CANC2: Bejoording Closing Day, August 31

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We start the closing circle with a word game, we each have to talk about a word. We draw them randomly from a pile, and the words are pretty well selected by Tali. We get some interesting stuff from people, and I don't take notes.

I draw "dependence", which I write pre-talk notes about:

• values of society at large: independence is good, dependence is bad/ childlike.
• (in) dependence, (inter) dependence, (co) dependence.
• dependence on the organisers before the ride, on the group to carry out commitments, on support.
• Tandem trike issues, depending on the group to supply a partner to ride with me each day.
• depending on the trike I built not to break.
• depending on the van even though we're a bike ride. The fragile, breakable, we can't fix it ourselves van.
• depending on society, the laws, structures that keep us safe and let us rely on buying things.
• depending on petrol/ diesel to provide us with food, water, electricity throughout the trip

I speak in a fairly emotionally loaded way, trying to convey depth of feeling about the issues and push through or confound the expected resistance to my ideas.

I also wrote down the emotions/ thoughts/ actions triangle here, and that Tali only sees the duality of feeling/ doing. Yumminess - the group centres on food, there are wastage/ luxury/ cost issues there.

From the word thing we do a circle on what CANC could do better next time as a group, and what would help "you" specifically. Also what problems were there, how to fix them, both for you personally and thew group.

My pre-notes: group is too big, no-one can see everyone as individuals at the same time so everyone selects a few people to focus on. Some people focus always on the same others, some try to include everyone. To easy to get superficial and miss things. Solution: maximum group size 12 people or so. Get together before the ride and thrash out a group structure. Better focus on goals/ aims of ride? Accept need to get in the van if slow or late, less egoboo both ways (sci fi term, ego boost or boast). Personally: less panic at start, start at beginning of the ride. Overcommitted before the ride. Skill equalisation hard, very different skill levels in group was a bit hard at times. Felt closed out of much spiritual side of the group.

Moz's notes

This is what I wrote down about what each person said. As you should realise by now this is what I thought was important (I can't write fast enough to get everything), and my idea of the nuances and emotional content (which is biased as well as limited). On the other hand, it is what I think. The notes are in the order that the circle went, because I wrote them down that way. From memory we want round and every third person spoke in turn.

