Dates

Alchemy 2019 will be Oct 3–6. Mark your calendars!

Ticket Sales! 

Ticket sales will be in three tiers: late Jul, mid Aug, and early Sep. Prices have yet to be determined; the ticket cap is at 2,000 with the possibility of adding more if volunteer sign-ups are over the top.

Deadlines

Jul 11: Public Squares Application

Want to be the center of attention? Remember the excitement of Shameless/Margaritaville: D20’s Debauchery Square? Or the majesty of 3 Old Men’s Spirit Square? Or whatever it was Camp Pretty Lights was doing down there?

Now’s your chance—apply to host a public square at Alchemy! The application form will close at 11:59 pm, Jul 11—today!

The cheat sheet is at http://bit.ly/2KcVl9M; the form is at http://bit.ly/2KiEKoB.

You can read more about public squares at http://alchemyburn.com/public-squares-project.
 

Jul 25–Aug 15: Alchemy Placement Registration

Your Beloved Placement Team™ does not yet know the exact footprint of the burn yet, i.e., over in the two fields of Alchemy last fall or at the other end with Euphoria just past. You may reasonably put “we liked our placement last time” and be sure that if it makes sense to do so we will pay attention to it.

The actual form will open Jul 25 and close Aug 15. 

Cheat sheet: http://bit.ly/2K2nO66 

Form: http://bit.ly/2KfX8yb 
 

Aug 2: Scholarship tickets

Rejoice! Alchemy will carry on the tradition of awarding scholarship tickets to community members who demonstrate a need for financial assistance in regards to acquiring a ticket. The 2019 Flashpoint Artists Initiative Events Committee has set aside *up to* 30 ticket for this event. The Deadline for all submissions is Aug 2, 2019.

The scholarship ticket program has two goals:

• Support some community members during difficult times and help them join us at the Burn.

• Foster artistic expression through the submissions our people will make.

We trust that you will be thoughtful about the goals of this program. We ask that you only apply if you *truly* are in need of support for that push to make it to the Burn. After all, this is a gift from all of us as a community to help each other out, not a free handout to be capitalized on.

Instructions at http://alchemyburn.com/scholarship-tickets 

Opportunities

July 13: The Alchemy Art Fundraiser

The Art Fundraiser will be July 13, 3:30-8 pm, at Atlanta Friends Meeting at 701 W Howard Ave, Decatur, Georgia 30030.

If you’ve never been to an Alchemy Art Fundraiser, you’re missing out on an afternoon/evening of fun—and art! All the hippies who have applied for art grants (more than 40 this year!) will set up their proposals like some really weird middle school science fair, and you get to give them money.

The way it works is simple: You buy a ticket ($10), with the option of leveling up your ticket purchase for extra fun swag. Every dollar you give goes to the artists, and you get to vote on where those dollars go by marking your ballot.

There’s also an art auction with some pretty phenomenal work by your fellow hippies. (See donation info below.)

As always, we need hippies to volunteer. Go sign up to help.

For more details, visit http://alchemyburn.com/artfundraiser

If you're on Facebook, make sure to head to the event page and indicate you're coming—then share with friends!

The venue is an 8 minute walk from the East Lake Marta Station, and the 123 bus has a stop at the corner of W Howard and Adair at the venue.

If you are driving, park in the lot provided. If the lot is full participants can park on either side of W Howard but we ask that they avoid parking in the neighborhoods nearby. 

Art Donation Info

We are trying something new this year! 50% of each sale will go to the buyer to vote for projects and 50% will go to the artist who donated the piece to vote for projects. The donating artist must be present or elect a representative who is present at the event to cast the votes. Otherwise, 100% will go to the buyer to vote with. Please email artfundraiser@alchemyburn.com if you are interested in donating!

Online Fundraiser

If you're unable to make the physical event or just want to throw more money at art, we will have an online fundraiser to help bring more art to Alchemy! The online fundraiser will run from Jul 16–22 at alchemyburn.com/art-fundraiser
 

Leadership Opportunities

Alchemy is in the process of luring hippies to their fate in leading the burn. Here’s a general form for expressing an interest:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpIPtyfAzmSbXemAFHa2VppYNGR6CEpz03ePO0TYkFp6aAtw/viewform

There are some specific job titles that we’re definitely looking for:

Info Department Assistant/Shadow: The info department lead doesn't have a webpage of its own. However, our fearsome Ollie needs an assistant, no experience necessary. 

Responsibilities include:

• coordinate all teams under info (budgets/volunteer schedules)

• update all media outlets of changes and upcoming events

• moderate facebook group 

• attend a weekly Event Committee meeting

Total time per week: about 5 hours, but could be more depending on an individual's interest

Tranquility Base: 

Want to lead the team to help the hippies find their way back to reality? Details at http://alchemyburn.com/teams/tranquilitybase

Alchemy Public Works (APW):

Want to be in charge of stuff? Like, lots of stuff? Details at http://alchemyburn.com/teams/publicworks

Announcements

The FAI Board of Directors has some very important announcements! First, we would like to welcome Dale Lyles to the Board. He was the sole applicant, ran unopposed, and won a magnificent victory! We’re very happy to have him here to help us in our efforts to continue making the Georgia Burns the best they can be, and we expect him to be a great addition to the team!

Your current Board is:

• Mary Robb
• Chad "Cinnamon" Jones
• Ryan King
• Luis Uribe
• Dale Lyles

We are also here to announce that Euphoria will no longer be an annual event, and that 2020 will not be one of those years. 

