Have you been affected? Has anyone you know been affected?

Ever found yourself shouting at the news whenever the Government’s plan to “save” the economy is brought up?

Ever wondered whether the people making up this plan have actually given any thought to the impact it’ll have?

Ever wanted to make your voice heard and do something about it? [Other than complaining to the like-minded… fun as that is]

People, your chance is now.

On Tuesday 5th February an open letter was sent out in the Guardian to everyone who answers ‘yes’ to these questions. On 22ndJune, people from all walks of life will gather at Central Hall, Westminster to coordinate the wide-spread opposition to the Con-Dem Governments austerity program – from Trade Unions, MPs and economists, through journalists, writers and campaigners all the way to that bloke down the road who just wants to make the world a better place:

“This is a call to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government. With some 80% of austerity measures still to come, and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, we are calling a People’s Assembly Against Austerity to bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice. We aim to develop a strategy for resistance to mobilise millions of people against the Con Dem government.The assembly will provide a national forum for anti-austerity views which, while increasingly popular, are barely represented in parliament. A People’s Assembly can play a key role in ensuring that this uncaring government faces a movement of opposition broad enough and powerful enough to generate successful co-ordinated action, including strike action. The assembly will be ready to support co-ordinated industrial action and national demonstrations against austerity, if possible synchronising with mobilisations across Europe. The People’s Assembly Against Austerity will meet at Central Hall, Westminster, on 22 June.”
People’s Assembly

How would you like to go and represent not only yourself, but the District Fellows Movement and Woodcraft Folk as a delegate?

If you think this is something you want to do, you can book here

Email Ellie Ferguson and Ctte at affiliations@spanthatworld.com to let them know you’re going, and maybe even pick up some DF publicity material to entice more wonderful people to join us while you’re at it!

You’ll get your booking and travel costs reimbursed if you let them know beforehand (unless you have a penchant for travelling first class, bubbly and all…). Catching the bus, travelling off-peak and booking in advance are all ways you can get there for less because, let’s face it, who wants to give privatised public services any more money than you have to?

You should also drop a line to Tom Dunnill on 07976952740 or at tomdunnill@gmail.com to meet up with representatives from other parts of Woodcraft.

Check out my go at designing a badge over there on the right. Does that inspire you to have a go? Because it should. These badges are gonna be printed this summer. They’ll be sold for a reasonable price at DF Camp and Venturer Camp.

All you need to do to design a badge for DFs is follow this link for design specifications. Your design can be anything you like as long as it has something to do with DFs and supports Woodcraft Folk’s aims and principles.

What if badges aren’t for me?

This year we are finally gonna print those tempoary tattoos we’ve been talking about for ages. These designs will be printed onto an A4 sheet so no bigger than A6 please.

Here’s my design – why not have a go and see if you can come up with something better?

Send designs for both badges and tattoos to Louise either using facebook, or using communications@spanthatworld.com.

The deadline for tattoos is the 28th June and the badges design is the 5th July. Get a design in by then and it may well be sold at DF Camp!

The PARTY centre is putting the ‘party’  back into PARTY and needs YOUR help! Yes, YOU.

Politically Active Revolutionary Thinking Youth is a DF project that’s fallen by the wayside, but no longer! With your help, we can transform PARTY into a hot spring, nay, a gushing geyser of political education and ideas to change the world. And, yes, party as we do it.

We’re going to be hosting workshops, training, and debates, and fostering discussion on topics as diverse as feminism, Scottish independence, and the nature of freedom. We’ll also be helping to host the DF Campaign Day. Expect direct action, wide games, political parties (the fun kind, not the Tory-Labour kind), and more.

Volunteers needed to run workshops, help with logistics, decorate the centre, contact NGOs, politicians, and talking heads, and organise the PARTY party. If you want to help and can make it to Venturer camp, 3 – 11th August, e-mail ellie-ferguson@live.co.uk or message me on Facebook.

