With our 2023 event inching ever closer, we're stoked to share the last in our four part series on How To Maximise Your Burning Nest Experience (Or Any Burn, For That Matter!)
We're firm believers that you get out what you put in, and there are four excellent ways that even first time burners can get involved.
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Bring a Theme Camp
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Make Art
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Offer An Event
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Volunteer
Now comes (arguably) the best and most foolproof way to make sure your Nest is awesome:
4. Volunteer!
Volunteering is sensibly divided into two categories: year-round (pre-burn) roles, or on-site roles. Here are some examples:
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If you're an admin whiz, you might lend your brain pre-event to help with the organisational or legal side of event planning. This would be a pre-burn role.
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If you're pinched for time, you might find the best way to contribute is during the event - by helping out your fellow Nestlings as a Ranger, Welfaerie, running the Perimeter during a burn, etc. These are our on-site volunteers 🙂
Every Burner gets involved in one way or another. There's a reason Participation is one of our 11 Principles, and there are roles to suit everyone!
THE BEST BITS ABOUT VOLUNTEERING PRE-BURN
If you've never held a pre-burn role, it's easy to imagine that year-round or longer term roles can be intimidating. Sure - if you let them! Pre-burn roles are amazing (even as a first time burner) for building a deeper understanding of how Burn Magic comes together.
Here's some of the perks:
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Get to know people outside of The Glade - including how they work, what they're into, and maybe even what other cool burn events they know about!
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Build a whole new appreciation of what makes a burn possible
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Spread your contributions out over time
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Utilise skills that might not come into play on-site - spreadsheets, anyone?
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Free up your on-site time to play, feeling good about your contributions to the event
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Feel awesome in the knowledge that the burn couldn't happen without you!
Read more about longer-term roles on the organising page. Most roles are filled for Nest 2023 but if you like what other folks have done this year, consider joining the team for next year! And in the meantime...
WHAT ABOUT VOLUNTEERING ON SITE?
There are so many on-site roles required to make a burn what it is - we literally couldn't do it without everyone pitching in! So here are some of the best bits about flexing your Participation muscles on-site:
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Heaps of cool roles that you can do with very little prior training
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Training is often provided - build up your skills
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Increase the number of familiar faces by bonding with your shift-mates over a few hours
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Concentrate your participation into one epic week in The Glade - great if work or life commitments get in the way of year-round roles, and often lower total time commitments
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Great way to serve and meet other Nestlings - not just the shift-mates you befriend, but for example, all the people you might greet while working Gate, or help in Welfare, or encounter on a Ranger shift
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Volunteers on shift are entitled to a meal at the Event Kitchen! 1 shift = 1 meal. Pop in and get something to eat when you are tired from your volunteering or just sit and have a brew and some snacks.
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Feel awesome in the knowledge that the burn couldn't happen without you!
HOW TO VOLUNTEER
We bet you thought we couldn't get any sexier. You were wrong.
Because this year, we've rolled all of our best kept secrets about how to volunteer into one tasty tasty spreadsheet.
You'll find positions in the kitchen, with the Fire Wardens, at the Gate, in Welfare, as a Ranger, and more. If every burner signs up for one or two shifts, we could easily cover them all in no time!
Find out how to sign up for each team in the sexy mega-sheet.
Please bear in mind the less desirable time slots... are you brave and generous and chivalrous enough to take on tougher shifts? Your peers will be EXTRA grateful!Â
...oh, you're still here? Well, this is awkward. Go on, sign up! We'll love ya for it.
SEE ALL SHIFTS