Our all-volunteer leadership has been working amazingly hard the last few years through some incredibly difficult transitions, and we can’t/won’t/wouldn’t ask them to pull double duty year in and year out. Holding a successful Euphoria after two different cancellations was a cause near and dear to all of our hearts, but now we have to look at our people and resources and step back so our veterans can rest and new people can be trained and developed. We would like to heartily thank Heather "Hbomb" Jensen and Jamie "Uber" Ouderkirk for their incredible work in leading Euphoria and making it such a successful event. 

The more that you, the Community, gets engaged, steps up, and works to grow the events, the sooner and more often we can bring Euphoria back better than ever! In the meanwhile, a year of focusing on a single Burn will allow our volunteers to get some much needed rest between events and also allow us, the Board, to work on some organizational activities that have been put on the back burner (pun intended) the last couple years while we worked on immediate priority items. 

If our Volunteer Leadership list grows large enough and the demand is there then we will resume in 2021. If not, then we will continue to focus on our larger event, Alchemy, and work on making it the best in the Southeast.

David Stabler has volunteered to be our Event Lead for Alchemy and will be resigning his non-voting position as a member of the BoD in order to serve in that role. He is accepting applications now for leadership positions. 

This is your opportunity to step up, and help out, and be a part of the future of the events! We need not only experienced Leads but also Assistant Leads where you can train and learn the job under the guide of one of our more experienced Leads. Below is the Event Committee and the open Team Lead slots under them as well as a link to apply. If you have already discussed a prospective team lead role with David or the EC, you don't need to fill out the form.

Link to apply: https://forms.gle/dx8s3Kej9EVJd8aHA

Deadline to apply: Jul 14

Asst Event Lead: Chas Nabi

Ops Lead: Brian Marino

• Effigy:
• Lamplighters:
• LNT:
• Parking:
• Public Works (APW):
• Teardown:
• Temple:
• Traffic:

Safety Lead: Cat McEarchern

• Burn Perimeter:
• Fire Safety:
• Rangers:
• Sound:
• Tranquility Base:

Info Lead: Ollivander "Ollie" Wheeler

• Connexus:
• Education:
• Placement:
• Tech Team:
• Volunteer Coordinators:

Art Dept Lead: Totoro/Katie Kat

• Art Fundraiser:
• Art Team:
• Conclave:
• Center Camp:
• DMV:

** Org structure and team names are subject to change as the Event Committee structure their departments

Burner Tips

Here are two tips in one!
You know how the mowed meadows on which we set up our tents have spiky stubble just waiting to poke holes in our tent floors and our delicate hippie feet?
You can prevent those problems by underlaying your tent with (relatively) inexpensive indoor/outdoor rugs. They’ll protect the tent floor from the stubble while giving your feet a smooth, soft surface to walk on.
My tent is 10x14, so four 5x7 rugs are a perfect fit. For a burn or two I taped them together with gaffer’s tape, but that’s not really necessary.
Transporting these things can be problematic, so here’s a solution: two bungee 18” cords to wrap around the ends, and a 24” bungee to connect them, forming a handle. Voila! Easy storage and easy handling!

Profiles

A True Confession

by A. Burner

Tell the hippies who you are.

I and my fellow campers are experienced burners, leadership even, and we were bringing a new fun camp to Euphoria 2019 Radical Resilience. I registered us for placement and all was well. We wanted to village with Camp [redacted], so I put that in the registration.

About a month before Euphoria, our Benevolent Placement Overlord™ asked all the Theme Camp Organizers to double-check our space requirements. The placement map had been released, and I thought our placement was a little unfortunate. [Ed. note: It was, for several reasons.] I emailed our Benevolent Placement Overlord™ to see if we could be moved. I even suggested an empty space, which I thought was helpful. [Ed. note: It was.]

He was very reasonable about it. He said that changes were possible up until he had to recreate the map for printing. 

So did he move you?

He did. Not only that, but he noticed that I had asked for a space only 20x20 feet—for eight campers and a bunch of equipment. He wondered if that were correct and of course it was not. I quickly did a site plan and figured out we actually needed 40x40.

Well good—all’s well that ends well, right?

After he moved us, my co-campers decided they’d rather be closer to the Effigy, so I emailed our Benevolent Placement Overlord™ again and asked if he could move us again.

Did he?

Yes, but he did point out that we were moving next to the two loudest sound camps in the burn. That was fine.

So, all’s well that…

Then my co-campers realized that we were moving next to the two loudest sound camps in the burn.

You didn’t.

I did. I emailed our Benevolent Placement Overlord™ again and asked to be moved back. 

What was his response?

His email was, and I quote, “I laugh and laugh and laugh.” He moved us back.

Did you know at the time that every time your Benevolent Placement Overlord™ moved you, he had to go back and renumber the street addresses of every camp on every street affected, then change those addresses in the database, then double-check the driving directions for every camp on those streets to see if they were still accurate (because of left/right issues depending on the turns), and then reprogram the calculated results in the database fields if they weren’t?

Oh god. 

Yeah.

We owe him a brownie, don’t we?

So what did you learn through this experience?

Always make a site plan, even if you’re asking for a tiny space. [Ed. note: instructions here.] If you’re villaging with another camp, make sure you’re all asking for the same kind of placement. Also, decide on a name for your village before you register. Make sure that you specify which of your placement issues is the most important, for example, next to your friends or centrally located. Believe your Benevolent Placement Overlord™ when he tells you there are no trees.