any changes, clarifications, or other modifications to the event schedule
6. What things do we need to order/purchase before the gathering?
7. Scholarships - we generally discussed scholarships, but no decisions were made - applications aren't due until April 1st and 8hen only by a specific subset of the staff (which, thankfully, does not include me!)
9. The pathways and related pathways workshops
10. Fire lighting rituals - developed some thematic ideas and considered some proposals by community members
11. Site issues
12. 2009 icon and T Shirt art
13. Community workshift issues and schedule
14. Some changes and pre-planning for non-fire circle rituals

.... and about 10 or so other smaller details. I'm very grateful to have a group of folks on this staff who are so talented at focusing, communicating, and helping to constructively create and criticize in such a way that we can cover such a large agenda in one day! There is more to do, much more, but we did well.

So coming out of that - a reminder that if you would like to help us get some postcards out there, let me know by dropping a private email with your name, addy, and how many you need. We're looking to hand out postcards in person as much as possible at drum circles, dance classes, gatherings, etc.

If you can donate to the scholarship fund, please do! If you need a scholarship applications are due by April 1st - please make sure to read the scholarship FAQ on our website.

More soon!