Schedule & Workshops: Weekend B 2016

Here is the schedule for Weekend B, June 10–13, 2016. Workshop descriptions are listed below the schedule in alphabetical order; click on a workshop title to jump to the full description.

Note that we have open spaces for folks to lead workshops who weren’t involved in the initial workshop selection process — please bring your last-minute workshops!

FRIDAY, June 10
10:00–12:00 Setup volunteers arrive
12:00–2:00 Setup; registration volunteers arrive
2:00 Registration opens
6:00–8:00 POTLUCK DINNER (Please bring a dish to share)
8:00–9:00 Opening Circle

SATURDAY, June 11
8:00–9:00 BREAKFAST
9:00–10:00 Mchakamaka
with Ari E.		 Organic Weed Management
with Bryan B.
Meat Rabbits
with Ron I. and Lisa
 Open Slot/Late Additions
10:00–10:15
10:15–11:15 The Art of Bullshitting
with Eliza W.		 Open Slot/Late Additions
11:15–11:30
11:30–12:30 Tiny Houses
with Drew C.		 Cryptography
with Karim		 Backpacking Asia
with C. Ferrell
12:30–2:00 LUNCH
2:00–3:00 Why Don’t We Have Better Train Service?
with Chris P.		 Knot Tying
with Scott S.		 Basic Woodworking
with Adam F.
3:00–3:15
3:15–4:15
Posture
with Scott C.
4:15–4:30
4:30–5:30 Open Slot/Late Additions
5:30–6:30 Relax/jam/swim/etc.
6:30–8:00 DINNER
8:00 on Jam/swim/dance/chill/etc.

SUNDAY, June 12
8:00–9:00 BREAKFAST
9:00–10:00 Yoga
with Christine T.
Plant Taxonomy 101
with Sonja B.
 Darn!
with Eliza W.		 Open Slot/Late Additions
10:00–10:15
10:15–11:15 The Art of Deep Attention
with Eric G.
Spinning
with Darcy
Open Slot/Late Additions
11:15–11:30
11:30–12:30 Harmonica
with Ari E.		 Fulfilling Conversations
with Ethan H.
12:30–2:00 LUNCH
2:00–3:00 Supporting Those with Chronic Illness/Pain
with Hannah P.		 Hammock-Sitting with Rachel G. Open Slot/Late Additions
3:00–3:15
3:15–4:15
Storytelling
with Justin S.
 Needle Felting with Erin V.
Open Slot/Late Additions
4:15–4:30
4:30–5:30 Game It Up!
with Annie W.		 Carton Coin Purses with Adj M.
5:30–6:30 Closing Circle
6:30–8:00 DINNER
8:00 on Jam/swim/dance/chill/etc.

 

Workshop Descriptions: Weekend B

* denotes small materials fee

Backpacking Asia

Always thought you might want to try backpacking abroad but you have no clue where to start?  Curious about what it’d be like to spend some/more time in Asia?  Come join us and get inspired! We can take those ideas you’ve had and turn them into real life plans!  We’ll discuss how to hostel; visas; health, transportation and culture in different countries; tips for budgeting and staying safe; websites and contacts to help plan your trip; and recent tourist trends in different countries. This will be a forum for us all to share and exchange advice and tips.  Participants are encouraged to bring books and materials to share and exchange with one another. Bring your sense of adventure and get ready to see the world!

Basic Woodworking

Learn super basic woodworking techniques and how to use tools that you probably already have to create sturdy items out of wood. We’ll talk about when to screw, when to nail, and how to keep your boards from splitting apart, as well as gluing technique. We’ll experiment with different types of saws and when to use them, as well as chiseling and planning for getting things to fit nice and snug.

Cryptography!

Curious about the history and modern day implications of cryptography? Worried about the prying eyes of ne’er-do-wells online? Interested in learning how to break some codes? We’ll discuss origins and current events around this marvel of mathematics, learn how to put a few simple tools to work for us, and practice solving simple ciphers!

Darn!

Learn to darn socks (or sweaters, or other knit stuff with holes). We’ll talk about why you should darn (because recycling is good, and you really like that sweater your mom knit) and then learn how to darn. We’ll cover practical darning, and if we get wild, maybe branch into decorative darning! Bring something with a hole in it, and an incandescent lightbulb to darn over. (I’ll bring spares of both, too.)

Carton Coin Purses: Eggnog, OJ, Almond Milk

Do you have a favorite kind of milk, almond milk, orange juice or eggnog? Is your recycling bin overflowing with all those containers? Bring your favorite carton or use some of the ones I provide to make a fun new coin purse! I often select cartons I think have a fun design — Little Rhody Milk is my carton design of choice. 🙂 This workshop will show you how to make your own coin purse from a half-gallon or quart carton. The twist-off cap is an important component of the purse closure so BRING THE CAP! If you want to bring your own or help me collect cartons for this workshop, please open the carton at the top and wash out out the inside of the carton. Let it dry. Then use an X-Acto knife (can also be done with scissors but is a bit more difficult) to cut off the bottom panel. This way they can lay flat and don’t take up too much room in your overflowing Skill Swap car but still have the structural integrity we need for the purse making.

