Harvest/Fall/Thanksgiving/T-/Council/Counsel/Circle


The annual gathering of the tribes, which takes place over the 4th of July, has a cyclical process. While various regions in the USA often host a get together over the four day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, this blog deals with the annual gathering. In Georgia this summer, vision council on the land reached consensus that the 2019 gathering will take place in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

But then what?


Because the Rainbow Gathering has no leaders, no board of directors, no staff and no one in charge of anything, we depend on people working together to do all the preparation for the gathering in the north east. So over the years a process has come together to make sure that planning is open to everyone who wants to be involved.

The year starts off with Harvest / Fall Counsel / Thanks giving Council / T-Council or Circle, over the four day Thanksgiving holiday weekend of the same name. This is a time for people interested in plugging in, talking about visions for the gathering, discussing scouting, strategies about legal issues, etc. to get together. (see we don't even agree on the name). 

The council generally takes place in the state or region where we will be gathering although sometimes it happens in other areas not to far from the consensed upon areas. It's usually a camp, cook, council, share heart songs kinda of thing. Often but not always, the people at the council pick the dates for the Scout Rendezvous and Spring Council. Some times a PO box is established for snail mail and a banking council is formed to deal with any donations.

As with all things Rainbow, no experience is necessary, just a willingness to participate. Keep in mind this is not a gathering, it's a working council and the way this council unfolds sets the tone for the gathering.

I'm hoping that there will be a real mix of generations at this year's Harvest Council. We need older people, we need younger people, we need more experienced gatherers and we need less experienced gatherers to come together to create a vision for a peaceful, healing and fun gathering in 2019. Be the change you want to see in this world.

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