Below are descriptions submitted by the candidates for the 2010 Alchemy Board of Directors. Please review them before you vote!
Nominee's Name: Dawn Flury / Sahara / Red /Hey you.... Hookah Girl
Burner Cred/Relevant Experience: I've
attended Alchemy since its first year, originally with a friends theme
camp and later creating my own camp, Scheherazade: Hookahs,
Bellydancers & Turkish Delight. I've also attended the last four
years of Transformus both with a friends camp and with my own theme
camp. I have served as a theme camp liaison and greeter/gate person at
both events. In the real world I'm a molecular biologist working in a
privately owned laboratory in Duluth, GA and live in Atlanta, GA
What should Joe Burner know about why you want to be a board member? I
firmly believe that the burns need to follow the ten fundamental
principles set down by Burning Man, the Big Daddy of them all. It's up
to the local communities to come to amicable decisions on all other
major decisions that are not covered by these principles. Given the
diverse natural of the burn community this will never be an easy task
and 100% of the people will never be completely happy. It's the
purpose of the board to make the best decisions they can based on the
will of the people.
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Nominee's Name: Kitty
Burner Cred/Relevant Experience: I was Center Camp lead at
Alchemy in 2007 and 2008, and I have been active with the Atlanta
burner community for several years. I am very interested in the
direction Alchemy is going in, and I would like to have a larger part
in making it happen. Other than Burns, my interests are knitting,
sewing, cooking, homemaking, writing and music.
What should Joe Burner know about why you want to be a board member?
I think the main focus of burns should be the community. Not just at
the Burn but all year long. I love the Alchemy Art fund raiser for
this reason, and I feel we could do even more throughout the year, to
keep people involved in Alchemy. I am in support of having a greener
burn. I have never been to Burning Man, and I think this gives me a
unique perspective. I am not looking to make Alchemy, a little GA
Burning Man. I want it to be the best it can be, in this place, and
this time with out preconceived notions. Also, I am mostly not an
asshole, and that would be a nice change for the board. :-)
*************
Nominee's Name: Lovelace Linares / GBear
Burner Cred/Relevant Experience:
I learned about burns and Burning Man through some friends who were
starting a burn in Georgia called Alchemy. I was intrigued by the 10
Principles and by a couple of Burning Man videos they showed me, and
was particularly interested in seeing the gifting culture in action.
A month or two after that first Alchemy, I was on
the board helping create the structure for the next one. The burn
community in the area was in the early stages, and I felt that my
previous experience in a more mature organization (the SCA) and as
someone new to burns would bring a unique perspective and voice to the
Alchemy organization. In addition to being on the board that second
year, I served as First Aid co-lead for Alchemy ’08 and ’09.
What should Joe Burner know about why you want to be a board member? Why
am I running for the board now, after a year off? I love the work of
the board. I love how six people can have six distinct opinions on
every issue, yet can come together and work those differences out in a
respectful way to create the framework upon which Alchemy is built. I
believe that the role of the board is just that, to create a framework,
and nothing more. The board exists to make decisions that facilitate
Alchemy rather than create it. It should stand out of the way as much
as possible, create a structure upon which the festival can hang, and
allow participants to shape the city that ultimately belongs to them.
It’s all about radical participation, right?
At Burning Man ’08, the thing that struck me the
most was the difference between the environment of the Playa and that
of Cherokee Farms. Burn culture has origins in the desert, and a lot of
that doesn’t translate to the forest. For that reason, among many
others, Alchemy will only ever be Alchemy. It will have elements of
Burning Man, and many things that work in the desert work in the
forest, but one thing that I love is that my fellow organizers
constantly evaluate and re-evaluate what we’re doing and why. “Because
it’s always been done that way,” is no reason to keep doing it that
way. Why do we burn things if we’re just going to rebuild it exactly
the same way next year? This idea is at the core of my burn philosophy.
Without change comes stagnation. Without challenging our preconceptions
and expectations, how can we grow?
What should Joe Burner know about why you want to
be a board member? In the interest of full disclosure, you should also
know that I am a founding member of the Colaboratory, a
community-oriented studio/workshop and event space with burner
principles at its core. The two organizations will interact to varying
degrees over time, so it’s something you should be aware of.
As a member of the board, I will help maintain the
balance between the order necessary to run a successful burn and the
cacophony of experiences that make a burn what it is.
****************
Nominee's Name: Tunna Kerosene
Burner Cred/Relevant Experience: I
honestly dont remember how or why I went to my first burner event but
since then, almost everyone I consider a friend/family I have met
through burns - including my wife (we were married at the Temple
Alchemy '08). It has been a total of seven years, now, that I've been
involved in the burning community. In addition to four years on the
playa (at Burning Man itself) I have been a part of Alchemy since year
one. The past two years I volunteered as APW Team Lead; this last year
I was on the Alchemy Board.
What should Joe Burner know about why you want to be a board member? I
am running for re-election because with committees and organizations
comes legislation. I want to ensure that the inherent heart of a burn,
the self-expression and participation are not lost amidst the
regulating and release forms. The board needs me to be ready not just
with ideas, but with hammer and hard work.
In addition to
the actual manual labor I contribute through volunteering with APW
(building portajohn screens, putting up signs and shade structures) and
personal art projects, such as the geometric cubes from '09, my
presence on the board ensures a healthy spectrum of opinions. While
others are debating and arguing back and forth, I'm out there in
Layfayette getting shit done and that is the kind of work ethic I have
put towards being a board member. Even prior to my election to the
board in 2009, I attended many of the board meetings because the
direction Alchemy takes is important to me. Issues like not having an
attendance capping for the event, maintaining the all-ages designation
and making certain that ticket revenue is always used wisely to benefit
the whole community are central to my desire to continue on the board.
At the heart of my theory on burns, on Alchemy in particular, is the
idea that a burn should never limit the scope of what it could be. By
being a member of the board I have been allowed to help steer the
policies and contribute to decisions that assure that Alchemy next year
isn't hindered by the decisions we made this year.
