PolyParadise What Worked - 2008
Thursday December 11, 2008
With the Playa 2008 behind us,
It is again time to reflect on the things we did right and what could have been
done better. Looking back on PolyParadise '08, I am so very proud of what we
created, on the Playa this year. There were so many people who made
comments to me about the amazing space PolyParadise is, a place to relax, a
place to learn and even sometimes a place to find Love, but what there is most
of is Friendship. I thank you all for being part of the 10th Anniversary
of PolyParadise in Black Rock City.
Since '03, I have used this space to reflect on "What Went
Write & What Went Wrong" in PolyParadise, gain some
perspective, and learn.
Anything said here is NOT meant to accuse or berate anyone, it is just an open
dialogue, an airing of issues so that we may move forward.
I offer my own observations and as always welcome Comments, Praises, Bitches &
Roses....
****PolyParadise****
PolyParadise's population increased by 12 campers to an On-Playa total of 108.
We had 50 veteran campers return and 68 new campers. There continues to be a
large draw to camp within our borders from people far & wide around the globe,
we had representation from Europe, Canada & New Zealand. I thank all of the
returning campers for making PolyParadise your Playa home, I so depend on each &
everyone of you in making our camp an amazing loving space. I hope that all of
our Virgin campers have seen what Community really means, and I hope that you
will all camp with us again.
It was my decision to try and squeeze in additional 8 folks from a previously
decided population cap of 100. This decision was made due to a foreseen budget
shortfall. This decision, although it made up the needed funds, did not work out
as I had hoped. We ran out of space, there was no more room to place folks
within the designated borders of camp. When these additional folks arrived the
only thing I could offer was for them to create a satellite camp on the outer
road and make due. I felt absolutely terrible that there was no room left to
accommodate them. Thus PolyParadise Satellite camp was created on 7:30 & J. My
deepest gratitude to all those that were forced to camp way, way out there. I
came by several times a day to make sure you all felt part of the Main Camp.
Each and every time I went down there, I could see the most amazing thing
occurring...Community was being created and transformed into long-lasting
friendships...
From year-to-year the biggest issue we face as a camp is the space we are given
by BMORG. The sheer dimensions just do not fit relative to our total Playa
footprint. As our structures grow so does our need for space. YES, we were
tight, in-fact we were the tightest we have ever been. I am sorry to many folks
that could not spread their wings as they had hoped or had planned for. I wish
there could have been a way to accommodate the grand plans of everyone. I did my
best to maximize the space we had.
There was very little Camp Drama, but I did see that the harsh Playa conditions
and 24hr nature of BRC played havoc on many individual relationships.
Our structures held together quite well, providing shade & a respite from the
wind. Though it is strikingly clear that we need to separate out our Community
space from our events space. That was of course the plan, but the real estate
was taken back as we needed the room for campers.
Our events have become well known over the past 10 years, the HCW continues to
draw hundreds of folks each day, the discussion groups we host draw 50+ each.
There were always so many people milling about in the Community Space, coming &
going from our events. PolyParadise hosted 11 separate events throughout the
week....Absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!
Each year there are more and more people that want to camp with us. The No
Vacancy sign went out 3 weeks early this year, I turned away at least 25 people
after the NV sign was turned on. I think that as long as we can get a larger
allocated space from BMORG that our infrastructure could accommodate at least
125 people, but I think our upwards limit is 150.
****Playa Location****
The submitted Theme Camp Questionnaire requested us to be located at 7:38 & 'E'.
We obviously did not get that Playa Address, regardless we were not placed near
24/7 music or part of the Adult-Themed area of 9:00 as we had been in '07.
I was generally pleased with our given Playa location. The back-side of the
Esplanade gave us high foot traffic for our events and a much more central
location to all of BRC. The camps we were next to were not overtly loud,
though being on the back side on Tribal Thunder did have reverberations
throughout the night, that constant drumming sound.
What were your impressions on being 7:15 & Allante?
