Christina
Date of stay 12 April - 17 April 2015


Positives

• Inclusive, welcoming and safe
• Great food
• Beautiful scenery
• Focus on practice (i.e. implementing infrastructure) with some success achieved by camp in short stay - power in the form of a generator and research for hexayurt construction materials. 
• Ad hoc discussions around fixed community v nomadic/porous community and infrastructure

<-- :)


Areas possibly needing further thought/improvement

• Clarifying the costs involved and what are voluntary/mandatory contributions <-- #subfinance
• Clarifying the work involved to contribute to the project - this is very much a work in progress rather than a ready set up infrastructure, which is great, but needs to be clear that people are expected to contribute with their time and effort. It’s probably not ideal for people who want to spend a lot of time chilling out. Ideally the day/week should be split into project work/personal time. <-- #subtime
• Setting roles and responsibilities and day/week structure at the outset <-- #roles and #subtime
• Project strongly driven by project founder which has positives and negatives <-- #roles and #flocking also #keeper

#cht4c
Possible approach for next CHT

• Make it very focused on one practical project - build a hexayurt <-- was indeed tried, somewhat failed because less people showed up + financial crunch. but we made headway in #materials research!
• Perhaps one/two main discussion topics?: <-- #vision
• Stable/closed community v nomadic/porous “community” 
• and how to take the CHT idea further?
• Suggest fixed dates so everyone arrives and leaves at the same time <-- #flocking

#subfinance:

• Outline expected costs (including purchase of materials) and what these cover but also welcome donations (some people may donate to a specific project without attending)

#roles:

• I think you would need to get at least 6 people involved for the next camp in order to cover tasks and still allow people personal time
• Also discuss roles and responsibilities on the practicalities of running the camp and break down of tasks - cooking, cleaning, rubbish, water, camp set up, camp set down, food shopping

#subtime

• Discuss day/week structure and time allocated for project/personal time

#workflow #planning #flocking:

• Have a pre project virtual meet up to go over the above and make sure everyone’s clear on what’s expected

Possible approach for day breakdown <-- #subtime
This will really depend on the people there, some people work best very late at night and some people in the morning so this is just a suggestion 

A typical day may possibly break down as follows:

9am - 10am     Personal time - get up, wash etc
10am - 10.30   huddle and briefly discuss any issues from the previous day and what is expected in current day
10.30 - 11        carry out allotted tasks (practical ones to do with running the camp, cooking/cleaning etc)
11am - 12pm   breakfast
12 - 12.30        carry out allotted tasks
1 - 5                 Project work (practical and research)
5 - 7                 Personal time
7 - 7.30            carry out allotted tasks 
7.30 - 9            Dinner
9 - 9.30            Group reflection on days event to feed into improvements for the next day
9.30 - 12          Personal time/ or participate in group activities/discussions

Again this is just a suggestion and would be discussed and agreed with those planning on attending



--------------------------------

• It would be good to get a few large whiteboards outlining: <-- #workflow
• day’s structure <-- #subtime
• roles and responsibilities and issues that arise <-- #roles
• These should be placed around the camp where they can be seen by everyone
• Would suggest that: <-- #timeline #agenda
• Day 1 is focused on camp set up and briefing, relaxing and getting to know each other and
• Day 7 is focused on camp set down and debriefing, relaxing and saying goodbye
• which leaves 5 days to work on the project/research which should be enough. 
• It’s important to have a clear structure to the week/day so that people know what they are doing and what is expected of them and how they can contribute and when they can relax.  <-- #subtime
• It’s also important to build in a constant feedback loop so things can be improved as we learn to work together. <-- #workflow #review
• Critical comments should be kept to a minimum during the day but should be raised in a positive non conflictive way in the group reflection <-- #sociodynamics:

Discussion that stuck with me from the camp
The idea of a nomadic/porous community as opposed to a more stable/closed community is something that made an impression on me. I think I like the idea that anyone is welcome. However you would have to have a very strong structure/rules/feedback loop to support this. <-- #postcommunity

#vision
Perhaps CHT’s vision needs thinking through a bit more as to exactly what it’s trying to achieve. For me it’s clearly some sort of community, especially in this phase.
Perhaps at the moment it is about creating temporary camps to work on the idea of providing cheap infrastructure to facilitate individuals to do what they want in life without having to work full time in unsatisfying jobs. <-- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good
However it is still very much a work in progress. I guess it was easier when there was a permanent physical space that provided ready made infrastructure, housing, water, power etc. Now it’s migrated to something a little different and much more labour intensive.



My own motivations in being involved and what impact it’s had on my outlook
Personally I was attracted to CHT because of its tech focus. Although I’m not a coder or hacker I have worked in software development as a project manager for nearly 20 years. I have also had an interest in communes and what works and doesn’t. <-- #people #cbr

My overall experience of CHT camp was positive although as outlined above I think structure and vision are important. 

I would question whether it is necessary/advisable to buy land in order to move this project forward, I think the important thing is to clarify the vision and get a group of people willing to attend the temporary camps to develop the idea further. 
<-- Without land:
    * you spend money for it anyway
    * every camp needs to negotiate a place to stay, has to pack and unpack, move around, etc
    * difficult to have #storage
    * difficult to build anything that would last (semi-permanent)
    * [...]
So #landhunt must stay a top priority.