Tag: Pagans in the Park

1 The Pagan-est Day Ever!

March 26, 2017
by pagancollectivevic
· Blog · Features · Music and Dance · Sabbats and Celebrations

Pagan Pride Day and Spiral Dance Concert

By Alex and Josie

On the 18^th of March The PCV hosted our first Pagan Pride Day, in Edinburgh Gardens. It was an amazing day filled with amazing people and a great sense of community. The event started at 12pm. People started arriving and what was initially a small amount of people grew: we ended up with around 50 people attending.

At 2pm the talks about the various paths started. Our first speaker was Shaz. She spoke about ADF Druidry and Silver Birch Grove. Josephine talked about Alexandrian witchcraft, and we then had Dean who spoke about Asatru (Norse paganism), followed by KC guy who spoke about OBOD Druidry. Next, Fio Talked about the Reclaiming path, then Luca Talked about Wildwood, and Dorian Talked about Chaos magic.

After the talks on the different paths we moved on to our ritual for the autumn Equinox which was run by Josie and Ryan in a Alexandrian inspired style. The quarters were called by Fran (Air), Sarah (Fire), Alex (Water) and Mark (Earth). It was a beautiful ritual that included a meeting dance and lovely music.

After the ritual we moved on to our second session of talk which were about the different meetings and gatherings around Victoria we started off with Ryan talking about the CBD pub moots, then Sarah talking about the Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets. Next was Mark who talked about the Central Vic meetups, and we then had Dean who talked about the Heathen meetups, which include a ritual. This was followed by Nickole talking about Earthsong Witchcamps. We then had Dorian who talked about the newly started Frankston/Cranbourne Meetups, and Shaz then talked about Druid Coffee. The Queer Pagan Men’s meetups where then talked about by Buck, Michel then talked about the Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering, and finally we finished off with Seline talking about Into Me I See.

It was an absolutely amazing day filled with friendship and community spirit. As a fairly new member of the Pagan community I found it to be a great way to learn more about what is available in Victoria and also to meet more like minded people. I would also love to thank the amazing PCV for running the day especially Sarah for being MC and making sure everything ran smoothly. I would also love to thank all the speakers and those who ran the ritual and finally thankyou to everyone who attended as without you it wouldn’t have happened.

— Alex

“I just saw a Reclaiming witch, a Druid and an Anarchist eating grapes together. And they were LAUGHING.”
– overheard at the Pagan Pride Day picnic

After a busy and marvelously social day at Pagan Pride Day, we headed on down to Bar 303 in Northcote to see Spiral Dance and KC Guy live in concert, presented by the PCV.

This concert was the perfect way to finish off a day of the Pagan community coming together. KC Guy’s voice is truly enchanting, and just what we needed to chill out and lose ourselves. Spiral Dance has a decades-long track record of bringing Pagans together with their beautiful and very danceable music, and dance we did!

The hot, sticky night didn’t stop any of us from busting out our best daggy Pagan dance moves to tunes like The Quickening, Faerie Tale and our favourite, Black Annis.

By the end of the night our throats were raw, our clothes were heavy with sweat and every last one of us were wearing enormous watermelon-slice grins as we exploded out into the cool night air of High Street.

A million, squillion thankyous to KC Guy and Spiral Dance for travelling from South Australia to perform for us and provide the perfect ending to a perfect day. Thanks also to Bar 303 for having us, to everyone who helped out on the door, and to Mark Hayes for his beautiful photos of the night.

— Josie

You can download a copy of the Pagan Pride Day Flyer here: PPD 2017

Photo Reuse Policy: You are welcome to use these photos for *personal use* on social media, etc, but please credit/tag the Mark Hayes Photography Facebook Page when you do.

LLuca discusses the Wildwood Tradition at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Michel gives a presentation about the history of the Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Ryan talks about the CBD Pagan Pub Moots at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Nickole talks about Earthsong Witchcamps at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Ryan is inducted into the Ancient and Mystical Order of the Vegemite Scroll at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Seline gives a presentation at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Buck discusses Queer Pagan Men Australia at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Dorian discusses Chaos Magick at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Kacey gives a presentation about OBOD at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

At the 2017 Spiral Dance and KC Guy Concert. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

Dean gives a talk on Heathenry at our first Pagan Pride Day, in 2017. Photo: Mark Hayes Photography

0 Meeting Minutes, November 2016

November 27, 2016
by pagancollectivevic
· Meeting Minutes · Uncategorized

Thankyou to our intrepid secretary Mark for putting these together!

