OFFICIAL Kings Canyon Camp Swank Thread

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'm reading a book called Here Comes Everybody, about how the Internet's social groupings have changed how groups work.

He details how hard it is to get people together to accomplish things, as we're well aware.

In one part he talks about how easy it is for 2 people to go see a movie, and how it gets harder the more people you add into the mix, due to the exponential math involved.

By the time you want to go to a movie in a group of ten, waiting for forty-five separate agreements is pretty much a lost cause. You could sit around discussing the possible choices all day, with no guarantee you'll get to an agreement at all, much less in time for the movie. Instead you'll vote or draw straws, or someone will just decide to go to a particular movie and invite everyone else along, without trying to take all possible preferences into account. These difficulties have nothing to do with friendship or movie-going specificially; they are responses to the grim logic of group complexity.

Hence, groups designate leaders, or committees, or a hierarchical structure, or something to make these sorts of things work. (The point of the book is that a lot of these problems disappear in Internet groups. It's when we venture into the real world that we get in trouble, isn't it?)

My point? Eh, don't really have one, was just reading and realized it fit in with this thread. The transactional rules are there. Either you obey them or you have nervous breakdown.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

So, um, how come you can't set up Thursday and tear down Monday? It's not like you wouldn't have plenty of help.


It would be so damn cool.

The foot print is about 18' x 40'. I have very serious concerns about finding a spot large enough to place it on.

Also, it is a complicated set up. I would be very worried about trying it without the owner of the tent being there (it is not mine in case I didn't make that clear - it belongs to some friends of ours).

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I'm reading a book called Here Comes Everybody, about how the Internet's social groupings have changed how groups work.

He details how hard it is to get people together to accomplish things, as we're well aware.

In one part he talks about how easy it is for 2 people to go see a movie, and how it gets harder the more people you add into the mix, due to the exponential math involved.



Hence, groups designate leaders, or committees, or a hierarchical structure, or something to make these sorts of things work. (The point of the book is that a lot of these problems disappear in Internet groups. It's when we venture into the real world that we get in trouble, isn't it?)

My point? Eh, don't really have one, was just reading and realized it fit in with this thread. The transactional rules are there. Either you obey them or you have nervous breakdown.

Exactly.

Being a professional events planner for almost 20 years has taught me that the "big group decision making process" accomplishes nothing, is frustrating, and does not foster excitement for the event and, in fact, it often alienates people. I MUCH prefer to work with a small planning committee, present the plan to the larger group and move on to accomplish the goal from there. That's the way I work in my professional life and that's the way I prefer to work in my non-professional event planning life.


I've already made a decision that, IF we have a camping event next year, I will either be involved in planning with a small group or I will not be involved at all. This process is too frustrating and maddening for me to take part in. While I love doing things as a group, I like to make solid plans and make them work. If that can't be accomplished with LoT events, I cannot, for my own sanity, be a part of them. I'm too busy to waste time spinning wheels.