Solarpunk Hacker & Maker Meetup
An event to help people socialize & meet each other around forward-thinking, ecologically & socially appropriate and anti-authoritarian technologies to meet our needs and build a better world.
Event Description:
Collapse is happening and nobody is coming to save us. Let's find each other and do something about it! Interested in appropriate technologies that actually makes our lives, ecosystems, and community better instead of just making some billionaire more money or expanding state control? Forward-looking projects for climate resiliency and community autonomy? Off-grid power and decentralized communications? Let's meet up! A time to talk about projects we're working on or ones that inspire us, learn from each other, meet other like-minded people, and maybe even find things to work on together.
What is solar punk anyway? It's more than just windmills & solar panels: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/saint-andrew-what-is-solarpunk
How to Host
You'll need at least one host/facilitator (ideally two), some slips of paper w/ pens/pencils, a hat to mix them together and draw from, and something to keep time with. Hosts/facilitators help the discussion move along fruitfully, so you'll need to keep an eye on time for different sections, gently move the conversation along if someone's talking too long, and make sure there's space for people besides the most vocal ones to talk. You'll want to publicize the event at least/about 2 weeks ahead of time.
Agenda
- Socializing while people show up (~15m)
- Intros (names & pronouns, icebreaker/opener question if there aren't too many people)
- Salon (30-40m)
- Free-Form Socializing
Salon
The "Salon" is a lightly structured way to randomly give someone the floor for a short time to talk about a specific topic. It's useful for making the space for someone to talk about their particular interest or topic, so that they can share what they care about, and others can learn about it and what they're interested in. Here's how it runs:
- Everyone writes down one topic they'd like to talk about on a slip of paper. The slips all go into a hat.
- A slip is randomly drawn from the hat
- Whoever's topic is chosen gets the floor for 10m (including any spontaneous Q&A or discussion, may require facilitation!)
- The next slip is chosen, repeat as many times as desired to fill out the salon portion
Free-Form Socializing
Let people socialize without some event host telling them how or what to do! Pretty easy.