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Volunteering

Jan 31

We Want You! To Write Long Form Content

By Community, Education, Nest 2024, Volunteering

Your experiences, opinions and values matter. Share your perspective with the wider Nest community, and help inspire them to participate at the Burn in ways you enjoy.

Have you had a great time doing volunteering shifts during the Burn?

Say why it's so great to be a Ranger or Greeter or cook in the Volunteer Kitchen or do MOOP Sweeps!

Did you create some amazing art? Put on a fantastic event? Bring together a really cool theme camp?

How did you do it? Your words could help others do something similar, with their own flavour of course!

Do you have any special stories from Nest relating to Burner Principles or your own personal values?

Share them, and inspire other Nestlings to Burn like you.

How Does it Work?

So you want to write an article! Fantastic! We're glad to have you on board.

  1. Choose a topic to write about
  2. Get in touch with us at comms@burningnest.co.uk. We'll have a chat to see if it's the right fit
  3. We agree on a timeline for writing and editing your piece. (You will be supported by the Comms team throughout!)
  4. Write your article according to the guidelines below. (Hint: the final product should look something like this piece!)
  5. We publish your piece here, in the News section of the website, and possibly post a blurb and link on social media and in the Carrier Pigeon Newsletter

General Guidance/Specification:

  • The article should be ~300 to ~800 words long
  • Break it up into sections with headers
  • Use 1 or more photos. Use your own, take from the community photo drive (no people without explicit consent), get something from the internet, generate with AI or make specific requests so someone else can find the right thing
  • You can choose to sign with your name and photo -- or remain anonymous!
  • Be respectful, stay positive. Represent Burning Nest well
  • Be mindful that first time Burners and Nestlings are among the audience. Speak to them, and avoid too much jargon
  • All articles will be reviewed and edited before posting

Potential Article Topics

Here is a list of some potential topics we'd love to see articles about. If you see one you'd like to pick up, please send a message to comms@burningnest.co.uk to see if it's the right fit.

  • Profile on kitchen
  • Profile on community team
  • Fluff the fluff out of build
  • Profile on Temple
  • Making an Art Piece
  • Applying for an Art Grant
  • Hosting a workshop
  • Starting a Theme Camp
  • Joining a Theme Camp
  • Hosting an event
  • DJing at a TC
  • Rangering
  • Doing Welfare shifts
  • Doing Gate shifts
  • Doing LBT shifts
  • Profile on Consent Team
  • What is Strike like?

Do you want to write about something else that isn't on this list? Let's hear about it! Send an email to comms@burningnest.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Yours,

Treasure

Comms Link

Apr 17

How To Maximise Your Burn: Volunteer

By Nest 2023, Volunteering

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.

  1. Bring a Theme Camp

  2. Make Art

  3. Offer An Event

  4. 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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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:

  • 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!

  • Build a whole new appreciation of what makes a burn possible

  • Spread your contributions out over time

  • Utilise skills that might not come into play on-site - spreadsheets, anyone?

  • Free up your on-site time to play, feeling good about your contributions to the event

  • 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:

  • Heaps of cool roles that you can do with very little prior training

  • Training is often provided - build up your skills

  • Increase the number of familiar faces by bonding with your shift-mates over a few hours

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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! 

...oh, you're still here? Well, this is awkward. Go on, sign up! We'll love ya for it.

SEE ALL SHIFTS

Oct 18

Help us create Nest 2023!

By Nest 2023, Volunteering

We may make it look like this event of ours runs smoothly and without any hitches whatsoever (cough), but we couldn't do it without our various teams (we call them Circles) of devoted volunteers. They work before, during and after the event to make sure it all runs smoothly, collaborating every step of the way to share their talents as needed. 

This year, we have a few vacancies we'd like to fill as soon as possible:

Arts Circle - Pretty self explanatory, but everything Arts! Including assigning of grant funding, Art placement, Site Decor, Creating the Programme, Wristband design and anything else you can think of!

Cat Wrangling/Vols - The beating heart of Nest. Volunteer Recruitment for all event team Circles. Plus Rangers, Build and Strike humans, Cooks,and anyone else that needs volunteering at short notice

Comms Circle - Nest’s official talking heads Includes compiling information from Event team Circles and Sending Nest Emails to keep the community informed and involved, Keeping an eye on our comms channels. 

Community Circle - Involves organising and (sometimes) chairing community meetings, ensuring and developing engagement and communication with the wider Nest community such as theme camps, families, accessibility. Liaising with other circles.

