Consensus report from 2022 Fall Counsel
Please share to all points of light
"We, the 2022 Fall Counsel, ask that Vision Counsel consider weather and other relevent factors in the consensed region when requesting the dates for upcoming Fall Counsel circles.
Spring Counsel for the 2023 Annual Rainbow Gathering will begin on June 10, 2023.
An interim Magic Hat circle was formed. As per consensus at Banking Counsel on the land at the 2022 Annual Rainbow Gathering in Colorado, this circle will have the responsibility of stewarding half the remaining Magic Hat balance from the Colorado Gathering. The circle will meet regularly and spend or save this green energy by consensus as it finds necessary, in preparation for the 2023 Annual Rainbow Gathering.
Also as per banking counsel consensus on the land at the 2022 Annual Rainbow Gathering in Colorado, the other half of remaining Magic Hat has been allocated for the Seed Camp Necessities Fund for the 2023 Annual Rainbow Gathering."
Is there a NERF regional gathering in 2023?
Maybe two of them. The same person (A Major Focalizer) wrote both of the following:Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2023 17:24:48On Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:37:49 another focalizer (B) sent me directions to Texas Gap. I put them on this web site and sent a message to the mailing list saying that I had done so.
From: AMF
Yes! The consensus at the spring council for the new England regional, was Aug 1-10th. And as to the sites, those who scouted consensed on the land to the site and back ups for the regional. The site info will be posted about 1 week before August 1st. Looking forward to seeing youse guys on the land!
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 04:23:33I am very not interested in choosing up sides to have a fight, do not respond to ultimatums, and believe that censorship and un-publishing are usually evil, so I am not going to "pull" what has already been put on the web.
From: AMF
Subject: False flag
Those directions are false that B sent. And they're 5 days early. Please pull them from your site. B is trying to Shanghai the process so he can have his own personal gathering. Please do not allow this. If you do then I guess there's no reason for me to be involved with Nerf. Or any level of focalizing or anything in this region.
That said, you deserve to know that the following directions
are controversial.
"Do what you will" is the whole of the law.
The directions that B sent are >here<
Update 2023-07-21(Fri): As suggested by email there was a conference call today. Despite the short notice we were able to join it. Ignoring personal issues, the problems seem to amount to B posting direction before AMF thought it should be done, and a confusion between bus village and main circle.
The directions that AMF sent are >here<
Everyone agrees on Texas Gap. When you get there, bus village will be where the bus is parked, and main meadow will be where the big drums circle is. Ask for directions.
Update 2023-07-29(Sat): There was disasterous flooding in parts of Vermont July 9-10. Another email from AMF says:
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2023
From: AMF
90 miles of the AT have been shut down, per the governor of Vermont because of washouts, for weeks. You go from high elevation to valley floors and back a number of times, it is dangerous for flooding.It seems intentionally inflammatory to say the woods are dangerous and discourage people from going to the gathering which in the 10-day forecast has no more than a quarter inch of rain any day and is mostly sunny at this time..
I understand your concern in this unprecedented flooding outside of Irene.
From: AMFSo I am counting it as still on. See you next week!
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2023
But, our kitchen will be getting hiked in on sunday. I've heard from site from someone who understands water and brought equipment that they tapped into the watershed, set up a line, and a filter. Filter is located near that small bridge that goes over the brook next to the historical Nerf site for Texas falls regionals.I enjoy knowing that I'll see you all on the land.
Both AMF and B were at the Spring Council in May.
NERF Spring Council (2023-May-19)
There was a conference call
to do planning April 1, 2023.
It resulted in a call for a NERF council circle on the land in Vermont
Friday, May 19th to Sunday, May 21st
>here<.
The Howdy Folks for the Council May 19-21 at Texas Gap is
>here<.
That council circle came to consensus on three items which can be read >here<. One of them is a regional gathering August 1–10, 2023.
Update 2023-08-12(Sat): We were there for part of the time.
A report will appear here shortly.
Update 2024-02-27(Tue): The report is linked to above,
where it says:
The NERF regional gathering happened, 2023-Aug-1..10. We went there and my report can be found >here<
Vermont 2023
🌈Howdy Folks!🌈
All peaceful beings are invited and welcome to join the New England
Mountain Family to the 2023 New England Regional Gathering from August 1st
to August 10th.
The Fall Council met in
Finger Lakes National Forest near Ithaca NY.
A report is
>here<.
