Community Meeting Transcript

Daniel: ... that. Everybody can see that as well. Um, just for those who didn't make it.

Joao: Hello, everyone. Hello.

Daniel: Hi, Lynn. Great. A little bit more. So, today is the first time we're meeting for the association. We're going to be sharing as much as we can. There's no decisions to make today. It's kind of like a welcome, welcome meeting.

Joao: We'll be ... Oh, okay. Okay. Good. They found them. We'll do this, start in a couple of minutes And hit the mute button

Chris: Okay. It seems like we're, um, having a slower trickle of people. The popcorn is starting to, uh, to slow down. So, maybe we can, uh, maybe we can get slightly started. Uh, so hi, everyone. Welcome. Uh, this is very exciting. Uh, welcome to the first, um, meeting of the, um, community meeting of the Nobodies Association. Uh, I'm Chris. Uh, some of you in this room, uh, elected me to be on the board of trustees, uh, together with, uh, other people that you will hear from throughout the meeting. I'm just gonna give you this quick welcome. Uh, say thank you so much for joining, and, uh, give you a little run through of what we're gonna go through today. Uh, so, uh, Daniel, uh, the president of the association is gonna, uh, talk a little bit about th- the story of why we're here. Uh, Pablo is going to talk about the structure of the association. Uh, Ben is going to talk to us about, uh, how you can participate. Uh, we're going to talk a bit about some updates on the new, uh, LAN project. And, uh, at the end, we'll do a little Q&A. Uh, if you have any questions, feel free to post them in the chat. We might not get to your questions before, uh, before we get to the Q&A, but please do it there. And if you wanna hold your question until you can, uh, show your, uh, show your face and, and your voice, uh, then you are more than welcome to do that. But, uh, that is entirely up to you. Uh, and with that, again, welcome so much to all of you. And I'm going to give the word to Daniel.

Daniel: Thanks, Chris. Uh, hi, I'm Daniel, obviously. Uh, hi, everyone. So, here's where we're at. Uh, for over 20 years, there's been this wonderful event happening every year in the desert in the north of Spain. And, um, Chris or Ben, if you can move the slides forward gently. Um, this event, following the 10 Burning Man principles, has been just so many things to so many people. It's been a source of joy, of self-discovery, of connection, of beauty, of experimentation, of clever pranking, uh, looking at that Ubertown slide, um, of imagination and creativity, and also of sweat, quite a lot of sweat, um, of complex problem-solving, of ingenuity in the face of chaos, of intense collaboration across large networks of people who mostly didn't know each other, and so much more. And it's had a huge impact on so many people's lives. And almost every year, this miracle has happened through the incredible hard work of hundreds of people getting together to will it into existence. Until a month ago, the event was organized under a regular company structure. This made sense for some historical and practical reasons, but it did mean that legally our event was owned and managed by a few dedicated members of the community rather than by the community itself. Starting in December last year, something new happened. We had an election. 72 of the most involved community members got together and elected an eight-member board to oversee the creation of a new democratic nonprofit association, or asociación in Spanish. Already we have incorporated the asociación. We filed for a tax ID. We created a new website. We're opening a new bank account, carrying out a transition process with the old company to ensure the assets that the event needs are made available. We are super ready and motivated to make the event happen. Now, this board isn't perfect. For a start, it doesn't properly represent the diversity of the community, and that's something we will be addressing as soon as possible. But, you know, it's the board that applied. It's the first step to make sure that the event happens this year, and the next year, and the year after that, and every year after that under community ownership. But the reality is there's absolutely no way that this event happens with just eight of us trying to make it so. Many of you have gotten in touch with us to hear what's happening. We know you're full of energy and itching to get to work. Today, after a lot of intense preparation steps to get the ball rolling, we're ready to start unleashing that energy. Now we can go from 8 to 80, and over the next couple of weeks we need to go from 80 to 800 or more. Everyone on this call loves this event that we've been having every year, and now it's time, time to start building the 2026 event. So let's make this happen. We can take care of the legal aspects. We can get the permits, the finance, and all that stuff in place, and in a transparent way that everyone can see. We are doing it. That's the job that the board signed up for, but it's up to everyone here to make this event happen. Please tell everyone who you think might be interested about this new association so they can join the fun and turn this snowball into an avalanche. And with this, we may be waiting a little bit to go through a few more pictures. Maybe I put a bit too many in there, but they are so pretty. Um, I'll hand over to Pablo to talk about the details of this new association. Look at that, perfect timing on the last picture.

Pablo: Thank you, thank you (laughs).

Daniel: Over to you, Pablo.