PCV Committee Meeting 26^th November 2016

Meeting Start: 1.32

Attending: Ryan, Nickole, Josie, Seamus, Dean, Alex, Mark, Shaz, Ang, Lucas and Fran Apologies: River, Fi, Dorian
Absent:

President’s Report
The PCV has put on over 30 events this year, which is a lot, 25 – 26 of these were coffee and pub meetups. In addition to this we had some public rituals as well as pagans in the park. There is a heap of stuff cooking up for next year which is really exciting.

Secretary’s Report
Memberships keep rolling in, up to about 209 membership now as well as over 900 likes on Facebook.

Treasurer’s Report
Nothing new to report, money in the bank is the same as the last few meetings, the PCV has not been running events that make money.

Meet-Ups
CBD Moot
This moot is getting really busy, with 2-3 new people pretty much every time that have not been met before, it is exciting to see lots of new faces. The moot is changing venues to the Last Jar for next year to accommodate the fact that we need more seats for the events. Should be slightly more disability friendly with a bathroom on the same floor, however there are still the steps at the front and a narrow door. For 2017 the moots will be running monthly but taking a break for September.

Central Vic
The Central Victoria Pagans in the Café had four meets this year, with an average of 4 – 8 attendees at them. For 2017 the Pagans in the Café and the Central Vic Heathens will be combining the coffee meets and aiming for quarterly coffee meets.

Central Vic Heathens
The Central Vic Heathens in addition to combining with the Pagans in the Café are looking at trying to run some different events next year beyond coffee meets. More to be announced as they come.

Hills Meets
These meets are going from strength to strength, running in a lovely new venue (Earthly Pleasures), getting about 10+ attendees at each meet, people attending are happy with the format, these meets will be running monthly for 2017.
Two other meet ups in the works – Hamilton, which is trying to get up and running with some support from us and will hopefully start running next year. Also Frankston which Dorian has kindly volunteered to get going next year, at this stage it will probably be bi-monthly in the Frankston area. More will be confirmed as it is organised.
ACTION: Need to get a start date sorted with Dorian for 2017
ACTION: Need to make sure that the meets that are near each other don’t conflict with each other, PCV or otherwise so as to not make it too hard for attendees to choose what to go to.

Memberships
Seven new memberships have been received since last meeting, no objections to the members were raised, so all new people were approved.

Dates for 2017

Committee Meetings	CBD Meet-Ups	Hills Meet-Ups	Sabbats	Other
	15^th January	8^th January
26^th Feb (attach to Druid Coffee, Northcote)	19^th February	5^th February	5^th February Lughnassa (Silver Birch)
	19^th March	5^th March	25^th March Mabon (Wiccans)	Pagan Pride Day 18^th March Pagan Concert 18^th March
8^th April (Central Victoria)	16^th April (needs to be changed)	2^nd April
	21^st May	7^th May	Samhain (May date TBC)
4^th June (attach to Hills Meetup, Belgrave)	18^th June	4^th June	Yule Dinner 24^th June
	16^th July	2^nd July
20^th August AGM (attach to CBD meet-up)	20^th August	6^th Aug
	17^th September (needs to be changed)	3^rd Sept	24^th September Ostara (Silver Birch/Heathens)
14^th October (Central Victoria)	15^th October	1^st October
	19^th November	5^th November
3^rd December (attach to Hills Meet-Up, Belgrave)		3^rd December
PCV Hiatus 24^th Dec – 7^th Jan

Imbolc – *stare at Reclaiming and Lucas*

Pagans in the Park/Pagan Pride Day
18^th of March is the proposed date for the event. Some of the concepts discussed were – having stalls, a festival feel and less picnic feel, showcase for traditions (someone gets up and talks about each tradition and talks about what they do and who is good to talk to if you want to go further) Need to get the ideas, for location, format etc. then scale back.

ACTION: Shaz will talk to her contacts/arch-druid to get some ideas for running it and what resources are available, possibly Fitzroy/Treasury gardens for the location, if so we need to make sure to follow all the protocols with paperwork etc. for running in such a public location
ACTION: The working group need to have a meeting for this, a date will be set.

Yule Dinner
Going to run as the same format as the 2014 one, it was ritzy, nice and well catered, Ryan is hoping to get the prices down to about $35 – 40
ACTION: Ryan is going to look for a venue and nut out a menu in the next few weeks. Going to see about getting Casey over for it again to do the entertainment.

