Hosting Gatherings

The main purpose for acquiring the Sanctuary was to host gatherings. In the beginning, people came together for a week or two to prepare the land for each gathering. Over the years that has shifted so that nowadays people expect to arrive and find everything prepared for them.

This is an immense amount of work. I mean, it's a big enough chore to keep things maintained "well enough", but to add the gathering polish takes all available hands working all day every day for at least a week.

We had a private gathering last week. The land wasn't quite ready, but done well enough for them to enjoy themselves and have a successful week. Then we had one week to get ready for the most important gathering of the year: the Spiritual Gathering of Radical Faeries. This gathering is the reason we bought the land.

On the first of July, I took on a new responsibility: Purse Queen. This job entails managing all of the money that gets earned or spent on the land. Once I've got all the systems in place, this will be a one-hour-a-day job. Right now, though, it takes about two.

I believe that bookkeeping needs to be done to the penny. If there's any margin for error, it's very difficult to figure out how big that error is. I've developed new systems and procedures to ensure that we know who is spending how much money on what. Every night at dinner the receipts are collected and change checked against petty cash taken out. In the morning over tea, the previous day is ledgered, the cash counted, and new cash logged out as necessary.

I've also set up a new system for receiving donations. The old system was not secure. Many people were collecting money, putting themselves in the way of temptation. "If I borrow a couple dollars, I'll totally pay it back next week." I don't think that anyone would steal from us, but I do think that mistakes are bound to happen in a loose system. The new system is simple and accountable: all money is collected in locked boxes. They are only opened by two people who fill out a form recording how much came in. Each person gets a copy and the books get a copy. Ta-dah! A transparent and dependable system for receiving income!

To truly manifest this new accounting workflow, I built us a new lock box named Tricia. (It sounds like "treasure" when spoken with the right accent.)



[Tricia, the treasure chest with new registration forms and a box of homemade bracelets]