From BurningMan.com - Creating A Village

The text below is information about what Burning Man requires to allocate space for a Village. The original text is here: http://www.burningman.com/themecamps/create_village.html

CREATING A VILLAGE

Are You a Village?
If you are more than 150 people you may be considered a Village. Please read the following information if it applies to you.

The Mission of a Village
It is the mission of a village to provide a public home for other citizens of Black Rock City. The purpose of a village is not simply to be with friends or share domestic arrangements. It is to work with your fellow villagers on a project that will connect you with hundreds of other participants. Like a theme camp or an artwork, a village is a gift that you contribute to our city. A village is self-expressive, a village helps others, and a village should be fun. In taking responsibility for a village you enter the ranks of the founders and organizers of Burning Man and Black Rock City. You should expect to work very hard, play very hard and experience an immense satisfaction. Please read the following description of what a village is, and if you are interested follow the link to the theme camp/village questionnaire.

What is a Village?
The concept of a village spontaneously emerged from the experiences of participants that have come to the event in the past. Friends camped together, perhaps working on a theme camp, and in the process they met other camps and decided to form a group the following year. They embraced each other's ideas and, as other participants passed through, they too were brought into the fold. Strong friendships were formed, future plans and commitments were made, and as a result, these communal groupings over the years have prospered. We can now expect each village to contain a great number of theme camps, venues for entertainment, individual living quarters, a central meeting area, public art, communal eating arrangements, and above all, a willingness to welcome and embrace everyone that ventures into their domain. A village is, in fact, a micro-model of "community" within the larger macrocosm of Burning Man. A village citizen's duty has grown from a communal commitment to a civic commitment: Offering gathering areas, help, entertainment and information to those who enter the space.

How do you build a village?
By forming a village, you develop a close-knit relationship with the Burning Man community at large. And don't be fooled by the name "village." A village is not a remote suburb. A village has its own identity but also incorporates the identity of the city. For those groups that are looking to create a village for the first time, or those that would like to improve upon past efforts a "How to Do a Village" pamphlet has been compiled by seasoned veterans as a guide and resource. You will find help in defining the basic necessities that you will need to make your village work, suggestions on how best to make it happen, and information about facilities that you will need to provide in order to create a safe and prosperous area.

Remember, we are all actively creating our Burning Man experience with our pre-event efforts. By building a village, you are setting the tone of our city. What we create this year will be something everyone will remember. Shared ideas, resources and an ever-present concern for every individual make community. To create a village is to take on the responsibility for creating an environment in which people live together with the intention of creating something to give back to the community. To these ends, it is a place to maximize the potential that everyone brings to Burning Man.

The following information is how to plan the Village. Registration begins in March so we should have all our cats herded by then. The original text is here: http://www.burningman.com/themecamps/plan_village.html

PLANNING A VILLAGE

Organization
The village starts in the minds of those involved, grows in the group effort of making it happen, lives in the glorious unpredictable chaos of life on the playa, and ends with the aftermath of cleaning up and packing away everything you have brought with you. But bringing together all of the personalities, ideas and needs of a village is no easy task.

What will it take to make it happen?

Here are some suggestions:

1. What do you want to do?
   First of all, you will need a clear idea. Call it a "Mission Statement", "Master Plan," or whatever you want. What is crucially important is that you have a distinct plan of what you intend to do and that everyone else in your group understands it and agrees to implement it. The "Mission Statement" is helpful in defining the identity of the village so that potential residents can find out where they fit in. Embracing those involved with "social planning events" is your foundation. These strategy meetings will help to relieve the stress in organizing your community. Strive to have as much fun planning your village as you will have living in it! Everyone should help in the creation from the start. Here you will find the personalities you can count on "out there." You will need far more than a handful of "doers" to pull this off. An organizer/organizers must acknowledge the true potential of those around him/her and weigh them against their ability to follow through.
   
   Building a village differs from building a theme camp because you will have to build and run the village infrastructure as well as build and run your own camp. Village residents must be willing to not only create their own dream but contribute to the community as well.
   
   
2. Get in touch with the Burning Man Project and stay in touch!
   The organizers of Burning Man are here to help you make it the village of your dreams. The more you stay in touch with them, the better job they can do of finding you a place and the support you need. On the flip side, a blow-by-blow of your development will tie up organizers time. After initial contact, alert them when important changes in dimension, structural, or critical needs arise.
   
   
3. Identify your core members.
   You may have several hundred people as part of your village, but you must have a core group of village organizers you can depend upon, come hell or high water. These are the persons who will be responsible 24 hours a day to deal with problems as they happen. These organizers should know each other well and should know how to work together. A general rule of thumb is: 1 organizer for every 20 people who are part of your group. If you have 100 people, then you should have at least 5 people who are alert and ready to deal with the inevitable challenges that occur. Likewise, if you have 300, you should have 15.
   
   
4. Appoint a person to be your contact with the Burning Man Project.
   Your contact person should be the person who completes the questionnaire. They should be vested with the authority to represent your group to the Burning Man organization both pre-playa and on the playa. This person should be available for conversations about placement of your camp throughout the summer starting July 1st.
   
