East(ern) Thing Review

Mar 29, 2010 by phinharper    3 Comments    Posted under: Span That World

As I waited for the minibus to take us to Cottered, I, quite honestly, wasn’t sure what was in store for this young DF. Being not just my first Thing, but my first DF event, I was a tad apprehensive. There were new people to be met, old people to meet, and ‘business’ to be discussed… Apparently.
We arrived at Cottered Guides center rather soon, luckily before boredom drove us to singing the peanut song – good news for Richard (Cambridge Leader and man behind the wheel of the minibus). The center was rather awesome; a kitchen to cook in, a room full of mattresses to sleep in, a big hall to dress up and dance in and a huge garden to sing or camp, if we so wished, in. Upon exploring this garden, we deemed it too cold and wet for the campfire we planned, so we went into our lovely warm kitchen and got to work immediately cooking pasta for the dribs and drabs of DFs that would slowly wander in as the night drew on.

Introductory games were played after getting to know everyone in a speed-dating session. I had only met one and a half members of DF Committee before, so it was great to meet all these lovely new people. Once we knew everyone, we got going with the campfireless evening. Far too much time was spent jumping onto piles of mattresses before we found some dressing up clothes. I think they were for five year olds, but we were not deterred and squeezed into them anyway, to the sound of the Village People. In retrospect, it must have been pretty surreal for the late ones still arriving. In fact, Phil arrived by bike at one in the morning, when most of us were soundly asleep upon our lovely mattresses after an evening of unproductive tea-drinking and playing with those silly little rubber balls that bounce everywhere.

Although I deem the morning cry unnecessary indoors, it certainly worked. We practically jumped out of our pyjamas and towards the kitchen to start the day with some porridge. Then came the business – starting, naturally, with electing the innuendo person and awarding them the innuendo bell. This was my first experience of DF business, and I must say that I rather enjoyed the day’s discussions, regularly punctuated with tea and biscuits. I’m sure you can find the minutes somewhere for the full accounts, but we talked about the Eastern region (under a parachute!) and how it’s not big enough, proposed some motions for AG, learned about Co-Camp (which I am very much looking forward to…) discovered the advantages of open-space discussion and interrogated our dear council about anything we saw fit to.

And there was an EASTer egg hunt, which ended with lots of chocolate, and a great big knot of DFs as we played some more team-building games outside, around what would soon be our campfire. I assume we had lunch in there somewhere too. I can’t remember it, but it may have been soup, and I assume there was vegan cheese Sheese involved. After we were full of business, there was a, rather yummy, curry to fill us in other, more important, ways.
By the time we had finished, we turned around to find the DF committee gone! They went team building while we went and got the campfire going in the freezing night. Before too long, we were all huddled around the fire, singing songs old and new. As favourites were sang, the songs became more
obscure as the night drew later. I’m sure the the people of Cottered were shocked by our rowdy folk songs continuing well into the morning, as we eventually got into the warm and settled down for a few hours sleep.

Another day began with some more breakfast and the Chinese energy game to warm us up before some more business. We discussed centers, and Richard (the bus guy from easrlier) talked to us about CCSB. It’s all on the minutes if you folks want detail. We finished the business with our action plan. It spanned two A1 pages, and coated pretty much everyone present with an unusual amount of responsibility. Finally, we did an evaluation of the Thing. I had the phrase ‘not enough meat’ stuck to my crotch, as we talked about how much we liked the vegan food. Then, sadly, as we ate lunch, the exodus started. One by one DFs left for stations and bus stops. One hug at a time, there were soon only a few of us left waiting for the minibus back home, explaining the broken door handle and toilet seat to the warden…

Sad though its ending was, it must be said that East Thing was flippin’ awesome! I didn’t expect to get quite as much done as we did, and I left feeling so involved, I felt like I could change the world. Then, after a few days back in normal society that feeling dwindled. However, I still know that not just mine, but anyone’s voice can be, and will be, heard within the District Fellows thanks to Things.