Pablo: (laughs) So, uh, thanks, thanks for the context. Uh, I'm here just to say what, uh, we've done and what are next steps a little bit since, uh, yeah, it's the first time that we're communicating this. So basically, um, what we've done so far is we created a Spanish nonprofit. Um, nonprofit has the peculiarity that there's no shareholders, so nobody technically owns everything that we create. Um, it is an independent legal entity in Spain, which means that it can act a lot like a company would, um, by kind of taking responsibility for things, signing contracts, you know, making payments. It does have some tax benefits versus companies. For example, it can accept donations, which is not something that, um, that a company can do. Um, a company can more sell things. And most importantly, it's new- newly founded, so everything's new in a way, um, is, is, uh, something that we're starting to share. The members, so memberships for the association, um, are the people who kind of own that event organization, and they own it through two or three mechanisms. One is that every two years, we're going to hold board elections, and that means that you get to elect these representatives that are going to make the board and kind of put all the strategy and financing and whatever it is in place, and that, those people are going to serve for two-year terms. They can rerun, but we want to have like a quick cut in, um, so new people can join, we can kind of include all the points of view, diversity that we want. Uh, but more importantly, we, we're also able now to start having, uh, general member voting on major decisions. For example, when the time comes to do something like purchase land or change some of the statutes of how we run, that's something that we can put for voting for all members, and that can have major impact on how we, how we navigate the, the next decisions. Um, so basically members is people who are ideally highly involved, and then, uh, you can elect this board of trustees. Currently we're eight people. Um, I think almost all of us are in the call. Um, and how this was selected is there was a first election in December. Um, we're currently eight people, and, uh, just as a limitation, we thought it would be a good idea that we, we have a limit of, um, how many consecutive years we can have to kind of keep the, um, keep the roles, uh, flowing. Um, so that's in terms of the association. We can take questions after as I'm sure we have some, but one of the first things that we want to do is a lot of us are available for this year from July 7 to 12th, and we would love to run an event. So this is something that will not happen just because a few of us want it. It will mean, it will need to be that we get significant support from the community 'cause we're going to need a lot of energy, we're going to need a lot of support, um, and we want to start talking today about what that could look like. Um, separately, we are in discussions with Going Nowhere, um, who has been running the event, uh, Nowhere Festival, Nowhere Event, uh, to explore an acquisition of assets like the trademark and different resources, because we think that it would make a lot of sense to kind of, um... tap into everything that we learned over the years and kind of, kind of, uh, pick it up from there. So, this is something we're still in discussions, and hopefully we can share more in the next weeks. But, um, that's a little bit where we are. And then with this, having said this, I would like to hand it over to Ben.

Ben: Okay. Um, so... Hi, everybody. I'm Ben. I'm the, uh, secretary for the board for the Nobody's Collective Association. And... You can't hear me? You can hear me.

Speaker F: I can hear you.

Pablo: You were a bit quiet at the beginning, but speak clearly.

