When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists...When his work is done, the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"
-- Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu (trans. S. Mitchell)

Who are you?

Hi. I'm Tom Swiss, and I'm currently serving as vice-president, and running for the presidency, of the Free Spirit Alliance. You might not know my name, but odds are that you know my face. You've been to the concerts that I've MCed, or to the Bardic Circles I've hosted, or you've been to one of my workshops on shiatsu or Zen or self-defense, or you've heard one of my Discordian fire circle rants. After the past year or two, you might know me as "that guy in the purple top hat".

I've been on the FSG staff since 1998, mostly working behind the scenes to help make our concerts happen, and later taking up the role of MC; but like most long-time staffers, I've jumped into other roles as needed. I've helped search for missing persons, played a role in the FSG main ritual, helped support medical staff as a gofer and traffic director during emergencies, acted as a facilitator around the fire circle, even chased down stray dogs that came into camp. This variety of experiences has helped me understand how our events run from several different perspectives.

How'd you end up VP?

I'd been on the FSG staff, and then an FSA member, for several years before I got involved with FSA politics. This was during the Great Upheaval of 2003. And my involvement is George Marvil's fault.

As you may recall, in 2003 FSA was nearly torn apart by a dispute over what would be allowed in the sacred sexuality track at FSG. The acrimony spilled over onto the membership e-mail list, and I became heavily involved in the on-line debate.

After weeks of furious argument, George had the idea to get a group of people together in person to discuss a settlement with the "other side" (the people who left and formed what developed into CPC.) He called and invited me to participate.

But I was foolish enough to keep dropping in on business meetings after that, and sticking my nose into the political process. After a few years of that, for my sins I was asked to get further involved by running for vice-president. I've held that position for the past two years.

What have you done for me lately, and what do you want to do as President?

From my involvement in our events and in our political process, I've come to believe that 1) we have a lot of smart, determined, hard-working, and productive people in our community -- and 2) we need to do a better job of making it easier for them to participate in this organization.

One of the obstacles I saw was the use of Robert's Rules of Order in our meetings. Last year I began a campaign to replace them with an alternative called "Martha's Rules", a more consensus-oriented approach that encourages dialog and discussion, but still allows for majority rule when deadlocks occur. I'm very pleased that at the most recent business meeting, the membership decided to adopt this alternative on a trial basis.

I also think that we can do a better job in using the Internet to enable communication. As a professional computer geek, I've been involved in on-line discussion groups since the late 1980s, from FidoNet and USENET through mailing lists to web forums and social networking sites. I've recently started working with Eve, our webmaster, to set up a wiki site for FSG staff to record and document procedures and information, and I think we can also expand it as a general community resource.

The past few years I've been trying to promote FSA events within the Baltimore area arts community. As part of that, I've been hanging out with "Burners" -- attendees of Burning Man and of the local Burns, Playa Del Fuego and Wicker Man. This is a community that already overlaps with us -- I've seen many familiar faces at PDF and Wicker Man -- and I think that many other people in it are looking for a spiritual connection in a way that is right in line with what we do.

And I think that we can learn from the radically participatory way that Burns are organized. The Burners have a wonderful term, "do-ocracy": those who do stuff, make the decisions. I would like to bring that idea of radical participation into FSA.

I want to make it so easy for the people of our community to participate and get stuff done, that there ends up not being much for the officers and trustees to do but sign checks and schedule meetings. I want to work hard to make it easy for members to get stuff done so that I can be a supremely lazy President. It's paradoxical, but you should expect that from me by now.

For that to happen, the President must be a highly visible presence. The President acts as the official spokesperson for FSA; as a writer, a performing poet and musician, and with my experience as MC, I believe I have the skills to represent us in any medium or circumstance, from presiding at our scholarships awards to composing press releases to being interviewed by the media. I would like to raise FSA's visibility in the community, and I think I am well suited to act as our representative.

On a more practical note, after this election the first thing the new FSA officers must address is ensuring that our financial records and paperwork are up to date. We recently learned that we may not be in full compliance with tax law changes from 2006, and we have to get right on that. This is why I recruited Alison Chicosky to run for Treasurer.

Why should I vote for you instead of one of these other guys?

As of the June meeting, we've got a powerful line-up of candidates for President. (The line-up may have changed by the time you read this; so it goes.)

Duckie and Kal have proven their ability in the position; Fred has held the VP slot and worked hard for us in his role as quartermaster. I'd be happy to continue to serve as Vice President with any of them.

But I think I can offer fresh energy and a new direction for this organization.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to e-mail me at tms@infamous.net.

-Tom Swiss