KB09 Festival Length, Help Needed, Ticket Pricing

[KuriousKat]

Hello kiwiburners,

At our successful AGM (annual general meeting) last week, the question arose as to when and how long Kiwiburn will be held this year.

The easy part first: Kiwiburn will be held over Waitangi Weekend this year, commencing on Friday, Feb 6 and ending Monday morning, Feb 9th, assuming we have a three day festival.

Many of you have asked over the last months whether we could extend the festival by one or two days. The ex-com has had lengthy discussions about this and from a financial standpoint, we think we could increase the festival to FOUR days instead of THREE and still meet our financial goals.

So money is not the issue.

What we need is help!

There was a lot of burn-out felt by members of the excom after the event. This is sad, because it was totally awesome beyond all expectations and we should have all felt really really happy with what everyone at kiwiburn had made happen.

We need to correct this problem regardless, but obviously if we go to 4 days the problem will be even bigger.

There was a huge amount of help available from volunteers who would drop everything and get something done as soon as they were asked—that’s not the shortfall.

These points sort of describe what we think is needed:

1) People to take responsibility for things we know about ahead of time (gate/greeters, ice runs). It would be super great if people would volunteer ahead of time to be in charge of these areas all together.

2) People to be an obvious point of contact for anybody to approach with any random problem.

3) People who are clear in their head that for the duration of their watch that their number one activity is to =take responsibility= for the solving of any problems they see or are brought to their attention.

This is your festival so we need to hear from you. There are obviously a lot of different ways to address these points, but here are our ideas. We’ve come up with a couple of tangible areas where we’d need solid commitment NOW from you before committing to a four day festival. In fact, without help in some of these areas, kiwiburn has a serious long term problem even if it stays at three days.

1: Gate/Greeters:
The gate/greeter station must be manned 24/7; more heavily up front the first few days, and then less so for the remainder of the festival. Someone must be at the gate/greeters the ENTIRE time of the festival as we have traffic coming in/out the whole time.

This isn’t always fun, as there aren’t a whole lot of people arriving during the wee hours of the morning, plus, you’re missing prime dancing/collapsing in a drunken heap/sleeping time.

Greeters need to have some quick training on administrative record keeping of attendees, handling cash/gate transactions, answering various questions, directing people to their correct spots, and dealing with locals and any other ‘officially type’ or curious person who happens by the Domain.

A four day festival is 96 hours. Breaking into 4 hour shifts @ 2 people per shift would require 24 shifts x 2 = 48 volunteers. Breaking into 5 hour shifts @ 2 people per shift, would require 20 shifts x 2 = 40 volunteers.

SO WE NEED A LOT OF PEOPLE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THIS VERY IMPORTANT ROLE. What we need even more is someone to =take responsibility= for making sure the volunteers are assigned to shifts and properly trained.

Even if we only stay at 3 days we will need a lot of people to raise their hands for this. Last year we were greatly understaffed (and perhaps a bit unorganized) and many of the ex-com burners took the brunt of working the gate and subsequently felt burnt out and over worked while at Kiwiburn.

What we’d like to hear from you:

a) Anyone interested in heading up the gate/greeters for KB09? You would work with Mistress Polly of the excom for guidance and assistance. It would be great if you came up with a ‘greeters station’ theme (for which there is money available to help decorate), but we can do the same thing with the tunnels as we did last year. But mostly, you will organize and train a roster of volunteers for shift duty and make sure the gate is staffed.

b) Are you interested in volunteering for a shift or two? We need people to sign up NOW in order for the excom to agree in going to 4 days. But many of the volunteers we get, we don’t hear from until January, so the core group of gate/greeter organizers will probably have plenty of help, but they won’t appear until right before the event and they will need training at kiwiburn itself.

c) Any other thoughts on how to do the gate/greeters any better?


2. Rangers:
The excom has been discussing whether we need to introduce a ‘rangers’ group this year to help with safety monitoring of the festival. Rangers act as non-confrontational mediators. We’d envision Rangers being available 24/7 (or as close to as possible) as a visible entity, walking around and chatting with burners. Rangers would have an ex-com liaison at all times.

To the extent that rangers act as people who are there to protect the community against possible disharmonious individuals, there is a bit of a crossover with the gate. Any ideas on how this might work?

http://www.burningman.com/participate/brc_rangers.html

What we’d like to hear from you:

a) Do you think we should have Rangers to assist with safety monitoring?
b) If so, how best should we implement a team? IE: Separate group, wrap in with MPW, other???
c) Anyone interested in working together with an ex-com member to come up with the policy/formal concept/training program for the Rangers?
d) Black Rock City Rangers wear uniforms. What visible sort of thing could we use so that everyone knows who they can approach?


