Author: Miriam Green

We have so many new classes in the works, I had to take a pause in bookings to get this roster out! Please expect even MORE new classes added and an updated roster in the next couple of weeks. If you’re a Patreon member at the VIP+ level, you already have access to Miriam Green classes for free, and all other classes for only $10 each. If you’re not already using this benefit, please do! Book early to reserve your spot! (Pro tip: most of our in-person playshops sell out about a week in advance.) Want to attend a class but short on funds? Most classes offer scholarship tickets. Just use the “Volunteer List” at the bottom of the ticketing page to request one! S/m & the physical side of play 4/27 6pm PDT: Spank Therapy w/ Miss Chris (ONLINE) 5/1 7pm PDT: SparkLab! (SF) 5/4 6pm PDT: All About Belts w/ Wiley Wolfe (ONLINE) 5/9 7pm PDT: SpankLab (SF) 5/10 7pm CDT: Caning: From Sensual to Sadistic w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 5/21 2pm PDT: From Shaft to Sole: Bootblacking 101 (ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) 6/3 2pm PDT: Reality-Based Toilet Play w/ Ayzad (ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) Bondage & Fetish 4/20 7pm PDT: Wicked Rope Jam (SF) 5/3 7pm PDT: Rope Bite SF (SF) 5/4 7pm PDT: Wicked Rope Jam (SF) 5/16 7pm PDT: Getting Started with Rope Bondage Part 1 w/ PsychoKitty (SF & ONLINE) 5/18 7pm PDT: Wicked Rope Jam (SF) 6/10 4pm PDT: Latex Working Munch (SF) 6/20 7pm PDT: Getting Started with Rope Bondage Part 2 w/ PsychoKitty (SF & ONLINE) D/s & the mental side of play 4/18 7pm PDT: Fetish Games w/ PsychoKitty (SF) 4/24 6pm PDT: Arcane Dominance and Submission w/ Lee Harrington (ONLINE) 5/9 6pm PDT: So You Want to Be a Top w/ Candace (ONLINE) 5/10 6pm PDT: You Get What You Inspire – Engagement of Master and slave w/ Tomo (ONLINE) 5/14 3:30pm CDT: Sex Magick for Kinksters w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 6/12 6pm PDT: Sir No Sir! Saying No In D/s Dynamics w/ Ev Evnen (ONLINE) 6/13 6pm PDT: Empowering from the Bottom w/ Candace (ONLINE) 6/20 6pm PDT: What Are You Afraid Of? A Fear Play Class w/ Devyn Stone (ONLINE) 6/22 6pm PDT: Self-care and Submission w/ girl lily (ONLINE) Erotic Hypnosis More to come Primals & human animals 4/27 7pm PDT: Pack Night (SF) 5/17 6pm PDT: Primal Play: Hunter, Hunted, Predator & Prey w/ Lee Harrington (ONLINE) Self-knowledge, negotiation & consent 4/23 2pm PDT: NEW DATE: Safewords, the Missing Lesson w/ Ayzad (ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) 4/26 6pm PDT: Breath is Fundamental w/ HG Wyndell (ONLINE) 5/3 6pm PDT: Negotiating and Communicating for Emotional S/M w/ vahavta (ONLINE) 5/11 6pm PDT: Self-Awareness in BDSM w/ Devyn Stone (ONLINE) 5/13 10am CDT: BDSM Negotiation Basics w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 5/13 12:45pm CDT: Diving Deep w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 5/20 11am MST: Diving Deep w/ Miriam Green (Phoenix, AZ) 5/21 11am MST: Dealing with Drop w/ Miriam Green (Phoenix, AZ) 5/21 2pm MST: Advanced BDSM Negotiations – Relationships & Dynamics w/ Miriam Green (Phoenix, AZ) 5/23 6pm PDT: Writing Spicy w/ Sinclair Sexsmith (ONLINE) 5/31 6pm PDT: Determining Your Risk Profile Workshop w/ vahavta (ONLINE) 6/1 6pm PDT: Private Joy: Sadomasochism for Solo & Distance Play (ONLINE) 6/8 7pm PDT: Kink 101: Diving Deep – Discovering and Voicing Kink Desires w/ Miriam Green (SF & ONLINE) Relationships: Finding friends, dating, & building community! 4/18 6pm PDT: ONLINE: Don’t Be Creepy; A Fun Guide to Social Interactions In the Scene (ONLINE) 4/22 2pm PDT: A History of Leather w/ Noether (SF & ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) 4/27 11am PDT: Dating While Kinky w/ Miriam Green (ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) 5/2 7pm PDT: Tips for House Topping w/ Miriam Green (SF & ONLINE) 5/6 Noon PDT: Welcome to the SF Kink Scene w/ Rae Lune (SF) 5/6 2pm PDT: How to Find the Top of Your Dreams w/ Ayzad (ONLINE EMEA Friendly Timing) 5/10 7pm PDT: Kinky Speed Dating w/ Psychokitty Ryan (SF) 5/18 7pm PDT: The Intersections of Polyamory & Permaculture w/ Eleven (SF & ONLINE) 5/21 2pm MST: Advanced BDSM Negotiations – Relationships & Dynamics w/ Miriam Green (Phoenix, AZ) 5/30 7pm PDT: Dating While Kinky w/ Miriam Green (SF & ONLINE) 6/5 6pm PDT: Two Plus: Essentials, Joys and Challenges of Polyamory and Kink w/ Tomo (ONLINE) 6/15 11am PDT: Kink 201: Advanced BDSM Negotiations for Dynamics and Relationships (ONLINE – EMEA friendly timing) Life Stuff, wellness & adulting for kinksters 4/30 11am PDT: CPR/AED Bloodborn Pathogens w/ PuppyDog (SF) Spirituality, magick & occult (with Magickal Crossroads) 4/20 6pm PDT: Empath Training Level 3 w/ Diana Rajchel (ONLINE) 4/24 6pm PDT: Arcane Dominance and Submission w/ Lee Harrington (ONLINE) 4/26 6pm PDT: Breath is Fundamental with HG Wyndell (ONLINE) 5/11 6pm CDT: Exploring the Worlds of the Tarot Suits w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 5/14 3:30pm CDT: Sex Magick for Kinksters w/ Miriam Green (Austin, TX) 5/18 6pm PDT: Empath Training Level 4 w/ Diana Rajchel (ONLINE) 5/20 2pm MST: Sex Magick for Kinksters w/ Miriam Green (Phoenix, AZ) 6/15 6pm PDT: Empath Training Level 5 w/ Diana Rajchel (ONLINE)