Book Now

Venturer Camp is now less than 3 months away (YAY! Vcamp 2013!) so it’s that time again when everyone needs to find roles so they can go .

DFs and Kinsfolk must have a role before you get to camp. You have to have one before you book, if you have booked without a role you should get an email form the roles coordinator in the next couple of weeks but if you want to double check or find out whats happening with your role feel free to email her at sophie@4glengate.net (make the subject Vcamp related).

But what role can I have? Whichever one you want! There are loads of roles still open, most are in centres or cafes but quite a few are nothing to do with the centres. Here are a few to start with:

• Information Point – This is like a mini centre, we need a place where anyone can go to find out where everything is, where the coordinators are, where the nearest first aider is, what sessions are on the day, when the news is on, and all those kind of lovely details. We need someone to coordinate this and some volunteers to help out.
• Atmosphere Creators – This role is to make the site look as mystical and magical as possible. You’ll be working with Venturer committee and Coordinators to turn the site from a scout camp site to a Woodcraft oasis where make believe is possible.
• Site Services – This job is really important, without site services the whole camp would come to a stop. They keep everything running and the site clean.
• Stewarding – stewards are the first point of call in any situation. If someone is lost or gets injured or if something generally goes a little wrong.
• Power Station- Supplying camp with energy is vital to have a fun pack and loud camp, the power station will be running all the power on site for lighting, sound and all electric equipment used by the centres. It’s their job to keep Vcamp bright, loud and energetic while being as Eco-friendly as possible.

There will be more roles posts soon, so if none of these tickle your fancy, there will be others don’t worry!In the mean time, why not join the event of facebook.

Or Follow  us on twitter.

Don’t forget our friends form Athens will be tweeting updates as we get closer to August too!

Blue skies

Venturer Committee x

18th-20th October 2013

Book Now!

It’s an ambitious task we’ve set ourselves, to provide training that doesn’t manage to reach most teachers. How can you be sure it’s worth spending your weekend with us? Here’s a little bit about what you can expect.

We’re hoping to run a couple of workshops at all times, so you wont be able to come to all of them, but you will be able to have more choice of what you learn. You can choose to focus on areas of particular interest or importance to you or you can make sure you get a good mix of all the topics.

Here’s some of the workshops that we’re planning.

• “They’re just a bit shy” – Anxiety in young people, how to manage it and how to help.

• “But what do they do?” – Unbiased sex education, more than biology.

• “Am I normal?” – Genital Cupcake creation

• “He’s mean to you because he likes you” – Consent and Rape Culture within groups of young children (Possible Trigger Warning).

• “They’re just an attention seeker” – Recognising and helping young people with mental health issues.

• “He insists on wearing that tutu” – Gender expression and development.

Plus even more

We can’t guarantee that these will be the exact workshops available, but they represent all the areas we plan to cover.

If these look interesting or important to you then you’re perfect for this training event. It’s run by MEST-UP and completely FREE, thanks to funding from the TREE Programme.

Any Questions? Email Louise using communications@spanthatworld.com

18th-20th October 2013

At our own Cudham Environmental Activities Centre, London

Come and learn how to teach up to date, sex positive, unbiased sex, mental health and LGBTQ+ education for a range of ages, Elfins and up.

Traditional education often neglects these vital parts of our education. If they are taught it may only be sparingly and heteronormatively. They might even be taught incorrectly. Learn how you can teach young people about these vital topics. Help educate for social change.

Learn how to give young people the knowledge they need to be safe, happy and healthy throughout their lives. Find out how to bring topics such as consent, physical understanding, and gender expression to even the youngest of young people.

Explore ways to explain difficult topics, like mental illness, to young people for the first time. Most of the young people who experience mental illness will have never been taught what it is or how to deal with it. This training could help you make a real difference to someone’s life.

