Three Principles.
Burning Man has their 10 Principles. Last year, I refried that to make what I whimsically called 6.5 principles of Burning Flipside. It was really trying to start from one elementary principle and derive all the rest. It was a valiant effort, but the ultimate result was a bit awkward.
Awhile back, I was meeting with the rest of the LLC, and we were hammering out our "Company Bylaws", and expanded our "Purpose" out to three main headings. We decided we wanted to include the Principles in there, too, but didn't feel right about taking my 6.5 from last year. I'm not sure who suggested it, but we started the discussion up from the "Purposes" and branched into Principles, and ended up with three that really seem "elemental", in that most of the important "burner principles" outlined elsewhere can be derived from them fairly smoothly, and these don't really roll up any tighter than what they are. They compliment and support each other, but don't obviously imply each other.
With the 10, most of us recognized the number as very arbitrary and the principles as lacking in many ways. With the 6.5, I was never quite satisfied, and asked for (and received) a lot of help in refining and redefining them (and thank you all, you know who you are). With these three, I really feel done with them. I'm sure there are places where they could be polished or expounded but I'm not really seeking feedback here. We could also grouse about what a bunch of terrible hypocrites we are for not following our principles, but I don't think that makes them any less valid as an expression of what we're TRYING to do.
So, here they are.
Self Expression: Our events foster an environment of creative self-expression, where participants feel supported to honestly express their inner selves, through artistic creation, performance, and in their social interactions.
Accountability: Our events foster an environment of personal accountability, where we hold ourselves responsible for our own actions, and take personal responsibility for meeting our own needs, for the event itself, and for the event's impact on the world at large.
Cooperation: Our events foster an environment of cooperation, where participants work together to resolve potential conflicts between one another, to help mediate conflicts between others, and to create art, performance, and social spaces on a larger scale than one person could alone.
Awhile back, I was meeting with the rest of the LLC, and we were hammering out our "Company Bylaws", and expanded our "Purpose" out to three main headings. We decided we wanted to include the Principles in there, too, but didn't feel right about taking my 6.5 from last year. I'm not sure who suggested it, but we started the discussion up from the "Purposes" and branched into Principles, and ended up with three that really seem "elemental", in that most of the important "burner principles" outlined elsewhere can be derived from them fairly smoothly, and these don't really roll up any tighter than what they are. They compliment and support each other, but don't obviously imply each other.
With the 10, most of us recognized the number as very arbitrary and the principles as lacking in many ways. With the 6.5, I was never quite satisfied, and asked for (and received) a lot of help in refining and redefining them (and thank you all, you know who you are). With these three, I really feel done with them. I'm sure there are places where they could be polished or expounded but I'm not really seeking feedback here. We could also grouse about what a bunch of terrible hypocrites we are for not following our principles, but I don't think that makes them any less valid as an expression of what we're TRYING to do.
So, here they are.
Self Expression: Our events foster an environment of creative self-expression, where participants feel supported to honestly express their inner selves, through artistic creation, performance, and in their social interactions.
Accountability: Our events foster an environment of personal accountability, where we hold ourselves responsible for our own actions, and take personal responsibility for meeting our own needs, for the event itself, and for the event's impact on the world at large.
Cooperation: Our events foster an environment of cooperation, where participants work together to resolve potential conflicts between one another, to help mediate conflicts between others, and to create art, performance, and social spaces on a larger scale than one person could alone.