Hello all – I’d planned to send this after a little more preparation, but as the saying goes, “life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans.” Tomorrow, it will be nine years that I’ve the honor and privilege of running Wicked Grounds. It’s been an adventure, sometimes a challenge, but always completely worth it. It’s no surprise to say that the pandemic has utterly reshaped San Francisco and the world, for better and worse. Many of you whom I used to see in the SF Bay Area are now reading this from new homes all over the world, while Wicked Grounds has finally accomplished a years-long goal: providing insight and education to kinksters globally. Providing a safe educational and community space to kinksters and locals here in San Francisco remains a huge focus, and with huge changes to the neighborhood and the restaurant business, I’ve been looking long and hard at how to do this while remaining sustainable. It will be no surprise to most of you that food & drink have been the challenging part of the business for years. Launching the Patreon and later Wicked Grounds Annex were the best risks we ever took. The Annex has partially — but never totally — allowed us to offset losses on the cafe side for quite some time. But the bleeding has gotten much worse over the last two years. Because I feel so passionately about the core of what we do, it’s overdue to make some tough decisions. Starting on May 1, we will be operating Wicked Grounds as an event and boutique space, with open hours downstairs to not only continue — but expand — our ability to provide a key hangout for customers and community members. The Annex won’t change much. Here’s the plan for downstairs: We’ll be operating with our current food & drink menu through April 30. If you’re looking for a last Caffinatrix, now is the time! We have no intention to decrease staffing; all of the team members you already know and love have had their positions retained. The only change is what they’ll be doing with that time, with a larger focus on providing advice and helping you connect with books, gear and events. We’ll be doing even more of what we do best. Starting on May 1, the downstairs boutique will continue to be open 6pm – 10pm for retail sales and bottle drinks. (And we’ll be expanding our bottle drink service to include iced coffee & other choices.) Any support coffees remaining on the board after April will be redeployed to support our scholarship funds for classes. If you have a current munch, meetup or gathering, you’re already on the schedule and the space is open as always! Starting in June, we will begin to expand the downstairs open hours into both afternoon and evening. As always, you are welcome to hang out as long as you like — bring your laptop, bring your partners, bring your rope if you like to take hanging out literally. Also starting in June, we’ll start expanding our retail again to deliver on our core promise of offering the best selection of BDSM education books anywhere. I especially want to extend my deepest gratitude to our long-patient landlords, who have promised to work with us through this transition to allow us to keep the space open to our customers and community. They are truly great people, and we’ve been lucky to have them. tl; dr: Wicked Grounds is going all in on our role as a community educational and community space. Our core space downstairs will have no disruption to operations, and will be expanding for the long term. However, our drink menu is shrinking by a lot to make this happen. (I’m sad about it, too. And if you’ve ever seen me drink our iced tea by the gallon, you’ll understand why.) Other news During the internal meeting yesterday at which I announced these changes for the summer, many of the Wicked Grounds staff made me aware of their plans to unionize. Quite honestly, I think their concerns and the concerns that brought me to this decision are deeply aligned. You can see what they have to say in their own words here. Obviously, they have my support. I’ve made all current staff aware that while we can’t bring back to-order food or drink after May, everyone absolutely has a role to play in our continued operations as a retail & event space. We planned this transition carefully to ensure no layoffs, and I’m committed to that. Those discussions have just begun, but I am excited to see where these discussions will go. We all encourage you to continue to: Sign up for our newsletter and/ or Patreon to keep abreast of all the latest Keep signing up for classes & events from Wicked Grounds and Magickal Crossroads. Get your gear & books in the shop or online at WickedGrounds.com. I’ll be running our Staying the Fuck in Business Sale from now through the end of this month for 20% off books and gear. (To get the sale price online, just use code EFFINBIZ at checkout.) We are going to be making some nice upgrades and expansions to the retail displays, so the more you get now the easier all that is to move! Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out. MirOwner, Wicked GroundsMir@WickedGrounds.com

