Get Involved

Whatever your background, there is a role for you. We need people to help with the physical set up of the camp to make it as sustainable and low impact as possible. We need help promoting the camp and spreading the word, performing at a gig or fundraising event, facilitating workshops, offering legal support for activists, handing out flyers, and promoting the camp through the media. The list goes on... there are plenty of opportunities to contribute your skills and to learn new ones.

Invite your friends to Climate Camp '09 with the Facebook event or follow us on Twitter. 

Email us at info(at)climatecamp.org.au to let the organisers know the kind of skills and time you have to offer.

Here are some ideas for ways you can get involved:

• Pass a motion or statement in your union / organisation / community group endorsing Climate Camp 09.
• Join one of the working groups helping to organise different aspects of the camp – logistics, communications and outreach, programs and more.
• Promote the camp at your events or stalls.
• Invite someone already organising for Climate Camp to come and chat with your group.
• Come to a climate camp non-violent direct action training.
• Organise a fundraiser for the camp in your area.
• Sign up for the newsletter on our website (to be launched soon).
• Come to one of the events of forums about climate change, coal, jobs and direct action being organised in Sydney and regionally.
• Organise People in Your Area! Coming to Climate Camp as an organised group will make for a more enjoyable and uplifting experience of the camp. We've adopted a simple, decentralised system of organising the camping, known as the Neighbourhood system.

How we make decisions

Climate Camp 09 is organised non-hierarchically. Most of the work gets done within working groups and decisions are made by consensus where possible.

Current working groups are:

• Communications (outreach, networking, media) media[at]climatecamp.org.au
• Action and Programme (organising what happens at the camp – meetings, workshops and action) program[at]climatecamp.org.au
• Site (organising the site where the the camp happens – marquees, water, cooking gear, toilets, waste...) info[at]climatecamp.org.au

The whole collective meets approximately once a month. Each working group also meets during this meeting, and as often as it needs to independently.

Working groups are trusted to make decisions autonomously, but big decisions (for example, spending a large amount of money, or a decision that will have big repercussions on the look and feel of the camp) are taken to meetings where the whole collective can discuss it, make suggestions and raise any concerns.

For these discussions to go smoothly, working groups need to bring clear proposals and any background information to the meeting.

Consensus

Consensus brings together the best from everyone's ideas. This ensures that all opinions, ideas and concerns are taken into account. Decisions are reached in a dialogue between equals, who take each other seriously and who recognise each other's equal rights.

If we all actively agree to the final decision we are much more committed to turning it into reality.

The Consensus Process

• Introduce the issue, provide clarification and define question(s) to be decided.
• Gather initial thoughts and reactions. What are the issues and concerns?
• Collect ideas and proposals for solving the problem and write them down.
• Discuss the ideas- What are the pros and cons? Modify some proposals, eliminate others and develop a shortlist of favourites.
• Look for a way to bring together the best qualities of the remaining ideas. Try to create a proposal out of the ideas you have left.
• Discuss the pros and cons of the proposal- make sure everybody has a chance to contribute. Are there any friendly amendments to the proposal that make it more acceptable to the group?
• Test for agreement:
  1. Are there any major objections that you can't overcome?
  2. Acknowledge minor objections.
  3. Check for agreement: Do we have consensus? Is there any dissent?
• Implement the decision.

If we are unable to reach consensus, we will revisit the decision later in the meeting. If after two attempts we are still unable to reach consensus, we will vote and make the decision on a 75% majority. This is a last resort.