Thank you all so much for this great beginning to this conversation! Already a lively and enlightening discussion.
When we teach the bodywisdom tool of spiritual disciplines (aka spiritual practices), the way we describe it is "to change your life, change your practice". I already see some important ideas emerging in this conversation that could lead to some different practices.
I love it when folks with organizers and marketers get attracted to InterPlay. Surprisingly, there are quite of few of those sorts of folks in our community. I'm not sure that mindset is lifted up, though, very much in our conversations, and I think others of us may even be a little suspicious. Would InterPlay be tainted by the "market"???
But here are some truths as I see them (some of which have been confirmed in other comments, others of which I may have stolen outright from you):
We have something quite significant to offer, something of great value (it is life-changing, for gosh sakes!). We are caught a bit in the overall societal devaluation of play, but I think we are capable of holding these two truths: that play can be an important something to offer and that the way we offer play has financial value.
Even the simplest InterPlay gathering involves time and effort to coordinate, expertise to lead, and perhaps space to rent. What if everytime we gathered to play, we were all committed to chipping in financially: some for the organizer, some for the leader, some for the rent, and some for ongoing development or scholarships. If we established this as a basic practice, if this became our ethos even in the most informal play gatherings, I believe it would enliven our InterPlay communities. We would be more directly "giving back" in direct response to what we have received. (And those who were going to the trouble of organizing or getting the training to lead would honored and acknowledged.) If someone didn't choose the be compensated for organizing or leading, that portion would go back into the bigger pot for future use. (There is always going to be something we want that costs something.)
Perhaps play (in general) should be free, and there are many ways that I can play that don't cost me, but InterPlay offers a very special kind of play. Someone is investing time, energy, resources, and sometimes money to make it happen. If we share that responsibility, if we more directly address the costs and benefits, if we honor our leaders and organizers more directly, if we admit that we are receiving something that is very valuable to us—if we do all those things we will actually be bringing our practice more in line with our deeper beliefs about the value of InterPlay. If we have difficulty doing that, then we shouldn't be surprised if the folks we are attracting to our events have difficulty with it.
As we go, we can also talk more about how we offer InterPlay to those may be less able to afford it. We can also talk more about the whole "grace" economy and how we give and receive it.
