Location

Like in 2023, the Summer School will take place in Grand Hôtel Chandolin, CH-3961, Canton of Valais in Switzerland. Chandolin is beautifully located 2'000 meters above sea level quite remotely in the Swiss Alps. There are no shops available except for a small kiosk. We will provide three meals a day and snacks in between but if you want to bring "personal snacks", of course you are welcome to.

Please have a look at our no-flight policy. We highly recommend you to come by public transport, there is no parking available for students. The bus station is called Chandolin Poste, for a detailed description on how to get there, you can have a look at our Travel Guide. Keep in mind that train ticket prices go up the longer you wait before travel. As such, we recommend booking your train tickets early (1 month in advance, or earlier).

Accommodation

The Grand Hôtel is not a hotel anymore, it is a large house with many bedrooms and common rooms that we have all for ourselves. We are together responsible for keeping the place clean and therefore everyone will be doing some chores during the week. The Summer School is on-site participation only, there is no online streaming available.

The lectures, leisure activities and accommodation all take place in the same building. The house has 50 rooms so you will share the bedroom with one or more other students (2-6 people/room). Some rooms have showers within the room, and there are bathrooms with separate showers on every floor.

Fee

We want to foster inclusivity by accommodating varying financial abilities. This means that you have the option to choose how much you pay based on your financial circumstances.

The different fees are:

• Cost-covering: 420 CHF
• Reduced: 210 CHF
• Supporter: 630 CHF
• If you don't have the financial means for attending the Summer School (or the trip), we can support you additionally. Please contact us.

Included in the fee are:

• All lectures, workshops and seminars
• Preparation material and readings
• Meals and snacks (3 meals a day)
• Accommodation (shared room)

Not included are:

• Alcoholic drinks (bring some cash)
• Travel costs
• Visa costs (if applicable)
• Insurance (health, loss of luggage, etc.)

Accessibility

We want to make the Summer School as accessible as possible. In the following, we describe possible barriers. If you have any questions or requests, please contact us via email: summerschoolch@rethinkeconomics.org

Unfortunately, the house is not wheelchair accessible. The path to the house is made of cobbles, the entry consists of a few stairs and there are small stairs between every room. There is a small elevator. As far as we know, there are no seatings in the showers. The walk from the bus stop to the house is around 15 minutes by foot. There is no parking available for participants.

It can sometimes get noisy in the breaks or during the meals. There is a silent room and a quiet room (Library), participants are encouraged to take breaks without a need to justify. You can also have your meals outside on the terrace where it is usually quieter. There will be no background music playing during the day. If you want to play music, you can use the disco in the basement. On the last evening, there might be music playing in the disco until after 10 pm.

Some participants will know each other from previous editions of the Summer School, some might come with a friend, and many will not know other participants in the beginning. If you want to get to know other participants before arriving, you can check the travel buddy sheet (link in email) and text someone who is taking the same route. There will be get-to-know-each-other-time, especially on Sunday and Monday morning.

We are working on assembling a care team that will host check-ins during the week and who is open to talk and mediate if there is a conflict. Please check our awareness concept as well.

The working language is English. Many participants will speak German, French, or Italian, however, we encourage everyone to speak in English so that all participants can follow the conversation.

The local currency is the Swiss franc. You might need money to buy your public transport ticket (we recommend buying it beforehand and online), to buy snacks at the local shop (we will provide food and also snacks at the Summer School), or to buy beer/wine in the evenings. We will also accept Euro at the Summer School.

All food is vegetarian, with vegan options available at every meal, and prepared freshly on site by our cooking team. Please also have a look at the food section below.Tap water is safe and drinkable, there are bathrooms at every level. We suggest that you bring a water bottle, but of course, you can also use cups from the house.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.

Chores

We will all stay together at Grand Hôtel Chandolin. It used to be a hotel but it is not anymore! We will have the whole house for ourselves and not share it with other groups. This also means that we are responsible for keeping it nice and clean. Participants will have two slots during the week to do chores. Chores are divided into these groups: Cleaning, Household, Early Birds (Breakfast), Dishes, Social Media, Facilities.

As this Summer School is organized by us 12 volunteers, we are relying on everyone to work together. Please sign up for a chores group before arriving, thank you!

You can find the sign up link in the email we will send you after we received your payment. This not only helps to keep the Summer School low budget, it also strengthens the community feeling.

Awareness concept

"Awareness" is about how we treat each other. It's about taking a look at our behaviour and making sure we're treating everyone with respect and kindness, both in theory and in practice. That means being mindful of physical, mental, and personal boundaries.

We want to help each other by recognizing and addressing any behavior that might hurt or invade someone's space, or be downright discriminatory. It's crucial to take people seriously when they say something's bothering them. They are the experts on their own feelings and experiences.

Consensus Principle

We follow the consensus principle. Instead of assuming everything's cool unless someone says otherwise, we aim for mutual agreement in our actions and conversations. Pay attention to cues from others, like body language, to see if they're comfortable with the interaction. For example, don't start talking about sensitive topics or touch someone without their permission. It's about respecting boundaries -- a clear yes means yes, and no means no.

It is up to each person to decide what discrimination looks like to them and where their boundaries lie. Let's give people the space to describe their experiences in their own words without doubting them or trying to correct them.

Pronouns

Ask people what pronouns they prefer, especially when you're talking about them. In lots of languages, pronouns have a grammatical gender, so it's important to use the ones that make people feel comfortable. There is a wide range of different

pronouns that people like to use for themselves: he, she, they, hen, xier, iel, x, none, just using the first name, amongst others.

Discussions

In group discussions we use hand signals to enable a self-moderated discussion. We'll introduce the hand signals at the beginning of the week. Moreover, let's have an eye on how much space we are taking and that everyone gets the opportunity to speak.

Self-care

To take care of others and the community also means to take care of yourself, and we encourage all participants to look after their resources, listen to their needs and take breaks when needed. As organisers we also want to be careful with our own resources and practice self-care during the week, therefore we will be wearing lanyards as identifiers when we are "on duty" and take them off when we are taking a break. So if you have a question and see a Summer School team member that is not wearing their lanyard, please look for someone else to ask (emergencies are an exception of course).

Quiet Spaces

We know that with over 100 people in the house, it can get quite noisy and sometimes overwhelming. In the house there are two rooms that you can use as break rooms, the Library that is usually quiet and cosy with sofas, and the smaller Silent Room for when you want some time in silence. You are allowed to take breaks whenever needed and do not have to explain yourself. And if you feel like being noisy, listening to music, dancing etc. you can always use the disco in the basement :)

Pictures

Throughout the week, the social media team (participants) will be taking pictures. These pictures will be shared with everyone at the end of the week. We might use them on our social media platforms or website. If you do not want to be in any pictures or do not want them to be published, please tell us so or write us an email. If you like taking pictures and capturing the vibe of the Summer School (and can bring your own camera), you can volunteer to be in the social media Chores team. We kindly ask participants that are not part of the social media team to not take pictures of other participants.

For more info about how awareness can look like, have a look at the Streikhaus Awareness Broschure, of which our concept was strongly inspired by.

Food

All of the meals are freshly prepared on site by our cooking team. The meals are vegetarian and for every meal, vegan options will be available. Please inform us if you have any allergies or intolerances, so the kitchen team can adjust the meal plan or prepare separate meals for you. We will ask you about allergies after reviewing your application.