Welp, that "Solarpunk Infra Buildathon Festival" notion has blown up, glad to know that resonates with other people and not just me :)

Ye should know that I'm far too Executively Defunct to organise anything resembling this so it's absolutely something one of ye will have to arrange. Pick somewhere in the EU with a no-fly route from Ireland and I might even join in 😅

@seachaint the problem is you need actual qualified and vetted people

Otherwise it's just like mission trips where they spend a bunch of money to fly teens with no skills to Africa to "build houses" which end up busted and terrible when they could have just given that money to locals who know what they're doing

We don't need to bus random volunteers to places to do jobs like this, we need to fund qualified people with skills to do this kind of work in their own neighborhoods. Installing insulation and repairing houses isn't something just anyone should be doing. Even if their heart is in the right place you just get that Ned Flanders house that nobody should actually live in.

@seachaint

I love this idea

@seachaint It's not impossible to do. Churches did many of these things on a continual basis in years past (and probably still do, but I don't know as I'm functionally apostate at this point). There's nothing to say a secular group can't do these things.

For a lot of that it doesn't make sense to have it on a drop-in basis, though. Transit is only really useful if it's reliable on a continual basis rather than being a one-shot thing.

For the things that do make sense on a one-shot basis, some training is needed too.

A requirement for lasting change and contrast to Burning Man seems to be lasting organization, rather than a week of madness.

@seachaint the groups that do this kind of stuff (besides Habitat) are pretty under the radar. There are #mutualAid groups all over - you just have to find them.

When I could afford to donate money to groups I used to support NorCal Resist. They are the #MutualAid group I know about in my area - there may be others. #NorCalResist

https://www.norcalresist.org/programs.html

@seachaint

A version of this has been going on in Portland for quite some time.
https://cityrepair.org/

@seachaint

Service instead of self indulgence?

You will not get the private jets landing for that nor the RV convoy.

@seachaint
I had the ideas a couple of years ago to go to some isolated run down places, like rural Europe has some candidates.
And help them upgrade an Area/Hackerspace/community house.
Goal is to not rip out all the infrastructure every year, but leave infra and have a somewhat summer camp.

I never really followed up on it.

Basicly places like this exist, like @calafou
https://calafou.org/web/index.php/sobre-calafou
They would be ideal candidates for certain Workshops and to acquire certain skills.

@seachaint I love this!

It's like what various groups have done around the world, especially following climate disasters. For instance, a mutual aid group assembled quickly in (so-called) New Orleans (Turtle Island) following Hurricane Katrina. Some friends of mine organized bioremediation there. Others rebuilt homes, etc.

@seachaint

"That we are not together.

That is the greatest lie ever told."
SearingTruth

@seachaint I find myself intrigued by the territory-oriented attempts like https://ecosystemguild.org/ & https://www.ecosystemrestorationcommunities.org/

Dreaming of (solarpunking?) an old van/truck to help with such things

@seachaint

I approve this message and wish to sign up for your emails newslist. Will buy tickets to this thing as soon as we all decide what it is, when it's happening, and where it's going.

@seachaint I give out free seeds of edible native plants (eastern North America, zone 9-6). Previously, I was just giving it to people locally but this fall I will be distributing to people on here if they want.

Asimina triloba
Diospyros virginiana
Physalis grisea
Boehmeria cylindrica

These are the main ones I distribute but I have others.

@seachaint we can't even get leftists to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID

we are so far from any of that, as an immunocompromised person, that it's nearly impossible to imagine *because* those are the hard things that should be happening but people won't do the *easy* things right NOW to immediately improve the lives of everyone

@seachaint

This brings back a memory: as a teenager, going to a building which I think was some kind of shelter for homeless people, and repainting the walls of the rooms. A bunch of us all did it, organised by the youth group we were part of. My old cassette deck had paint splats on it for ever after!

@seachaint I think something like this is doable but as a series of rolling, local community events .

Make it a goal that something like this is always going on. Have communities log events. Create bottom-to-top-to-bottom communication to relay resources.