Guide to running a national gathering
Contents:
Introduction
Venue
Food
Welcome
Donations and Funds
Accommodation
Creche
Social
Agenda and Facilitation
Communications
Feedback
Introduction As one Climate Camper recently said after the 2009 January Gathering in Oxford, “I've been taking part in UK social movement consensus decision making for 15 years.. and for most of that time it was a mess, no one knew how to do it, no one thought about it as a process, no one prepared the meetings or knew how to facilitate. But now climate camp has turned it into an art, meetings are incredible... truly democratic, gets things done and even fun!” Monthly National Gatherings across the UK have been the main decision making forum for Camp for Climate Actions since it all began in 2006. Since then the gatherings have massively grown in size, and the Camp for Climate Action’s work grown in complexity. The gatherings have been constantly evolving to ensure they remain productive and enjoyable, while also staying committed to principles of non-hierarchy and consensus decision making. This successful development has evolved not only by Facilitation and Process teams, but by all who have been participating over the years. Gatherings are hosted by local groups, with assistance from the national Process Group. The Process Group can give you as much or as little assistance as you need. We want to encourage as many local groups to take on hosting a gathering as possible, whether or not you have hosted one in the past. This guide will hopefully serve as an initial source of information if you are thinking of hosting a gathering, but if you have any further questions get in contact with process[at]climatecamp.org.uk
Venue Finding a venue is probably the fundamental first step that determines the feasibility of your group hosting a gathering. Try to find somewhere that people will be happy to be in for an entire weekend of intense meetings. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but just somewhere clean, warm, a sensible shape, and with a enough light to meet properly. Make sure it is big enough for 100 people to meet comfortable (150 in the case of a major gathering such as a New Year Gathering or Post-Camp Gathering). People don’t mind being a little cosy though! Ensure it has toilet facilities and kitchen facilities suitable for the numbers expected. Also, please try to ensure it is wheelchair accessible.
Food You will need vegan food enough for at least 100 people (if there are less you can sell off unused food at the end). Meals are normally made for Lunch times on Saturday and Sunday, and an evening meal on the Saturday. You may also like to do a smaller meal on Friday Evening or Sunday Evening if it appears there will be a lot of people around. Also, a basic breakfast for the Saturday and Sunday is very popular, as is lots of tea! If you want to make a bit of extra money for your local collective you might also sell vegan cake –goes down very well in the more stressful meetings! Ensure proper precautions are taken with hygiene in the process of food preparation. Ideally one person should take on monitoring this. If you are unsure what is required in this field, email the Process Group who can supply you with guidelines. For example, despite sounding less DIY, it is far more hygienic to have one or two person doing all the washing of plates for a meal, rather than everyone doing their own. Probably goes without saying, but to try to source food locally where possible, from an organic farm for example, and generally choose the non-corporate options. The best process is normally to get a food working group together to sort out all the details, as food can be a big job in itself. Try to have at least one person assigned to co-ordinate each meal. However, remember you can always ask for volunteers to assist from the wider gathering (people often jump at the chance!) For lots of more detailed advice on mass cooking check out The Anarchist Teapot’s guide, available online at http://www.eco-action.org/teapot/guide%20to%20mass%20catering.pdf It’s an amazing document and well worth a read!
Welcome The Welcome Desk is a very important aspect of the gathering, and ideally should be ‘staffed’ for the duration of the gathering. Not only does every gathering bring fresh new faces in need of a friendly face and no doubt with a dozen questions, but it also serves as a point of information for everyone with regards to the venue, crash space, etc. It’s also where you collect the all important donations! Try to ensure it is somewhere you can’t miss it, and is positioned close enough to the venue’s entrance that you can’t get lost first. What to include on the Welcome Desk? Welcome Guides for Newcomers (Process will provide you with these), Donation tin (keep very safe!), Copies of the agenda, Copies of decisions made last gathering, Details/maps of crash space locations, Meal tickets (especially if you’re in a venue other groups are using so you know who has paid). In addition to the above items, it is also important to have a Travel Pool. This is where you have a separate donation tin that those who have come from nearby or who can afford to donate can put into, and a list where those who have travelled from afar can request a certain amount back from the fund. This is about both sustainability, ensuring people can keep coming and participating to these gatherings, as well as social justice, ensuring that people are not discriminated from attending based on their income rate. The Travel Pool often needs some nudging, and it is a good idea to make a technical point during the gathering at some point in order to pass the donation tin and list around the room. Also, some brave person needs to take on dividing up the money at the end of the day.
Donations and Funds The normal donation to request is £15 per person. This works out at around £2 allocated for each meal and the rest for the venue and crash space hire, along with any other costs you may have incurred. The donation is, of course, only if people can afford it. But it needs to be made clear to people that if they can afford it they do really need to contribute or else the gatherings can’t happen (it’s not optional in other words). If you find yourself running short of cash half way through the gathering, then make a technical point saying you need people to give more (people always do at this point!) Try and keep control over finances. Use the above donations combined with how many people are expected as your guide for the costs you can incur on venue, crash space, food etc, and try to work within these limits. However, speak to the Process Group if you feel you really can’t work within these limits in your local area. Also, you are likely to find that you need to incur some costs before the gathering itself, and thus before all the donations have come in. If paying the money up front beforehand is likely to be a problem, you can get a loan from the national finance group (email finance@climatecamp.org.uk). Make sure you ask for this well in advance though, as it will come in cheque form and therefore take a few days to clear.