Ben: Okay. I will speak clearly and loudly and we'll see how we go. Uh, I'm going to talk to you for a few minutes just about where we are at this point, and where we're hoping to get to, uh, in terms of having an event, uh, presumably in July. Uh, so Pablo, you can go to the next slide. So, uh, there's five months, approximately, from today until the start of July, which is when we'd ideally be hoping to, uh, have the event. That's a pretty tight timeline. Uh, it's true that there have been some years where, uh, the event has been launched w- with less time to go, sometime in March. Uh, but those are definitely the exception to the normal, uh, operating timeline, and that has been done always with the organizational infrastructure already in place. So, the departments are already there, people already know what they're supposed to be doing. Uh, so for us, it's going to be, uh, really quite a lot of work to do in quite a short period of time just to get the organization going, and then everybody who wants to be involved, uh, to help make the event come alive is, is really going to, uh, need to be getting involved as quickly as possible, and we're really looking to, uh, bring a lot of energy to making this happen. But, uh, if we all do that, then, uh, w- we're currently of, of the belief that it's, uh, certainly feasible to do it. So, we're progressing in that direction. Next slide, Pablo. So, um, how can you get involved with the association? How can you get involved in the event? Um, the first thing to say is that anybody who voted already in the election for the board, uh, they will be getting contacted very soon. Um, we're, we're currently just, uh, fine-tuning the process of how we're going to bring those, uh, initial 67 or so, uh, individuals who voted and expressed interest, uh, on board as, um, a- association members. And so, y- if you're one of those people who voted, who filled out that, that Google Form and everything, you can expect to be contacted, uh, let's say next week sometime. Um, for everybody else, there's, uh, basically two different, uh, ways of being involved, uh, from this point on. Uh, we have the association. Uh, it will be possible to join the association and become a member of the association, and, and in doing so, you will be able to participate in the organization of the association. You'll be able to vote on, uh, how the association functions. You'll be able to elect the board, uh, and you will also have to be attending meetings, general assembly, um, all of that good stuff. Uh, we're going to be opening that process gradually. So the first 67 or so members will be getting admitted, uh, next week, and then over time, we're going to be, uh, gradually opening that process. Uh, we want to try and maintain that core group of people who were, who were involved, uh, from the beginning. And then, and make sure we, uh, expand that responsibly as we go, 'cause expanding that too quickly can, and without care, can, can sometimes lead to some distortion of the, uh, uh, of the original will that was expressed. So, that's one part, but it's important to note that whether or not you're a member of the association, uh, has no effect on your ability to contribute to the event. So, you can still volunteer at the event. You can still be, say, uh, as, as we would have said, uh, a lead or, or a meta-lead, or, or, or, or bring your art or do whatever you want for the event, and you don't have to be actually a registered member of the association. So, uh, if you would like, uh, to be contributing to the event, and you don't know how you feel about the association, that's perfectly fine. Please, uh, get involved as soon as possible. Uh, we would love you to come on board as soon as possible, and we're gonna be starting to organize those departments and, and, and getting those teams together, or rather, empowering everybody to organize their own teams and departments, um, basically from, from, uh, from now. Um, so, if you have any interest whatsoever in, in participating to any extent, uh, with the event this year, whether it be during the event or just Build and Strike or, uh, more throughout the year, uh, please do get involved, uh, as soon as possible. Pablo, you can go to the next slide. Uh, the way you can do that is by going to the website, which is nobodys.team... uh, and you will see, uh, on the front page of that website, a big red button that says Get Involved. And you can click on that button, and there's a type form to fill out, which is just some details, some contact details, in a few minutes. Do not do it immediately. Give Pablo a few minutes to update the website so that the type form is there. But the type form is ready, it just needs to be slotted in. Um, so yeah. Uh, from- from- from the end of this meeting or tomorrow, definitely jump on the website, uh, click on that link. It's not, um, committing you to anything, so it's really just an expression of interest. So even if you're on the fence, if you don't know if you can contribute or not, or- or whatever, uh, just fill it out. And at some point, we'll send you an email and y- we can go from there. So that's really all I, uh, was here to say. Just to, yeah, encourage everybody to get involved as much as possible, to realize that this is obviously a community event, and it's really up to all of us, uh, to make it happen. So- so I know we as a board are really excited, uh, for everything that we will be able to do together. I can feel there's a really, really great energy already, uh, a lot of motivation, a lot of inspiration, um, to get things moving. So, uh, yeah, please come and bring your magic as well. And, uh, that's it from me. Thanks guys. Looking forward to working with you all. Uh-

Chris: Awesome. Thank you, Ben. And then I think, Pablo, uh, do you have some updates on the land?

Pablo: Yes. Um, unfortunately, I cannot find the slide, but I will just tell you in person. Uh, let me stop sharing. So basically, for the land, um, to be clear, the land is an independent project that, um, we need to do independent for, um, basically tax reasons and protections. But the idea is that it will start independent and eventually become some sort of association as well, so it's governed completely by the community. Um, where we are is, we selected the site we like, uh, that was announced already. We had a presentation about it. And then we asked for community interest, and, uh, I have really positive news to share because... And I wanna check the latest numbers. I wish I had this in a proper form. But, uh, basically, we had about 250 people expressing interest in this, and there is a total of almost a million euros, uh, in community interest. 900,000 euros are loans. Um, we offer three levels. We offered, uh, people to get 4% interest, 2%, and zero. A lot of people chose 2%, which is, uh, very generous. And some even more generous people chose 0%. But on average, it means that we could get, uh, the land financed, um, basically from loans, and 10% of those are donations as well. Um, and I have a little graph which I can share quickly, and just give me a second, this will be worth it. But, uh, basically, I was extremely surprised. I was honestly expecting, um, that this would be a long project to- to- to get enough interest. Um, but basically, we would have enough money to buy it. Now, what's happening now is we're still talking to the owners and trying to find the perfect structure to lower the- um, lower the price that we would need. Um, but I'm going to show you an idea of how this could work if we was to go forward. Um, and this will just be one minute, but I made a quick- a quick simulation here of how much money do we spend, um, on the purchase. So one million would be the higher estimate. I think, realistically, we would not need a million. Let's say we need 750. Um, it would take us between eight years and five years, depending on how exactly things work out. Uh, but that would be counting on 100,000 donations, which have been offered, on some loans and a 2% interest. So anybody who's had a mortgage has probably played with something like this, but this is our own, um, thing. And what I was really happy to see is that this doesn't come from two or three, um, whales in our community. It really comes from everybody. So we had most people offering between one and 5,000 euros. I would say more than 90% are in that amount. So we have like an extremely diverse, uh, group of people who want to help. Um, and the way this was done is, I assume that there is some event organization that is paying for it, and that basically the loans are repaid over the years. So yeah. Um, it's- it's looking good. Obviously, it's not real until it's real, but, uh, we keep working on this, um, and- and we will share more news when we have it.

