This is the typical community story that makes me want to be in the “relationship business” (to quote @johncoate) my entire life.
Living on the Edge is not money-making, or money-changing-hands business (the latter we limit to a minimum). It is somehow part of the Edgeryders ethos. As a group we are pretty bad at or against dealing with finances: some of us are working to enable barter exchanges to replace money on a massive scale, others living moneyless for years now and many living in precarity. Community events are organised with something else in mind: be close to one another and complement online interaction nicely with real live action. So we try to keep it free of monetary charge, and invite participants to contribute time or skills for making it a great event.
But this is not the same as not recognizing that even travel costs can be prohibitively large and exclude people from coming. To avoid this, the wonderful @Kaja dreamed up a simple system whereby anyone can ask for help in considerable privacy and anyone can offer support under own terms.
Within days 450 eur were raised and other support too - a free ride from London and accommodation with Belgian edgeryders! On top of this, the lovely Antiheroes gals pledged 100 from their Support Fuckupreneurship ticket sale. Our own EdgeRyders organisation matches this up to ~1000.
Looking at the spreadsheet, people are self-organising to get in touch with one another, and a few are all set up with a small amount or a couch! We encourage everyone to play a part: go here and give if you have, take if you need. The nice thing to do is make sure you contributed your skills to LOTE5 before asking for help, so that there’s a sense of equity.
These may seem small signs of generosity from where some people are looking, but truly meaningful from where I stand. Much love and see you in Brussels! <3
Big thanks @Alex_Stef, @CamTesta, @ton, @ireinga, @KiraVde, @Nadia, @Alberto and of course @Kaja. And @CamTesta for moving so fast!