PCV Businesses/Relationships
Is it possible to get us thinking about our kind of relationships with the businesses, loyalty programs, advertising, think of a way to have a financial exchange, perhaps have a charge for being listed on the website?, or the donation of raffle prizes for things like Yule dinner in exchange for a write-up for them in the newsletter, listings for actual health practitioners for pagan friendly businesses (mental health, physical health etc.), hire a pagan (pagan friendly employers) [Get Witch Quick]
ACTION: receipt book

Newsletter
Due to a number of issues the newsletter has become untenable; a lot of work, hard to get content in and on time from contributors and the amount of time needed to format all the content.
As part of the overhaul we would like to move to a more online format, have it set with schedule of posts hosted on a blog, still have articles and stuff that come on, keep it accessible, drive traffic up more, part of making our resources even more accessible and easy to find.
Action: Josie – make a schedule of posts etc. to try and get the format roughly laid out. Volunteers for articles and content will be organised by the committee.

Calendar
Josie has made a master document for the calendar, if you give Jo an e-mail to sign up, you can then go in and add your events and change them as need be to help with keeping our calendar as current and accurate as possible.

Julie Brett’s Book Tour
Action – Start a conversation on the PCV committee page for locations etc. for the book tour, Sooki Lounge – Hills, Norcote – Druid Coffee, Central Vic/Ballarat as well as seeing if people would be willing to play host to her while she is over to assist in making it a successful venture for her.

Samhain 2017
Seline has asked if she can run it again in 2017 – don’t have a date yet, hopefully not actual Samhain, more will be released as it is known.

PCV Concert
Spiral Dance and Kacey Guy concert at bar 303 on the evening of Pagan Pride day $25 normal entry or $20 concession. Ryan is setting up an Eventbrite, and we are thinking of running a tin around at events prior to get donations to help get this to happen (it will cover essentials for the performers such as fuel/flights, accommodation, etc.) Adrienne is making poster designs, the posters should hopefully be available for January

PCV Morris Side
We now have a Morris Side, who are planning to do their first thing at Mt Franklin, dancing the sun up at Mt Franklin on the Sunday. Any committee members wanting to join let Josie, Sarah or Mark know so they can be added to the planning group.
ACTION: Alex has now joined the Morris Side

New Committee Members
ACTION: Alex, Dean and Lucas are now committee members for the current period.

Working with Children Checks
Action – Can committee members please send copies of your WWC to us so we can make sure that we have a database of proof for legal reasons. They can be e-mailed to the official Collective Gmail account, all details will be kept confidential. Other Business Fundraising – sell the tickets prior to spiral dance and then do the draw and give out at the concert, advertise it well and it will help raise funds for the PCV, potential idea is a pagan hamper with items donated (shirt from Silver Birch and Mt Franklin) items made by committee members etc.

Grants – are there grants that we can get access to as the PCV? Fran is going to look into the grants situation as a friend of the PCV (non-committee member)

Meeting Closed: 3.02

0 Meeting Minutes – July 2016

August 24, 2016
by pagancollectivevic
· Meeting Minutes

Thankyou to our intrepid secretary Mark for preparing these minutes. 🙂

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 23/07/2016

Present: Sarah, Josie, Ryan, Nikole, Dorian, and Mark

Apologies: Shaz, River, Fiona, Ang, and Lucas

Absent: Belinda, Mei, Ben, Ceilidh, Luca, Buck, Cossette, Ceilidh

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne, Northcote

Meeting Open: 12.31PM

Minutes of previous meeting read and accepted

Presidents Report – The meetups have run well on their own, people have come to rely on them and expect them to run like clockwork. The PCV is three years old and hopefully is now out of the honeymoon period. Its been great to see how popular the calendar has been, it is now the most visited page on the website.

Secretary’s Report – Memberships have continued to come in and be added to the database. We are now sitting over 200 registered members, it was pretty exciting to see.

Treasurer’s Report – We haven’t been raising new funds, our current balance is $310. Ryan needs to be added to the bank account at some point to bring us up to 3 signatories. Also needs to transfer the money from Paypal across to the account.

Meetups – The CBD meetups are going to move from every second month to monthly to accommodate the wishes of the attendees, the organizers are going to shop around for a possible new venue. The meetup organizers for the CBD are now Ryan, Sarah and Nikole to help with any issues of running the event monthly now.

Sarah motioned that as part of the inclusiveness we need to start finding out a lot more about accessibility of venues that host meetups and events so people know what to expect regarding things like wheel chair access, toilets etc. Seconded by Jo and passed unanimously this will start to be phased in as soon as possible.

Central Victorian meetups are continuing on a bi-monthly system, they have been growing slowly and we have seen some new faces as well as familiar ones at the meetups.

Ballarat PitP is still running along, although it is now being run by Evelyn who lets us know the dates for the calendar.

The Frankston area meetup is starting to get steam and will be keeping us up to date as things are worked out.