3. People on duty:

The excom has been talking about the need to have people take turns being the number one enchilada in charge of everything. Or, not really “in charge” of everything, but just being the number one go-to person for anything that came up.

People would have specific watches or shifts when they were the designated go-to person for the whole shebang. We’ve discussed putting a walkie talkie permanently at the pony shed where it’s visible and everyone knows that they can contact the person(s) on watch using the walkie talkie.

This would be a role that would call for sobriety during the watch. Also it will be important for anyone volunteering for this to have been to Kiwiburn previously and also is familiar with some of the key people at Kiwiburn.

What we’d like to hear from you:

1) Good idea?
2) How to implement? Perhaps wrap-in/combine this concept with the Rangers?


4. Ticket Prices:
This year we are planning to introduce a date-based tiered pricing scheme. If we stay at 3 days, the prices will remain the same as in KB08 and will look something like this:

$50 Through end of October
$60 Nov - December
$70 January
$80 Gate
Mangakino locals: half price. For most locals this will mean half of the gate price, or $40.

We think we can financially run a four day festival without an increase to ticket prices due to our expected increase in attendees (at least 25% increase) and the additional revenue generated by having a date-based pricing scheme (hopefully drumming up more cash at the higher priced tickets since most people don’t buy their tickets early). Obviously, things that we pay for by time will increase in cost, like the portaloos, medics, etc, but we think that we can afford it even with a 4 day festival.

No feedback needed here, but just wanted to let everyone know that we’re planning to keep ticket prices the same for KB2009 regardless if we do a 3 or 4 day festival.





These are the main areas of concern. Please feel free to raise any other issues.

We’d like to have feedback and discussion on this topic for the next three weeks, closing on July 9, so the committee can decide and announce the decision by July 15.

Thanks,
-your friendly KB organising committee!

[Hana]

[Poppy]

Hahahahahahahhahahaah
Geeez Hana you crack me up.

[Rich]

Duty Dudettes and Dudes
I think it's *essential* to have an go-to Duty Dude 24/7 and for this task to be shared.
As mentioned, the idea is that they aren't tied to a tree or whatever, but can wander around with a walkie talkie. They *do* have to stay sober and available, and to have been briefed as to what to do in various situations. We'd probably have a training for this (one day before the festival? In AKL/WLG/CHC a few weeks before? At a work weekend?) and also a laminate help card. I'd be happy to help organise this.

I think it's reasonable for this to be a one-off six-hour session for each person.

That means that we need 18 people for a 3-day KB, which would be the committee plus four extras. For a 4-day festival, we need 24 people, so 10 people need to sign up.
More would be great, coz then we can have two people on duty, which is less lonely.

Gate
We also need to have people on the gate greeting and collecting tickets and money. This needs to be two people all the time the gate is open, although one of them could be the Duty Dude.
I reckon we don't need a 24/7 gate presence - 99% of people turn up between 7am and 1am, so that should be our gate hours. Out of hours, people can camp in the top field and walk in or whatever? So, if we have 6 hour gate shifts, that's a minimum of 9 people for a 3 day festival and 12 for a 4 day. (Not including the Duty Dude).

Also, we might want to have wristbands so we can see who's paid.

Rangers
Personally, I don't like having People-In-Uniform-Telling-People-What-To-Do. But Rangers aren't meant to be like that.

I think there's a bit of a problem with spreading volunteer resources thinly. We need 22 people plus the committee for the jobs above.
If Rangers do single six-hour shifts then that's 24 of em needed to provide full cover. Of course, if it's peoples key participation aspect, then they might want to do more, but it's a big ask to have somebody do that and be a Duty Dude. Burning Man didn't have Rangers until they had been going several years and had 600 participants.

So: I'd think
- bring back multicoloured (and flashing) Squirrel Tails for the Duty Dudes.
- 22 volunteers need to commit for us to have a 4 day festival
- if Rangin' is peoples thang, then let them Range. But we shouldn't rely on them to be there.

[Emily B]

SO WE NEED A LOT OF PEOPLE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THIS VERY IMPORTANT ROLE.

*waves hand around enthusiastically*

i'll volunteer i had great fun greeting people last year! i could even wear the beermaid outfit again (im sure thats the only reason kiwi sent me up there in the first place)

although i might have to stick to day shifts so i can guarantee my sobriety on the job (and won't go running off with any paddles again )

[bekitty]

I would like to make a polite request to anyone who wants to be a greeter: Lay off the spanking.

