We're kicking off celebrating the Beehive's 10th Anniversary this summer with a magical month of cross-pollination, skillshares, collective education, and hands-on helpful projects at our Hive!

Want to join us? Please fill out the Wannabee Webform [below] and let us know you're interested… we'll get back to you with more details!

What's new this year?

Based on encouragement we've received from past volunteers, we're stepping up the educational aspect of our Summer Work Party this year. We'll share as much as we can with you about our graphics making methods, collective living process, organizing strategy, and hands-on skills, and will be counting on Y'ALL to bring skills and strategies of your own to share with us- and each other! We're even hoping to have friends visit with stories and inspiration from across different social movements and struggles.

Who should attend the Work Party?

If you have big questions about how best to use your superpowers for good in this world-gone-mad, you'll find friends, support, and resources as we grapple together with how to be most useful and effective. If you're looking for a break from organizing or agitating as usual, you'll find quiet places and spaces to connect, regenerate, and strategize. Just plain Bee-Curious? Come on down! And if you're interested in a longer-term commitment to the Beehive, August is a great time for us to get to know each other.

Whether you come for a weekend or the full four weeks, your time in Maine is guaranteed to be full of blueberries, big collective meals, swimming excursions, and lots of new friends and allies!

What should I expect?

As a Work Party volunteer, you can expect to work and play hard, and to always have the choice to opt in or out of organized projects and activities. While fulltime bees will be preparing and coordinating many of our bigger work projects and our overarching schedule, as a volunteer, you can also "choose your own adventure" and step up to participate in lots of decision-making and planning. The Work Party will be what we make of it together.

In addition to epic hikes on the coast, trips to the beach, campfires in the backyard, and hootenannies in the kitchen, last summer's 2010 Work Party included lantern-making, sourdough-baking, ballroom-dancing, and helping out our neighbors, not to mention a variety of skillshares in hand-cranked ice cream making, herbal first aid, bike touring basics, and more, brought to us by volunteers like yo'self!

Take a gander at some photographic highlights on volunteer coordinator Molly's blog

As a volunteer, you are responsible for your own transportation to and from Machias (there is bus service from Bangor daily). Most volunteers are housed in tents in our spacious yard, though we also have limited indoor housing capacity for those who require it. Please let us know if you have special housing or accessibility needs.

You can expect to eat- and sometimes help prepare- three square, delicious, vegan-friendly meals each day at the Machias Valley Grange Hall, our beautifully restored 1904 farmer's meeting hall. As a small, self-funded, grassroots outfit, we ask that volunteers donate some "honey" to help us cover the costs of feeding everybody- we recommend a sliding scale of $3-10/day, $20-50/week, or $100-200/month, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. In-kind donations (of bulk food or useful materials) are also appreciated- please contact us if you are considering a materials donation!

A typical work party day might look like this:

(9 am) Breakfast at the Grange & Morning Meeting
(10 am- 1 pm) Project Time- exterior painting, barn cleaning, sewing, packing and shipping posters, baking, minor construction, etc.
(1 pm) Lunch at the Grange & Afternoon Announcements
(1:45- 3 pm) Free
(3 pm – 6 pm) Project Time w/ Intro to Power Tools Skillshare
(7 pm) Dinner at the Grange
(8 pm -10 pm) Evening Skillshares (photoshop, herbal medicine, figure drawing, introduction to free trade, etc) or a Campfire at the house

We'll also be spending lots of time organizing events at the Machias Valley Grange Hall, the community space & cultural center we own and operate in collaboration with lots of local allies, volunteers, and other organizations in our small rural town. And to celebrate it all, we'll top off this excitement with a giant dress up dance party for all- the sixth annual Blackfly Ball- for which you'll definitely need your dancing shoes and a shaky tail feather!

What else?
Contact Emily, Molly, & Nikki for more information or to put a buzz in our ears about great skillshare ideas you have!
emily@beehivecollective.org; 207 669 4117