Here are
>Directions to Spring Council
starting Saturday, 10 June 2023
in New Hampshire.<
.
The gathering happened about six miles up the road from the council site.
Sorry, when I first put up that link, I left off the http://
which worked if it was copied into a browser, but did not work as a
clickable link—fixed 2023-05-06.
The following came from the same email address and was again refused
by gmail. It came as an attached .png file with a
generic multicolored background with text in white on black.
I saved about a megabyte on every copy by using plain text.
The first two events were aleady past when I got this:
WORKSHOP WEDNESDAYS
Note: I am not accepting donations to pay for upgrades
to my computer. That is not the issue. I am soliciting advice,
but first read the description of the problem at the link above,
and send comments to webmaster@nerflings.org, (only) if you can add
to the discussion.
I am having some trouble keeping up due to
problems with my vision (click).
You can read the messages
here (click link).
There have been almost 140 attempts to transfer the
mail to the gmail.com mail server. Every time it says
I intend to delete these stuck messages and repost copies,
and a link to this page, from my own address.
Update 2022-05-26(Thu) 23:30 EDT
That doesn't mean you can't go there, but treat it as a camping
trip. Be self sufficient. Look for rainbows, but have good
time even if you don't find any.
Directions to Branch Pond are here..
Over the course of many years I have walked all over the area.
With Appalachian mountains all around, streams and wetlands,
the Pond, Lye Brook wilderness, hiking trails and parking spots,
you are sure to find something. I saw a moose once and
a salamander parade another time.
Tell me what you see.
Silence is good. Too many messages over the
past few years have been news of death in the family.
Note: We don't want the event, but want the news.
Don't hesitate to send news about rainbows.
(Even if it's good news!)
The good news from the mailing list is that the rainbow
lawyers are making progress toward securing our right
to gather. Unfortunately, this is happening just as
my motivation to gather is at low ebb.
Between the
virus, the need to save gasoline, progress in other parts
of my life, inability to walk in the woods,
and the disappearance of
so many of the people that I previously expected to see
at a gathering, I am not likely to go as far or stay as long
as I used to.
Running a mail server, without keeping the mailing list
on corporate-owned hardware, is getting tricky sometimes.
I have already complained about gmail, yahoo, and comcast
delaying mail for many hours or days (see October below).
The last batch of messages were totally refused by a few
"special" email servers. I got
That means that they are keeping a list of spammer's addresses
and trying to make money by selling access to that list.
Many years ago the nerflings.org mail server
made use of such a Black-List. I quit using it when it went
from a free service to subscription for money.
I have no objection in principle to making money by selling
accurate and timely information, but I did not need the information
for my low volume personal server. Rather than access a huge global
list of spammers, I just block the ones that are bothering me.
Abusix seems to have made their list by putting everyone on it.
The Abusix web site offered to take nerflings.org off
their list. They wanted an email address and a password.
Two or three times I tried to enter that data, but just saw
a pink rectangle with the words "password manager crashed".
Finally it worked, and the messages stuck in the nerflings.org
mail queue were tranfered to the recipient mail servers.
In the process, the web site made me click "OK" to a Terms of
Service Agreement. I did not read it, because I do not want
their service. There is a difference between a service and
a protection racket,
It all seems to be working now, and if that's the end of it
then we are OK, but if Abusix causes any more trouble, then
we are enemies. I won't be sending them any money.
I reserve the right to drop a mail message from the
nerflings.org out-going mail queue if the recipient
mail server refuses to accept it after dozens of tries
over a day or two. If the message is important, I will copy
it to this web site. If the problem is persistant, I will
try to notify the user of the broken mail server.
??????
Observations on the gathering itself are
>here<.
Somebody sent a link to a U-tube video called
NERF Family Values >here<.
Because of problems with my ISP (Internet Service Provider)
I am in the middle of a major re-configuration of my
hardware and software. My notes on this are
>here<.
This web page is no longer served by a computer in my basement.
It is now "in the cloud"[1]. I got the web server moved,
and tried to get my personal email working. I did not think
the mailing list would work, but I more-or-less by accident copied
the configuration files and somebody sent a message to it.
It sort-of works. Details of mailing list mechanics are
>here<.
[1] There is no cloud; it's just somebody else's computer.
Of course there is more to running a mail server than configuring
it to send mail correctly, the recipient's mail server must be
configured to accept the mail. The first few messages sent
to the list were rejected as spam by gmail, hotmail, and some others.