Engineering Effective Performance

Lots of us engage with problems that seem large, complicated, and intractable. It can be hard to know where to start and, having started, what to try. This is true whether we’re talking about interpersonal relationships, the climate, a project, work stress, health issues, skill deficits, or whatever. I studied performance improvement in graduate school, and one of the things that really shaped my thinking was the Engineering Effective Performance model. It’s a simple set of structured tools, easily understood, for looking at what’s going on in a situation, figuring out where we want to go, and making a plan for getting there. I learned it in the context of instructional design, but I’ve found it helpful in lots of other ways. We’ll talk about the model and then use it to analyze situations y’all bring to the workshop, with the goal of finding some specific, actionable ideas for people to try. If there’s time, we might also talk about Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, which is another structured tool for thinking about things in useful ways.

Game It Up!

Seems like there’s always a good reason to stop being serious and do something ridiculous for a while. Maybe we’ll play superhero tag. Maybe we’ll design a new game no one’s ever played before. Maybe we’ll play an old classic like capture the flag using the entire camp as our playing field. I’m hoping to do a couple of short workshops instead of one long one so everyone can get in on the fun if they want to. Kids aren’t the only ones who are welcome. And if it’s raining, don’t worry, we’ll just play sardines around all of the other activities. Most likely games will be: non-competitive, some running around, goofing around, and maybe even dancing around. 

Hammock-Sitting

Learning challenging, fun, thought-provoking, joy-inducing skills from your brilliant friends may well be a great way to spend a few hours or a weekend, but did you know you can be challenged, have fun, provoke thought and induce joy within yourself and amongst your friends simply by sitting under in a hammock? This theory was rigorously tested in several impromptu sessions at Skill Swap 2014 and demand has only grown since then. Neither a hammock nor previous experience is necessary, though helpful. Spare trees may be useful as well, if packable. All ages welcome.

Harmonica 

Ask and ye shall receive! Learn what to do with that lovely hunk of metal and plastic that’s been sitting on your shelf for years, yearning for you to learn to play it. Harmonica is basically just glorified breathing, so we’ll learn to breathe real good, get ourselves acquainted with how the instrument functions, and get some ideas on how to continue learning it on your own. BYO harmonica — C is the most common one, so aim for that.

How to Have Fulfilling Conversations

Every conversation is an opportunity to connect deeply with another person, but too often we get stuck talking about our jobs and the weather. Let’s explore and practice the skills that create greater emotional depth, intimacy, vulnerability, understanding, and learning in conversations. Some topics might include: asking open-ended questions, allowing space, active listening and reflecting, speaking without judgment, and how and whether to share your own experience or give advice.

Knot Tying

Rope is not sticky, but nevertheless, there are secret handshakes you can give to it to make it stick to things mightily. I propose to teach a single secret handshake called the sheet bend. This is useful for getting two ropes to stick together, or joining a rope and something ropey but much bigger (like a sheet). You can even use it to get two sheets to hold, should you want to escape out the window of a storybook. But that’s not all! Learning this one knot gives you a bunch of them. If you tie a rope to itself with a sheet-bend, you end up with a loop that never gets tighter, that’s still easy to get back out when you’re done with it — something called a bowline, which has been endorsed by great humans at previous Epic Skill Swaps as the Best Knot There Is. If you make a few bowlines in a rope, wrap the rope around something, and then thread the rope back through those bowlines to pull them together, you get a murderous, never-going-anywhere squeeze called a trucker’s hitch. And if you make a bunch of loops instead of just one when you’re tying a bowline to begin with, you get a thick friendly loop called a Soft Shackle that you can pull on hard without hurting your hand — useful for hauling things, working out without weights, or playing cops and robbers. The reasons they work are interesting, and the things you can do with them are just that interesting again. Come to explore the possibilities, and leave still exploring them.

Mchakamchaka

Mchakamchaka is a tradition from Tanzania of communal jogging/singing. The footsteps keep the rhythm. The songs are simple, joyous, and lend themselves to lots of fun harmonies. The jogging isn’t strenuous, since we go at a pace that allows us to have air in our lungs to sing. It’s real fun.

Meat Rabbits

Lisa and Ron will take you on an exploration into the the world of meat rabbits. The workshop will cover choosing breeds, setting up your rabbitry, how to feed and house them, a demonstration of humane harvesting, and finally exploring some options of preparing and serving the rabbit.

[Please note: This workshop include a live animal harvest. We have made arrangements for the workshop to happen in a discrete location so people who choose to limit their exposure to it may do so. We also wanted to give those of you with kids a heads-up so you have an opportunity to decide how you want to handle this topic with your little ones.
—your organizing team]

Meeting Planning & Facilitation

In this workshop, we’ll cover the basics of preparing for and conducting a meeting, including prepping your attendees, drafting an agenda, facilitating the conversation, and follow up. We’ll reflect on best and worst meeting experiences, discuss how we might address common issues that come up, and share resources.

Music/Sound Improvisation Game: Cobra!