Chris: Awesome. Uh, thanks, Pablo. Um, I'll pass the question to you immediately. If, uh, any of you other, uh, people have questions, you can either type them in the chat or use the little... Under the reaction thing, you can raise your hand, and I'll- I'll get to you when- uh, when we're ready. Uh, but Ants had a question just asking, and I know we- we don't have all the information about this, but basically, uh, what's happening to the old going over SL, and, uh, where's the... what's happening to kind of files, documents, uh, staff, cash, all of that? Obviously, we- we can't answer for- for them, but, uh, we can say something about our side of that equation.

Pablo: Mm, who would be the best person to answer that? I, I can answer it.

Chris: Oh, I thought you- Yeah, I thought it would be you.

Pablo: Okay. Uh, okay. Uh, well, I, I just wanted to clarify, the land is, is not... the aim is not to have it for this year. It is likely, I think for the year after. So, um, yeah, just to be clear that we're not gonna rush it into, into an event this year. But, uh, the question of what's happening to, what's happening to Going Nowhere SL. So we're strictly separated in governance, um, and in assets. The association is starting with no assets. We, we are starting from scratch. But, um, what our understanding is that, uh, Going Nowhere will not be running an event, uh, this year. We are talking, because if we want to run an event and Going Nowhere decides to not have an event, it could make sense to acquire assets like the name, the materials, uh, files, documents, um, materials, and everything that could be useful for an event. Um, it... I, I think it could make a lot of sense. So right now, they're still separate, um, and possibly we will have some news over the next weeks of, uh, whether there's a way that everything that has been built over the years can be... can be, um, basically applied to, to this event that we're, we're... we would like to organize.

Chris: Cool. Uh, I think, uh, uh, Curious Creatures is asking, "Can we rent it from the previous Nowhere company?" I th- I think the basic thing to say is that a lot of these things are, uh, uh... a lot of details that are moving very, very quickly. And we're, we're talking together with, uh, uh, with the previous company, and, and there are vari- various bits that are happening. Uh, there's... there will be a lot of news and a lot of details that need to be hashed out. And we will be, uh... we will tell you about them as soon as it's clear to, to us. Um, I can just tell you that these, these things are happening. We're moving as fast as humanly possible to get it. Uh, this organization, um, has, so far, uh, got a lot of things done, and there's obviously a lot more to do. Uh, but I'm, I'm, I'm just saying on behalf of all of us, we're... apologies for slightly fluffy information in certain, uh, certain aspects of everything that is happening, but we will clarify it as soon as humanly possible. Okay. Anyone else have any questions for us?

Daniel: I think there are some in the chat. Um, maybe I can take the one from creativity. "When do we know if-"

Chris: Go for it.

Daniel: ... "we're going... when do we know if we're going to have an event this year? Because creativity needs to start soon to start the art- the art grant process, and have to motivate artists to start their projects." Um, we are intending to have the event. We are doing everything we can to make that happen. We are, um, together, like all the people here on this call and many more people, going to be, um, making this happen. Um, the... if creativity needs to start soon, then creativity needs to start soon. Um, so please, please start. Um, now, there's a bunch of other things that need to happen that will feed into the creativity thing. But yes, it needs to... it needs to begin. Hope that answers...

Chris: All right. Uh, Joao, I think you wanted to, uh, ask a question?

Joao: Yeah. Uh, so I'm not sure if Daniel... well, I didn't think it was cleared by what Daniel just said, but I think it's... it's kind of tied. Because, uh, the whole setup of the association and the legal part of it is essentially replacing the previous SL, and the new association, all the members, uh, in a way, be doing the work that the five previous directors were doing. I understand that this, this is correct. But my question then is, the actual execution of the event and the whole structure of leads, meta leads, and all the planning and things that need to be done so that the event actually happens is totally separate from the, the bureaucracy that has been done so far. So, are we still waiting for, like, adding more members or some other bureaucratic, uh, steps before we start the actual organization of the execution of the event? Or what... do we have an idea of timeline for that?