   
5. Plan your space to embrace the Burning Man Community at-large.
   Here are things that have proven to be crucial in the previous years. Note that this is just a list of hints, not a list of requirements.
   
   Plan to have entrance portals to your community. People will need to know that they are leaving "there" and entering your "here." Artists in your group should be put to work. You will also need a public gathering area: a civic center where the village community meets and interacts with the outer community. Create a central artistic structure that will encourage people to gravitate to that communal ground. Civic structures in the form of public art and stages are a natural outgrowth of people gathering together and are a true necessity to social cohesion and communal identity. They are something that will be shared with everyone.
   
   Every community needs a voice. It is yours to schedule and your responsibility to facilitate the creativity of your village. Some questions to keep in mind are,"When are things going to happen? How long and how loud? " Planning events ahead of time will promote a high level of visibility to non-residents.
   
   Every village must have a location for people to have their private campsites. Take into account how many people you may have in your villages and be aware of their size requirements. It is wise to give yourself a degree of separation between civic, communal and private space.
   
   Villages benefit greatly by having a bulletin board. They are helpful for information dissemination within your community and the community at-large. We encourage out-reach efforts aimed at directly communicating with the districts that border your village. The written and spoken word at Burning Man is our friend.
   
   A Major Safety Point
   All structures should be properly secured to prevent injuries during and after construction due to the possibility of extreme weather. Villages are not required to have resident rangers, but since villages are bigger, they are more likely to attract people in need of assistance. Therefore, villages are encouraged to have resident rangers. Please contact our Placement team ( placement (at) burningman (dot) com) for more information on that topic.
   
   An experienced first aid provider and a fully equipped aid kit are strongly recommended. Center Camp or a Plaza may be a long walk away. Every part of your real estate should be examined in regard to the personal safety of others. If you create a central meeting place it is also essential that a clear space of at least 30 feet with an entrance and an exit be maintained as a fire lane for emergency vehicles. Fire extinguishers are also a very good safety item to have on hand and available to all villagers.
   
   
6. Visualize everything that can possibly go wrong and plan for it.
   Everyone has been up for 48 hours with no food and your supply truck is stuck in the mud 50 miles west of camp. You have a show planned for your main stage, which hasn't been built yet since your main carpenter has disappeared onto the playa. The sound man had an allergic reaction to buffet food from Reno and his girlfriend is driving him back to Fresno. What are you going to do? Again, anticipate worst case scenarios. Remind yourself that it is Burning Man and things never happen the way you expect anyway. Villlages must be flexible enough to allow for these changes.
   
   
7. Bring what you need.
   This is obvious, but also anticipate that others may have forgotten or may have run into unavoidable snags which leave you without important provisions. Anticipate having to pick up the slack.
   
   
8. Pack your shit out.
   Again obvious, but ignored by many and very frustrating. Plan ahead of time for at least a quarter of your people to stick around after the Burn to help with clean up. Know that half of those expected to help may bail. Keep the other quarter in the back of your mind as "undecided." Plan again for a core group of people to stay several days afterwards to make sure that your village is as clean and blank as when you came. These people are the real gems of our community at-large. Appoint a person or group of persons who will be responsible for this.
   
   Please read the Protecting the Environment and the Earth Guardians' sections of this website and your Survival Guide very carefully. We have found that the amount of debris deposited on the playa is directly proportional to length of stay. Densely settled areas such a villages can leave a greater trace. Such debris includes many smaller items, such as nut shells, bottle caps, cigarette butts, plastic ties -- the list goes on and on. It is easy to ignore such items on so small a scale, but ALL of these things must be cleaned up. We recommend that all campers, and especially villages, imitate our large-scale clean up effort and employ a systematic grid to police their area for trash. Walk this grid before departing with your fellow villagers and pick up EVERYTHING in your path. A second and more basic rule to follow is don't let things hit the ground in the first place! This will save you time and effort at the end of the event.
   
   
9. Recycle
   There is recycling for Aluminum cans and villages are expected to be role models in this endeavor. We encourage everyone to check out Recycle Camp so that you can be "waste savvy." This will ultimately make your job easier, as you will have less to pack out. Nonetheless, it is your responsibility to make sure that whatever you bring out to the playa will also leave. The recycling program is a wonderful program and idea. IT IS NOT A GARBAGE COLLECTION SERVICE.
   
   
10. Be responsible for your crew.
    Some members of your village are more than likely camping in the desert for the first time. It is your responsibility to ensure that they understand what that actually means. Make sure that everyone, at the very least, eads and follows the survival guide, and pass down any wisdom you have picked up along the way. The more you can do to prepare people ahead of time the less hassles you will have once isolated in the desert.
    
    
11. Embrace those around you.
    The reason you are planning a village is to bring others into your circle. Obviously, certain barriers for privacy are needed, but fortressing is not only unnecessary but counterproductive to the event. Burning Man is by nature radically inclusive and, although certain personal boundaries are necessary, fortifying your the public portion of your camp is debilitating to the overall concept. Being a village means welcoming outsiders; that's what villages do. For old timers, the years of renegade driving are over and the need for compounds is gone.