Seeking Finland Regional Contacts

Photo Credit: Debbie Wolff Art: Identity Awareness Family by Shane Pitzer Year: 2017
Photo Credit: Debbie Wolff

17 September

YOUR FEEDBACK REQUESTED!

The Burning Man Regional Network team, in collaboration with local leaders, is searching for additional community leaders to build and nurture Burning Man community initiatives in Finland. These Regional Contacts (“RCs”) will serve alongside the current Finland Regional Contact, Anssi Laurila.

These 5 candidates have stepped up to volunteer as Regional Contacts and help keep the flame burning:

  • Aki Pöntinen aka Doda

  • Ilkka Rajala aka Mister I

  • Krista Snabb aka The Snabb aka Bad Ass

  • Anni-Kaarina Koivusalo aka Anni

  • Karoliina Jarenko aka Carkey

Regional Contacts work to help strengthen and foster connections in local regions. As such, we request your feedback about each candidate under consideration. This assists us in making the best selection for your local community.

If you know any of these candidates, please complete this community feedback survey by Wednesday, 2 October.

Please share this link far and wide, we appreciate all the feedback we can get! The survey allows you to easily skip candidates you don’t know.

Your confidential feedback assists us in making the best selection for your local community. All feedback from this survey is provided to the RC selection team anonymously – all identifying information is removed – that said, please do not add identifying information to your narrative answers unless you intend for your identity to be known.

With Appreciation, 

The Regional Network Team

Burning Man Project 


14 August 2024

Extending Burning Man’s Finland Regional Contact Search!

We’re EXTENDING the search for Regional Contacts in Finland to allow for extra time for candidates to apply.  If you feel qualified to self-nominate to be a Burning Man Regional Contact, please complete these items by 15 September, 2024.

Key dates in our EXTENDED Finland RC search:

  • Sunday 15 September:  Deadline to self-nominate with intro email and volunteer questionnaire.

  • 17 September: Opportunity for community feedback on candidates opens via confidential survey.

  • 2 October: Community Feedback phase closes (2 weeks).

  • October/November:  Candidates will be interviewed by the interview team.

  • November: Final decisions made and candidates notified; onboarding begins.

  • December: New RC announcements shared with the community.

Please see below for application instructions!

With Excitement,

The Regional Network Team

Burning Man Project 


15 July 2024

Hello Finnish Burners!

We’re writing to you from Burning Man world headquarters and we have exciting news! We are launching the search for Regional Contacts in Finland to empower and support cultural growth across your region. 

Current Finland Regional Contact, Anssi Laurila stewards the community, but because Finland has such an active, engaged, and exciting region, we all agreed he needs some well-deserved help! 

Our team is now searching for community members to contribute their spark and step into this leadership role. Regional Contacts volunteer year-round to build and nurture Burning Man community initiatives on a local level. They facilitate communication and collaboration with and between local community members, various local community groups and the Burning Man Regional Network Team. Could this be YOU? 

If you live in Finland year-round and are interested in becoming a Burning Man Regional Contact, please read about the Regional Network, search process, and  Regional Leadership Criteria.

Please do not apply until you’ve read all of these resource pages!

As a Finland RC, we are looking for the following skills and attributes:

  • Collaborates, works well with a range of personalities, and can build bridges between community members across the greater Finland region, including welcoming new burners and re-engaging established members.
  • Actively listens and responds to community needs and ideas.
  • Expresses themself with strong written, verbal, and public speaking communication skills; understands the importance of communication as a community-building, engagement and strengthening tool.
  • Holds strong tech & social media skills, including:
    • Google Group email lists (it’s expected that RCs post and approve posts to the list in a consistent and timely manner)
    • Basic WordPress management skills (basic editing of the Finland Region page)
    • Moderation of various social media platforms
  • Welcomes feedback from the community and recognizes the need for a leader to plan for their own eventual succession.
  • Maintains a mindset of flexibility about ownership rather than possession and is willing to help build a team through delegating and sharing responsibilities to develop the leaders of tomorrow.
  • Embraces difficult conversations conflict resolution and community mediation skills.
  • Has capacity to take on the full duties of the Regional Contact role.

If you feel qualified to self-nominate to be a Burning Man Regional Contact, please complete these items by 14 August, 2024.

  1. Email regional-network@burningman.org: please add Finland Regional Contact in the subject line and introduce yourself:
    • Share more about your local involvement and your relevant leadership experience for Burning Man staff and the interview team.  *AND*
    • Include one sentence that helps Finland’s community members remember where they may have met you (for the community feedback survey) – 160 characters max.
  2. Complete the Volunteer Questionnaire. Log into your Burner Profile and complete this survey. You MUST CHECK “Regional Contacts” as one of your 3 teams in order for us to receive this form. If you have already filled out a VolQ form, please check that you’ve indicated “Regional Contacts” as one of your areas of interest.

After the window to self-nominate closes, we’ll send out a community feedback survey to gather community input on each candidate.

Key dates in our Finland RC search process, subject to change, are:

  • August 14:  Deadline to self-nominate with intro email and volunteer questionnaire.
  • Mid-August: Opportunity for community feedback on candidates opens via confidential survey.
  • Early September: Community Feedback phase closes (2 weeks).
  • Mid-September:  Candidates will be interviewed by the interview team.
  • October: Final decisions made and candidates notified; onboarding begins.
  • November: New RC announcements shared with the community.

If you feel like you may be a good fit for the Finland RC team, we warmly welcome you to step up and take part in our selection process. If you have specific questions, reach us at regional-network@burningman.org.

Please consider amplifying this announcement to your socials and sharing with your communities throughout Finland!

Announcement link: https://regionals.burningman.org/finland-rc-search/

With Excitement,

The Regional Network Team

Burning Man Project 

Photo Credit: Debbie Wolff
Art: Identity Awareness Family by Shane Pitzer
Year: 2017