Updated: BARTER FAIRE SUMMIT & Training

May 18-21

At the 2017 Okanogan Family Faire, 11 miles east of Tonasket, WA

Learn how to put on a barter faire!

(Occurs during the Spring Faire)

* The Summit will consist of meetings, observations and presentations by current and past barter faire organizers. A participatory, immersion training at an actual barter faire.  We will set up a Summit camp for participants. Summit participants can have a regular booth at the faire provided they have other people to run the booth when they are occupied with the training activities.

.* The Summit starts at 12:00 Noon on Thursday and ends at 3:00 pm on Sunday. There is no fee to attend the Summit. Regular Faire admission can be waived if you participate in some of our work trade activities (and the worktrade qualifies you to eat at the volunteer kitchen).

* We will put up a big meeting tent and have a hospitality fire-ring meeting area next to it and an adjacent camping area for summit participants.

* The summit is being hosted by Skeeter Michael Pilarski (founder of the barter faire in 1974).

Some topics to be discussed:

Bookkeeping, budgets, admission pricing
Documentation. Video, YouTube,
Education portals, Artisan Row
Fire watch, fire permits
First aid, ambulance, CALM area,
Food booths, health dept.
Free Store
Gate
Going Green
Hospitality fires
Information booth, T-shirts, memorabilia
Infrastructure, materials
Legalities, permits, insurance.
Marijuana and paraphernalia, alcohol policy.
Marking out the streets, street covering, straw.
Music, stage
Parking. Vendor parking, campers, day parking. Handicapped,
Power needs, lights, solar, generators
Publicity
Recycling, garbage
Sanitation, portapotties, hand washing set-up
Security, horse patrol
Signage
Taking care of the Earth being impacted, reseeding.
Team building, coordinators, work trade, volunteers, work parties.
Volunteer kitchen, food procurement, night shift.
Watering roads, road issues
Youthtopia, kid’s area, children’s parade
And other topics that come up.

 

Summit Schedule

(tentative). We will finalize the schedule at the event.

 
Thursday

10:00 am to 12:00. Opening circle.  Introductions, Setting the agenda.
 
2:00 to 4:00 pm. Assist with vendor parking.
 
4:15 – 5:00. Get together for download and discussion.
 
7:00 to 9:00 pm. Meeting.

Friday

9:30 am to 12:00. Morning meeting.

3:00 to 5:00 pm. Assist camping parking crew.

7:00 to 9:00 pm. Do a walkabout in small groups. Visit gate, stage area, drum circle area, etc to observe. Meet several times along the way to compare notes.

Saturday

10:00 am to 12:00. Morning meeting. Legalities, permits, insurance.

3:00 to 5:00 pm. Meeting.

7:00 to 9:00 pm. Do a walkabout in small groups. Visit gate, stage area, drum circle area, camping areas, etc to observe. Meet several times along the way to compare notes. Focus on security.

Sunday

10:00 am to 11:30. Meeting.

11:30 – 12:30. Watch the formation of the children’s parade and participate in the parade. Assuming they do the parade as they do every fall faire.

1:30 to 3:00. Wrapping up and final remarks.

The above schedule would add up to about 30 hours scheduled over the 5 days.

Stay tuned to www.friendsofthetrees.net for further updates.

Okanogan Family Faire

Education Portals at the Spring Faire

* We are setting up 3 educational portals at the 2017 Spring Faire with tents where workshops will be offered throughout the Faire plus workshops will be held at vendor’s booths.  Everyone is invited to share Their talents, knowledge and experience.  There will also be a soapbox for short public talks. Skeeter Michael Pilarski, Cyndi Benitez (OFF overall coordinator) and others are helping put this together.  One of the nodes will be connected to Artisan’s Row, which is an educational portal which has been operating for years at the Fall Faire. It commonly includes blacksmiths, canoe building, primitive skills, knapping, medicine-making and many other crafts.

* We’d like to see over 50 workshops and plant walks.  People can come to the Faire specifically to do workshops or you can have a booth and do a workshop on the side.

* Would you like to be part of the Education Portals? Give a workshop, demonstration or talk? Help us organize? Provide structures?

For further details on the Summit and Education Portals contact:

Skeeter Michael Pilarski

[email protected]

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MICHAEL “SKEETER” PILARSKI is a life-long student of plants and earth repair. His farming career started in 2nd grade and his organic farming career began in 1972 at age 25. Michael founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978 and took his first permaculture design course in 1982. Since 1988 he has taught 36 permaculture design courses in the US and abroad. His specialties include earth repair, agriculture, seed collecting, nursery sales, tree planting, fruit picking, permaculture, agroforestry, forestry, ethnobotany, medicinal herb growing, hoeing and wildcrafting. He has hands-on experience with over 1000 species of plants. He is a prolific gathering organizer and likes group singing.