Ben: May- maybe I can speak to it since there's a second question in there for me as well about, uh, do the roles carry over from the old organization or do we need to re-recruit for every role from Kez. Uh, so the, the roles do not, by default, carry over from the old organization. Um, that's partly because, because of the nature of the legal separation, uh, we do need to do things independently. Um, but having said that-

Joao: Yeah, go ahead.

Ben: ... pra- practically speaking, um, we know that we're going to be having a lot of transfer of experience from the old organization. And, and, and the community obviously is kind of organized even independently of that orga- of the organizational structure. So, uh, I'm, I'm ex- expecting that the people who were, who were doing really good work in the old organization will, will most likely be doing that same work or similar kinds of work, or bringing their expertise and their experience, uh, to the new organization. Um, that's... just in terms of the association structure and processes, it's one of the things we're just, um, finalizing is, is just the process of how someone will, um... come to occupy a certain position. Um, my personal feeling on it, and, and it's still something that needs to be finalized and discussed by the whole board, but my personal hope is that, uh, we can make that process a, a bit more democratic than it used to be, uh, so that, you know, a, a, an arts department or a comms department that wants to organize itself will, will be able to have a bit more say in, in who is coordinating the arts department and, and, and who is doing what in the arts department. So, uh, to put it simply, it, it's not the same organization. Uh, it, it's, it may not n- even necessarily be the same departmental structure. One of the nice things is that, you know, we have this opportunity to refresh things and to reimagine things, so there might be better ways of doing things, better ways of organizing things. Um, but having said that, it's the same community. It's the same pool of talent. Uh, it's the same relationships. So, those things are gonna carry across and I, and I imagine you'll be seeing a lot of the same familiar faces and a lot of, and, and doing a lot of the same familiar things.

Chris: Awesome. Uh, I'm seeing, uh, some other questions regarding, um, for example-

Joao: Um, Chris?

Chris: Um, yeah?

Joao: Sorry, just, just to follow up, do we have a timeline-

Chris: Yes, of course.

Joao: ... for when these things are, will be happening? Uh, es- essentially, when are these discussions about creating a new comms team or art team, or something like that would actually start if we have an idea or-

Ben: So, s- so from, from, from tonight essentially. I mean, we, we just had a meeting. The board just had a meeting just, just prior to this meeting where we were just reviewing that initial list, uh, and so, those things we started putting in place from tonight and con- communication will be going out through next week. So it's, it's, it's happening from now.

Speaker H: One- one additional note for folks. Um, because of lawyers and GPDR, um, we sort of need to have... I'm the treasurer by the way. Uh, we sort of need to organically grow people on the new side of the fence. Um, I can get into details offline. We don't need 50 people for that chat if anybody's curious. Um, but yeah. So we kind of need some, a little bit of help to get all the various leads in- involved. Um, and yes, if that... Does that make sense?

Chris: Yeah. So that means for any of you who, uh, previously have done things, uh, for, for the events... Uh, Paulo, I don't know if the type form is up yet, uh, but it would be incredibly helpful if you go on the website and fill in your information and tell us who you are and, and what you did and then, then we can get you, uh, you know, in- in- included in all the stuff that is happening. Uh, and I would suggest for, uh, people who have, uh, specific questions, uh, such as creativity, art grant process, uh, stuff like that, um, please just get in touch with us. Send us an email. Uh, as I said, there, there are things that are, uh, becoming clearer, clearer and clearer by the day and, uh, and we will, uh, give you all the answers we can as soon as possible. Uh, for example, uh, Kez asked, "What, what do we need to do before we make a go, no-go decision?" Um, that is, uh... You know, we're, we're gathering information as, as fast as we can and, and we're, uh, now kind of... Uh, like, we, we on the board, uh, want this event to happen. Uh, I think everyone in this room want this event to happen, and we're trying to lay the groundwork as quickly as we, we can to get to the point where we can answer that question. So, uh, so we will, we will do that as soon as possible, but that requires, uh, you know, having, having the people in place who, who have signed up to, uh, to run the, the event. Um, to continue answering that, I feel... The, the... I feel like I, I, like we shou- we shouldn't talk about... Uh, I don't know if anyone wants to fill in more, uh, on this, uh, please do. Uh, but I do believe, uh, like a go no, a no-go decision is, uh, has many aspects to it. There's a lot of operational stuff to it. There's legal stuff, uh, to it that kind of, uh, we on the board will, will keep a hand on. There's a bunch of operational stuff that various departments need to be staffed, uh, to be able to do. Uh, so like having that as a community, um, I doubt that that is a question we can answer in a single week. Uh, but we're working on the assumption, like Joao is, uh, saying that we wanna make this happen, and we'll, we'll just get as much information as we can when we get it. Okay.