You will learn how to teach a positive and inclusive sexual understanding to young people. There’s more to sex than making babies. Everyone who wants to deserves to be able to have safe, fun and healthy sex. You can help make this the norm.

If you can’t wait for the event and want to get started right now you can check out this channel made by sex positive educator Laci Green. It’s one of my faves.

Loads more fantastic resources will be shared at the event, including DFs own companion Rough Guide sumarizing all the vital stuff you get to learn.

Any questions simply email Louise using communications@spanthatworld.com

Book now by filling in the form below

Do you love all things Eastern?
Then East Thing is the place to be!

What are DFs? What should DFs be doing? How can we grow? How come the East is the best region? How can it be even better? Can we work with other local regions? What questions should I ask?
Hopefully we’ll squeeze out every question, problem, solution and idea in open space.

We shall even have workshops
Find out how you can get involved.

Meet other local DFs and DF committee, create friendships, spawn ideas and have fun.

To top this off if this is your first regional thing it costs £0.00 terms and conditions don’t apply.

For all those coming to another thing it is still only a rather reasonable £10. (please bring this either in cheque or cash to the event.)

Starts at 5pm on Friday 12th July
Finishes at 3pm on Sunday 14th July.

Eastern Thing will be hosted in the fabulous woodcraft centre DARSHAM TRAIN STATION

KPing is stressful, especially if you are doing it for the first time!

I am sure every student reading this will have tales of disasters and successes from their early attempts to cook for themselves!

These two areas have an amazing amount of overlap; from budgeting, to knowing your portion sizes, to recipes.

This is why I am coordinating/editing/writing a Rough guide to KPing and student food. It is mainly aimed at DFs KPing/leaving home for the first time but I’m sure it’s going to be a great resource for Woodcrafters of all ages and experience.

What i need from you!

•  Tips for KPing/student food including:
  • Ordering/budgeting
  • Portions (i personally have a talent for overordering milk)
  • Favourite camp meals
  • Photos
  • Drawings
  • Recipies
• Memories of camp meals
  • Perhaps of your first camp meals or ones like I have of GAG last year where 3 of us helped by around 5 pioneers  turned  one of the best ever camp- meals as it was there the first meal at their first event and they really enjoyed eating it!

I am really keen to get some younger ones involved so perhaps at a group night you could ask any Woodchips, Elfins or Pioneers what their favorite camp meal is, what they like about being on clan or perhaps to contribute drawings they’ve done of food or cooking.

Please email any contributions to iluvmonty123@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks and blue skies!

Beth

From 8th to 13th April, seven DFs and Kinsfolk journeyed to Hobbiton, I mean Lammas, a land of hobbit homes. Nine families live at Lammas in Pembrokeshire, Wales, all devoted to living off-grid on the land. They are all in different stages of building different houses. More information about Lammas can be found HERE.

We were trained in earthbag building, permaculture gardening, tree felling and how to lock Declan in a cupboard. All of these skills will be useful for green jobs. OK, well most of them will.

If you’d like to get involved, run a trip, take on a role and help the Share thrive even more, get in touch! We’d love your energy. In the meantime, here are some of our thoughts about learning to live on the land.

Angus

Wwoofing at Lammas has been unlike any other experience I’ve had. It has taught me several useful skills including mulching and stone bag walling. While it was at times physically draining, I also found it to be both mentally and emotionally liberating, and above all immensely fun and rewarding.This week has been among the most entertaining and satisfying, and I urge anyone given the opportunity to go and experience work in this amazing place.

Nic

Wow! After living at Lammas for a week, life back home seems so dull & ‘concrete covered’! Sleeping on straw bales next to a wood burning stove in a cob-lined building was just the tip of this amazing sustainable iceberg. Almost every day, we worked on a resident’s plot of land doing jobs like permaculture mulching, building an old tyre wormery, tree felling and pruning. On some evenings we went foraging, learning from Sam the ‘key I.D. features’ of pennywort – the fleshy, round leaves; and of sorrel – its sharply pointed tails like a tailcoat. The food (meals were cooked for us in return for ‘hard, manual labour’) was frugal yet especially delicious – pasta with wild garlic pesto was my favourite. For me, the best bit was talking to different people about their experiences of the current capitalist climate, and about their (differing) visions for a future that is sustainable.

