Phil M0OFX

The thing I would most like to understand about #emfcamp is how the organisers and attendees have built such a good culture. I've volunteered for events half the size where the culture boils down to "nobody cares about anyone but themselves", and EMF is a breath of fresh air.

I'd love to understand it so it could hopefully be distilled into a guidebook and duplicated elsewhere.

Just more events where people feel safe to be themselves.

Edit: I don't mean just vol' culture, attendee culture too

Jun 7, 2024 at 8:06amWeb
Show threadMexJun 7, 2024
@philpem A big one is how little you need to volunteer to be apreciated. Early access to tickets and a free meal for a three hour shift. Why would you not?
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 7, 2024
@Mexicals Absolutely, and I've never run into another event where speakers are also considered volunteers. I learned that *completely by surprise* this year.
But it's the attendee culture too... and maybe that's the team culture trickling down from the top.
Someone said "I can't think of another festival where I'd feel safe leaving my laptop in my tent" and that just seems to encompass it.
Show threadMexJun 7, 2024
@philpem Last time I got distracted unpacking my car and left the door wide open with my laptop on the seat for a least an hour. No issues at all, was mostly supprised someone didn't close the door for me.
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 7, 2024
@Mexicals I was sat on the ground with a pile of tent parts and rapidly receding sunlight on the Thursday, and found myself with one person offering help ("I've put these together before!) and another offering a floodlight. I can't imagine that happening at any other event.
Show threadTerry IpJun 7, 2024
@philpem @Mexicals me and a friend had our head torches on muddling our way through helping someone put their tent up (which none of us, including the tent owner, had ever set up before and no instructions available) in the dark on the Thursday in accessible camping. We had a fun puzzle to solve, they got a tent to sleep in that night. Everybody wins.
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 7, 2024
@terryip @Mexicals I almost asked if it was me, until I realised you said accessible camping and I was up at ECHQ!
I may never forgive the friend who loaned me the tent for tearing the instruction sheet out of the tent bag...
Show threadDuck Marshall 🚲Jun 7, 2024
@Mexicals @philpem high likelihood at least one person decided not to in case your keys were in there and you were subsequently locked out
Show threadMexJun 7, 2024
@marshant @philpem good point.
Show threadGraham KJun 7, 2024
@philpem Something that struck me is that there seems to be a default assumption of competence - which begets a strong sense of being trusted to do (whatever).
Show threadJonathan HoggJun 8, 2024

@gklyne @philpem think that assumption that you know what you are doing or can figure it out flows from the fact that *everyone* in orga is also a volunteer and thus also working it out as they go along!

I think that's the real secret of EMF and I heard someone at the festival describe it as "porous”: the membrane between attendee and organiser/speaker/artist is permeable and people flow backwards and forwards through it.

Show threadGraham KJun 8, 2024
@jonathanhogg @philpem Yes, very much this, I think. (I’m reminded in this of how the IETF operates.)
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 8, 2024
@jonathanhogg @gklyne That's definitely another aspect - people move from attendee to orga and back, and that's just fine. In other spheres I've volunteered in, if someone moves from orga to attendee there's an automatic assumption they must have done something wrong. Which leads to people burning out but occupying seats because people don't want to see their friends shunned.
Porous do-ocracy is probably a pretty good description.
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 8, 2024
@jonathanhogg @gklyne At the same time it feels weird (as a speaker) to be mentioned in the same breath as "organisers" and "artists". I'm just a guy who has a nerdy hobby and stood up on stage because *maybe* someone else has the same hobby and thinks they're the only one too.
Maybe I get to meet someone I can nerd out with, maybe we both get some connection out of it. For me that's what it's all about, being (or even just feeling) alone sucks.
Show threadJonathan HoggJun 8, 2024
@philpem @gklyne It’s all sharing though: speaking or making, you’re exposing a part of yourself and giving something to the community
Show threadPhil M0OFXJun 8, 2024
@gklyne You're definitely onto something there, there's definitely a trust thing. At least for me there's a subconscious "I know what it's like when someone breaks your trust and I don't want to be that guy for them".