^{2010 Rebar Ceremony}

The 2011 training has concluded! Thirty-five Rangers have completed training this year, including one with the Black Rock Rangers. One more BURN2 Ranger will be completing Black Rock Ranger training in a few weeks at Burning Man, bringing our total number of BURN2 Rangers to 36!

This year, first year Rangers completed seven hours of training; second year Rangers completed five hours; and Senior Rangers completed two and a half. Training included Ranger operations, protocols, and procedures, as well as active listening skills, mediation, role playing, and reviewing case studies from past events. 

For more information about who we are and what we do, check out Who are the Rangers?

For recruiting information, check out How to Join the Rangers. Recruiting is over for the 2010-2011 event year, but groupies are always welcome. Especially if they bring bacon!

Department Lead:  Ronon Carver

Operations Leads: Budster Bashly and Ladyslipper Constantine

Your entire life will change when you step across this piece of rebar... will you step over ?

How to join the BURN2 Rangers

Recruiting takes place in the summer preceding each year's main event. Notices will be posted to the BURN2 Rangers, BURN2 Alpha Rangers, and BurningMan 2.0 groups, as well as posted on this web site. Please complete a volunteer application here on the web site so that we have an idea of your avatar age and the skills you will be bringing to the team. After you complete the volunteer application, please join the BURN2 Alpha Rangers group inworld. IM a Ranger Ops Lead or Department Lead if you need help with this, or if the group is closed.

What skills does a Ranger need?

Rangers should have at least six months Second Life experience. You will need to be able to assist people with parcel media settings, counting prims, locating misplaced objects, group issues, and other Second Life skills. But, if you don't have all these skills, don't worry! We will be holding training sessions in August and September to teach people the skills they need. You will also have a chance to patrol with a Senior Ranger and to learn from his or her experience. And, if there are still areas with which you do not feel comfortable, you can always call on other Rangers to assist you when needed. 

How often are Rangers needed?

Rangers are needed for the main BURN2 event every October. This event usually runs for nine days, 24 hours a day, non stop. However, Rangers will be needed to assist builders during the weeks leading up to the event, and also the week following the event. During building and break-down times, we will try to have several Rangers on the playa around the clock. During the event itself, we try to have a minimum of six Rangers on every shift. 

In addition, the BURN2 community has smaller events year round, and you may be asked to work these events, as well. It is not mandatory to work the smaller events. Some Rangers choose to work all events, and some choose to work just the main event in the Fall. 

For any events which you can work, we will ask you to sign up for shifts in blocks of two hours. You are welcome to work more than two hours, but if you can only work an hour or two at a time, that's fine, too. Not everyone can commit a lot of hours to the events; we appreciate any amount of time you can give.

Does this sound like you?

If you are interested in joining the BURN2 Rangers, then IM Ronon Carver, Budster Bashly, or Ladyslipper Constantine and ask for a BURN2 Alpha Rangers group invitation. The Alpha Rangers group is also currently set to open enrollment, so you can self join.

Recruiting is done every summer for the main BURN2 event in October. 

You may also wish to join the BurningMan 2.0 group as all recruitment notices and event updates will be posted there.

For more information about Burning Man, BURN2, and the Rangers, check out the following web sites:

http://www.burningman.com/

http://www.rangers.org/

Listed below are our many volunteer opportunities for BURN2! This event is successful because of the hundreds of volunteers who graciously donate their time, patience, energy, and skills, as well as lots and lots of caffeine. Some folks have been volunteering for years, and for others, this will be their first time.

Think you might want to join us? Check out the list below and see what might rock your boat. It's a long list, so be sure to scroll sideways and up and down. When you find what you want, surf on over to our volunteer application. If you don't find what you want or aren't sure but would still like to volunteer, fill out an application anyway, and we'll see if we can find the right fit for you.

Please also check out our Principles of Volunteering.

If you're interested in volunteering at BURN2, you can read through our Volunteer Positions Listings.
If something grabs you, head over to our Sign Up Form.

Volunteering isn't just helping others, it is really an exchange. Volunteers often say they get back so much more than they give. (In fact, if you don't feel that way about your volunteering, you are likely "doin' it wrong"— or doing it for the wrong reasons.)

Reasons to volunteer:

• to live a more balanced life;
• to help out;
• to learn new skills or use existing skills;
• to explore an area of personal or professional interest;
• to learn more about a particular subject;
• to gain a greater sense of self-esteem;
• to meet people;
• to do your civic duty; give back to the community;
• to be part of a team;
• to contribute to a cause that has affected you personally;
• to feel needed;
• to keep busy;
• to have fun!

