WHERE WILL THE GATHERING BE?

The truth is no one knows where the gathering will be at this time.

In July 2003, Vision Council called for it to be in

California, Utah or Nevada.

In November 2003, Thanksgiving Council discussed planning

for a healthy and safe gathering.

The 1st scout council happened from April 30th to May 2nd outside

of Oroville, California.

Folks have gone out scouting. More energy is needed to scout and

more communication between folks scouting is also needed. If you want

to plug into either area, call the scout contact number: 1-661-702-9199

This number will be available until spring

council. Use it to send possible site suggestion or to contact scouts in the field.

Please, no collect calls.

Then there will be a

2nd scout council June 4th and 5th - Location TBA. All people with information

on sites that have already been scouted should plan on attending the second scout council.

All the scouts and anyone interested in being involved

in site selection then attend Spring Council which starts

June 7 - location TBA. It generally takes 1-7 days for the council

to reach a decision. Often, but not always, the general

area that is used for Spring Council is where the gathering

will be -- I've seen it be 300 miles away and I've

seen it be 20 miles aways.

If you are flying, waiting to see where spring council is held

and aiming for the gathering to be within a few hundred miles is probably

the best bet. The gathering rarely happens adjacent to a major airport anyway. Same tactic for bus/rail transporation applies.

As soon as the site is selected, information is widely

distributed. All the information I have is located

at http://home.earthlink.net/~scrollinfo

Until spring council reseaches a decision, there is no

answer to the question "where is the gathering?"

However, I will offer this as Karin's personal opinion.

Most of the people who I know that are putting energy

into scouting for this gathering are putting more energy

into California, less into Nevada and only a small bit into

Utah. There may be other scouting efforts that I am unaware

of and no disrespect to those people who are putting in energy

that I am unaware of. This doesn't mean that the gathering

will be in any specific state. Just some informal feed

back on what's happening now.

The main day of the gathering is July 4. Some people come

a few weeks early to create the gathering. Some stay a few

weeks late to help with clean up. Plan on spending at least

a week so you have a chance to get settled in, make friends

and get involved.

I recommend that you read the Mini Manual of

Gathering Consciousness if you haven't been to the annual

gathering yet. You can find a copy on online

at http://home.earthlink.net/~scrollinfo/mini_manual.PDF.

If you can't read PDF files, email me and I'll send

you an ASCII text copy.



******* PERMIT INFO************

Some people have expressed concerns about a permit being signed

for this year's gathering. At the current time, I know of

no individual or group of individuals who are working towards

signing a permit. The USFS has been given notice by many

individuals that no permit will be signed this year.

There is an opportunity to have the regulations changed.

A Mailman list has been set up to facilitate topic specific

discussion. The place to post can be found at:

changetheregs@welcomehome.org

www.welcomehome.org/mailman/options/changetheregs

If something can be published in the Federal Register in time for public consideration during the Gathering, every day counts. Please, put your ideas forward.

************END PERMIT INFO*************



If you have any other questions, please ask.

Love,

Karin

If you want to be on my email list and get updates as they become available, please let me know.

Or write

Cooperations Council 2004

PO Box 3352

Santa Clara, CA, 95055-3352.

PS If you want to share some $$ to help the gathering,

the PO Box is the place to send it to. If you want your donation

to only be spent on Scouting, food, CALM, etc, just include

a note to that effect. All funds received will be held

until Spring Council forms a Banking Council to handle

the money.

Please make sure you clean up after yourself.

Don't trash the forest/desert/mountains.

Carry In and Carry Out!