Accommodation People only require floor space, so nothing fancy. Ideally try to ensure it is as near to the venue as possible. However, people are all aware finding cheap crash space is difficult (as many places have all kinds of rules against this sort of thing), so campers are always happy to be flexible and grateful for what you can provide. It doesn’t matter if the crash space is split into different locations either. You can probably expect just over half the gathering to require crash space for the Saturday night. The key concerns are to make sure the accommodation is clean, and not freezing if the gathering is being held in the Winter months. You might like to try and find a quiet/early space for those who want to retire before the early hours. This has proved popular in the past, but it never needs to be too big. People requiring beds and other special requirements should email the gathering collective in advance, and this information is always put on the gathering website. Try your best to accommodate these needs in the interest of inclusivity, but it is always individuals responsibility to get in touch with you! The main crash space is for the gathering that people take as given is the Saturday Night. However, a few people will come up on the Friday (such as facilitators and those travelling far), so try and ensure there is a smaller space available for then. Again, if people are coming on the Friday then they should let you know in advance. You may also find that a couple of people need to stay on the Sunday. Finally, as a word of warning, people are not always great at letting the gathering collective know in advance about any particular needs they have or that they are coming up on the Friday Night. Be prepared for this.
Creche Again, if people require this facility they should get in touch with the collective before the gathering to let you know. If this happens, try and reserve a suitable space, with volunteers and equipment (it’s never normally that many children). If no one has let you know in advance it might still be an idea to have someone on standby just in case, if you have the capacity to do so.
Social Climate Camp gatherings have had some ace socials, and people are often up for something that involves dancing and drinking after a hard days’ meeting. However, also bear in mind inclusivity and the diversity of the movement when planning the social. If there is to be a room with very loud music, try to ensure there is a quieter place where people can relax/catch up with friends can be. Also, if possible, try to ensure there are places people can continue to hold smaller meetings for the workaholic folk amongst us. Finally, try to not make any social too much of a late one –people need to be up early, and hung over sleepy activists make bad decisions! It is also worth saying on the social front, don’t worry too much! No one expects anything spectacular, and people will be happy just with the opportunity to catch up with friends and meet new people. If pulling off a massive social on top of everything else will stretch you to breaking point, don’t do it! For information on running bars, email process[at]climatecamp.org.uk
Agenda and Facilitation With this, the Process Group is on hand to offer lots of support, and will work closely with you on this. But the following should give you some idea of how the process usually works. Liaise with Process about setting a timeline for an agenda items deadline, an agenda setting meeting, and a date to put the agenda out on the national email list and website. The agenda setting meeting is attended by those members of your local collective that to participate (ideally those who want to facilitate), as well as a couple of members of Process to take care of the admin side of things and have the overview of where we are with the climate camp process. The decision making itself is devolved to the entire group. There are guidelines to which proposals should be seen as more urgent, and which ones not so. Process will offer support in terms of collating and distributing the finalised agenda, finding facilitators from a national pool if needed, and contacting those individuals who submitted agenda items. It helps if facilitators know their sessions in advance, in order to prepare for them more fully. A Facilitation Meeting should be set for the Friday night for facilitators, both local and those travelling from around the country, to give a chance for everyone to run through the agenda in full and ensure everyone knows what they are doing. Also, set aside a space on the Saturday Evening of the gathering for a further facilitators meeting. This always proves nessecary in order to reassess the agenda in light of the day’s discussions. Process will take care of co-ordinating minutes. Finally, ensure someone has taken on securing a LOT of flipchart paper and a LOT of flipchart pens (think of all that small group brainstorming). Blu-Tack is also extremely useful, as are a decent sized handful of biros.
Communications As soon as you have got the basic gathering information (place, time, etc) please let Process know so we can get it stuck up on the website and national list, and people can make their travel plans in advance. Later on, but also in good time, please try to get us a fuller text containing all the gathering details and practicalities (covering must of the points mentioned in this document). Also, while you are the gathering working group you will take on answering gathering[at]climatecamp.org.uk –It is this email address that proposals come into, as well as questions relating to practicalities and crash space. It’s best if someone takes this on as a task and ensures emails are dealt with helpfully and promptly (it’s never a hugely time consuming job).
Feedback Every gathering Process Group will give out feedback forms towards to the end of the gathering. They will take on collating the responses, and will get these back to you. In light of these responses, and your own experiences, try to hold a debrief meeting. If, out of this meeting, you feel there’s something missing from this document that might prove useful to future gathering hosts please let Process Group know. Good luck, Process Group