Philip Bateman

I am part of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria’s Ceremonial Team, working to support the initiatives of the Grand Master, and install the Worshipful Masters of Victorian Masonic Lodges in accordance with ancient traditions.

"Rangers are participants who volunteer a portion of their time at Burning Man in service of the safety and well-being of the Burning Man community. Rangers act as non-confrontational community mediators, providers of reliable information, facilitators of public safety (with the expectation that everybody read the back of their ticket, of course!), and navigators of the edge of chaos.." - https://rangers.burningman.org

Going behind the scenes of a city of 70,000+ people, the logistics… Show more

"Rangers are participants who volunteer a portion of their time at Burning Man in service of the safety and well-being of the Burning Man community. Rangers act as non-confrontational community mediators, providers of reliable information, facilitators of public safety (with the expectation that everybody read the back of their ticket, of course!), and navigators of the edge of chaos.." - https://rangers.burningman.org

Going behind the scenes of a city of 70,000+ people, the logistics, operational hierarchy, command and communications, vehicle and human maintenance requirements? Phenomenal.

I work across the Ranger departments, from Operating the Incident Management System inside the heart of the Ranger Operations Command (ROC) with the Officer of the Day and shift leads, to being part of the Sandman / inner perimeter defense for the scheduled 'Man' and Temple burns.

Since 2019, I have been training teams at Regional events, doing on-site and off-site training for 60 and 40 'Confest Rangers' and Perimeter and Sandman teams at the Australian Burning Seed. Show less

On-site training, co-ordination and volunteer selection for the 'Sandman' team of Red Earth Rangers, the inner perimeter of guardians who deter and if required to, physically restrain participants that are either trying to interrupt proceeings or cause themselves self harm, during the art, Effigy and Temple burns.

The sandman team are the last line of defense that coordinate with Burn Command, Perimeter Rangers, Fire Art Response, Medics and Law Enforcement Officers to undertake safe… Show more

On-site training, co-ordination and volunteer selection for the 'Sandman' team of Red Earth Rangers, the inner perimeter of guardians who deter and if required to, physically restrain participants that are either trying to interrupt proceeings or cause themselves self harm, during the art, Effigy and Temple burns.

The sandman team are the last line of defense that coordinate with Burn Command, Perimeter Rangers, Fire Art Response, Medics and Law Enforcement Officers to undertake safe burning of the structures that give the events their foundational core, that of celebrating impermanence. Show less

The Conference-Festival (Con-Fest) was setup by the Deputy Premier of the Whitlam Government, Jim Cairns, in 1976 - today https://confest.org.au is still going strong as a a volunteer run non-profit music, arts, lifestyle and workshop event held in the bush of NSW Australia. The festival receives roughly six thousand attendees for several days, is completely run by volunteers with no specific program and does not allow amplified music. It is a much loved, hardly discovered Australian jewel… Show more

The Conference-Festival (Con-Fest) was setup by the Deputy Premier of the Whitlam Government, Jim Cairns, in 1976 - today https://confest.org.au is still going strong as a a volunteer run non-profit music, arts, lifestyle and workshop event held in the bush of NSW Australia. The festival receives roughly six thousand attendees for several days, is completely run by volunteers with no specific program and does not allow amplified music. It is a much loved, hardly discovered Australian jewel that all are welcome to.

The focus is on bringing people and alternative cultures together to have fun, relax, communicate, learn, develop ideas and promote personal growth.

My personal involvement has been as both a participant and then in response to a fire management incident, co-organiser, trainer, shift-lead and general on-call respondent to the festivals first Critical Incident Team working in conjunction with first-aid, which has now morphed into a fully fledged fire response station house with multiple vehicles, equipment and crew. Show less

For 6 years I acted as either Safety Lead, Helmsman or both at once, for 30-35 fire performers aggregated as the UK Fireworks Collective, who performed on the Saturday night of Burning Man in the 'Great Circle', alongside over 50 other 'Conclaves' from around the world.

This involved taking a collection of people who largely had not met before, supporting them to prepare, practice and perform with fuels and fire toys, stage managing them on-site, ensuring safe operations and general… Show more

For 6 years I acted as either Safety Lead, Helmsman or both at once, for 30-35 fire performers aggregated as the UK Fireworks Collective, who performed on the Saturday night of Burning Man in the 'Great Circle', alongside over 50 other 'Conclaves' from around the world.

This involved taking a collection of people who largely had not met before, supporting them to prepare, practice and perform with fuels and fire toys, stage managing them on-site, ensuring safe operations and general event management, so the performance happened within the relevant schedule of the great circle, and then event procedures for fuel storage, team movement and placement was adhered to it.

On 'man burn' night at Burning Man, individual Conclaves exist within 50 or more others, and each cell acts as a small piece of a much greater whole, some 20+ different teams coming together to make it all happen - it's a lot of fun. Show less

Amongst the many things to participate in at Burning Man ("there are no spectators") being one of the Temple Guardians was a distinct highlight of my life. To quote Carousel, one of the leaders of the Guardians, at the ritualistic Sunday night burn, discussing having the best seats in the house the first time you volunteer, then moving to work on the perimeter, looking out towards the citizens - "The first year you watch the temple, the second year you watch the people - then you realise it's… Show more

Amongst the many things to participate in at Burning Man ("there are no spectators") being one of the Temple Guardians was a distinct highlight of my life. To quote Carousel, one of the leaders of the Guardians, at the ritualistic Sunday night burn, discussing having the best seats in the house the first time you volunteer, then moving to work on the perimeter, looking out towards the citizens - "The first year you watch the temple, the second year you watch the people - then you realise it's a structural fire, and the temple is in the people" - A beautiful video about it is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rdqven5MZI Show less