Thoughts from Lev, Midburn's CEO
So what is going on behind the scenes? May, 2023
I'm happy to update, share and reflect on the past month. It really flew by! Actually, I was sure I would get much more done. But that's also a part of my learning about how complex this organization and community is, how many people and activities I must get familiarized with, how many issues require my opinion, how many dreams we have to fulfill and of course engage with routine duties.
We are using this period of uncertainty regarding the location to build a strong infrastructure: positioning our management, acquisitions, ticketing platform, account management, offices, committees, open calls, training programs, future plans and more.
So what did we have this month?
So let's start with what everyone wants to know - location:
Our field team is working:
We spend time in the field (literally inspecting locations) between one and two days a week. We meet with heads of regional councils and managers of various licensing bodies. Volunteers draw polygons, friends make new connections and we work in parallel and hope we will have good news soon.
In any case, as I shared here a month ago, there is a deadline for a decision one way or the other (Midburn or BIM this year) and it will be decided at the beginning of next month.
These are complex days, a roller coaster of successes and disappointments. The pressure can be felt in the community. We are doing our best so that the city will be built this year.
Our community:
As you probably know, we have a new board of directors, elected at the association's members' meeting. Good luck to Iris, Eran, Omer, Rachel and Ido. Looking forward to greatness working together!
Thank you to Ana, the outgoing chairman, and the outgoing committee members Dov and Eden for everything they have done for us over the years and the responsibility they have carried on their shoulders for so long!
Finally, we have a leading team that meets once a week and we discuss current things, update, decide and dream together. The team includes Amit, the director of operations, the head of department M (the department of the heads of departments), Efrat, director of the content and art department, Noy, the director of the communications department, and Yael, the chief financial officer. And listen - this team came to work.
Yesterday was meeting number 3 (!) of the department leaders - there are still a few missing (an open call will be out soon) but the leading teams in the departments are being built.
We say goodbye (sadly but with great pride) to Daphne Hillel, who led the M department, thank her for years of intense work and welcome Kati Cohen as the new M department leader!
This is exactly the time to work on our social cohesion before the rush starts, dream about art, refine culture, prepare work plans, raise budgets. Don't wait for us to announce a location. Crazy things will happen this year.
Let's talk about spirit?
There was a first artist meeting - a great start with over 100 people at the Midburn offices! It was exciting to hear the dreams and passion and feel the energy in the room. So what is the installation you dream of bringing to the next Midburn?
You must see that the communication department has extensive activity with content on the topics of non-commercialization, gifting, leaving no traces and more - stay tuned.
One thing that I personally foresee big things for and believe will be one of our biggest projects as a community is a cultural steering committee - we wrote a lot about it, and you should stay up to date.
Let's talk about matter shall we?
Ticket management platform - we understand that the best thing for us is our independent ticketing and profile system. But we also understand that this is a process of about a year, therefore, we have established a professional committee of examiners, in which representatives of Tech, Gate Ticketing and Procurement participate in order to choose an external ticketing platform that will serve us this year.
A work plan for the years 23-24 was presented to the assembly and will be published after it is submitted to the new board of directors. I imagine growth in the scope of the cultural activity we produce, so there is plenty of room for everyone to play without increasing the number of "tickets": a cultural conference, a kick-off conference, Purim, a Hanukkah event, artist workshops, development of camp leaders and, of course, Midburn and BIM.
There are offices, soon a hard wood floor will be installed, there are plastic chairs to sit in a circle. In a moment we will invite you to come and design, build, play, donate furniture. There is also a crazy roof. Are you a class / camp / group that dreams of art and needs a place to meet? Talk to us office@midburn.org Remember - there is no cleaner. It's all radical self reliance.
Things are moving forward. slowly and carefully. We are busy with the infrastructure, but we will automatically invite more and more people to participate and play together.