This was my first Thing. I went to Midlands Thing partly to try and get more involved with the movement and mainly to refuel on DF energy, both of which I achieved with flying colours. it was fantastic to see loads of us again. Things are not just for committee, but are open to everybody in the movement to get involved. I’m not even from the Midlands and I still found Midlands Thing to be a really great experience for me.

There was a lot of business, but somehow we managed to finish on time! Most decisions were done by consensus and through the “Open Space” style discussion. People opinions on how good Open Space seem to vary greatly; personally I like to discuss things as a larger group, but I can see how discussing in smaller groups can empower people, who might not usually be able to get their voice heard, to take part.

There were loads of brilliant new ideas and I ended up signing up to plenty of really interesting action groups. Something that grabbed my attention was an idea for DFs to create their own land-coops. The plan is still in it’s infancy, but I hope I can contribute to help make this a reality. There was much talk about how to shape the campaigns this year and how much work we should put into the anti-cuts movements. We would like to support the anti-cuts campaign, but not to loose sight of the those chosen at Althing. And on the matter of Althing, we discussed how it should be changed, and how we can make it better.

Many other action groups have been formed and the existing ones gained more members. A new one is going to try and create the fundraising event SpanThatWorldWithFood. Another group I am involved in is trying to find ways to no longer get banned from venues. DFs may have cleaned up our act a lot in the past few years but we still need to be careful – we want to make sure that everyone, not just coordinators of events like me, are doing everything we can to avoid being banned.

Committee was “hot-seated” and I’m glad to report they all seem up to be doing a good job. The movement seems to be going to exciting places at extreme speeds.

It was a fantastic event! Much fun was had and much business was done. The KP, Henry, was amazing and he helped us all fill up on skip-cake and bucket jam. I’m really glad I went, it was definitely worth the travel and the time. There’s no better way to spend a weekend than at a Thing.

And now for a blow by blow account of some of the things that happened…

NOTE: this is not a picture from Midlands Thing. There were no pictures from Midlands Thing (weirdly). In a sense, this picture represents something that could have happened at Midlands Thing

Midlands Thing was in Birmingham. Birmingham has pretty good rail links but pretty awful signposting and we spent a good quarter of an hour finding our way from Birmingham New Street station to Birmingham Moor Street. We met Martha at the platform edge, after receiving mysterious texts from an unknown number of “when are you getting to Midlands Thing?”, which I helpfully answered with “soon bizzatch”.

We nearly didn’t get off at the right station. The snow was still about 1 or 2 inches think on the platform at Small Heath. There were hardly any lights, it was about 5pm and it was now very, very dark. We had no map, but I had my (nearly) new netbook with the event’s pack saved, which had tiny screen shot of the route on one of the pages. We would get lost, argue, discuss and take out the tiny computer in my bag and squint at it’s blinding screen, trying to make out if “we should cross the dual carriage way or break into an industrial estate or phone somebody”. When we finally reached the site there was no one to greet us as somehow, at 5.30pm, we were the first DFs to arrive. Everyone else did turn up eventually.

As you should know, DFs are lovely people and they are no less lovely people at a business event – they may even be more lovely. Friday evening, everyone had the opportunity to chat to each other and catch up on what people have been up to. Most conversations turned towards the Cuts and Fees protests and we all had stories to share about student occupations or kettling, or in my case, peacefully protesting outside the guildhall in Bath and arguing with portly “Mr Birling”-like Tories. When nearly everybody had arrived, Joe Bowler treated us to an epic quiz, which everyone really enjoyed (and as of that day, a collective noun of Elfins is known as a “Mistake”).

After morning hot beverages, business began. Apart from the room being quite gloomy and stuffy, setting off a few people’s asthmas, business was really productive and we managed to get nearly everything done before dinner.

Some things discussed were:

• an updated financial report
• which projects should stay and which should go
• DF electoral system
• land co-ops
• re-launching the Huge Ideas Pot
• and much more…
  

(Soon there will be some really awesome minutes up on Span That World – read them: minutes are awesome)

Food was amazing. Most of the ingredients were skipped and hence meant the food budget for Midlands Thing wasn’t fully spent and that we saved perfectly good food that would have been wasted. It was a real shame we had to buy most of the other ingredients for the food from an ASDA, because the nearest Co-op was 20 minutes drive away from the site and no one at Midlands Thing had a car.

This has been my first regional thing and I cannot wait to go to another. Not only was it a really great opportunity to see my friends and catch up with what people have been up to, but at a Thing, all DFs are empowered to take part in the movement. The only downside of the entire event was the lack of non-committee DFs at Midlands Thing – next time, everyone should bring themselves and a buddy and try and make SCOTTISH THING the biggest Thing ever. Ever.

EDIT: This has been Samir’s experience of Midland Thing. Have your own that you want to share? make a post on spanthatworld

This was a picture I like from Althing. Althing is a "big Thing". This is the best picture I could find to show a DF discussion.