Feedback & answers

Last Summer Course participants’ feedback and (some) answers

Great atmosphere, great place, I hope we will keep this paradise for longer… Thank you, everything works perfect… You have done a fantastic job… Thanks for a great time…  Great course.

• Thank you! Many people worked very hard for the last course, and on behalf of the whole team, thank YOU for coming and making it special!

Would like more toilets, more showers, more room, more taps, mirrors, and some shelter for sinks.

• Building on our experience from last year we have developed a new concept for more showers and toilets which we will place according to traffic we have observed. There will be more washing streets with mirrors, and if we can manage it there will be also a roof.

One cafeteria which would be open and accessible all the time.

• We are working on a new cafeteria concept with more stuff and more opening hours.

Faster service at the bar and Cafeteria would be good.

• Yes, we have to be faster

Offer jobs when people are registering, you might get more volunteers.

• Good idea, thank you. We will need more volunteers than ever this year to provide the best service for the course.

Can we have a cleaning service for toilets?

• We have a great cleaning team with the motto: Don’t make a mess, then we can work less

There is one dog here every day, there will be twenty next year, because people see that this is possible to bring animals/pets.

• We were not aware of that. Actually, we cannot have any pets on site during the course. We will announce it again in the program.

Anyone should have access into the wood.

• Everybody can have access to the wood but we would like to avoid mess, tents and accidents in the forest. Thank you for your cooperation.

Can you repeat all organizational announcements during lectures in German/ Russian/ in writing?

• As we cannot repeat all announcements in all languages and also because the official language of the Europe Center is English, we will stay with this original idea.

Can you update the gompa schedule & EC TV news in the morning?

• We have experienced how useful the information service is, and we will try to include more people in this team this year to make the updates as regular as possible.

Why do people who do not camp and eat on site pay so much for initiations?

• The pricing system this year is clearer, and has a special focus on families. The course is designed so that everyone can eat together, and we have made huge investments in infrastructure to support this. We cannot afford that people cook on site and also we cannot afford heavy traffic up and down, so we would like to stick to the model where meals are included.

People could save on the camping fee if it would be clear, who is camping here and who in a hotel.

• We have tried to keep the pricing simple. Most people will be camping, so we have included the camping fee in the prices.

Why does it cost 45 EUR/ day without food and camping?

• 45 EUR/day pays for the investments which we have made for the sake of the course and also for the future.

The nights were very cold, please sell hot soup at night.

• Hot soup, coffee and teas were served and also will be served this year.

There are people with allergies who can´t eat anything; it is a problem that all food is mixed (vegetarian+meat).

• We don’t have conditions to make everything happen but we will have a dedicated person in the kitchen for this issue.

I miss Vajra food!

• For the next two years due to the very high standard of hygienic regulations we have to stick to the one kitchen model. Thus we cannot provide any other kitchen. We also loved Vajra and fast food

Needed: more of that orgasmic apple crumble!

• That would be great

Can we have soya milk for breakfast (with cereals, for milk non-drinkers).

• We are sorry, we cannot promise that.

Better acoustics in the gompa tent, it is difficult to hear the lecture.

• We would like to install more loudspeakers this year.

Babysitting.

• We plan to install a family compound with heaters and more services but we need help from families as well to make it happen.

Nicer things on T-shirts to sell.

• Can you please come up with some idea and help us?

Left-over food could be separated from other rubbish and fed to the animals or used for compost.

• We don’t have the capacity for that at the time being, maybe in some years.

The bar and minishop has to be open more, because people rely on them.

• For both places we want to work with more helpers.

Needed: possibility to wash and dry clothes

• We had the laundry and drying place but it was installed too late. This year should be better.

No queues for parents with children.

• We will consider solving that using announcements.

Barrier-free access for the handicapped. Camping for the handicapped and their helpers.

• We have realized that we were not able to provide suitable conditions for handicapped people on site. We will install more toilets on site and we will also provide a shuttle service once we have found an accommodation solution in the town.

No chain-saw using during night time

• Who was that?

Better paths.

• It is a considerable investment but we will certainly provide better path lighting.

Put clocks in the eating tent.

• Thank you, good idea.

More plug-boxes for charging phones.

• There were many charging points in the gompa and dinning tent, and will be again this year.

If it rains too much, can we camp inside a big tent?

• We will provide more heated places.

Kitchen music for parties, please don´t put the same CD always.

• Beat the DJ