Spark Core

• Members of the core
• What the core does
  
• Joining the core

Members of the core

Over the years, many people in our community have served on the core. We acknowledge all of our past leaders for donating their time and talents: Dana, DJ, Heather Feather, James, Jim, Kimba, Mushrafali, Rae, Shana, Steffi, Tao, Venee, and Zorg.

The Spark core is currently comprised of the following volunteers:

Amelia

Hobbit, adorable miscreant, celtoid-songstress, dancer, storyteller, drummer, painter, bard, enchantress, hugger (trees and people), councilor, pack mule, Dr. Pepper enthusiast, muppet, thought provoker, brick house, mover/shaker, artist, friend, child, adult, reader, hidden writer, button pusher, laughing buddha, music-maker, dreamer of dreams, etc., etc.

Holly

A lifelong veteran of ritual magic, Holly brings her decades of perspective to the Spark Collective. She loves the movement, the play and the mixing of voices found in circles. In addition to pragmatic perspective, Holly brings her warm welcoming presence and playful puppy spirit to each circle.

Nick

A relative newcomer to fire circles, Nick is thrilled to contribute his gusto and gratitude to the Spark Collective. He loves a good chant, and some nights he circles his room alone, happily singing the chants from that month's circle. When not attending Spark, Nick can be found creating virtual worlds, acting against war and injustice, clowning for orphans in Serbia and Laos, plotting new ventures, or just appreciating the goodness all around us.

Oliver

Oliver was introduced to the fire circle in 2006 and has been enthusiastically attending fire family events since. He is fascinated by the use of co-created spontaneous ritual as a tool for mapping internal experience and connecting with hidden personal sources. Outside of Spark, Oliver is a professional software developer and computer boffin. He manages a web-application development company in Berkeley and helped build this site.

Terence

When Terence first encountered the fire circle in 2003, he fell in love with its mix of emotion and motion, spontaneity and connection, magic and song. It felt like sacred, earth-based theater games – and he knew he was home. Terence has been an instrumental part of Spark since its earliest days, and has also created memorable rituals for Phoenix Fire and Fire Tribe Hawaii. He's also a writer, a dancer, and a specialist in nonprofit communications. In addition to his service on the core, Terence organizes an annual event called Winter's Flame.

Tigris

Tigris is in the midst of personal transformation, fueled by her exploration of eclectic spiritual practices and the deep learning and love she experiences within the fire family. She answers the call of the drum, bringing to the circle her passion for expressing and transforming, co-creating and remaking inner and outer realities with others in community. Dance as a spiritual practice is a theme that permeates her adventures in ritual and performance and her journeys into the arts and cultures of the Middle East, Central Asia, and Bali. Her love of words, books, and design energizes her work as a freelance editor as well as her artistic interests.

Travis

Travis strives to bring life and energy to the outside world, from the Spark fire circle to his garden at home and the stitched up creations in his laboratory.  He currently resides in a little farm in the middle of the city, selling snake oil and transmuting lead into gold, attempting to repair what harm he cannot heal.  Wandering the roads narrow and crooked, loyal to the true and with love in his heart.

What the core does

Members of the core are custodians of the Collective's vision. Each member of the core makes a commitment to do the following:

• Be of service to the collective
• Serve a term of at least one year
• Meet six to eight times per year
• Attend an annual core retreat
• At Spark events:
  
  • Arrange a venue
  • Show up
  • Organize setup and teardown
  • Provide orientation
  • Facilitate rituals
• Do long-range planning for the collective
• Mentor community members' participation in rituals
• Represent Spark to the wider community
• Welcome community participation

Joining the core

The core invites anyone in the community to step up to leadership. There are openings on the core annually. Joining the core requires that you've shown leadership in the community and is enacted by unanimous agreement of the current core.

The core consists of between five and twelve people. Members are appointed for a term of three years but may serve longer, depending on the needs of the core. Each year, core members who have served the longest are encouraged to rotate off for at least one year.  As members step down, new members of the community step onto the core. Removing a member of the core requires unanimous agreement of the core minus the person involved.