1. Leo
   • More rest, more campaign, more sightseeing
   • less structured/ committed as a whole group - split
   • less car journey, see bits in between
   • want to be more guilt free - was avoiding things because one person might not like it, need to deal with them straight away and not let it fester
   • need to allow time to get things done. Can't be in and out quickly sometimes.
2. Beth
   • wants freedom to feel responsible for myself. Too many people looking out for me. Let people look after themselves.
   • organise visits more in advance - weeks
   • liked power to set things up and make changes, but lost that along the way. Guilt from doing things that other people might not like. Super-aware of others.
   • liked the rest day structure.
   • huge discussions are good in theory
3. Tali
   • Community visits nice, better if longer and planned ahead more
   • Not enough time!
   • Too many focus points, CANC and alternative energy and communities and schools as well as riding is exhausting.
   • needed quietness in and around the group. Lacked peaceful times.
   • riding was good, hours of peace and freedom plus physical exercise was really positive. Simplicity.
4. Tanya
   • Need a more distinct focus
   • should cover less distance, so we have more energy for other things
   • more trust would allow us to move beyond the problems
   • need more commitment to listening
   • ideally a dedicated media person outside the ride, so they can be contacted easily at any time, or on the ride but only doing media rather than riding.
   • (me) take more time for me.
   • (me) don't try to do everything, trying to empower others is lost work, they need to do that for themselves.
   • (me) sleep with or in the group not 100m away
5. Sunny
   • media support person on the ride but not riding sounds good.
   • no support vehicle
   • better group focus, too many different ideas,
   • pre-ride meeting for 3-4 days to do social organising and set things up, social ride maybe
   • more flexible itinerary, so can get more time to do stuff that comes up.
   • issues with doing stuff away from the group, guilt
   • better advertising of group before we get to a town
   • signs on bikes
   • (me) got emotional support, needed more when trying to initiate and organise things
   • (me) more time out, stillness and spontaneity
   • (me) acceptance of emotional and spiritual values, felt a judgment from others that rational side more important. Mine trip at Meekatharra was the crux for that.
   • (me) more silence and quiet
6. Antoinette/Aunty
   • setup time at the start of the ride needed
   • smaller group might be better, maybe 10 or so
   • guidelines for the group, boundaries, commit to those decisions before we start.
   • let people step out of the group if not happy with those things.
   • if you don't commit then you shouldn't be expected to do it. (Moz wants to interject: practicalities of how to make that work, if people don't commit to riding the distance on a given day etc)
   • before coming along make sure the ride is what you want to do. Eg, distances to ride, get people who can actually ride the distances. Aunty finds the actual riding boring even though she can do it.
   • more celebration and affirmation, less condemnation
   • make a prior commitment to group standards of behaviour.
7. Moz does a quick survey: who in the group had actually ever ridden 100km in a day before? Answer: less than half.
8. Sarah
   • more time. Too far, too fast.
   • need personal space, bad seeing people forced into the group all the time.
   • how much Evan and Tanya "own" the trip, and how much we need to transfer that ownership. Confusion about that, and about what the goals were. How to transfer ownership while keeping the goals fixed, or not.
   • Need to commit to the ride.
   • This is the hardest thing she's done, too hard physically. Where to draw the line and close off the less able people.
   • needs to be ok to have problems and be upset.
9. John
   • good achievement, like challenges
   • problem with committing without thinking through what's involved.
   • (me) less thinking and objective might be better
10. Jedda
    • envies the people who've been in from the start
    • good having space for everyone to speak, but it takes too much time, a more effective process would be better
    • undercurrent of equality, but people withdraw because they don't feel they have anything valuable to say
    • felt left out of the campaign, needed more time to learn, because joined late and not really any free time to spend on that.
    • (me) be more aware of people's needs and skills
    • (me) address emotional problems when they arise, don't put that off
11. Jonas
    • more commitment - to cause (goals), process and structure
    • each person needs to be responsible for their own actions as well as group needs
    • need to remain fair and respect individual choices and freedoms
    • a less persuasive clique would be better. It's about who speaks and whose opinions count.
    • less personal baggage into meetings
    • focus on active rather than reactive decision making (proactive not passive behaviour)
    • work together, less lazy, less separate
    • less gender bias would be good. Especially in clique and function things
    (Technical)
    • people should carry less stuff, even Jonas has extra stuff. Be happy to carry what you have (or, carry only what you can be happy carrying)
    • more group gear - tools, spare tyres etc, so everyone doesn't need to carry their own (Moz: we had that, until someone lost Evan's tools, and now Moz keeps an eagle eye on his "group" tools. Someone needs to own that stuff or it gets lost/ stolen/ trashed)
    • less dependence on the support vehicle, money and breakdowns. Harder sometimes, but more feeling of achievement afterwards.