I can't totally blame them; as far as they knew an unknown computer
started sending mail to their users 20 to 50 at a time.
It seems to have gotten better. The last few messages to the
list have been accepted fairly quickly. The gmail.com mail
server delayed them, but that has been happening for a while.
Maybe it's just luck, maybe they have decided I'm not so bad
after all.
After watching it for a while and keeping notes on what it does,
I have decided that it doesn't work well enough to leave it
running unattended. I have a life to attend. The mailing
list was out-of-service for a few days
while I was at the 2024-Aug-2 gathering (See above).
More on list testing >here< .
(May) A small council circle in Widow's Clearing Vermont
consented to a gathering August 1–10.
More information on the council and gathering site.
>here<.
Notes on mailing list mechanics can be found
>here<.
(June) Where is the July National Gathering?
This led to some discussion which is archived
>here<.
(July) The Breadloaf was announced as the site
for the central Vermont Gathering.
>here<.
We met people who we have not seen for several
years, and two who we have not seen for several decades,
as well as dozens we have never seen before.
Where: Green Mountain National Forest - Texas Falls
Where was the July 4 gathering in 2023?
The 51st National Gathering happened in
New Hampshire, near Berlin.
More >here<.
What's new on the mailing list?
In reverse chronological order:
8.Everybody's Zoom(2023-04-23 & 05-04)
This link came in through an email and was delivered within
minutes to all but gmail.com addresses. Gmail kept deferring
responsibility for more than 24hrs.
From: email@example.com
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:06:52 -0400
Subject: Skill sharing
To: NERFList
Want to learn how various skills the rainbow way. Join everybody's zoom on
Wednesdays to skill share and setting up potable water, creating and
serving food, working with families. Check out this site
http://everybodyszoom.info.
bit.ly/everybodyszoom
9pm ET / 6pm PT
7.BIG changes (2023-Apr)
Because of
problems with my ISP
(Internet Service Provider) both the mailing list and
this web page must make major technical changes soon.
Indeed, they may entirely disappear. Make copies of parts
you want to save.
6.Legal Issues (2023-Feb,Apr)
There have been several posts about legal issues from
the the Free Assembly Project.
The most recent was about the
The Presidential Pot Pardon.
It's worth reading if they have ever made a Federal Case
out of your simple possession of marijuana.
3. Welcomehome.org (2022-June-14)
I was going to say that it is same as before; clogged up.
But while I was writing that, someone sent a message that
went through just fine. The messages that were delayed by
gmail for days
can be read
here (click link).
They are about the welcomehome.org web site and the
2022 Colorado Gathering.
2. Memorial Day Council (canceled)(2022-May-25,26)
It's clogged up. Last Sunday, May 22, somebody posted a suggestion
for a memorial day council at Branch Pond.
Now it's Wednesday and that message as
well as two replies to it are still in the mail queue. They were
delivered to all addresses on the mailing list (so the replies
were possible), except for gmail addresses.
To protect our users from spam,
mail sent from your IP address has been temporarily rate limited.
Oddly, a second message from the same person with the same address
as that first message was accepted almost immediately.
I think there is something about that particular message
that gmail does not like. It was quoted in the replies.
In any case, it looks like it may be delayed forever.
I deleted the messages in the queue. I exchanged email with some
prople. It looks like the kitchen will not be there;
I will not be there; many others will not be there.
1. Not much (2022-Mar-16)
It's been quiet. On Fri, 25 Feb 2022 , somebody
asked to be removed from the mailing list. I did it immediately,
but did not get around to confirming it until today.
Feb 21 17:14:14:
550 5.7.1 Sender blocked error;
host mx03.oxsus-vadesecure.net[51.81.242.59] refused to talk to me:
[66.92.74.188] blocked using Abusix Policy List -
https://lookup.abusix.com/
On 2022-Feb-22 I went to the Abusix web site given in the
error message and looked up my IP address [66.92.74.188].
According to Abusix, that is a spammer address.
It seems that Abusix is a new RBL (Real-time Black-List).
What happened in 2024?
There was a Memorial Day council circle at Breadloaf
in central Vermont that consented to a regional gathering
2024-Aug-2…11. Details are
>here<.
List Testing
What's new in 2025?
(Feb) It just started, and it's been winter. We went to
a memorial for Virgil.
What about Breadloaf in August (2025)?
We could not stay all week but went there on both weekends.
Because I do not walk well, we spent most of the time sitting
in folding chairs near the car.
(checked 2024-05-22
)
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