Nest 2019 Code of Conduct

I am really glad that your experience has been of one of peaceful harmony for the most part. For some that is not the case.

How do you suggest we are responsible for the welfare of all Nest participants? In alignment with Civic Responsibility:

"Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. "

Do you believe there should be no rules or guidelines beyond the principles? Which is indeed one valid approach.

Taking that one stage further, do you believe that there should be any action taken by burners for other burners at an event - eg eviction? Or should all people be allowed to stay at the event, unless arrested by police? Even if they are causing others harm.

Genuine questions, I am very interested to hear of alternative models of looking after our community, especially with the size it is so these types of issues has very direct impact on whole community.

We had some of these discussions among different regional leads recently, and there are different approaches among different burns in European community. I don't think any approach is right or wrong, just different. And as you said burns are to an extent an experiment. And different people will approach things in different ways.

Hi Lexy. Imagine all agree the sentiments are valid. The question is about delivery. For example, restating UK laws as part of a forbidden behaviour script is odd, officious, confusing, and potentially against the grain of what the burn is about. We go to the burn to escape centralised government/authority. But raise the standard of community spirit.

Leads should be responsible for welfare, balanced by trust in the community to manage itself. Other than restating UK laws, and prescribing behaviour, what does lead responsibility for welfare mean? I don’t think it means creating a safe space. But I do think it means supporting harm prevention and ensuring formal response mechanisms in the event. Essentially reactive with structure. As how harm prevention is managed in other civil society.

Part re-posted from another thread about the 10 principles:

So for me - these principles have always been an attempt to codify / guide awareness of attitudes and ways of thinking and co-existing - a bit like Tantric Sutras are awareness exercises / meditations on nuances on human experience - that allow people to become a bit wiser.

When a critical mass of people embody a majority of these principles, interpreted through the lenses of their own characters and lives, the context created somehow affects everyone in wonderful ways. To me, this seems like a brilliant way of shifting awareness to a different way of thinking and being. IMO, some of the recent attempts to define rules / conduct, jarrs with the expansive, trusting, loving mindset that naturally emerges and is safe to express as a side effect of the Burn.

So these principles can't be intellectualised, only really embodied. If you do that, you can often recognise when someone isn't doing that as much. Keep in mind, this is listed within the philosophical center on the Burning Man website.

Zoomed out though, IMO, its not that all the principles always have to be in balance, so much as, if you can think about them lucidly, a group of people can recognise when someone is diverging from them in a disruptive way.

E.g. The freedom created by Radical Inclusion, Radical Self-Reliance and Radical Self Expression, IMO, stands as an opposite to the prescriptive standards of conduct in the Code of Conduct. I'm not against people behaving with mindful decency - just find it jarring the way this is imposed.

Thanks for sharing your concerns Thomas. My first impressions when glancing over the COC were different, but perhaps I have a different perspective as someone who is a bit more familiar with how things are dealt with at Nest.
First you have a section that is about 'encouraged' behaviour, so that's NOT prescriptive. People can choose to go against what is encouraged, but IMO the COC is letting them know that there are people in this community who will potentially be upset if treated disrespectfully, and lets people know some of the things that could be considered disrespectful by members of the community, in case they didn't know. Since you've never been asked your pronouns before, it's probably not occured to you as an area that could make someone feel bad, but now you do know. What you do with that info is up to you. It's true that it hasn't caught on to a large extent in the greater British culture to ask for pronouns, and if you stick to way you grew up speaking most people will be used to that, but others will be very appreciative of the effort if you do ask. It's up to the individual whether they feel they need to change anything to be more respectful or not. But it's not enforced by Burning Nest. Could it be better written next year? Sure.

The next section IS more prescriptive. It lists some things that are illegal and therefore are, by necessity, things that could have serious consequences. It also lists things that could cause the event to lose its ability to exist or to use this particular location again in the future. So those are a necessity in order for the event to continue - Nest exists within the default world and has to consider its relation to it.

