Now that we are back from the 2003 Rainbow Gathering, responsibilities for the Rainbow Family Guide have now been passed on to new folks. We had a Guide Council at the Gathering on the 5th of July, announcing a new focalizer, and consensed on a couple new directions for the Guide in a new era of electronics and saving trees.

The new Rainbow Family Guide Focalizer (and a crew of folks from California to help) in 2003-2005 will be:

First - For anyone NEW to the Rainbow Guide - WHAT IS THE GUIDE? .......

The Guide is an "independent" publication that has been around for a very long time, never representing any "official" ties to the Rainbow Family of Living Light or the Gatherings, BUT provides contact information for and by individual rainbow folks across time and space. It is never sold, but does have real publishing costs that must be covered by donations. In the past that was set at an estimate of $5 for every person in the guide, but web press costs and paper may actually be more today. Is it public information ? YES, and this will be discussed further below - so read on.

Many people have commented that it's a long wait until the next year's Gathering for the Guide to come out, and hence much of the information can change in one year. Additionally costs have gone up significantly, and we are all concerned about paper coming from trees. Therefore the Guide Council discussed some new ideas to come up to date.

EARLY PAPERLESS AVAILABILITY

1) Since it would not be cost effective to put out a Winter Guide as has been done in some previous years, we feel there is a better idea. The Guide Council will contact everyone that has provided an e-mail address and contact them electronically as soon as all the cards are compiled. We believe that MIGHT be done as early as the end of Summer. By providing an e-mail address, each person will then be contacted and asked whether they would like a ".pdf" (Adobe Acrobat) secure version of the guide sent to their given e-mail address. THIS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ONLINE! This method will ensure direct personal communication with the Guide Council. When the PDF version is received, one can then either view it from their computer, or print it out on their own choice of paper. This will also allow for local distribution of copies at local Rainbow Family events, (e.g. - Drum Circles, Potlucks, Campouts).

KEEPING THE GUIDE UP-TO-DATE

2) Since much of the database used to create the Guide each year takes extensive amount of time for data entry, and is often repetitive from year-to-year, with often minor updates, another idea also came up. In the future (perhaps as early as the first e-mail contact) people will be asked if they wish to remain in the database and to provide any updates. Even in the first current year (2003-2004) this will allow for updates before the Guide goes to final printing in Spring 2004.

SUBMITTING PHOTOS and ART or GRAPHICS

The Guide Council wold like to provide a nice looking publication with photos and art work but must also be balanced with the cost and available budget brought in. PHOTOS ARE REQUESTED - however, to be usable there are certain pre-press publishing guidelines that need to be considered. NOTE - graphics, primarly meaning "digital photos" must be 600 dpi. Also to be camera ready they need to be submitted in CYMK format. In other words, if you have great photos from film, strongly consider having them developed onto a Photo CD as well. It is easy to go from high resolution down to smaller layouts, but nearly impossible to go from low resolution to high.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

When one submits to the Guide they are free to use what ever name and contact information they wish, however, it goes without saying that the Guides are public information. Since some people often ask if Law Enforcement has access - the answer is "of course" - Rangers and Law Enforcement Officers (LEO's) often pick up a copy of the guide each year. On a positive note - since the Rainbow Family has been working in a more positive cooperative space with the forest service lately, we've even had one or two rangers even submit their own cards to be in the guide. Now the question is, whether Incident Commander, Malcolm Jowers would also like to be in the guide ;-) We'll see.