If you’re already on our regular mailing list, you already got this, but I wanted to share it here as well.  If it weren’t for our Patreon members, we literally could do none of this so you should know how your contributions become staff pay. Our commitment to keep the doors open as a community space is only possible because of your commitment to us.  Hi everyone – In light of the current transitions at Wicked Grounds, some folks may have questions about our compensation and benefits at the Grounds, and I’m here to help! Here is the best transparency I can offer around our policies: Employee Benefits All staff start at no less than the San Francisco Minimum Wage + $0.50. At present, that works out to a starting wage of $17.50/hour. On July 1st, that will increase to a base wage of $18.57/hour. We always look for opportunities to advance based on responsibilities or merit increases. Our pay scale is relatively flat. Our highest paid employees currently receive no more than 40% above base. (For comparison, Ben & Jerry’s — sometimes held up as a model of a flat scale — has a general top rate of 300% of base.) As noted below, I’m personally at the bottom of the scale. All staff are eligible to sign up for our 401k plan through Guideline. In addition to employee contributions, Wicked Grounds matches 100% of employee contributions up to the first 3% of pay, then 50% of employee contributions on the next 2% of pay. All staff receive 20% off any purchases at Wicked Grounds. (This is an identical discount to the one I receive myself when buying from the Grounds.) All staff can attend an unlimited number of free classes Wicked Grounds offers in person or online. All staff have unlimited free access to use the Annex for personal projects on a space available and first-requested first-served basis. We occasionally are able to offer additional community benefits — for example, the gentleman behind Dirty Talk Game Show offers our staff free tickets. If you love our staff and want to give them cool community recognition, please talk to us! Beginning May 1, all staff will receive a 5% commission on all retail items sold during their shift. (This benefit already applies to off-site sales at our event booths, and is intended to help replace the role that tips currently play.) While there is always room for improvement, the goal is to treat our staff fairly and recognize their work. Instructor Benefits All paid instructors receive 50% of gross ticketing for all paid tickets to their classes, as independent contractors. Instructors additionally receive $7.50 per ticket for each scholarship ticket we award to honor our NOTAFLOF policy for classes. Those tickets are covered by our scholarship fund. Instructors may at their own discretion provide additional discount tickets to their friends or community, of course. We do occasionally have instructors who donate their time and decline payment, in order to benefit the Grounds. We appreciate that when it happens, and it does help — but that is never expected, and is increasingly rare. We want our instructors to benefit from their efforts! I want to recognize here that during our reopening last year, I got very, very behind on instructor payments for some instructors. Our goal is to pay out for classes within two to four weeks of a class when payments settle to our account, and I got up to months behind for some people while we were in rent negotiations to keep the space last year. I was able to take out a loan in order to get those payments caught up, and we’ve done our best to stay on track since. The Elephant in the Room On paper, my salary is $520/week. When the Grounds is solvent, I try to take this. Most months I don’t. (I have been able to include myself in three of eight payrolls this year.) When I am able, I accept small repayments on my extensive personal loans to the business, which is most of how I live day to day and pay for my rent and cat kibble. (Those who know me personally probably know I live frugally.) My employee discount on anything I purchase from the Grounds is identical to that of our staff: 20% on books and gear, 100% on classes. If we are able to get the Grounds back to solvency, I’d love to start getting paid for my own classes at the instructor rate. At this time, I teach 6-8 classes and workshops each month for the Grounds, and I donate 100% of that salary into the business. At this time, I also donate 100% of my private consulting fees back into the business. I’d love to get to a point at which I could take a 50% payout for this time, but we’re not there yet. Again, is there room for improvement? Almost certainly. One of my goals with moving away from to-order food and drink is to move toward solvency, which will in turn allow me to provide more sustainable benefits to our staff. A focus on retail, classes, workshops & rentals will allow us to remain solvent, and allow us the ability to continue to invest in the business, including our staff. Our change to retail & events will also allow us to expand our hours, giving staff more stability in their schedules, something we all want. Removing food & drink (except bottled beverages) is an absolutely critical first step toward providing the working environment that everyone is asking for, and I appreciate the community’s support as we make that change. If you have questions, I’m absolutely open to them. I may or may not be able to answer everything publicly, but you have my email! MirOwner, Wicked GroundsMir@WickedGrounds.com