I'm guessing any issues people have are with more 'grey' areas. Those are areas where consequences will depend on the context. Every case will be taken on its own. It's not "If you do A, then we will immediately do B to you". Any decisions to take action will consider what's best for the community and people affected. There could be situations that might fall under those areas that are never reported by anyone involved, or that are reported but are resolved through discussion and mutually agreed upon consequences, if any.

In another thread you mentioned trusting the community, it’s not Lord of the Flies, etc. Well personally I trust that people will not be ejected for frivolous reasons. You won’t be kicked out because you didn’t ask someone their pronouns, or because someone felt you came on a bit strong. Most situations where someone ends up feeling discomfort get dealt with on the spot - they either confront it or leave the situation. In cases where someone feels what has happened is serious enough to need mediation from others, then all factors available will be taken into account. Most of the time nothing more than a warning is needed. But people should know that if they are seriously or repeatedly harming others it won’t be tolerated. Unfortunately people have been drugged, assaulted, or had their safety threatened by others at Burn events. Most people look out for others but it doesn’t take many bad apples to ruin someone’s Burn or even their life. Most events will have a COC they can point to when someone is refusing to accept that their behaviour is a problem but it rarely needs to escalate to that level.

"The freedom created by Radical Inclusion, Radical Self-Reliance and Radical Self Expression, IMO, stands as an opposite to the prescriptive standards of conduct in the Code of Conduct."

Civic Responsibility is also one of the principles:

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

https://burningman.org/culture/philosophical-center/10-principles/

As a final thought, at the time of writing there are 103 active members of this community. Probably, a much smaller number of people will read this thread. There are some 1922 members of the Facebook Group. It is illogical to push discussions here, IMO, unless they are intended to be out of sight, because of a policy to use Loomio. You have to recognise that as is, Loomio is a MINORITY SOCIAL NETWORK in the Burning Nest community, and the reach/visibility of all threads is very limited.

The Loomio page was only set up and promoted recently. It is a drastically better platform for community discussion and decision-making than Facebook. (And apart from anything else, lots of people no longer use Facebook or rarely check it because it is, frankly, shit, in myriad ways. Young people in particular are barely using Facebook any more, so it's not a sustainable platform, either). It will take time for people to migrate to Loomio from Facebook for these kinds of discussions and more promotion and persuasion will be needed. But if people care about contributing to the development of the community and the event, then this is where it is happening.

It's not difficult to sign up for Loomio and participate, at all. It doesn't cost anything and you can use Google or FB to sign in. Frankly, if people can't be bothered putting in that minimal effort to use a better designed platform for community discussion and decision-making, then I would personally question their commitment to the community.

I agree with Graeme. We’ve also expanded our Loomio membership to 500, so let’s get promoting discussion here rather than Facebook for all the reasons that have already been stated

As more people start to use Loomio for proper discussions and actions towards change, that frees up spaces like FB for announcements, fun silly posts, promoting camps, fundraisers, get togethers, etc. There will always be some Nestlings who don't care about governance and may never join, and that's their choice. But it's easy to join and get involved, there is no barrier to entry, in fact less than on FB as you aren't obligated to give so much info about yourself or see irrelevant content. As already mentioned it is very new so still growing in numbers.
Check out the Borderland's version of Loomio called Talk to see just how much stuff can get done on it.

Re Loomio vs Facebook - as discussed already in PM and in the FB thread - ANYONE can read Loomio. The group is open to the public to view. So there are zero limitations or barrier to entry for anyone to read this.

I have also said both on here and on Facebook threads on this topic, that anyone is welcome to provide me feedback via email also, and have provided email address.

We are ramping up using Loomio, there will always be a growth period for a new platform. But we have had high engagement and good feedback so far on it as a platform. And others are welcome to join. So we are not excluding anyone from access to the information or providing feedback.