Henry

Lammas: so, shit went down.

As beautiful and lovely as it has been, it has left me pining to drop everything and disappear to one’s own little place of tranquility and sunsets.

Going back to society, away from extremely fresh greens, buildings without harsh edges, bird song, geese and all the little quirks which exist in a hamlet of the nature will be disappointing. One can’t really fathom how much of a physical and emotional strain this might take on someone who lives and works in relative solitude day in, day out, always with so much more to do, but for a brief insight, it has been a fantastic insight – if slightly daunting as to what the Share would entail.

The realisation of what the Share could be has hit home but also the work, not only the financial and person sides but the emotional attachment of shaping a world. Thinking about this now makes me realise how daunted I would be to undertake such a vast project by myself as some of the residents here have.

It was mentioned by one resident that amongst all the big plans, the little pieces of shaping your home need to happen. As his roundhouse stood half finished and we were replanting strawberries I realised this was all part of the overall picture and he would do parts of this overall plan to mould it all together. This place demonstrates how varied peoples’ ideas and journeys are, and their decisions of what to do with the space and resources given to them.

Would I come back? Absolutely, although I would love to experience other woofing experienes too now to compare. The trip has reaffirmed my love of the Welsh countryside and its people, from their cheery demeanours to shoving five people in the back of your van when hitchiking, allowing strangers to look after your kids, having honesty shops and in general just being so open to everything and taking each day as it comes.

Why does reality have to come back?

Konn Takd

Busy bees be we, but besides buttoning brownveralls , brushing beards, and baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………… ZINGER!!, we’ve been basking with a basket of bees building a brilliant biome for bioamazing worms, bagging bloody backaches from rubble, then biting beautifully baked bread basted with besto garlic pesto.

CONTACT! Are you a B?

Sam

Monday 8th April, 10.44pm

I think this is going to be the best Share trip yet, even if the others did laugh, saying “he says that every time”.

Six of us hitched on a bed in someone’s van, right to the door of the giant turf-roofed hobbit house (mansion) that’s our home this week. When we got peckish, we foraged massive baskets (well, carrier bags) of wild garlic, pennywort and sorrel. Packed with calcium and vitamin C, through these abundant native wonders we can break the shackles of corporate globalisation. While supermarket veg depends on degrading the soil through digging it and damaging its structure, we saw how foraging boosts local ecosystems. Our thinning of a dense wild garlic patch will allow light to reach the new young plants.

All the volunteers here seem really committed to and thrilled by off-grid living. We’ve covered a lot in just the first afternoon. The world’s largest living thing? It’s a fungus that stretches over an Oregon forest the size of 1200 football pitches. Fungi are the Robin Hood of the forest world, taking nutrients from the rich trees and giving to the poor. They’re the reason our forests grow so tall and healthy.

On top of foraging, politics and fungi, we’ve also focused on off-grid energy. The small-scale hydro generator is currently powering Lily’s iPod next door playing Glee. As I write, she is apologising and changing the track to one of the backing tracks for DF videos of the past. Now Lily, Angus and Phin are singing to Take On Me by A-ha. Could this be the best week ever? Or is this the beginning of the end?

We’re toasty warm despite the late spring, eating gloriously and even laughing about Searby deciding to go rowing for a week in his brogues. And all this has been without burning a single fossil fuel. Those 200 billion years’ worth of oil can be left in the soil; the coal left in the hole. I reckon by the end of this week I won’t be the only person leaving reassured by this oasis of sanity here at Lammas. There’s a calming feeling here that I’m not the only one trying to carve out a future for myself that doesn’t depend on the system. We’ll, it might be a future that depends on Glee, A-ha and Searby rowing in brogues. But not the system.