Central Vic Heathens, like the Central Vic meetups are slowly gaining traction and interest.

The Hills meetups have been running great at the new venue with a great turnout

Membership’s – All new memberships were approved unanimously.

2016 & 17 Dates –

Jo motioned for a change to the regularity of committee meetings, that committee meetings are now going to be every two months and that the additional meetings be tacked on to days that meetups are happening so the committee can gather early have a meeting and then enjoy the meetup. Mark seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

The remaining meetings for the committee in 2016 will be on the 26^th of November (Hills location) and 10^th of September (Country location, possibly Castlemaine)

The CBD meets for the start of next year will be (future meet dates for 2017 TBC):

15^th of January (First committee meeting of the year)

19^th of February

19^th of March

16^th of April

2^nd of May

Samhain 2016 – The ritual was an amazing success, as always Seline hosted an easily accessible ritual that fostered a great atmosphere. It was nice to see new faces, some of which were people that had never attended any public ritual before. It looks like Seline wants to host next year’s Samhain too. Unanimously agreed that if Seline wants to host 2017 Samhain then it is hers to run with again.

Pagans in the Park/Pagan Pride Day – Continuing on from previous discussions the idea of Pagan Pride day was raised again. A small working group was assembled (Nikole, Sarah, Shaz and Dorian) to start getting the ball rolling for a possible February date.

Yule Dinner 2016 – Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control (including the sale of the planned venue) the Yule Dinner this year didn’t happen. However we are keen to have another one next year, new venues to be explored and the possibility of a lower price (whether that means only a 2 course meal this time or other options to be explored futher)

PCV Crafts – A new A4 or A5 handout is to be designed (by Mark) and bunting is to be attached so we can start pushing this project. It would be great to have the first section ready for Pagan Pride Day in 2017.

Workshops – There is still a call for workshops that are cheap/free and accessible. We need to approach workshop people and try and see if we can get some of them on board to help with this. We will need to explore what avenues are available for free venues. There could be themes like divination day. Sarah had offered to be co-ordinator for this.

Policy Finalisation – Policies were accepted unanimously as the date for proposed changes had been and gone.

Any Other Business – Dorian has offered to write regular pieces for the newsletter about a different local animal each month.

We are going to trial a What Are You Reading segment in the newsletter, get reviews of what is being read.

The suggested reading page needs an overhaul with some content to be cut and other areas to be expanded, this will happen gradually over the next few months.

Calendar – If a venue or date for an event changes Jo needs to know about it so that she can change it on the calendar so that it is correct. We also need to consider a ban list for people or groups that keep cancelling at the last moment and no longer advertise their events. The calendar gets a lot of hits and we don’t want people getting bad info.

Jo proposed an action that we review the policy for calendar by next meeting, we need to consider redefining what suits the calendar for paganism and have parameters or a policy to cover it. Some of the events being sent for the calendar don’t seem to fit under the pagan umbrella.

MFPG – It would be great if the PCV could supply a person again to run the kids maypole (or a few people)

Sabbats – it would be great if we could run more sabbats, if we could run an event on each of the big sabbats that would be great.

Moons – it was discussed whether we need to offer moon or dark moon rituals, the committee already runs a lot though. The conclusion was that we run a half page ad for the newsletter and see if there are groups interested in running an accessible moon/dark moon ritual preferably in a city location.

A proposed change of wording to PCV friendly businesses so that the policy now reads that when possible a donation would be appreciated.

Meeting End: 2.10PM

0 March 2016 Meeting Minutes

April 4, 2016
by pagancollectivevic
· Meeting Minutes

These minutes were prepared by our hardworking Secretary, Mark. Thanks, Mark! 🙂

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 21/2/2015

Present: Cosette, Sarah, Josie, Ryan, Nickole, Dorian, Ang and Mark H

Apologies: Shaz, River, Fiona, Al, Ceilidh, Lucas

Absent: Mei, Ben, Buck, Belinda, Mark L

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne

Meeting Open: 2.17PM

Minutes of previous meeting read and accepted

FB policy read and acknowledged

President’s Report – The collective has kept rolling quite nicely in the absence of meetings, with coffee meet ups, rituals and other events continuing on.

Secretary’s Report – Nothing new to report, memberships have continued to come in and be added to the database.

Treasurer’s Report – We haven’t been raising new funds, our current balance is $310 (TBC). Ryan needs to be added to the bank account at some point to bring us up to 3 signatories.

