A new name and some new imagery in 2020?
I've heard comments that the term "nest" makes our event feel like a group of people who know each other and travel back "home". Making it feel/appear harder to join in and penetrate into the group. We also come across as huge bunch of hippies focused on mushrooms if you look at Facebook. :-)
The other burns have more neutral names (borderland, Nowhere, Mid burn,...) In fact these sound more "start again" which I think is the point of a burn, to find the better version of yourself that remembers what it's like or finds the value in, participation and contribution to something other than self. I believe the right name helps people focus on this.
I've even heard rumour there's another set of burners who have another UK festival as ours is a bit hippy, shouldn't we be making efforts to become more inclusive and welcoming to a broader set of the burn community and beyond? Some basic changes might help here, its all about branding and positioning in the "market"
Siren Wed 1 May 2019 5:59PM
@franellis i understand what you're saying, but actually next year to make it so people can afford to purchase membership, we actually will need to direct market to new folks
Fran Ellis Wed 1 May 2019 9:59PM
For me Fred "radical inclusion" is about welcoming people to our community no matter how they got here or 'who they are' in the default world. And taking steps to ensure the burn is accessible to people from all different walks of life. Totally agree that getting our values out there is fab, but I'm of the opinion that this may not necessitate 'marketing' the event itself to a wider audience, but integrating our community principles into our daily lives and inspiring those around us to do so too.
When it comes to the financial aspects, fair one - hadn't realised that was the plan but can completely understand needing to attract more people to keep the cost low :ok_hand:
Siren Wed 8 May 2019 8:34AM
@franellis yep if we opt to go above our current license and have a larger event license to include more people that means we will need better more comprehensive insurance and that will be significantly more expensive. so to keep memberships at the same price, we need to extend by a significant number of people. That's why we will need to do more marketing next year.
Adrian Godwin Sat 27 Apr 2019 1:15PM
I'm a newbie. My first Nest was in 2016 and I joined almost by accident - I was supporting an artist. I don't have a hippy background though my age isn't too far off an original hippy. But I found Nest really welcoming and inclusive, and so came the next 2 years on my own. And now I love hippies :).
I'm strongly against rebranding and am much happier with the idea of naming that shows what you are rather than the market you want to reach. I also believe Small is Beautiful and most things get ruined by growing. So by all means grow to meet demand, but don't AIM to grow. The aim should be to preserve what you've got as far as that makes people happy. If there's room for a different sort of UK burn then that's fabulous. More power to them (and anything we can do to help them should be done). Diversity is far more important than numerical growth.
Over the last 10 years I've been involved with a different community organisation which chased growth for economy and reach - the social side quickly broke down because it was trying to be right for too diverse a group. With social community broken; trust, involvement, contribution and, perversely, growth, went too. Would have been far better to split, specialise and above all else preserve the social group rather than maintain growth. If that means the group dies for lack of the original team and another arises, so be it.It's the natural way of things. Preservation of the brand in the face of change is a mistake . A lot of what's wrong with current politics, IMHO : differentiation and branding instead of service.
Siren Wed 8 May 2019 8:37AM
@adriangodwin that's all really lovely and in a ideal world i agree with you, but as i just detailed to Fran above if we want to live by our inclusion ethos that does mean growth... there are already 70-odd people looking for memberships which aren't forthcoming this year. We have a wonderful mind blowing approx 30% newbies this year (whoop!) and your experience of becoming part of this community is exactly the reason we should be opting to grow.
However in boring practical terms, it's actually not that straightforward. If we opt to go above our current license and have a larger event license to include more people that means we will need better more comprehensive insurance and that will be significantly more expensive. so to keep memberships at the same price, we need to extend by a significant number of people to have enough revenue to pay for the extra costs of license and insurance. Because laws and shit as well as inclusion and accessibility. this is the balance we must maintain. It's not as easy as going, oh let's just have another 50 folks. It just won't work, sadly.
Paul Phare Sat 27 Apr 2019 1:50PM
This is all feeding nicely into the discussions we'll be having at the Nest community meeting on the Sunday. Please come along and contribute to it
Amandasm Sun 28 Apr 2019 8:16AM
I thought the picnic said it was just for fun, no discussions?
Mands Connolly Sun 28 Apr 2019 5:22PM
Yep, when is the community meeting bit happening? News to me too.
Paul Phare Sun 28 Apr 2019 7:58PM
I mean a community meeting at Nest
Siren · Wed 1 May 2019 3:42PM
@franellis ... I understand what you're saying, but if we decide to go above 500 next year, we will actually have to direct market to attract a good chunk of new people... this is to keep membership prices where they are.. If we decide to grow next year it has to be a significant uplift in membership purchases as insurance and license will be so much more expensive over our current 500 threshold. So we will need to engage a lot more people. Any help you want to offer with that will be very much appreciated!!