The Art of Hosting – Shared Economy

One of the main guiding principles of the Art of Participatory Leadership is the shared responsibility for the wellbeing of the community. This means that each individual does their best to create atmosphere where each participant feels comfortable, safe, open to express their opinion and where their basic needs are being met. To make this possible, a complete transparency, honesty and clear communication is needed within a community and these are some of the things we practice in Art of Hosting.

This practice of sharing and contribution goes beyond the conversations we have, it includes our actions and the way we do things. In the organisation of this training we aim to create valuable and satisfactory experience for each participant and we encourage everyone to become part of it in the best way they can.  Therefore, we would like to propose an approach which differs from the standard fee for goods or services model and we invite you to learn with us and discover what the future holds for communities who can discover what it means to work well with economy, currency, value and generosity.

After deeply considering how to handle the economy for this training, we are suggesting an economic experiment called Shared Economy.

What is a “shared economy”?

It is a cooperative, responsibility-based approach to funding the training where the community as a whole holds the financial responsibility: Taking into consideration the costs of the event and one’s financial resources, each participant is invited to identify what they can pay, then add a little more.

We aim to be completely honest about the way we organise this event and the costs involved in it. We also trust you to contribute to it in a way that it will be of greatest value for all of us. Therefore we provide here the latest version of our budget and the financial contribution that is expected of each participant so that we are able to cover the costs. However, the value of the training for you does not have to be measured with the financial costs related to it. It may be measured in the extra working time you are willing to spend in order to become part of that training.

Our intention is to make the training available to everyone who wishes to join regardless of their economic situation.

The guiding principles

• Everyone who wants to be in the Art of Hosting training, to learn and contribute should be able to do so.
• We want to see and use money as one of those things that facilitate living systems. It should contribute to building/supporting life: trust, connections, awareness of the rest of the living systems we’re part of. We see money as the medium and the process of exchange of goods and services.
• The community of participants is responsible for the overall budget, not just the financial calling team although this team already started the process and will host it during the training.
• We want to create a shared economy that speaks about shared responsibilities, and ensuring that everybody’s needs are met. We’re inviting people into a higher awareness around this topic and not just into sliding scales.

Determining your contribution

• We encourage you to review the costs for the training (listed below)
• Identify what your economic situation is
• Use your integrity to sense what you can contribute, using clarity as the guide.

If you think that the training will add significant future value to your work or that with your current income you can easily afford to contribute more to the training, you may join us with the amount that you find fair. You can always add more during or after the training too. Any extra funding will be used to cover the costs for other participants who cannot afford to fully cover their own costs.

If you recognise the value of the training for you as individual and you cannot contribute with the average amount to cover the costs of participation, you can give as much as you can plus a little more. You are welcome to contact us with suggestions on the ways to contribute to the wellbeing of the participants and spend some of your time to make it better or cheaper for everyone.

If you are willing to help and you are not sure how, we can give some suggestions, just let us know!

What are the costs?

A note about the cost of organizing and hosting: All events require a good deal of work to organize and host.  The core team is asking that their travel, food, and accommodation be covered.  Some members also need additional money to cover the time spent preparing for the event. As you can imagine, it takes a good deal of time to plan, create invitations, web page, budgets, venue logistics, registration, accounting, etc.

Set Fee Option

For those who prefer to pay a set fee, we recommend 100 BGN per person per day—plus a little more—which covers hotel accommodation, food, organizing and hosting costs.

Please Register and Pay Early

We are asking anyone who wishes to participate to register and pay (all or part of) your contribution early, as we need to pay the venue deposit.

Refund policy

Full refund before 20th May, less 25 BGN admin fee.
No refund after 20th May.

This approach is inspired by our experience at the Art of Hosting Learning Village in Slovenia 2013