For instrumentalists, singers, and anybody who makes sounds. Cobra is a fun, fast-paced, eyes-open, musical(-ish) game-piece by John Zorn. Its structure might remind you more of a theater improv game than a piece of music. Participants signal a prompter to give the ensemble various cues, so that all the improvisers can momentarily take control of the shape of the piece. Cobra is a great structure for practicing improvisatory decisiveness and commitment and for exploring sonic urges that may be inappropriate in politely democratic, nice-sounding jam sessions.

Needle Felting*

In 2014 I picked up some wool and some needles and fell in love with this craft we call needle felting. I have taught a few friends to do it over some coffee or wine or food or all of the above, with great conversation and some laughs. I mostly make gifts around the holidays and for birthdays, and sell a few items to pay for my materials throughout the year. My goal here is to share my love for this craft and learn a few others along the way!

Organic Management of Agricultural Weeds

Weeds are the worst! Come hear an overview of ecological techniques to control those suckers. If you struggle with particular weed species, come get them identified by bringing pictures (an actual sample is needed if it’s a grass) and learn how to control them. 

Pie Making and Recipe Swap

Crust feel intimidating? Can’t quite manage to get the meringue to work out like it should? Never fear — we’ll have a delicious session of pie-making and recipe-swapping. I’m envisioning that we make a big pile of pies as a group (trying some hard things), and trade our favorite recipes, so come prepared with instruction for making the kinds of pies that you love. Added bonus: there will then be pie to eat. . .

Plant Taxonomy 101

Have you ever set out to identify a wildflower using a guidebook or key, only to give up after 40 minutes of muttering things like “It would be easier to tell if the ochrea was fringed if I knew what an ochrea was. . .” and “What the heck does ‘reticulate’ mean?” Well! Come to this workshop, and we can practice using a variety of keys, while learning some of the jargon necessary for success. Feel free to bring unknowns to ID! 

Posture

Improving your posture is one of the most valuable things you can invest your time on. It has major implications on your confidence, your dance and sports ability, your attractiveness, your career, your health, and even your trustworthiness. We’ll work on common problem areas: scapula placement and securement, forward head carriage, anterior/posterior pelvic tilt, external hip rotation, forearm supination, and “eye posture,” as well as maximizing the power and efficiency of your walk. We’ll finish class with a group critique session to identify the most important posture areas for you to work on.

Storytelling

I offered this workshop last year, and I think it went really well. The workshop will focus on extemporaneous/Moth-style storytelling, which is to say: true (non-fiction), first person (from the storyteller’s perspective), original (using your own voice), oral (using your mouth), short format (5 to 10 minutes) storytelling. We’ll talk about the structure of stories and how to craft your experiences into a compelling story. We’ll discuss strategies and techniques for delivery. And finally we’ll workshop stories for each other, with participants taking turns creating and delivering stories, and offering feedback to one another.

Supporting Those With Chronic Illness/Pain

When you have people in your life who are struggling with diagnoses of chronic illness and/or pain, it can be really hard to know how to support them. It can be nerve-wracking, and sometimes a fear of saying the wrong thing can lead you to keep your mouth shut entirely. It’s easy to find lists of what not to say to your suffering folk, but I want to provide some alternatives and suggestions for how to encourage without dredging up more pain and confusion. Everyone hurts differently, but there are some things that no one is helped by hearing. We’ll also go over some of the language that is often used by people who are chronically ill so that you are better equipped to understand. (In terms of credentials, I have chronic pain.)

The Art of Bullshitting

Come join me as we manufacture the ridiculous, make up the (almost) believable and treat our friends to tales of daring do (or actually daring didn’t). Gain confidence in your confidence game, and after you’ve practiced fooling others, think about ways that foolin’ can change the way you’re feelin’. Experiment with how a confident man’s self-confidence helps him get around in public situations with ease and poise, and try tricking yourself into being [more] awesome. As I see it, this will be one part fibbing, one part storytelling, one part personal development. [And OF COURSE YOU SHOULD HAVE ABSOLUTE FAITH IN ME AS YOUR TEACHER! I’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS! *Wink*]

The Art of Deep Attention

This workshop will use the forests and fields in Camp Wilmot to teach participants to engage in their surroundings using all of their senses and to pay deep attention to what’s going on around them. It will be an exercise in moving meditation, one that may include tracking animals, lying on the ground staring into the sky, identifying trees or other plants solely by touch or smell, probing our emotional responses to nature, letting the wind move us through a landscape blindfolded, or learning to perceive the presence of things without being able to see them. Extraordinary acts of attention are our birthright as human beings, and this workshop will offer participants an opportunity to expand their ideas about what they’re capable of.

Why Don’t We Have Better Train Service?

A background and history of how Americans choose to dismantle the greatest public transit network in the world (while funding Europe’s railroad renaissance). History, politics, economics. . . and self-inflicted tragedy. Lecture, mostly — and question and discussion as the group is inspired. I now serve as Vermont Rail Action Network Executive Director, formerly a conductor, and have been following railroads my whole life.

Willow/Spruce Root Handbaskets

Make small handbaskets using willow branches and /or spruce roots. materials provided; baskets may not be done by the end of the workshop but you will have the knowledge to finish them and make more.

Yoga

Let’s get ready for the sit and learn with some move and stretch!