Announcements – All

– Deepest sympathies to Melbourne Reclaiming, who lost one of their own in tragic circumstances recently

– Meeting quorum policy

– Other Policies

– WWC Cards

– PCV Committee Facebook Group

Memberships – As the PCV isn’t really where we want it yet, due to delays caused by lack of meetings, it is moved that we do not charge for memberships yet and continue to have free memberships. All existing memberships to be rolled over until they contact us to be removed from our memberships. Due to the costs of making membership packs there will no longer be mailed out packs.

Movement was accepted unanimously.

2016 Dates –

Confirmed Dates:

Sat, 19/3 – Mabon Ritual

Sun, 20/3 – CBD Pub Moot

Sun, 27/3 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 24/4 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 15/5 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 28/5 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 17/7 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 6/8 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 18/9 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 19/11 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 20/11 – CBD Pub Moot

Proposed/tentative dates:

Pagans in the Park – Sun, 23/4 (approved)

Yule Dinner – Sat, 18/6 (approved)

Meeting Dates – Sat, 23/7 (inc. AGM) city; Sat, 10/9 country; Sat 26/11 city. (Approved)

Mabon Ritual 2016 – The ritual will be a ritual of abundance with a share and swap of produce. The venue charges a $60 hire fee and a $200 deposit. A small entry fee of $5 will be charged to help cover the hire fee.

Samhain Ritual 2016 – The venue to be confirmed on this one, we want to start advertising soon for it. The date is hopefully going to be the 30^th of April. Price to be confirmed.

Pagans in the Park 2016 – Labyrinth at Merri Creek is the proposed venue. As a fun activity it is proposed that a spiral dance or maypole will be taking place at the event. The idea of the event is that it will be a picnic – bring food etc to share and run it like a community picnic.

Yule Dinner 2016 – Once again it is proposed that a sub-committee forms to help run this and report back to the committee. Nickole, Ryan, Josie and Mark put their names forward to be on the sub-committee. A concern raised was accessibility for wheel chairs, it will be looked at this time around. Price will be worked out once venue is confirmed. The general feeling was satisfaction at the previous venue from those that attended.

PCV Crafts – There is not much movement here, no bunting has been returned yet. It is proposed we set up a craft station at the picnic for people to make some.

Pagan Expo 2016 – There is not much to say on this front yet, the PCV is very happy to promote when and if it gets off the ground.

Any Other Business – A proposal that on the contacts page we can have some kind of way to contact willing groups that don’t do public rituals etc. so people that are looking for mentors and teachers have an extra avenue to explore. In addition it is proposed that we link an article from Magickly about the warning signs to look for when becoming involved in private groups.

The Google Calendar has been deleted because it was too unwieldy to use, we will continue to have the calendar in the newsletter and on the website. It is proposed that we consider re-visiting the site and calendar, and perhaps use a calendar plug-in.

It was suggested that due to the success and interest in the Incense Workshop run by Ryan that we consider trying to have some kind of workshop run once a quarter.

A proposal for a Pagan Pride Day/Pagan Job Fair was put forward. It was decided that Nickole, Sarah, Cosette and Dorian would put together a proposal to be put forward at the next meeting.

Meeting End: 3.15PM

0 Agenda – March 2016 Committee Meeting

February 28, 2016
by pagancollectivevic
· Meeting Minutes

The Pagan Collective of Victoria, inc

Meeting Agenda 05/03/2016

Present:

Apologies:

Absent:

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne, Northcote

Meeting Open: 1pm

President’s Report – Josie

Secretary’s Report – Mark

Treasurer’s Report – Ryan

Announcements – All

Deepest sympathies to Melbourne Reclaiming, who lost one of their own in tragic circumstances recently.
Meeting quorum policy
Other Policies
WWC Cards
PCV Committee Facebook Group
Public Sabbat Rituals

Memberships – Josie

2016 dates – Josie
Confirmed dates:

Sat, 19/3 – Mabon Ritual

Sun, 20/3 – CBD Pub Moot

Sun, 27/3 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 24/4 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 15/5 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 28/5 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 17/7 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 6/8 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 18/9 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 19/11 – Pagans in the cafe Central Vic

Sun, 20/11 – CBD Pub Moot

Proposed/tentative dates:

Pagans in the Park – Sun, 23/4

Yule Dinner – Sat, 18/6

Meeting Dates – Sat 23/7 (inc. AGM), Sat 10/9, Sat 26/11

Mabon Ritual 2016 – Josie/Ryan

Samhain Ritual 2016 – Seline/Ryan

Pagans in the Park 2016 – Ryan

Yule Dinner 2016 – Josie

PCV Crafts – Mark

Pagan Expo 2016 – Seline/Ryan

Any other business

Meeting End: