EU Summer Camp 2023
Just outside Berlin, July 18-23
Last updated
Just outside Berlin, July 18-23
Last updated
Microsolidarity is a community-building practice. We're weaving the social fabric that underpins shared infrastructure. Come practice with us!
It’s been a year since the microsolidarity network had an in-person gathering in Europe. Time to have another one! Between 18 - 23 July, we will come together for a week of community-building geekery, relaxation, peer learning, meeting old and new friends, and other kinds of meaningful fun.
In the spirit of microsolidarity, the purpose of this event is for the network to come together, cultivate relationships of trust, cross-pollinate across different communities and practice meaningful co-creation. So whether you are a seasoned microsolidaritarian or just becoming familiar with what we’re up to - we’d love to have you!
Hands-on experience of the principles, practices and vibe of microsolidarity
Lots of opportunities to learn from peers and contribute your own wisdom
An empowering environment to exercise your agency for the common good
The hosting team (Jocelyn Ames, Uta Sievers, Richard D. Bartlett, Jonas Gröner, and Dan Lewis) are taking care of logistics and will set up some minimum-viable structures, like a collective opening and closing. The rest of our time will be powered by the contributions from all of us, through the magic of a co-created open-space agenda.
To facilitate all of this juicy goodness in the most accessible way possible there will be two entry points to the gathering:\
If you want the full blast of microsolidarity vibes, you can join us for the whole week, starting on Tuesday, July 18th until Sunday. The week will be hosted open-space-style with more of a relaxed summer camp vibe. In a way, this will be a lab for what real life in a microsolidarity community can be like.
If you are short on time or are not quite sure if you want to commit to spending a whole week with a big group of people, you can join us just for the weekend, starting in the evening of Friday, July 21st.
What not to expect
This is not going to be a training, nor a curated experience. There will probably be some skill-share sessions or workshops on microsolidarity or related frameworks on the open-space agenda. This depends entirely on who shows up and what they want to offer.
If you are just getting familiar with microsolidarity, we recommend you take a look at the course materials from the Microsolidarity practice program that we ran in June. You can also find a lot of additional reading material on this website.
We will be staying at Coconat, a creative community and retreat venue just outside Berlin. True to the name of this gathering, please bring a tent or a camper van. There will be a freshly mowed paddock made ready for us to build our camp. The ticket price includes camping accommodation (i.e. in your own tent or van) and campers can book their entire stay through us.
If you want to rent camping equipment, or you want to stay in a bed, you can book that through the Coconat website, which will incur extra costs on top of your entry ticket (paid directly to Coconat: please mention Microsolidarity in the text field).
In an effort to keep costs low, we’ll be cooking for ourselves. This means we’ll need a handful of volunteers to help out for a few hours in the kitchen every day. The hosting team will take care of shopping and coming up with a menu plan. Huge thanks to Dan Lewis who has volunteered to coordinate the kitchen!
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We welcome families with kids! We haven’t yet planned out a childcare system, but we trust that together we can get creative with ways to ensure that parents can take part in sessions and their kids are happily well cared for in the meantime. Young people are welcome as full participants.
It is our goal to make this event as accessible as possible while also covering expenses for food and renting the venue. So we have made the following “small, medium and large” price tiers available: \
S: 300 € (whole week) / 150 € (weekend) - if it’s a stretch for you to be investing in this event at the moment, please choose this tier
M: 400 € / 200 € - if you are financially stable and don’t have to think too much about whether you can afford this event, please choose this tier
L: 500 € / 300 € - if you are financially flourishing, you have the opportunity to contribute to our scholarship fund and enable people with fewer resources to also attend
0-6-year-olds can attend for free, under 14 years kids are priced at 50% off the lowest tier, i.e. €150 for the week, €75 for the weekend.
Income from ticket sales will be used to cover venue rental and food. The hosting team is donating their time, so we’ll also use ticket income to cover their expenses. Any surplus that is left after the event will go towards the microsolidarity commons fund on Open Collective, building a pool of funds to develop the network and organise future events like this one.
There will be a gathering happening in the US July 15th - 21st with a similar concept. You can check out details here.
Contact utasievers@gmail.com and she'll be happy to help :)
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