TCN Newsletter Issue 16: August 2015
Councilship Guild Article:
Dance Camp Northwest Explores Collaborative Governance Models
by Taylor Proffitt
Cover Image reprinted from http://dancecampnorthwest.org
Flagler Park, WA
August 21 – 30
This is how Dance Camp Northwest portrays themselves:
“Relax, Blend, Surrender, Melt, Ignite, Emerge
Come to summer camp! We’re building and running it together, by consent, with equivalence, transparency, wildness, safety and FUN! And we invite YOU to join us!
We continue to reach out to the ecstatic, contact, electronic music, world, blues, tango, swing, and related dance communities in the Northwest, inviting dance organizers, teachers, activists, healers, artists and anyone who cares to invest in and own our camp!
There will be professional and volunteer classes all day; yummy, healthy meals; a variety of dances into the night; group gatherings; an inclusive, open, self-governance system, singing around fires, and eclectic dances on three indoor dance floors. Night dances into the wee hours will be cooperatively DJ’d – meaning a Music Committee will ensure DJ’s have creative space without playing many songs outside most camper’s range of tolerance.
Now in our third year, Dance Camp Northwest is creatively based on the hugely successful Dance New England which began 40 years ago to birth and nurture the ecstatic, free, and barefoot dances peppering the planet today. We join the movement toward creating dance camps to serve, deepen and evolve humanity by interweaving our tribal roots into one earth community.” (http://dancecampnorthwest.org)
Upon a bit further exploration, I discovered that Dance Camp is based deeply on consensus decision making that is so necessary in activist circles when strategically and successfully making change toward the world we want to see. Whether its about what’s happening next at camp or where the protest is meeting up in the city, collaborative governance models are an essential fiber that ties a movement together. At DCN decision making processes are integral to the experience of the temporary dance village. Tim Anderson, organizer of DCN, and a team of consensus proponents, are developing a consensus decision making app that may even be available by the time DCN starts. Imagine using this app to help make a decision, but instead of making it to the circle to cast your vote to the group, you’re busy setting up camp, or setting up a sound system, or in the middle of a volunteer shift. With this app you can cast your vote from across the campgrounds and your voice is still heard.
Democracy OS is a similar app that’s been used for social movements amidst elections, so the populace can come together to decide what they collectively want to see happen and cast their votes in solidarity. The importance of decision making in a community is the difference between successful action and changing the course of history. What we learn about collaborative action at events like Dance Camp can be applied to the larger social movements in which we are a part. The better we learn to work together in these scenarios, the more impact we can make in the larger world.
As DCN likes to say: “Camp is best when we are all actively participating, so please share your time, talents, and passions in as many ways as possible!”
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by Taylor Proffitt
TCN Community Member
Network Ambassador at NuMundo