Ben: There, there was just a question in there, Chris, about whether, uh, goingnowhere.org website is officially part of the new event and, uh, no it's not. It's officially part of the, um, old company, so that's all separate from us.

Joao: Um, so l- let, let me just try to ask another question, it's just trying to see if the information was processed correctly. Uh, the organization was set up to replace the old bureaucratic structure, and then now we have eight elected representatives and there's around 60 people that are part of the association. As of right now, we're gonna want to start adding more, uh-... members to the association. And in parallel to the, this bureaucratic organization, we are, as of today as well, start, uh, recreating our old lead structure and start planning the actual execution of the event. So as it stands, the idea is that event will happen in the first week of July, as planned by the, the previous Going Nowhere SL, but it's going to be totally disjoint from the, the previous organization. For all purposes, we won't have any connection with this previous, uh, organization. Maybe we will acquire some of their assets, but regardless, we are gonna recreate a structure of leads that could contain the same leads if they want to participate, uh, but not the directors from the previous SL. Is that correct?

Speaker I: That sounds about right to me.

Pablo: Basically, yes. So we are, we are trying to navigate the complexity and I think this is one of the moments where things are the most confusing. That's also part of the reason why we kept this call a little bit, um, a little bit smaller, because, um, I feel like this will all be easier to announce a few weeks from now. But for now, I think what matters is taking action. If you want the event to happen, you want to be there, um, step up, and then we can look at the resources, uh, that as a community we have, and, and make a decision.

Daniel: So, I, I, I want to jump in and address, like, something about, um, like, you know, for example, why is the old website not just being duplicated. Like, there's ... so there's going to be a lot of things that, uh, we've, we've taken the, uh, approach of moving, of creating momentum, creating, uh, like, creating the reality that there's going to be an event rather than, uh, trying to, uh, figure out how to transfer this and whatever, and like, you know, with all the legal processes that make it very complicated. Um, and so if you take the website, yes, it's maybe not as good as the previous website, um, but it is a website. It's there, people can sign up, show interest. It can evolve. It can change. Uh, we're, uh, very open to things being improved. We're trying to do things as, uh, eight people at the moment. As I said earlier, we need to be doing things as 80 people, and then 800 people, and that's going to speed up our ability to make everything good enough, uh, massively. So that's, that's our, our call for today. Please join us and help. If you see the website, you think it's not good enough, jump in, help.

Chris: Right. Um, we'll also add, yes, uh, Justin, sorry, I'm trying... Uh, made assumptions on, on your behalf, uh, obviously you're, uh, we would love to have your account there, but if you guys are taking a follow here, that's, uh, that would be, that would be very sad. But, uh, obviously under- understandable if that happens. Um, and I think in general for, for anyone who has questions like, can we use Fist? Uh, what's happening to the comms team? Uh, please get in touch as, as soon as possible, uh, because we need to get those things, uh, um, make those things clearer and get those things, uh, set up. Like this, uh, new association, uh, does not have a comms team at the moment, uh, but we dearly want one, uh, and, uh, when, uh, when you guys are, uh, signing up to help us, that, that, that can happen. Um, uh, yeah, 'cause as, if you go on the website, uh, just send us an email to, to the board email, and, and, and we'll, we'll, uh, take it from there. I do- I don't mean to say, so is, sorry, I don't mean to say like, uh, uh, I, I know that you're here. Uh, I don't mean to, uh, say that you're not part of the comp stuff, but for, for the purposes of the new one, we, we need to just, uh, set things up again, if that makes sense. All right. Any other burning questions?

Joao: Can ... Do- are we still in touch with the people involved in the previous SL? And could they update the website at all to at least to say, "Hey, we're shutting down and not running an event this year"? Uh, even if it doesn't tie to... Or say anything that makes sense. I don't know, because as I understand, the website has just left as is, and can be very confusing for people that are now in the loop of all this. So, understand that we don't want to tie and, or we can't tie the previous event and company to the new organization, but at least give an update of sorts. That make sense? I think it will be helpful.

Speaker I: It's not really, uh, a question that we can speak to. Uh, it's, it's, it's really a matter for the, uh, for Going Nowhere. So, yeah, it's not ...

Joao: Um, so, okay, so maybe, like, for example, I could reach out to them and ask if they would be willing to do something like that. As I'm, well, I'm a member of the organization, but I don't know if that...

Daniel: Okay.