Or at least, lay off telling people that they "must be spanked before entering". Because that attitude really pissed me (and others) off. Some of us like to be spanked, others like to spank. I am a dominant. If anyone is going to be spanked, it ain't gonna be me.

Cheers,
Urs.

[Medic]

In regards to your greeters, why not have something like a 'drive in movie' or 'Car wash (mutation)' camp. Utilising a carport similar to the green fairy, greeters could camp, drink, watch terrible movies, and greet, whilst those arriving, get welcomed, 'transformed' (maybe tinsel or something similar placed on car aerials and wipers etc), they could even park up and watch the remainder of the movie before moving on into the camp.

That way the greeters are part of the burn experience, no one gets spanked, cars get mutated without being mutilated and everyone’s happyish (apart from having to watch crap movies).

[Dr Windy]

I don't think anyone working as a ranger should also be working at MPW tasks. MPW is a busy enough job on its own, and if we're having rangers/non-uniformed helpy-outy people/whatever, they need to be able to stay focused on THAT job and that one only.

I would like to volunteer for any or all of these jobs (not as a ranger though because i don't think non-confrontational dealing with crisis is really my strong suit), but realistically, I'm already doing the HSO job, creating art, helping with the organisation and taking my 6-hour shift as Duty Dude - so taking on any more would be, well, a recipe for more burnout.

Also, if anyone wants to help with the health and safety (mostly at the start of the festival, doing safety inspections on site), I'd appreciate it a lot.

[Rich]

Do you think it's reasonable to be Duty Dude and also be working at building stuff? (On the understanding that if a call comes in or someone comes along with a question, you drop your nailgun and help the person) (Assuming the help they need doesn't require a nailgun).

Also, I think you're very conciliatory at dealing with people who are having problems with the alignment of Uranus or whatever. Silently nodding and rolling eyes is a good form of conciliation.

[Rich]

Oh and I'd help with Elf and safety, but would need to learn how.

[Dr Windy]

For Duty Dude, yes. For rangers, no.

(these being two different jobs)

Reasoning follows thus: Duty Dude may not have much else to do, and can thus get on with doing whatever, while carrying the walkie-talkie. A lot of the questions can be answered over walkie-talkie without ever having to stop nailing (if one is ambidextrous that is).

Rangers, on the other hand, are supposed to be 'on task' all the time they are on duty, walking around, sussing things out, talking to people, interacting and spreading the good vibe. Hard to do if you're shovelling dirt down by the lake or up a ladder nailing the Man's nose on, yeah.

And as to my diplomacy, sure I can listen to rants diplomatically, but my first response when I was asked to spread word around about potential trouble from locals at this year's festival was to feel very angry that our idyll had been disturbed by 'outsiders', and also frustrated that I missed the pre-burn fire spinning because I was doing that job (and had been doing similar jobs all day). I don't think anger and the desire to expel potential troublemakers is the right kind of reaction for a ranger. Thus, I don't think that's a job for me. I'm better at other things, and can stay cheerful and diplomatic if I don't have to deal with too much constant shit.

[Medic]

Hey Wendy, feeling a little guilty here as we kind of spotted those individuals that night and thus increased your workload expotentially. I've been chatting with Kirsty and we feel we might be able to help out with a few things. Drop us an email, paul_kirsty at xtra

[Dr Windy]

Hey Medic, no problem. The situation highlighted an area in which we need to get ourselves more organised and have folks who are on task to deal with that kind of thing. This year we 'muddled through' with excom people, but it became clear that wasn't enough, hence this thread looking for volunteers to do that kind of thing - we live and learn.

Email on its way - all input/feedback gratefull received.

[Jane]

Am happy to have my name put down for duty person, and/or gate duty as needed.

Jane

[bruce]

[bruce]

[Dr Windy]

Yep, could probably do it with only a couple of people. All they'd need to do is read the existing safety plan, make sure what the camp's done matches it, and come see me if it doesn't, then between us we all sort out a way of making it safer.

[IRANT]

I would LOVE to put my hand up and say I would run the mutation station (or maybe rangers) but unfortunately we wont be here.... sorry, but if it makes anyone feel better I really really would LOVEW to run the greeters, i think we need to make a really amazing first impression.... like a decent gate structure to begin with.... and a million other ideas....

so yeah - i do volunteer but i wont be here............sorry

[Helix]

i volunteer for a shift on the gate. (maybe being a ranger if that happens.)
Perhaps at 5am accompanied by radio insomnia >

i can't organise anything beyond what i'm already doing.

[Rich]

Maybe we could combine the Radio Insomnia DJ Fortress with the gate..

We'd have to set up a quiet camping ground somewhere else..