AutHaven mini retreat

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COME TO AUTHAVEN! This years theme, in honor of Martin Luther King is "Because We Have A dream Too."

When; Saturday, February 22, late morning through Tuesday, February 25, early afternoon.

Where; Indian Hills Colorado, about 25 miles west of Denver [we are renting out a portion of a nudist resort so there is a possibility of seeing naked people]

How much and what is included in cost? We have found a way to keep it down to $100 per person. Through a number of means we have worked hard to keep the costs so low because we believe that no one should be excluded because of financial issues [ there are also a few complete scholarships. This will take care of 3 nights shared lodging, meals,workshops, lectures, goody bags and a trip to Denver Aquarium.

our dream is to host a mini retreat at an extremely low cost for autistics that will provide autistic space [ unfortunately it is not wheelchair accessible and there will be cooking odors in the lodge] education, relaxation, pampering, education, wildlife and workshops where we actively plan for an intentional community inside an already pre-existing community. We would like to get started on that and also to help spread the mini retreat small gatherings for regions all over. Ian Ford will also be there speaking about his book "A Field Guide to Earthlings" and sharing with us plans for Octave Cliffs, a retreat center run by Autistics. Xenia Grant, one of the co-founders of ANI will be discussing healing for sexual abuse. There will also be workshops on self-employment and much more.

Do I have to attend everything and what leisure activities will there be? only do what you want to do. there will be board games available, 150 acres of beautiful trail filled mountains, wildlife, ping-pong, billiards, oh, and my ice cream shop [included in price]

Anyone wishing to facillitate a group or share their talents and special interests are more than welcome.

PM me if interested, and talking about it and asking questions on this thread will help to keep the thread more active, thus giving more people a chance to learn about the retreat. BTW, you pay at the door, so please do not say you are attending if you are actually not going to because most of the costs we incur are not refundable whether someone shows up or not.

Also, my husband can pick anyone up from the airport and people in the Denver area can get a ride to the resort or follow a caravan from a central location.

It's good to see that WPers are moving ahead with events, and I wonder if this thread could be moved to "General", since that sub-forum gets much more traffic than "Activism".

Vicky, I know I asked this before, but will any of the presentations or summaries be available outside the event, such as on a webpage or here on WP?

I am so incredibly technology challenged that we will only be able to do something like that if I can find someone to volunteer to do it for us. One thing we are going to do is record a few hours of the conference, condense it, and send it to different autistic groups. One of our main goals is to encourage small,inexpensive mini retreats regionally. I know that I have always fantasized about going to Autscape or Autreat, but the combined cost of transportation,retreat fees, and I heard from others, additional food [at Autreat] made it far too expensive for me to attend. I know others have felt the same and these smaller, localized retreats i believe are the answer.

Are you sure there is no way you can attend? I would love to meet you.

Since "General" gets so much traffic, threads disappear very quickly. It is better to leave this discussion here, where threads remain alive for longer periods. Whoever is interested in attending such events tends to be interested in autism politics, activism and media representation.

Perhaps there should be an 'Events and Meet-ups' forum, where such threads can be posted to. We suggested this in the past, but nothing happened.

The AutHaven promotional page is here:
www dot divergentlabs dot org/temp/authaven.html

AutHaven will be taking place in this charming location:

Yes, both of us (and many others) have been asking for an "Events" forum for years, but as the Admin/Mods have noted, there isn't that much interest in the topic, at least as shown by continuing posting activity. The polls I've run in the past suggest otherwise, but so far that has not materialized as more posting in active threads.

As Vicky has indicated in prior posts, one of the objectives of AutHaven is to drive down the cost of these events, and to show that it is possible to hold (comparatively) small events on a fairly limited budget, which will encourage the growth of regional gatherings, which presumably will encourage attendance in the future.

And a view from the inside of the lodge:

What a nice place Colorado is, because it has -
A) Autistic-run retreats:
www dot divergentlabs dot org/temp/authaven.html
B) Legal cannabis:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

Seems like a nice combination

Yea, we have had to create a designated smoking area at the request of a few attendees.

This makes sense. Although I'm not much of a cannabis smoker, had I come to AutHaven from anywhere were cannabis is still illegal, I would have been tempted to have a tiny joint at the end of the day. Of course smoking, of any kind, should be done in designated areas only.

It's so far away from where I live... I wish I could go
So, how was it??

i'd love to be able to attend this event someday. when it comes to being naked, autistics are the best people to start with. they don't treat bodies like objects so much.