Reasons *not* to volunteer:

• to be an authority figurine;
• to become well known;
• to revel in your superiority;
• to control a process or person;
• to gain special advantages for yourself;
• to further an antisocial agenda!

Four Rights of Volunteers

1. The right to feel valued as a co-worker. Wherever in this world you go, whatever your volunteer task, you have the right to feel that your time and contribution are valued, and that you are not just free help, that you have a part in planning, that your honest opinions are respected and that appreciation will be expressed by other team members.
2. The right to relevance. You have the right to be matched with meaningful assignments that further your personal goals, or expand your abilities, knowledge, and experience. The right to receive orientation, training, a job description, guidance, feedback and the resources necessary to carry out your commitments well.
3. The right to re-negotiate your volunteer role. Find yourself in a volunteer position that just isn’t working for you? You have the right to talk to the team to discuss ways you might be able to shift your role or take on another project or position. And if you still can’t find a good fit…
4. The right to leave. You have the right to leave without being made to feel bad about it. This isn’t a decision that should be made hastily but, if after talking to and working with the team you still feel unhappy, unappreciated, or unsatisfied with your volunteer experience, you do have the right to go volunteer somewhere else that will be more fun for you.

Four Responsibilities of Volunteers:

1. The responsibility to communicate your needs. Feel like your work isn’t meaningful? Not what you thought you’d signed up for? Or just bored and ready for something else? Talk to the team, providing specifics about your dissatisfaction and at least a few suggestions of ways to make it better. If you don’t let them know that you’re not getting from the experience what you’d hoped, they can’t work with you to improve the situation.
2. The responsibility to value the team and the community. While part of the team, respect its members and the diversity of their opinions, learn and embrace the values of the whole community, safeguard confidential information, protect privacy, act fairly and impartially, refrain from using your authority or position as a lever against others and be open to change!
3. The responsibility to follow through on your obligations. Do what you say you’ll do, whether it’s honoring the volunteer role and schedule you’ve agreed to, providing ample notice if you’re unable to perform your tasks or responsibilities, or serving as a good representative of the team in the community.
4. The responsibility to honor the team’s investment in you. Always remember that while you may be donating your time, you are not a free resource to the team; rather, they too have invested invaluable time—and probably also knowledge, tools, and other resources—in having you be part of the group. Should you feel you no longer want to volunteer here, be sure to keep this commitment in mind before deciding to leave, and before taking your work with you to the detriment of the larger community.

Adapted from texts by the The Volunteer Center of San Francisco, The US Army Volunteer Corps, and Idealist.org, who have all walked this way before us.

Burniversity

Burniversity is back! We are hoping to provide you with interesting and rewarding classes that will enhance your BURN2 experience. 

• Have you never attended a BURN2 event but would like to learn more what it is about? 
• Are you interested in knowing how we do it or would like to volunteer but feel you don't have the skills?
• Would you like to do it better this year?How do those artists and builders create their wonderful plots?
• What are the tips and trick to making your plot the best it can be? 

This is your chance to start getting immersed, learn new things, make new friends and join in on one of the most creative events in all of SL. Watch this page and the calendar for upcoming events.

What Burniversity is about:

Mission Statement

To stimulate, educate, and train participants of Burning Man in a virtual environment.

Provide year round classes, lectures and participatory educational events centered around the Burning Man culture, philosophy and the 10 principles.

Promotion and integration of “Virtual Realism” into BURN2 and RL Burning Man and increase awareness of BURN2 to a wider audience within Second Life as well as within the RL Burner Community and beyond.

Tenets

1. Goals

A) We will provide the gift of knowledge and experience to everyone while practicing the ideology of  the Ten Principles of Burning Man.

2. Gifting & Decomodificaton

A) Providing knowledge and experience in the form of education, classes and lectures to the BURN2 community is an unconditional act of gift giving and part of the Burning Man philosophy that gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value. 

B) In the spirit of Decomodification, we will work to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, recruiting or advertising.

3. Volunteer Rights and Responsibilities

A) We will support the Volunteer Rights and Responsibilities

4. Second Life, Linden Labs and Burning Man

A) We support the Linden Labs Terms of Service. We have read it and understand it and agree to abide by it.

B) We support the 10 Principles of Burning Man.

C) We will strive to find a balance between any competing terms within A & B.