Camp for Climate Action

Meetings

The Story So Far:

First organising meeting in Manchester, January 14 2006

The meeting took on responsibility for organising the camp, in six working groups: Site Practicalities, Safety & Wellbeing, Facilitation, Networking & Outreach, Workshops & Activities, and Finance & Fundraising. For security reasons, a closed group is working on finding a site for the camp, which will be announced in due course.

The aims of the camp were discussed. The aims of the camp are:

• Be a place were we explore grassroots solutions to climate change through workshops, skill-sharing, education, debate and entertainment. The camp will also bring together people already campaigning on this and related issues.
• Take direct action against the root causes of climate change. Yes we need to change light bulbs and stop flying to Spain for the weekend, but we also need to act collectively. This is the only way to stop the actions of those vested interests that watch the planet burn while counting the money they make from the fire.
• Demonstrate and live the alternatives by bringing diverse groups and individuals together to live in an ecologically sustainable, cooperative way. The camp will aim to be as carbon neutral as possible and all energy, except perhaps gas for cooking, will come from renewable sources.
• Be a space for celebration, for kids and families, a place to socialise with friends old and new. Western civilisation has tried to answer the eternal question of what it is to be human by surrounding itself in a cocoon of objects, an endless stream of meaningless stuff. This is a chance to show the opposite, that less can be so much more.

Organising meeting in Nottingham, February 11-12

Discussion of the mandate of the land group; agreed by the gathering. The land group will send a report of their progress to each gathering. Important to strike a balance between workshops and activities in such a way that neither jeopardised the other, but rather reinforced and strengthened each other. No decision was taken on how to do this. It was reaffirmed that the Camp for Climate Action would be a space in which direct action will take place, and that publicity should reflect this, without sensationalising. The ‘key messages’ for publicity for the camp were agreed.

Finance group procedures were agreed, finance group empowered to use its discretion in whom to take money from. Agreed that no profit would be made on site, and no charge for stalls; all cafés would be integrated into a system of providing food, in conjunction with neighbourhood kitchens.

Organising meeting in Oxford, March 11-12

Detailed brainstorm of different sorts of actions that we wanted to see taking place (both in affinity groups and on a larger scale), to help a new actions group. Discussion of timeline for the camp. We want as much of the infrastructure as possible set up before Saturday August 26, and as many people as possible to be involved in set-up. Workshops and activities would start on August 26, with clear-up and take-down starting on Sunday Sept 4.

Organising meeting in Leeds, April 8-9

The Action Support working group was formed. The purpose of this group is to support autonomous actions and at least one big action with a range of styles and debriefs.

Date of big action: a list of pros and cons of having the big action on the first Saturday, on the second Saturday, or on a weekday were discussed and fed back to the Action Support group. The date of the big action which will be decided on at the May 13 -14 meeting.

Organising meeting in Bristol, May 13-14

In-depth discussion about what would be good before, at and after the camp, (Outcomes). Communications strategy proposal presented in order for working groups to think over. To be decided @ London. Mass Action Day decided on= Thursday 31st Aug Discussion and agreement on 11pm weekday curfew/power-down. Relaxed slightly on w/e. Important that camp is inclusive to all and a space to come together to achieve ‘important stuff’. Not a festival. Finance group issuing £10 vouchers which give funds to camp in advance, and allows easy access to the camp.

Organising meeting in London, June 10-11

The Workshops and Activities Group presented the beginnings of the camp programme - it's on track and happening, with lots of interesting workshop offers and exciting entertainment lined up.

We decided to hold the camp in Megawatt Valley, 15 miles east of Leeds. Megawatt Valley is a ten mile stretch home to 3 coal fired power stations, with the biggest of them (DRAX) being the largest single source of Carbon Dioxide emissions in Britain.

It is now almost certain that we will have to occupy a site as our search for rented land has not succeeded. We had a constructive session outlining the legal situation - squatting is legal, you can't be arrested for squatting or being present on squatted land. We brainstormed concerns relating to occupying a camp site and came up with solutions and action points for most of them. The land group was mandated to continue to work on the location and to come up with a plan for how we can best occupy it. There was a productive session working out how we envisage the neighbourhood system to work and drawing up a brief for neighbourhood hosts - we are hoping to get feedback on our suggestions by the next meeting. We have about 8 confirmed neighbourhoods, other groups are interested.

A detailed proposal for how communication on site will work was passed and the communications group was given the go ahead to source the necessary equipment.

Organising meeting in Scotland, July

Media policy: journalists allowed on site at a designated time only as part of a guided tour and clearly marked as journos by a flag or similar.

Dog policy: Don't bring them! If you really must bring a dog then contact facilitation[at]climatecamp.org.uk for our dog policy. Any dogs that have not been registered will be turned away.

Scottish neighbourhood planned. Scottish organising meetings every two weeks from now, starting on Sat 22 July in Glasgow. Contact reshape-glasgow[at]riseup.net to get involved.