July 2025 - Announce - lists.fireflyartscollective.org

Firefly Board 101 & Monthly Board Office Hours
by The Firefly Official Announcement List 23 Jul '25

23 Jul '25

*tl;dr: follow this link for info on what board does <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pcz-qA8eo8xw8YjwclgZ57dniCJ1_WOY/view?usp=…> **and we’re doing monthly board office hours open to the community* Howdy again, y’all! Earlier this year, the Board had four new members join in part to increase our capacity in several areas, including communication to the community. Today we want to share two efforts on that front. First: some better explanation as to what the Board is, what we do, and what we don’t do. There’s some information in the bylaws <https://www.fireflyartscollective.org/firefly-arts-collective/bylaws/> and our names/bios are listed online <https://www.fireflyartscollective.org/firefly-arts-collective/board-of-dire…> already, but those don’t really cover the day-to-day, so we’ve put together some slides on our day-to-day <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pcz-qA8eo8xw8YjwclgZ57dniCJ1_WOY/view?usp=…> to cover exactly that. If you have more questions, feel free to email board(a)fireflyartscollective.org. Email isn’t the best medium for all questions, which leads to our second announcement. During Firefly a few weeks ago, we hosted a series of Board Office Hours - opportunities for members of the community to come up and talk to us about whatever is on their mind. Obviously many of y’all were busy… well… attending Firefly, so we wanted to open up those office hours year round. Moving forward, we plan to have at least one Board Office Hours session each month, alternating in-person and virtual. *In-Person Office Hours* will take place on the first Tuesday of every other month, starting in August, and will be co-located with the first hour of the Greet+Meet at Remnant Brewing <https://maps.app.goo.gl/TXzPEWMbrhM6XsRdA> in Somerville (i.e. 6pm-7pm). More specifically, the following dates: - August 5th, 2025 - October 7th, 2025 - December 2nd, 2025 - February 3rd, 2026 - April 7th, 2026 - June 2nd, 2026 *Virtual Office Hours* will take place on the first Thursday of the other months, starting in September, and will take place at 8pm-9pm Eastern. The different time and day are intended to enable folks to be able to attend at least one. These sessions will run on Google Meet <https://meet.google.com/knv-meet-uzu>. - September 4th, 2025 - November 6th, 2025 - January *8th*, 2026 (because the first Thursday is New Year’s Day) - March 5th, 2026 - May 7th, 2026 Office Hours sessions will be attended by at least a few board members, and are intended to be a time for casual conversation and Q&A. Please note that since the full Board is unlikely to be at any given Office Hours session and since these will not be formal meetings, Office Hours will not be a venue for getting official decisions made or resolving inquiries that may need the participation of the full Board. We are always open to such inquiries by email. Expect more from us in the coming weeks and months (though not every day). If you have any ideas for us, send them our way! Sincerely, The Firefly Arts Collective Board of Directors

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Regarding Survey and New Site Search
by The Firefly Official Announcement List 21 Jul '25

21 Jul '25

Howdy y’all. First off, deep breath: *No decisions have been made to move Firefly.* In response to the post-event survey, we have received a number of questions regarding why Firefly would investigate another space at all. We recognize that talk of potentially having Firefly at a different location came as a surprise to some, and that questions about preferences about the event site in the survey without additional context was not the best way to start this conversation with the whole community. While we were always planning to make a statement like this, we weren’t ready with it at the same time the survey (which is run by an independent team), and we apologize for any confusion and alarm that was caused by this. A key component of the decision to consider alternate locations was ongoing challenges with the new landowners, who have demanded contract terms exceptional to a rental agreement, and that conflict with our organizational autonomy and values. For more detail on how these negotiations shook out, you can see the Appendix B to the Use Agreement <https://www.fireflyartscollective.org/news/firefly-2025-ticket-registration…>. The appendix terms were accepted under extreme time pressure in mid-May, with the alternative being the cancellation of the 2025 event. The Board decided at that time that for 2026 and beyond we will only accept a standard land use agreement as has been in place with other past and present landowners. The autonomy of Firefly Arts Collective requires that contractors and suppliers, including landowners, not have policy-making rights granted to them by Firefly by virtue of their role—decisions about sharing Firefly data and who may attend the event should be made by Firefly, including the Festival Committee, Operations Cluster, Board, and Conduct Committee. We recognize that there are still a lot of questions about the process by which this year’s Use Agreement was made, the relevant history, and other details about the current conflicts and potential paths forward. We will address these topics in a forthcoming message. Regarding investigating alternate location options, however, there are several additional reasons for Firefly to evaluate alternatives, including but not limited to: - Accessibility: Firefly is on a huge hill! Every year we have more requests for accessibility assistance, both gear hauling and transport, and that Core has been pushed to the limit of its volunteer capacity. - Land cost: Firefly spends a huge percentage of its budget on land rental and maintenance, moreso (as a percentage and in just overall dollars) than other equivalent events. - Placement: A top negative item in the survey every year is stagnation of theme camp placement, and lack of opportunity for new theme camps. - Parking: Parking is difficult! It's far away, it fills up, people get parked in, people don't have access to their cars, all of which contributes to huge backups at Exodus/GTFO. - Vehicle Access: Getting box trucks to specific theme camps could really be a gamechanger in what kind of spaces and art the community can create. Being able to use golf carts instead of exclusively UTVs would be significantly safer and quieter. Those reasons alone have prompted regular community discussions about finding a new site sometime in the future – many of us think the event could be changed for the better with a new site. At the same time, we recognize many Fireflies have only known the event at the current site, and have fond memories and attachments to the current event terrain and facilities (we certainly do!). All of this said, no decision has been made about locations for 2026! It is possible that we will be able to come to an agreement with the new landowners, but equitable contract negotiations require both sides to have reasonable alternatives. We think this is a good moment for Firefly to investigate our values concerning the land; whether we have to move soon, or in 10+ years, and whether we move because of changes to the land, because of changes in attitudes within the Firefly or Bethel communities, or due to any other issues arising that are out of our control. When the land search begins in earnest it will involve many Fireflies, and we will continue to share information and collect feedback along the way. Currently it has not started -- Firefly was only 2 weeks ago. When it does, there will certainly be wider communication via email with the extended community. Please contact the Board at board(a)fireflyartscollective.org if you have questions. Sincerely, The Firefly Arts Collective Board of Directors

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REMINDER: Firefly 2025 Post-Event Survey
by The Firefly Official Announcement List 19 Jul '25

19 Jul '25

Reminder to fill out the Firefly 2025 post-event survey! <https://nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cIKrceKfBXImWtE> We're more than halfway to our target. The deadline is *Saturday July 26. *It only takes 15 minutes and helps us improve Firefly for everyone. Thanks everyone! Aaron from Survey Core survey(a)fireflyartscollective.org

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Firefly 2025 Post-Event Survey
by The Firefly Official Announcement List 14 Jul '25

14 Jul '25

Do you have opinions about Firefly? Do you have feelings about the new portos, or ideas about art, or complaints about neighboring camps? This is your opportunity to be heard! Please take 15-20 minutes to fill out the official *Firefly 2025 Post-Event Survey* while those feelings are still fresh. Last year, more than 650 participants filled it out, and we used those responses to design new policies around accessibility, art guidelines, volunteering, and even the new portos. Your survey responses matter! Link here: https://nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cIKrceKfBXImWtE Thanks everyone! Aaron from Survey Core survey(a)fireflyartscollective.org

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