Department of Public Works (DPW) - A cornerstone that ensures the stage is set for the event, providing all the operational infrastructure - Toilets, placement, gate, structures, power and lighting, volunteers kitchen. First on site and the last to leave (and quite a lot of planning in the lead up). DPW are a passionate bunch that like nothing more than rolling their sleeves up, getting down and dirty with the hard work and having the most fun while doing it!

Edge of Chaos (EOC) - Safety Third! If you’re passionate about taking care of your fellow nestlings then the Edge of Chaos Circle could be for you. EOC takes care of Health and Safety, Burn Management, Hiring Security and Medics, Dangerous Arts planning, Insuring our Burn. Basically making sure that all the crazy things that make a Burn a Burn can happen legally and safely.

Event Link - Organising and chairing the All Circle Links meetings, Facilitating communication between departments, Making sure we’re on track with the  planning for the Burn.

Leave Better Trace (LBT) - The Leave No Trace principle with extra steps. Making sure we leave the glade in a better state than when we arrived. There’s lots of room to put your stamp on making Nest more sustainable in this department.

Tech Web and Ticketing (TWAT) - The backend of Burning Nest. Organising Ticket sales, ensuring our website is working and updated along with Comms, helping wayward volunteers turn their computer’s off and on again. That sort of thing.

Consent Link - Coordinates with other circles to support and facilitate the principle of Consent throughout the Burn.

 

If any of these sound interesting to you please follow this Link, fill in the google form and wait to hear back from our Cat Wrangling team.

Apr 28

Important changes to early site access for 2022

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

They say that the early bird catches the worm.... but what about the early bird that builds Nest? This year it catches a WAP (Work Access Pass).

And we love a spot of bird watching so all types of early birds are welcome and encouraged. If you have been to Nest before then you might need to know that there are some changes this year for early entry. Since we are now a licenced event and have even more of our friends coming this year, we have to be a bit stricter when it comes to early access. That’s why this year there is a WAP system (Working Access Passes).

During build week and right up until gate opens at 8am on Monday 30th May the site is a working site and you will only be permitted on site if you have a pre-arranged WAP with us. WAPs are only granted for legitimate work reasons. These are – joining DPW to come for build (and strike), building a Theme Camp, building an Art project, deliveries, and early key volunteers (rangers, gate, welfare).

DPW build dates: 23rd May – 29th May
Theme Camp build dates: 27th May – 29th May
Key volunteers: 29th May
Gate opens: 8am, 30th May

And while changes and new systems sound scary and difficult, please know, that the introduction of the WAP system is not a way of excluding, it is in fact an invitation, nay… a challenge even….. to sign up for DPW and come and do build, get as many of your Theme Camp mates doing build, and sign up for those early gate / ranger/ welfare shifts. You never know, you might even have fun doing it.

Got another legitimate reason to come early and need a WAP?
Please email: DPW@burningnest.co.uk

Apply for a crew/build WAP
Apply for a theme camp/artists/volunteers WAP
Mar 20

Volunteers needed for build and strike!

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

Want to be part of the best crew at Burning Nest? Want to do something crucial for the event and give back to your community? Nest Department of Public Works (DPW) needs you!

Nest is an event unlike any other. It's not a festival, it's a social experiment in temporary community. The Department of Public Works (DPW) is one of the cornerstones in that community, building our infrastructure and taking it down again (and having a ton of fun along the way). DPW is responsible for running power, lights, co-ordinating toilets and overseeing waste removal (via Leave A Better Trace), as well as organising Rangers and Welfare. They also create and place signage, work with the Arts team to place installations, and help with parking.

No experience needed for most roles, there's space for everyone on the crew, as long as you have a willingness to graft, learn, can work in a team with loads of new friends in a field in the sunshine (we hope).

We have some specialist roles still to fill too: we need people urgently for Lighting, Workshop & General Build and Kitchen (aka Fluffers).

If you have any questions at all, or want to volunteer, please get in touch!

Feb 16

Co-lead for Welfare Enough needed!

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

We are searching for a co-lead to help produce Welfare Enough for Burning Nest 2022. Welfare Enough is a critical part of our event, providing support to Nestlings in need (with the full help of our on-site medic and security team) as well as helping organise Ranger shifts.