****Kitchen & Stuff****
One of the most incredible parts of our collective camping experience is
breaking bread with each other. The Community Kitchen was an awesome success!
Thanks so much to HypnoBurn and all of their helpers throughout the week!!! and
to everyone else who helped setup and maintain the kitchen all week long.
The kitchen itself was setup much differently than in previous years and allowed
for a clear definition between serving & cooking areas. Hats off to HypnoBurn
for orchestrating chaos!
Thanks to everyone that took the time & effort to create some awesome meals all
week long. There were so many great courses served each day. Of course a
highlight had to be Trash Can Turkey!! We consumed 60 lbs of turkey & 20 Boxes
Stuffing...There were so many people in line to have Turkey Dinner, it was an
awesome site. That of course means we will have 4 Turkeys for '09....
We had plenty of snacks for everyone, and all seemed satisfied with the
selections available. The juice boxes were very popular and were gone mid-week,
Note for '09, more Juice Boxes.
Dishwashing and keeping the Pots/Pans washed and available for the next person
continues to be something we need to address. I appreciated each and every
person that did dishes all week long.
I for one was very glad that we had a full stocked First Aid Kit as I continue
to bang the same finger with the same hammer every year. Having a First Aid Kit
in camp will continue to be a priority.
Again, my deepest thanks to HypnoBurn for managing the kitchen all week. You do
an amazing job and I appreciate your efforts.
There is no doubt that as a camp of 108 we will generate large amounts of trash.
Thanks so much to Stagger for heading up the Trash area. Many thanks to Uncle
Bob and others that assisted in bagging & tapping up trash. More importantly,
thanks to all of you for taking some trash home. We generate this trash a camp,
we need to deal with its removal from the Playa as a Community. This year the
amount of trash that remained that we transported back to Phoenix was 12 Bags
less when comparable to '07.
We purchased two additional metal racks for Dish drying. These worked much
better than the plastic ones from '07.
Thanks again to Twist for the '07 Dishwashing Station, it just rocks.
It was nice to see a foot washing station be manifested, but the Kitchen area is
not the place. I should have insisted it be moved to another location within the
Community Space.
****Community Meals****
Each year I say,
I could not imagine that we could top previous year's meal plan, but we did.
This was by far the BEST year for PolyParadise's Community Meals!!!
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to the planning, cooking, serving
& cleanup of each and every meal. Thanks to all who contributed to the
AZBurner Pot Luck.
Thanks as well to EVERYONE who brought out, cooked & served a side dish
or 2. The meals were very well balanced with all kinds of choices for all
kinds of palates. For when we share a meal and break bread together we
grow from just being friends to being FAMILY!
***Community Space****
Due to space limitations when we arrived On-Playa the planned full size of
the Community Space was not realized. It had been the intention for the
Community Space itself to be an additional 20x20 bigger as well as a separate
Events area.
Decisions were made upon initial setup of the camp space that we would not be
able to accommodate a separate Events area and still have enough room for our
campers.
Because Our events are attracting more & more people, having a separate Events
area is a priority for 2009. This space needs to be large enough to accommodate
all that attend. We will need to purchase an additional 20x20 structures to
create a 20x40 separate events space. This space will have lighting for evening
events like Mind Melt. We will also need to purchase additional camo nets and
probably a few more pieces of carpet
****Playa Events****
The This was an amazing year for PolyParadise Playa Events. We has 12 events
that drew large crowds each day.
Poly High Tea >> Human Carcass Wash >> Greater Intimacy with HYPNOSIS >> Mind
Melt
Past Life Regression Group Session >> The Heart of Now >> AZBurner Pot Luck >>
Jealousy
Love Letter Clinic >> Honest Seduction >> Appreciative Inquiry >> Funology
Major Judos to the organizers _Greg & Crew (HCW), HypnoBurn, Facilitators of
Poly High Tea, BrotherLuv, Keith & Lenel, Tobias, Paxus & Angie. You all are
aces in my book!!! Thanks to everyone who assisted in each and every event. The
events are as much for us as a camp as well as sharing with the Playa Citizenry.