Thursday 11, 9pm

Today when we played ‘cops and robbers’ with half a dozen of the confident, independent kids at Lammas, we left Declan from Southwark Woodcraft in our prison – a locked cupboard – then we got very distracted by some particularly fluffy farm animals. We were gone so long that after twenty minutes, Declan had sung ‘O freedom (I will fight for my right to be free)’ fully through twice before he realised that no one could hear him. As five of us laughed at rabbits appearing to run away from gusts of wind, Declan continued half-singing to himself, alone. He was discovered in the cupboard by some local children. His adrenaline when they arrived was crushed by a long discussion about whether they, as ex-cops, should free the ex-robber at all. Declan returned to his soft singing. Later, after exploring all of the possible options, the children decided they probably should free Declan. “We’re going to free you. Wait, is that the lock? The lock’s too high. Can you reach that, Morrall? No, it’s half a metre higher than any of us can stretch.”

Declan took his experience of solitary confinement well after his eventual release thanks to a passer-by. Well, how could he be down when it’s been such a brilliant day overall? Nic answered questions about the Woodcraft Folk from some of the young people while Angus dazzled with history facts from 1500 to 1800. Declan, Finn and Lily painted faces, and I went for a wild food walk with some of the kids at Lammas. We used our foraged pennywort (round fleshy leaves), wood sorrel (3three heart-shaped leaves) and sorrel (sharply pointed tails like a tailcoat) to make mini permaculture edible forests. On the earth’s crust (oat cakes lovingly baked by Nic), working upwards we shovelled soil (hummus) and then planted trees (pennywort) and shrubs (wood sorrel and sorrel). The permaculture food forests work like natural woodland, growing food on trees and shrubs that live for many years. Unlike intensive agriculture, they boost soil fertility and biodiversity.

Jasmine, a permaculture educator at Lammas, walked us through her young real-life food forest on the last Share trip. This year we’ve planted ground cover strawberries with Ayres, built a layer of earthbag foundations for a compost loo, completed earthworks for a wildlife pond that stores water for nearby edible plants, mulched a young orchard and coppice, stuffed tractor tyres with straw and shredded cardboard for wormeries, learnt to sustainably manage woodland and planned bits of V camp and DF camp. Most importantly, we successfully trapped Declan in that cupboard for at least half an hour. It’s humbling to reflect on how far we’ve come in less than a week. Declan is so fast on his feet, at the start of the week I could barely have hoped to trap him in the kitchen, let alone a cupboard. Angus is going to live on and help build Dave M’s dream smallholding and forever nibble on hedgerows; Declan is addicted to wild garlic; Nic has confirmed his lack of faith in casino capitalism; Finn has discovered a love of hitchhiking and Lily has learnt to love herself despite her secret love of some of the Glee soundtrack. Henry has drawn inspiration for a future engineering career avoiding corporations and I have had my face painted like a cat.

And of course… there is something else. tomorrow, Lily is going to meet her soul mate, Kevin McCloud.

Friday 12th, 3pm

Lily met Kevin. The rest is history. Best share trip ever. I have washed my face of the cat face paint.

Video and more reflections are on their way – watch this space

Help fund a documentary film on young people & the military

ForcesWatch are working with the charity Headliners to make a short film on how teenagers in the UK feel about the military’s involvement in their lives. The film will be made by young film-makers aged 8-18 years and will give them a voice on the many ways the military seek to influence them – from advertising campaigns, the entertainment and gaming industries to armed forces visits to schools and public events such as Armed Forces Day, and more.
We need to raise £3413 to cover expenses and equipment. 
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT WITH A DONATION AT WEFUND.COM
See more information at http://wefund.com/project/young-people-and-the-military-a-documentary/p57343/
or send a cheque made out to ForcesWatch to 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DY