    • external support - media, supply-senders
    • need pre-ride get-together, a campout, ride and meetings
    (Self)
    • be more understanding and show that more
    • more commitment to the group
    • be positive, deal with frustrations
    • find less strict ways to motivate people
    • didn't go far or fast enough
12. Erin
    • at the start she saw the itinerary, focus etc as pre-organised and fixed, so the focus meeting came as a surprise. Would have liked to know about that before arrival.
    • Need the days at the start to get settled
    • list and document guidelines for focus, meetings, procedures. Need both commitment to, and flexibility within those.
    • lost personal freedom because did not know what is expected and what the boundaries are
    • food known in advance but didn't know the affect of it, how central it would become
    • need to know finances, budgets and book work
    • recognise that a community needs boundaries, that could have saved lots of time and hassles.
    • (me) good learning about being in a community, but compromised self to the point I only did what I wanted when I was by myself
    • (me) disempowered by lack of ownership
    • (me) need structure to allow people to own their actions and decisions, and to own the group
13. Naima
    • lets not slag the organisers
    • need pre-ride days
    • have a workshop on group focus, learn about "the issue" to spread and balance level or knowledge
    • itinerary is in between, want it either fixed or nonexistent, more detailed means need more info
    • more time to play as a group as well as alone
    • more personal awareness of own abilities relative to group and itinerary (Moz: but it's about pushing those limits)
    • need more detailed and more specific focus
    • need to let opportunities go so we can continue the ride.
    • commit to group, be responsible for being an active and positive member of the group.
    • commit to initiating change if it's needed.
    • (me) at the start was very identified with the group, now swung the other way and not putting energy in. Need to find a balance
14. Bindi
    • change itinerary, less daily distance, more side trips, split group for visits. That way people can keep up without doing heaps of riding, people with energy can do more without wrecking the group.
    • pre-ride sessions
    • try a variety of decision-making processes
    • stronger focus
    • people need to comprise up more, don't drag the group down to the lowest level. There will always be someone who is down (in any area)
    • keep time commitments. Keep trust. Schedule time for meetings on time issues
    • plan at least a week ahead then don't cling to it, let it go when you have to
    • foster positive attributes more
    • be willing to give things a go
    • (me) more effort to check in with each person
    • (me) make better use of skills, especially leadership skills, I could have contributed more but held back
    • (me) learn to listen more and talk less.
15. Jean
    • need a workshop at the start about focus, teaching, goals
    • open up more to learning
    • more rest days, especially near communities, hear more stories
    • next trip idea of 4/5 months is too long. Three months is about as long as most people can take off work or school.
    • Uranium can't be that bad underground, it must have some purpose. Aboriginals saw it as sacred or dead land.
    • Actions were good, colourful rad suit is good, genocide is yesterday and don't want to stir up negative emotion (Moz: in Derby the newspaper claimed some aboriginal guy thought the white plastic "rad" suits were KKK. They're plastic dust suits.)
    • Pointing out local mine sites is effective action
    • (me) wants to see youth centres and hang-out zones. There are unofficial curfews on aboriginals after dark in many places
    • food - wants to see more eating road kill, more utilisation of local resources
    • against toilet paper, wants to see soap and water. Wants to accept other peoples ideas on that more.
16. Charlotte
    • Push the group message, always carry pamphlets and offer to people we meet.
    • each of us wants more of what we're best at. Allow teachers an area and each of us push our weak spots.
    • decision making would be better if people were stronger in their own opinions, it's easier to compromise between known, fixed positions than hidden, changing ones.
    (self)
    • want to get to know people more but time pressure was a problem (Moz: she joined in Newman)
    • has got too comfortable with being loud, is trying to step back a bit
    • got frustrated and is not used to that
    • need more self time, more stop time
    • carry less stuff
17. Moz
18. Evan
    • clear focus - he thought we had that until the ride started.
    • get-together before the ride was scheduled but he couldn't come up with a good reason for it and then it fell apart anyway with last minute rush.
    • decision making: needs to be done that the right times, people need to participate or wear the consequences.
    • respect other people's efforts
    • communicate better before the ride
    • (me) going to finish my masters in community group structures
    • (me) less focus on group balance, more on personal
19. Anna
    • need solid itinerary and focus
    • more organisers
    • less than 20 people
    • plan for actions before start of ride
    • better budgeting
    • less self criticism, less focus on what we have not done
    (self)
    • three months is too long
    • sustain individuality
    • respect and accept difference
    • less ego in meetings, more quiet
    • the balance now between riding, resting and actions is good.

Then we went into a happyjoy circle, see the next page...

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