Evaluation of the Radical Contact Summer Gathering 2015 - -
Results of the whole group evaluation meeting Saturday 15 August - -
What worked well - -
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Regular meals, quality of the food!!! - -
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Sleeping, especially for the parents helping each other - -
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Venue - -
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Quick communication by e-mail, introductions - -
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Pick up and travel coordination - -
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Amazing group of people, more diversity than at previous gatherings, having experienced people there - -
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Love and good intentions of the organisers - -
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Contact, the beginning of the group process - -
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Child inclusivity, KontaKids, childcare - -
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Restorative circles, support group / awareness team, newbie table - -
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Self-organisation, implication of the group, shared responsibility - -
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Proposal process, the schedule and its visualisation - -
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That the schedule had free space in it, a day in the middle with the free time, the possibility to drop in/out, the early start & end of the day / the scheduled activities - -
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Interesting themes and processes, labs, playful jams - -
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Spontaneity, many ideas and contributions - -
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Real life diversity - -
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Opportunities for different voices to be heard - -
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Liberty, freedom, experiment; it is easier to observe one’s own limitations when there is less pressure from outside. The safer space made it possible to confront ourselves and the social structures that act through us - -
What could be improved - -
In advance - -
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How to attract more people from different backgrounds, to have a more divers body of participants? How can we bring our ideas into other contexts? - -
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How to involve more people in the preparation before the event? - -
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Making a survey in advance about people’s needs and wishes - -
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Mixed feelings about the introductions by email in advance of the meeting - -
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More transparency during preparation (e.g. about what food there will be so that people can buy what there isn’t, for example fruit) - -
At the beginning of the meeting - -
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Communication – wish to create more inclusiveness and planning right from the start - -
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Support for cleaning from the beginning - -
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Group to get together at the beginning to organise emotional support - -
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Base groups should be emotional support groups, not have other functions (decision-making, political discussion…) - -
Communication - -
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Wall for shared terminology - -
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Include sex-positive presence - -
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Communication between the different “organs” of the gathering (organisation, newbie table, etc) - -
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More clarity and transparency, for example regarding the working of base groups - -
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Better communication of responsibilities of the tasks coordinators, too many plans and shifts - -
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Improve the general assembly, process of spreading the information - -
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Proposals are a bit overwhelming, difficult to decide - -
Schedule - -
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Make workshops and discussions shorter, compact, with clear ending and beginning (and not in the lunch time) - -
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Free time in small portions, to give time to digest - -
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Kids’ schedule - -
Content - -
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More playfulness, more lightness, not only problem-focused activities - -
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More movement & somatic exploration - -
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More action, less discussion - -
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Silent day - -
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More inclusion (e.g. sex-positive presence) - -
Connection and focus - -
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How could there be time for the group to develop processes? How to integrate this into the structure. How to stay on a common track? - -
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To have a shared topic for RC. To have a clear focus, to go deeper into one thing, explore it for many days, from different points of view - -
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To have an ongoing workshop throughout the week, on contact improvisation or some political issue - -
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Ongoing groups on certain topics - -
Self-definition - -
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The project should be more defined, more specific. If we define as self-organised we should put more emphasis on practising self-organisation, this means we should also self-organise cooking. Political definition, how we define the activism aspect of RC etc. - -
And… - -
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Fans - -
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Salad and fruits - -
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Sweets - -
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Improve the working conditions of the organisers - -
Evaluation by the kids and parents workgroup - -
What worked well - -
– To have meetings with the parents - -
– Non-parents helped a lot, more in the end of the week - -
– Childcare with several children with one parent and non-parents - -
– And lots more things worked well! - -
What could be improved - -
– Welcome non-parents to meetings about children - -
– Explain more how children and relations to children contribute to RC - -
– Make the introduction for non-parents wanting to get to know children more clear - -
– Collection of ideas for child inclusive games and exercises, so that workshop leaders can make workshops more inclusive more easily - -
– Have child activities besides dancing, for example baking, body painting, and so on - -
– Prepare children’s activities in advance of the meeting (collect ideas and materials) - -
– If possible, have a child room for playing - -
– Plan all this for different age groups - -
– Split the morning and afternoon into two slots with a break in between at the same time for everyone. Children’s activities should be maximum 1 ½ hours long. That would also make it easier for people who want to do childcare for a shorter period. Of course long workshops could take two slots. - -
– Make children’s activities and childcare regular duties just like cleaning etc. - -
– Have all children sleep near each other, if they want. Book the rooms behind dance space A at Tokalynga for children and parents. - -
– Have snacks (”mellanmål”) every morning and afternoon - -
– Encourage parents to send their children’s food needs with their application (most parents tend to assume that they have to arrange their children’s special needs themselves). - -
– Make a clearer visual schedule and a clearer structure of how the days will look like for children. Maybe make a separate schedule for children? - -
– Short obligatory meetings - -
– Always take notes at meetings and make them visible afterwards - -
– Publish a policy on children’s and parents inclusion so people who are interested in applying know what it will be like - -
– A clearer decision making process - -
– Publish safety exercises, for example the privilege and the Monday morning class - -
Future meetings - -
E and KL will continue think about children’s and parents inclusion. More people are welcome, especially non-parents! - -