Raffaela: Mm, let's see. Maybe could be an idea to try to, uh, reach out to our community using the website. I mean, even if right now our website is very simple, you know, and it's normal, it's just started. But maybe if we can, uh, grab a video, register a video where a- we share like s- in s- simple words, what's the p- problem. Like, we are creating again something. No one of us is born like with, uh, all this experience. We all want it. We all want to be here. We all want to recreate this structure. We all want to do the best thing better, but we need involvement of all of us. And we try to reach as, uh, as much as we can, all the member of our community, because many times is, um, matter of, uh, I don't know, if you see something written, uh, is more impersonal, maybe you are running over other things in your day and you're not really thinking about the feeling of your play, uh. If we try to reach in some as well, uh, more direct, emotional way, as well a nice video that one from our community, our burner go there can... Uh, we are here but all of us were here already, all of us. Everyone is already here, the one that could get involved. We cannot have as well more help, uh, and get all the community that then will be there because yes, we are here like the one that should be ideally the one putting more effort. But we are a big, huge community that if each of us will get on, um, like the purpose like, "Ah, okay, I am really important in doing so," then maybe we will feel empowered, each of us as well, and things can get smoother. Because I mean, I guess, I have competencies but I don't have many more, or maybe I don't have this kind of leader or take the lead to say, "Okay, I understand how to start it, but you know how to start it and once that you start I can follow you." Just, it's like assembling a machine, you know, piece by piece. Sometimes when you just miss one piece, it's like you get lost and you don't know how to proceed anymore. But if someone has to jump in, which is the missing piece, then everything can run smooth. And so just to try to reach as many pieces, human pieces as we can, so to, we can reconstruct more easily and even..

Pablo: Yeah, and totally. I think what you're saying, Raffaela, I think the tricky part is that we can see the pieces are there in the community and we're trying to put them together in something that's coherent. I think we didn't feel like we could do that alone, so I think the purpose of this call is to hear how is everybody feeling, their concerns, like who's excited and how, like, how could we connect all that. I think the easiest thing is to rally around doing something, because then we can learn by doing. But yeah, it's, um, we have to start somewhere. So I think we had a lot of questions and things that we will work on providing clarity on everything we can. We will be sharing this as well. And we have another call on Wednesday next week for whoever wants to come. If there's more updates, we will share there. If not, it can also be a shorter one. But we want to get into a cadence of communicating often and ideally work towards some decision. Um, so what we can do now is, um, on this chord we can talk publicly about these things. If somebody is really motivated to go for this event, apply for a lead position. If somebody thinks it shouldn't happen or has concerns, please share them so we can, like all kind of look at the same, at the same pros and cons. Um, but yeah, it's a beginning and we're trying to get clarity as soon as possible. And maybe it's something that wasn't shared, how to get more members. Uh, the criteria that we would propose is that members, like anybody who leads some area or some camp in each event can become a member, so that way people who have been involved keep like getting ownership of their association.

Daniel: I think it's worth also maybe making a distinction that I think Ben made, but let's do it again, that there's members for the association that's running the governance of the event, but we need participants and leads and so on to organize the event. Um, uh, both are needed, but they are different.

Ben: And just to, um, qualify what Pablo said as well about how we're going to be approaching association membership. It's still not been, uh, decided actually, the exact criteria. So we have some thoughts about how we want to do that, but we will be able to communicate officially exactly how the association membership is going to work. Just to bounce off that to Kez's comment that, are you not already members because you're on this call? Um, not necessarily just because you're on the call, because actually anybody could join the call if they had the link... uh, that initial role of, of, of people who voted for the board, uh, that initial sort of 64 or 65 people, uh, the ones that we are in the process of officially registering as members. Uh, it hasn't officially, officially been finalized, but that's, that's our intention to do that, um, as soon as possible.

Chris: And I think als- also to add, stuff like this, uh, when it comes to criteria for being member and, and a bunch of other stuff is stuff that we will eventually kind of, uh, put to the community, put to the m- to the members, uh, who, uh, were, uh, part of the elections once we get you onboarded. Like, the- these are things that we, we're not gonna make these decisions as a board. These, uh, uh, solely as a board. These are things that we want to involve everyone in, so we'll, we'll, we'll get to that as we get to it. Uh, Joao, did you have another, uh, thing to say?

Joao: Y- yeah. Well, because, uh, I made a comment about asking the, um, people from the previous SL if they could, for example, change the website, and then I saw that Erin, uh, apparently didn't agree or, or felt like something I said wasn't accurate. I don't know if she wants to clarify something or, uh, or, uh, the board of the association. I don't know if there's something that I highlighted that wasn't accurate. I understand that the SL is separate and even the members that are here are not gonna speak for the SL or, but if there's anything... And I understand that this is very confusing, but if there's anything that could be cleared out by anyone, um, please, please do.

