TC statement - Planting a new seed

A statement in response to questions asked of the Burning Seed Town Council. Time, care and consideration went into the delivery of this statement, with the hope of clarifying how things are progressing as we rekindle Burning Seed's brighter future

Who is on the Burning Seed Town Council (BSTC)?

The Town Council is actively looking for new members. If you think this may be of interest to you, here is the Application Form

The current BSTC is Robin Macpherson, Susanne Parris, Warren Lee and Marcelo Araujo.

The members of the Town Council are listed on the Red Earth City website along with an “honour role” of former members. https://redearthcity.com/bstc-about

As the Town Council is technically a board sub-committee of Red Earth City Pty Ltd (REC, this information sits on that site. 

We’ve avoided, where possible, putting the same information in 2 places as it just duplicates the updating process.

Most members of the Town Council are new, so we do not have term limits which apply to membership.

Are we really going to pull off an event this year?

Let’s all face the fact that 2022 is not 2019.

In ordinary times, the planning cycle for next year starts as soon as the gate closes.

But there was no last year, or the year before, and it is only recently that it became clear that putting on an event was, or might be, even possible this year.

And even this, like all events in Australia, is clouded with more uncertainty than 2019.

So we ended up torn between “pulling the pin”, or making a commitment to put on the best event we realistically could given all the circumstances.

We were heartbroken when Modifyre and Blazing Swan were forced to cancel and deeply felt that, if we could do it, we really wanted to provide a home in 2022.

Damn we all need it.

So we are planning to provide a home in 2022.

Working in our favour here is a solid financial foundation.

And we are actively looking at ways we can support “refugees” whose “own” burns are not proceeding and we are open to ideas about that from the broader community.

So let’s get to it.

Burning Seed 2022 will be smaller than 2019. 

Currently we are looking at 1000 participants.

We are well aware that this may result in excess demand for tickets and if that happens we will rapidly work with theme camps to ensure they have sufficient tickets to be able to reach critical mass and stage their activities.

We are working through how to exactly do that and, again, we would welcome your input.

To some extent we are seeing this as an opportunity to get back to basics and focus on Communal Effort, Participation, Civic Responsibility and Radical Self Reliance. 

That is not to say that we would throw the “baby out with the bathwater” but we are actively considering what is necessary, what is nice-to-have and what is “noise” in the context of a much smaller event.

So if you’re looking for Daft Punk on the main stage at midday, or the Temple and Effigy being 47% larger than last year, or 1 Red Earth Ranger for every 4 people, this isn’t the year for you.

If you want to make the event and not have it provided to you, welcome home.

We are planning a process for a year that is about a sustainable reboot and, in addition to our volunteers, will engage professionals where necessary to oversee that it is done safely.

Rest assured, Burning Seed 2022 will be no less safe than it has ever been or we won’t put it on.

We do have a lot of new people and more by the day.

That is wonderful and shows the community growing.

It is also a risk and a complexity we are well aware of.

We have now established a good workflow to get volunteers on board and event-ready. And now we are beginning to plough through a backlog of interested folks to also on-board and train up.

The next step is to let the volunteer groups self select a “flag bearer” or co-ordinator/rep for the group. We are not imposing hierarchy on teams this year. If a team wants to nominate a Lead and 2ic and 3ic then that is up to them. Town Council would just like to know that there is a point of reliable contact to assist staying in touch with progress and to help identify pain points that need support or resourcing.

We are not there yet just yet but some teams, like ARTery and Comms are off and running

We can’t tell you who is “leading” Civic Services (formerly known as DPI) Red Earth Rangers or who will be the “site managers” at this time. To be honest, with a smaller event 6 months out, we are working on it but not worrying about it. Yet.

If these roles are something you would be interested in, put your hand up!

With REC support, we have the financial capacity to outsource some key functions if that is needed.

We hope outsourcing isn’t required other than in areas which have been outsourced previously or in response to lessons previously learnt.

The core of Burning Seed culture is communal effort, not outsourcing, but safety and compliance is non negotiable.

We are also looking to increase honoraria for artists and creative collectives,  including the Effigy and Temple.

We are engaged, or will engage, with all the various stakeholders without whom the event cannot go on.

We are talking to “Forestries”. Nothing is looking like a show-stopper at this stage and we will, of course, engage with the Council, Water Board and the NSW Police along with any other external authorities or stakeholder parties who are critical to the event proceeding. 

We may change insurance providers based on cost and coverage and that is in progress.

Perhaps most importantly, while we have put out a “save the date” (twice :):):) and it may not be the last), the actual ticketing process will not commence until we have complete confidence we can put it on.

That’s going to mean it is later than usual, but it is what it is.

Again, we are not trying to do 2019.

We hope to be in a position to put out a timeline shortly.

This timeline will aim to address the key issues camps and individuals need to know for their essential planning. To submit feedback about these concerns a theme camp temperature check can be lodged here.

Where is the organisation headed?

Burning Seed has been “produced” by Red Earth City Pty Ltd (REC) since it started.

This was done so that people didn’t incur personal financial liability in relation to the event. 

The constitution of REC, from the beginning, prohibited the payment of distributions/dividends to shareholders and no such distributions have ever been made.

Accordingly, REC/Seed has a stable financial foundation to not only put on the event but ideally support the broader community, without an event to go to, in getting there.

Despite the fact that REC has operated as a not for profit from the beginning, there is often social media that feels a little like “stop the steal”.

There hasn’t been one.

As bank robberies go, this is the least successful in history as the money is still in the bank.

REC is, and has always been, a not for profit.

A restructure of the legal and management structures for Burning Seed is proceeding.

It’s slow and it is painful.

It took 3 years for the Burning Man Project (BMP) to transition to a charitable not for profit.

It was complex enough that there is a Harvard Business Review case study on it. https://store.hbr.org/product/burning-man-moving-from-a-for-profit-to-a-nonprofit-the-ultimate-act-of-gifting/B5906

This restructure, like the BMP one, is complex.

In many ways it is more complex as it also involves a transition to a structure that is formally a community based organisation.

But a process is in place and it will get done, realistically probably not before Burning Seed 2022.

Again, there is social media that is critical about how long this has taken.

And whatever structure is settled upon, some people won’t like it.

But it is proceeding and it will get done…

The history is set out here. https://redearthcity.com/about-the-org/about-the-org For direct news and updates you can join the Prospective Member list here.

Given the current structure, Burning Seed tickets are issued by REC and the Terms and Conditions are, in effect, a contract between REC and the ticket holder.

An outline of the structure is a key part of our bi-weekly volunteer Meet, Greet n Deets meetings and we hope to see you at one soon, if we haven't already.

Conclusion

We are killing ourselves to put on an event because we feel, deeply, that the Community needs and deserves an event after literal years in a different desert.

We welcome help, we welcome transparency and we welcome well meaning criticism.