About Us

Board of Directors

We are an experiment in temporary community, and are a Burning Man 10 Principles Event

Go to Burng Man Page and learn more!

We encourage everyone to read and interpret them before attending any Burning Man event

Burning Man 10 Principles,

Cosmic is an officially sanctioned Burning Man Regional this means Cosmic follows the 10 Principles of Burning Man, and is really what this event is all about.

Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the 10 Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act, but as a reflection of the community's ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event's inception.

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance

Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on their inner resources.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Rule #1: Don't be a DICK

We believe that we can have a small burn without the bureaucracy found at most burns. With our smaller size and the majority of participants being experienced burners, there is no need for specialized departments like Greeters, Rangers, Sanctuary, MASH, Fire Patrols, Perimeter, Inspections, Placement, etc. We expect everyone to watch out for each other and pitch in to make the event a success. We also expect that if you bring an inexperienced person to the event, you will help them acclimate to the community. And of course, everyone is expected to follow Rule #1.

As we grow, we learn, we change.

While we dont have indivdual departments, we do need & love volunteers!

We at Cosmic don't think anyone department is more important than another.

Volunteer shifts are a do-it-all. You are DPW, you are Ranger, you are Mash, and you are Fire.

We encourage you to walk the site on your shifts, keep an eye out, fix infustructure, make friends & help your fellow burner.

If things are too crazy every COSMIC Board of Director is always on radio and always willing to step in.

All the Love from your Producers,

Alan “Sheck” Shechter

Debi “Crackerjack” Mansour

Doug “Nataraj” Shire

Josh “Yash 2.0” Pisano