Key responsibilities

  • Liaising with, preparing and scheduling volunteers before the event via email & spreadsheets
  • Maintaining the rota before and during the event to ensure full staffing
  • Contributing to volunteer training
  • Acting as "Super" on call/on radio during 24 hour periods during the event (Meaning being largely sober every 24 hours, then taking 24 hours off. Sleeping, eating, swimming, dancing and frolicking during these periods is all well and great)
  • Supporting and debriefing volunteer sitters while acting as Super
  • Medical and ranger liaison in acute circumstances on site while acting as Super
  • Liaising with DPW and production team for build, strike and maintenance of the Welfare site while acting as Super
  • General site & volunteer herding, including stepping in for shift no-shows as needed
  • If possible, arriving on site Monday 30th May and leaving the next Monday 6th June

Skills needed

  • Experience sitting & being sat with
  • Good with rotas/admin/logistics
  • Can-do attitude
  • Committed to non-judgement as a core value
  • Open and collaborative
  • Works well in a team and event ecosystem
  • Medical, crisis or social worker, or has experience producing harm reduction or emergency services at burns or festivals a huge plus

If this sounds like you, or if you have any other questions, please get in touch!

Feb 02

It’s all about the money, honey…

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

Are you a whizz with numbers? We're looking for someone to support our fantastic Finance Lead in their role - someone with experience, enthusiasm, and a deep love of spreadsheets.

The Finance Circle oversees the Burning Nest budget, as well as planning for next year's event. They pay our vendors, determine the amounts available for Art Grants, and make sure all the numbers add up at the end!

If this soundsl ike your cup of tea, please fill in our volunteering form!

Jan 28

Join the Edge of Chaos!

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

Edge of Chaos (Health & Safety/Licensing / Legal & ops) Needs YOU!?!

Seeking Gods/ Goddesses and general Heavenly beings of co-ordination to help keep us all legal and compliant during the Nest event this year.

Do you know your booze licensing from liability? Insurance from Indemnity? Want to help us insure an effigy burn (seriously, this IS a thing)? Fancy helping us chat to the council, medical folk and assorted ‘grown-up official type folk’ to allow us all play (safely) this Summer?

It may seem an oxymoron in multiple of multiple ways, yet we need organised burners to help us organise to disorganise!

We have an experienced Edge of Chaos team, ready to show you the ropes and pass on their knowledge - so you'll be supported every step of the way.

If all this sounds interesting, please get in touch!

Jan 25

Join the big volunteer family!

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

We may make it look like this event of ours runs smoothly and without any hitches whatsoever (cough), but we couldn't do it without our various teams (we call them Circles) of devoted volunteers. They work before, during and after the event to make sure it all runs smoothly, collaborating every step of the way to share their talents as needed. 

This year, we have a few vacancies we'd like to fill as soon as possible:

Arts: Handling the all-important Art Grants, beautifying our site, designing the handbook, and lending their arty skills to newsletter and website design too.

Department of Public Works: On-site logistics, theme camp placements, power and lighting, toilets... these are just a few of the tasks handled by the DPW team!

Edge of Chaos: If you feel a deep kinship with Hermes Conrad, and know how to bridge the gap between Burner chaos and Council bureaucracy, we want you! EOC deals with licensing, sound management and insurance before the event, as well as overseeing Rangers, medical and security teams at the event.

Leave A Better Trace: Going one better than "Leave No Trace", we want to leave our site in a better state than when we found it. For this we need some dedicated volunteers both before and during the event, to help with our environmental goals.

Memberships/ticketing: Whatever you want to call them, we need someone to help us manage our memberships! Answering queries, processing refunds, and liaising with our Gate Team to help co-ordinate people on-site.

If you'd like to know more about any of these roles, please contact us via this form.

Dec 08

We need you for 2022!

By Nest 2022, Volunteering

We have a number of roles available this year, some more active at the event itself, and some that require commitment outside of the event dates too. Each role operates as part of a supportive team (we call them Circles), and is open to people with experience and people without - if you've always wanted to try something, now might be the perfect time! The teams we're looking to recruit for in 2022 are:

  • Edge of Chaos: the navigators of bureaucracy, helping us secure all-important permits, organise logistical miracles and wrangle security and volunteers on site
  • Community: supporting community meetups, the glorious and welcoming gate greeters, and helping out with accessibility and family organisation
  • Arts: incorporating everything visually gorgeous about Nest, from decor to art grants, temple and effigy
  • Technology: looking after our website, solving membership issues, as well as solving technical problems in the great outdoors
  • Leave A Better Trace: a new circle created this year to leave our site better than when we found it, and explore how we can be more eco-conscious in 2022 and beyond
  • Cat Wrangling: someone has to connect all the dots, onboard and organise new recruits - could it be you? 

We are also looking for new members to join our board of trustees, as part of a major reworking of our constitution.

See more information about these roles, and apply, here: https://airtable.com/shrXwpr1kRAMAfiJd?fbclid=IwAR3pSIdLXMkpHjZYK-u1h7DjbWChXCxdL9X5Qf2CpZRh5Jluf6VcT7PL9nk

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