Public meetings on Questioning the presence of the military in schools

Wednesday 17 April, 7pm, Stockport Quaker Meeting House, Cooper Street, corner of Higher Hillgate and Longshut Lane, STOCKPORT SK1 3QL
Challenging the military ethos in schools: Emma Sangster from ForcesWatch, will introduce “Questioning the armed forces in education”  What does the military ethos mean? What are the implications for our children? Teachers, students, those concerned are invited to speak; all are welcome to join the discussion. Organised by Stockport for Peace, 0777 560 5062 or 0780 392 8778, www.stockportforpeace.org.uk

Tuesday 7 May 2013, 7pm. Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, LONDON.
Speakers include: Victoria Basham (University of Exeter), Tom Burkard (Centre for Policy Studies), Ben Griffin (ex-SAS & founder of Veterans for Peace) and others. The event will be chaired by Alex Kelly of The Access Project
The armed forces visit thousands of schools each year, providing free resources, presentations and activities leading to recruitment. The Department for Education are further integrating military-led activities into Britain’s education system as ‘military ethos’ is presented as a solution to educational problems. Speakers from both sides of the debate will address whether it is appropriate for the military to engage with young people in schools and colleges. Organised by Forceswatch

Vacancy at ForcesWatch: Education Campaign Worker

Are you concerned about military activities in schools and colleges?

Based Kings Cross, 16 hours (2 days) a week, £26,138pa pro-rata. Closing date: 6pm, Monday 6 May 2013 Download the application pack.

]]> http://www.spanthatworld.com/military-out-of-schools-2/feed/ 0 http://www.spanthatworld.com/df-camp-2013-booking-is-open/ http://www.spanthatworld.com/df-camp-2013-booking-is-open/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:26:37 +0000 alec mezzetti http://www.spanthatworld.com/?p=16100

Thats right, you can now officially book your place on the event!

Find out all about the event HERE and join the facebook event HERE 

This year’s DF Camp is set to be absolutely jam packed with programme, and we hope to get the most out of the relatively low price of the event. To do this though, we rely on having confidence in a turnout, and for that we need YOU to book, as early as possible.

To help you out we have made booking easier than ever, you can either book online HERE

or you can print off a booking form and post it to me along with a cheque for £75

The address to send booking forms and cheques is:

DEADLINE EXTENDED 5th MAY!!

YES it’s here, what you have all been waiting for MEST-UP training!!

The date has been set so put the 17th – 19th May in to your diaries! (hopefully in a hostel in the Midlands so it will be accessible to all!)

So… what you need to know:

1. It will be entirely funded… that’s the event, your travel, food… EVERYTHING!

2. You can’t just turn up!! You will need to apply for a place  (all explained below)

3. If you want to be a MEST-UP representative at Venturer Camp (4th – 11th August)  this year then you must be able to come to this training event, EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINED BEFORE, and be able to attend the Vcamp organisation weekend 21st – 23rd June.
Yes that is the same weekend as precamp… because it is actually at precamp at Drumhill where Vcamp will be held!! So we can ask the right people the right questions

4. Even if you can’t work Vcamp this year but want to be MEST-UP rep trained for future events you can still apply!! Especially if you are a young DF

5. This training event is open to Woodcraft members from 16 to 25 years of age.

APPLY APPLY APPLY!!!

To apply you will need to email me (Issy) at mestup@spanthatworld.com by the DEADLINE of Tuesday 30th April. Any applications sent after 12noon on this day will not be considered. DEADLINE EXTENDED 5th MAY!!

You will need to answer the following questions in your email…

1. Why do you want to be a MEST-UP rep? 

(why you would be good at it, what you can bring to the team etc)

So get thinking and typing and looking forward to the next very MEST-UP few months

Any questions don’t hesitate to ask below or email me or find me on Facebook (Issy Rose)

Blue skies,

Issy