Thanks as well to who ever posted an event @ PolyParadise:
wanna cyber? need a break from the intensity of F2F playa connections? come
check out our closed-circuit webcams. free XXX chat!
This was listed as a daily event, I know that I saw many folks who came by
looking for this event and felt cheated that it was not taking place. If this
was posted Monday, July 14, 2008 3:22am by someone in our camp, then I am very
disappointed. If it was a prank or someone getting a good one over on me from my
April Fool's web sites, then I say YOU GOT ME, YOU GOT ALL OF US!
****Perfect Place for Poly Play****
Major Kudos to Tailfeather for securing a 30ft Dome for us to use as a Poly
Playa Space. Thanks to Keith & others for assisting in erecting the dome & in dismantling the dome
in record time.
Please see Tailfeather's Perfect Place For Poly
Play - Review 2008.
Again, I thank Tailfeather and everyone involved in this project for all their
efforts in making a Playful Space for Poly Play.
****Poly Shower****
Providing a Shower Facility for a camp of 100 people has continually been a
challenge over the years. But this year I think we got it right.
Major Kudos go to Tailfeather & Twist for coordinating the pieces to the shower.
Twist created the shower base with retractable legs & steps. Amazing job my
friend. Tailfeather constructed the shower stall portion.
The use of the Shower Bags worked well, though we did not erect a place to hang
them due to space limitations. I think a coat rack anchored to the ground would
work well for this purpose in the future.
Both pieces of the shower weathered the Playa well and will be back again in '09
Thanks to Twist the shower drain had an identical pump system to the kitchen
sink. When the water level filled the container, the pump would turn on and
shoot the water to the storage tank. Well Done TWIST!
****Survival Guide****
This was the first year that we had an 'Official' Survival Guide. One document
that contained everything PolyParadise On-Playa. I hope that each of you found
it useful and appreciated the snail mail delivery.
This was a very time intensive project. The time, materials & Costs I think will
prohibit this to be a snail mail project in the future. Vol. 2 '09 will be
Online and sent to your Inbox.
Thanks to Tonto from Arizona for taking the 10-year anniversary image and making
the luggage tags, they were awesome.
****Gray Water Reclamation****
Over the years, water reclamation has been a nasty, dirty and time consuming job
On-Playa. I have appreciated past efforts of Water Log (Steve), & Tailfeather
for their innovative approaches to dealing with Gray Water. As the size of our
camp continues to grow and the amount of Gray Water we produce increased
proportionately with that population, it was necessary to take much different
approach to dealing with Water Reclamation in 2008.
Thanks to Tailfeather for doing the initial research in finding a vendor that
would assist us with Gray Water Collection. Our conversations with Sani-Hut
Corp provided us with an option to have a 1,000 Gallon tank on site, have it
serviced during the week and hauled away after the event. The cost would be
expensive but give us an option of not having to deal with Gray Water collection
or evaporation.
Major thanks to Twist for creating two pump mechanisms for under the sink and
shower to pump the Gray Water directly to the holding tank. The pumps worked
flawlessly and provided us with a system of getting Gray Water to the holding
tank without any worry.
The Tank delivery, service and pickup were without incident and thanks have been
given to Santi-Hut. Over the course of the week we generated just over 700
Gallons of Gray Water. Despite the $1950 cost of this service, it provided a
no-worry way to deal with the Gray Water issue. There is no doubt that we will
again use the services of Santi-Hut in 2009 for our Gray Water collection &
disposal.
****Generator Power****
The generator did not make it thru the week, it cut out on Friday night - I
thank Twist for giving a great overview of the issues with generator during our
post Playa discussions on the list. I appreciated everyone's efforts in
attempting to revive the generator. Trying to fix a generator in the dark
certainly has its inherent risks, I was a bit pissed that those efforts appear
to have damaged said generator. Twist has volunteered to take a look at it and
see what can be done. I have all the faith in him to be able to fix the damaged
Spark Plug threads.