To view this content, you must be a member of Wicked’s Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

Hello members!  it’s our annual membership drive, as we build up our friends and fans to carry our message through another year.  Unbelievably, a lot of people still don’t know about our Patreon membership and how important it is! And the folks who most need to know are … well, they’re your friends, partners, mentors, students and play buddies. Will you take a moment today to hop on FetLife, Twitter, Bloom, Facebook — whereever you’re “out” and post  this message:  “I’m a proud member of Wicked Grounds‘ Patreon! Are you? Patreon.com/WickedGrounds”  Or, of course, whatever that looks like in your own words. Limerick? Haiku? It would mean the world to me if you’ll take a moment to do it this week, and thank you!!! xoxo Mir and the Wicked Grounds team

Howdy!  I’ve already sent an email detailing my upcoming Austin classes to folks that were tagged with an Austin location in our mailing list, but I want to be sure to reach everyone!!!  If you’re in Austin or the Hill Country — or you know a kinkster who is — please take a moment to peruse the class listings here:  https://wicked-grounds.ck.page/posts/hello-austin-may-10-14 Best Mir 

To view this content, you must be a member of Wicked’s Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

To view this content, you must be a member of Wicked’s Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

To view this content, you must be a member of Wicked’s Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

To view this content, you must be a member of Wicked’s Patreon at $1 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.