Common Ground ON TOUR

Over the last 6 months months board members have been spreading early hype. We’ve been contacting people to share the early information that we have and ask for your input and thoughts for the camp.

The ring round…
We shared all the Woodcraft districts out between us and have been calling you with questions about fundraising, international links and how interested you are. We received feedback on how hard the ground was at Global Village 2006 on the same site, cool programme ideas like a bike rental space, year-long sustainability workshops or an international café with a different menu from different international delegation each day. We also listened to concerns about volunteer capacity and worries about funds. We want to work with you as much as possible on these so we’re starting these conversations nice and early. See the fundraising page and for the first time there are people dedicated to “volunteer support” on the camp and we will have more paid staff. Watch this space for more details.

Please get in touch if you don’t think your district has had a call yet, we haven’t managed to contact everyone. Or if you just want more information in general! Or have ideas to offer!

The international meeting…
In June, Frankie and Klaus travelled to Brussels for the IFM-SEI international committee meeting. At the meeting new member organisations from Palestine, Egypt, Cameroon and Turkey were accepted in to our international umbrella. We gave a presentation on Common Ground and handed out lots of flyers in English, French and Spanish to encourage organisations to bring delegations including lots of under 12s. People enjoyed our wonderful promo videos and we answered good questions about how much it will cost, where the site is located (conveniently close to several airports, ferry ports and international train station) and what else to expect.

The big group trip…
Frankie, Laurie, Jess, Klaus, Tom and Lara all went to Participation Island in Finland last month. We had a stall to talk about and get ideas for the camp. Lots of people already knew about Common Ground but many were excited to hear about our plans for the first time. At the stall people were encouraged to write down their memories of previous camps.

The favourite camp meal was banoffee pie for lots of people and many had enjoyed a rave in a forest. International friends taught people about friendship, rapping and different genders. Loads of people wrote down the Sauna as their favourite workshop. There were concerns about alcohol culture on British camps which we will discuss at our board meeting.

We also ran a game and did a shout out in the open mic session, look at how much people enjoyed it.