****AZBurners Pot Luck****
The AZBurner Pot Luck Party on Wednesday was a SMASHING SUCCESS!!!
We had 100+ people hanging out, eating, drinking and having a GREAT
TIME for well over 2 hours. I thank all of you that contributed some
Food-Stuff to the Pot Luck and helped clean up afterwards. I hope you all
had an AMAZING time hanging out with all of our Arizona Friends.
****Early Arrival & Exodus****
Early Arrival
- Many, Many thanks to all of our Early Arrival crew. Kudos go out to
Blackfish, Tailfeather, Keith, Lenel, Stagger, HypnoBurn, Twist, Brotherluv,
Passout, Jayme, Redeye & Uncle Bob for their tireless efforts to get the camp
erected and all system connected. You guys ROCK!!! By sundown Sunday we had all of the shade
structures in place.
As Camp Daddy and the Bringer of the STUFF, I
already know that MONDAY will be a BLITZKRIEG of work. It has never been my
desire to start to dismantle parts of the camp on Sunday, to make the work on
Monday any lighter. I cannot require that campers stay till Monday and be
available to assist with breakdown, it is always a hope that people can arrange
their schedules to do do so.
MANY, MANY thanks go to the most amazing takedown crew we have ever had. There
were so many people that stayed we had the truck packed and our Playa Space
MOOPED by 1p. Those folks include: Twist, Ben, Carl, _Greg, Yonderman, Jayne,
UncleBob, Passout, Jayme, Dawn, Redeye, Floss, Keith, Lenel, Stagger, HypnoBurn, Aruelia,
Dio, Scix, Blackfish, April, Stephanie, Mark, Tailfeather, Trouble, Rebecca, Troy, GBear, Autowitch, Joe, Arlene and so many others. THANK YOU ALL!!! Both
WildChild & I appreciate your efforts.
General LNT efforts for PolyParadise as a whole were amazing. We had an even
better attention to LNT DETAIL in 2007. I have seen the MOOP map for 2008, at
least our corner of the Playa and I know that we were Yellow. Most of the upper
Esplanade section was also Yellow so I do not feel so bad. I know that before we
left the Playa Space we occupied was clean. I cannot say that it was MOOPLESS,
but we did our part to leave the space in the same way we found it.
***Scotto Speak****
2008 marked my 7th year as Camp Daddy, now known as Benevolent Dictator. Each
year we learn & grow as a group and as individuals. We bring together so many
different people from so many different parts of the country & the globe, no
matter our political differences, our Poly-Lifestyle choices, weather we are
from a Red State or a Blue State, we all share the passion & commitment to
Community and the lifelong friendships created on the hallowed grounds of BRC
and within the borders of PolyParadise. I cannot imagine my life without Burning
Man or PolyParadise. I thank you all for being part of it all with me..
The Burning Man/PolyParadise experience is different for each person. It is my
hope that each of you felt you had a home & a family within the borders of
PolyParadise and that each one of you had the MOST AWESOME TIME EVER!!!
Many, Many thanks go to my Life Partner, Wife, Friend & companion, WildChild.
Throughout the year she is alive with smiles and a Community-Minded heart,
On-Playa she is a tireless worker and strives to create an atmosphere of Home on
our little patch of Playa.
Again, it has been my pleasure and honor to be your Camp Daddy (Benevolent
Dictator). Each year brings a different set of challenges, a different set of
lessons to be had & learned or stumbled upon, you just never know what the Playa
will bring....
We will learn from our mistakes, we will again come alive with PolyParadise,
Version 11, it will be better than ever!!!
262 days left till Burning Man!! - August 31 - September 7, 2009
Scotto
Camp Daddy - Benevolent Dictator - Burning Man Lifer