News and Dialog: Leadership Blog
— Men's Gathering 2010
« Date for 2010 gathering is October, 22 - 24, 2010 | Return to Leadership Blog Start | Successful Leadership Team retreat »
April 20, 2010 at 10:54 AM
Vision for the future and response to questions about the Buffalo Gap site
We would like to bring you into the discussion that has been taking place between the Leadership Council members and relay our ideas about the vision we have for our community and the future of the Men’s Gathering.
This post will also address questions that have been raised regarding the re-opening of the Buffalo Gap site.
Vision
We always want the Chesapeake Men’s Gathering to be a place for men to have a meaningful and powerful personal experience. It should be a place where men from all walks of life to come together in comradery, and share in the exploration of what it means to be a man.
In addition to that, the mission of the Men’s Council is to promote men’s work in general. Our hope is that the Men’s Gathering is also a place for men to learn about other groups that are involved in supportive men’s-community building. As such, we hope to bring back the notion of the Chesapeake Men’s Gathering as a ‘gathering of the tribes’. A place were men from different groups can come to share about what they do, and where men can find out about the other things that they can do throughout the year to support themselves on their inner journeys and personal missions.
And finally, we always want to continue in the tradition of providing a place to bring the young men and boys in our lives, where they can witness positive male role models, and set the groundwork for their own growth into strong and well-rounded adults.
Response to: We’ve heard the Buffalo Gap Camp has reopened. Will we ever move back there?
Those of us who have experienced the old Buffalo Gap site in West VA will always love and feel a deep connection to that location. We were one of the last groups to leave that site, and were sad when it closed down. Having said that, there are many reasons for moving on.
First, we have no certainty about the on-going commitment to the BG site by the current owner. For many years we struggled, hanging on to the least minute, wondering if the site would be available to us for the next year. Most locations book their sites long in advance. Waiting until the last minute to find out if BG would be available almost resulted in not having a Gathering several years ago. We do not want to put ourselves in that position of uncertainty ever again.
The Ramblewood owner has a strong commitment to his site, and has a fully booked season. His philosophy and intention for his site is perfectly aligned with kind of work that we do. We have already begun to develop a strong partnership with him, and also expect to be able to bring men from other Ramblewood events to our own event.
From a financial perspective, the Ramblewood owner has been very supportive to us with his pricing for use of the site. To put it plainly, between the requested ‘minimum attendance’ and per-person cost provisions of recent contracts and proposals from the new managers of BG, staying at that site would be irresponsible.
Finally, Ramblewood is convenient to four major metropolitan areas: Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and even NYC. Our vision includes growth of our community. The BG site is VERY limited from this perspective. Given our hope for long-term viability of our community, we believe that Ramblewood is a much better location for us.
Future Discussion Topics will include:
* Will we have a regular weekend for our event that we can count on from year to year? Will that be earlier in the season than the 2009 and 2010 event dates? (the short answer is “Yes”, but come back for more on this)
* How do you hope to realize your vision for our community? How can community members get involved?
* What are the specific plans for this year and future gatherings?
Others like this entry: News
Comments