Ben: I mean, I don't think, like, uh, of course anybody's welcome to, to, to speak if they'd like to, but, uh, you know, I don't, I don't think it's necessarily fair to expect anybody to step forward and offer any kind of explanation or justification in, in this meeting. It's, that's not the purpose of the meeting, so you know, I don't know.

Erin: Um, I'm happy to speak up. The issue wasn't with what you said, it was with the way you said it. It was quite demanding and insistent, and you made a comment about, "Can we not, um, speak to them as if we aren't here?" We are members of the association. We are members of the community. And rather than assume that we have bad intent, perhaps assume that we are on this journey with you. That said, this isn't an SL meeting, so I'm not gonna tell you all the ins and outs of the SL. That can be a separate meeting at another time.

Daniel: On the, the... Somebody asked, uh, Julia asked, "Is the board gauging if there's enough support from the community to make Nowhere happen and will decide based on that until next call whether it's happening?" We are making this event happen. Like, we don't know exactly... Like, we, we're doing everything we can to make this event happen. We are a go. Um, the, the... That's the intention. Obviously, we cannot do all this by ourselves, and that's why we're contacting you, and we're hoping to get your, like... W- w- n- we together need to make this event happen basically. It's not the board of the, the association that's making the event happen, it's all of us. Um, from the board perspective, you know, the board is not, uh, leading the, the event. We're not here to tell you whether to have the event or not. We're here to try and organize the, the interface between the event and the rest of society, the default. Well, papers need to be signed, permits, legal, like bank accounts, all that kind of crap. And we're here to take care of that and help support the organization of the event, but it's all of us who are making the event happen. And that's, that's important. Maybe that's a shift in the dynamic. We're not gonna tell you whether the event is happening, we want to try and help us together, uh, make the event happen. I hope that makes sense.

Chris: Okay. Uh, I think we'll leave it there. We're closing in on having been here for an hour. Uh, Pablo, do you have some, uh, last words?

Pablo: Not really. We have, um... I think everything's been said. We have a meeting next, uh, next week on Wednesday, so, um, any news we have we will be sharing. So please, if you're motivated, apply as a lead. If you're concerned, share what those concerns are. Uh, there's a channel on Discord. We try to keep it on this single channel, and hopefully with this we, we can, uh, we can have this, this conversation.

Ben: Uh, it's not, not just apply for a lead, just apply for anything. If you're at all interested in any way, just apply and we'll, we'll figure out what's best, uh, as we go along.

Raffaela: Okay. For now, just to understand, who is the one involved with the, um, so far in the website that has create... Um, if you want to get involved, the, the 10 principle, the one that, uh, we are seeing now of nobody's dot, uh, team?

Pablo: I, I made it quickly. I'm not a designer.

Raffaela: Oh, okay.

Pablo: I know I can do better. (laughs) but, uh, it's just-

Raffaela: Ah, bene. Va bene. Okay. Okay.

Pablo: ... it's just a placeholder.

Raffaela: So we can, uh, we can as well start, uh, meanwhile to share some idea, to think about something related to the website. Uh, cool. Thank you.

Pablo: Yeah, we'd love to hear it. Okay. Then, um, thanks for coming today. Uh, it's exciting. I realize there's a lot to do. But, uh, yeah, we'll figure it out together. We're on Discord and, uh, yeah, Telegram. We'll open WhatsApp soon, so everything should be-

Daniel: And feel-

Pablo: ... easy to follow.

Daniel: And feel free to reach out to us. We're open, we're, like, you know, transparent. We're wanting to, to communicate. Um, this is our first communication with all of you, but definitely not our last, and either as a group or individually. Don't be shy.

Chris: All right. Thank you, everyone.

Raffaela: Cool. Cool.

Pablo: Thanks for coming. (laughs)

Ben: Yes.

Raffaela: Thank you. Well, it was a nice one.

Chris: Nice, and, uh-

Pablo: We'll be sharing, we'll be sharing some notes.

Raffaela: ... love your e- uh, love your ear. Next time I will, uh...

Pablo: (laughs)

Raffaela: I got inspired by you, look. And then, uh, I took this one as well in. It remind me a lot about, uh-

Pablo: (laughs)

Raffaela: ... about our Deserta outfit. This was really good point, Atlas. Thanks, uh, for, uh, bringing it. It was nice.

Ben: (laughs)

Joao: Yes.

Raffaela: Yeah.

Pablo: Thank y'all for coming. Uh, we're gonna start signing out.

Ben: Thanks very much, everybody. Thanks, guys.

Pablo: See you at dinner.

Raffaela: Bye.

Ben: See you soon.

Pablo: Bye.

Raffaela: Bye.