Move Burning Nest start date to the following Monday in 2025
The Nest Board
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What is the decision you need to make?
Whether to move Nest and start the event on the late May Bank Holiday Monday
Why is this important and what impact does it have?
Moving it allows families to bring their children as it aligns with the half-term holiday,
it clashes with Fire In The Mountain (FITM) which many of our community also attend,
there is a perception that moving it means less people will stay to help Strike
What information do people need for context?
There is no problem with the landowner in moving the date
When we tried this in the past it meant Flim Flam didn't bring their camp as too many of their members go to FITM
A consultation has already been launched in a newsletter (56 responses) and a majority supported moving the start date
We have held a Google Poll about moving the event to half term week. The results are as follows:
8/56 - no preference for moving
8/56 - keep dates the same
40/56 - move to the following Monday (align with Half Term)
Previous comments from a Google Poll
As Google Poll comments are private and not able to be viewed by the community, we wanted to list a few for transparency, so people see what has already been said.
Option 1: For Changing Dates to align with School Holidays:
"Kids being able to come is a big positive"
"Putting it during the school holidays is a more inclusive date"
"Option 2 is more child friendly and therefore more parent friendly.There are lots of great burner parents who I would love to see returning to Nest."
"Aligning with school holidays is key to inclusion, as it doesn't automatically exclude children, families, Just that personally as somebody in education I really appreciate being able to participate and am grateful when the dates fall during half term."
"Aligning with school holidays is key to inclusion, as it doesn't automatically exclude children, families, and everyone with teaching or education-related positions from attending"
"I know a lot of great humans who are teachers"
"School holidays make it much more accessible to me, as I have one in secondary and one in primary. I also work term times in an alternative education setting for young people, so holidays are much more accessible for my work."
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"The weather is normally warmer & drier. Slightly More daylight hours too"
Option 2: For Keeping it as it is: "Very happy to be consulted, thank you x"
"Cost of trains and coach travel increases during school holidays and the roads are busier and more congested"
"Ending on the bank holidays means only taking days off work in one week, instead of leaving before temple burn."
"Family commitments during the half term holiday would clash with Nest if it were held in that week.
"Fire in the Mountain!!!"
Who is the facilitator?
Event Link (Michael Kossew)
What conditions need to be met for a decision?
We'd like to have a discussion with the community before finally deciding to move the date, after making sure that we are more aware of the implications of moving. Following a discussion and having met all objections to moving the event, the Links will infer a decision.
The conversation continues below the poll, so please do keep reading :)
Alex Macklen Sun 29 Sep 2024 3:39PM
Having strike on a bank holiday makes the strike far easier. I think its a no on this alone.
Sadly for teachers, I'm no also because of the traffic and extra costs of things over the bank holiday. There is a line in "Withnail and I" when he was getting the empty holiday let keys, Withnail says 'Free to the people that can afford it' which refers to private schools not having 1/2 term at the same time as state schools. Try flying somewhere during 1/2 term. You''ll wait a week or two.
If private school teachers attend, they wouldn't be able to go if it was moved, so this is just for state school teachers. Nest going pure socialist?
While I understand teachers desire to attend, moving a fairly big event for a fairly small minority of attendees is taking radical inclusion to a level I don't think even Larry Harvey was thinking about when he created that line. They know when they choose that profession their holiday schedule, which prevents them attending certain events. e.g. Teachers can't do Glastonbury but can do Shambala. Having lived with a number of Teachers, they often spent those 1/2 terms working, writing reports etc. They didn't have to, but if they didn't they would have to work till 9pm for the following week or more. So the number of people we're talking about is too small for Nest to move its dates.
This will be true for other people for other reasons
I feel this is a very minor issue to hand wring to this level.
Corinne Hitching Sat 28 Sep 2024 2:08PM
For the flim flam 🫶
Adrian Godwin Thu 19 Sep 2024 10:42AM
I can't see the comment now, maybe it was deleted. But I'd like to say that despite my opinion being in line with dave wybrow's, in my limited experience I have had absolutely no problem with the children that I have encountered - and the last year I attended, my theme camp was adjacent to one specifically aimed at entertaining children.
The only negative I have was with a parent, who for some reason objected to her son seeing the buttocks of a very well liked and industrious member of the community (not me).
dave wybrow Wed 18 Sep 2024 2:12PM
I can see it would be nice to have more teachers able to attend but moving the event dates deliberately to encourage attendance by more children raises a lot of issues.
We would be irresponsible to do this on 50 odd votes out of 800 attendees or whatever.
We couldn't do it without getting serious about care/creche facilities, H&S and washing provision well beyond what it already is - plus we'll need a debate about public nudity, drugs, family camping etc etc
Care required! Especially when children cant be held accountable for the 12 precepts the way everyone else can.
If we actively encourage large numbers of children into Nest, who will we need to ask to do what in order to comply with the law and our own ethical stance about looking after them?
Kids attend Burning Man, but a whole extra level of thinking through has gone into it.....
Dan Tue 17 Sep 2024 3:18PM
My colleagues with kids always get priority off for half term so likely I wouldn't be able to come. I also agree Flim Flam is a huge part of Nest and if they weren't there it would be a massive hole in Nest. Also people might not stay for Temple if we didn't have the bank holiday the following day.
Ola Forman Tue 17 Sep 2024 9:59AM
I too would like to vote “no” to the date change as I want Flim Flam to be there!
Mark Hermida Tue 17 Sep 2024 6:36AM
I'd like to keep the date the same please. I know that Flim Flam would be unable to attend the following week and I personally think Nest would be a much diminished event without the ludicrousness we bring.
Carole Billingham Mon 16 Sep 2024 1:27PM
I would like to vote not to move the date for obvious personal reasons as I have a paid role at Fire in the Mountain and I don't want to miss Nest. I also think that Flim Flam is quite important to the whole event as no other camp brings quite the same vibe as they do and a variety of camps is always great.
It was moved to the later date in 2022 and the decision was made to move it back to the original date, presumably because some elements didn't work? Would be good to know the number of children, input of families with children with regards to strike etc. but as it was also the post pandemic hiatus, the stats wouldn't necessarily tell us much.
Inclusivity is also applicable to not moving the date for Flim Flam!!!
R. Mutt Sat 14 Sep 2024 5:37PM
The original survey has such a low number of people compared to the hundreds of Nestlings who likely have an opinion. I didn't even see there was a survey then. Does everybody know about this one?
Dee · Sun 29 Sep 2024 3:43PM
😆