Summit Action: change rangers, medics, security hours

[Nicola]

At the summit we noted that we wanted to change security, rangers, and medics hours to include being on site the day before and the day after the event opens/closes.
Brendan - can you confirm if the budget reflects this request? If so, have we notified rangers and the medics?

[Brendan]

Hi Nicola

No the budget doesn't reflect this. I missed this as a budget requirement during the summit and nobody seems to have raised it until now.

At the moment I assume that we're paying security and medics from Wednesday until Sunday. Can anyone confirm this?

Going from 5 days to 7 days would be an increase to each budget line of 40%. This could cost us a little under $10,000 that we would need to find from somewhere else in the budget. Any ideas?

I'm in favour of having extra the extra days for medics and security if it would help make the event safer (and I can see how it would).

How much do we think it would cost to have rangers available for the two extra days?

-Brendan

[Isa Ritchie]

Has the budget for radios increased? We didn't have enough last time.

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[Brendan]

Yes, we added an extra $200 for radios (in addition to a small adjustment for inflation). Would the suggested changes above significantly affect this (eg would we need radios for Rangers for an extra two days)? Would we have site managers on duty for the extra two days as well? Who would everyone report to if the rest of the chain of command isn't 'on duty' those two days?

[Brendan]

Everyone, If we want medics and security on-site for two extra days then we need to do something about it soon. We're already behind schedule on arranging quotes.

It's a significant expense though. I know that significant chang to the budget this late feels like hard work but there are ways and means

Can I please get a 'show of hands' to establish if this is worth pursuing?

If you want this to go ahead then please also post to the "making room in the budget" thread (if you haven't already done so) with the first thing that you would sacrifice from the budget to make this happen.

Thanks.

[Wendy]

I think it's sensible to have medics, can't comment on security and happy to defer to ops/pre-event crew on this.

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[Pete Wyatt]

Jeannie does not feel that Rangers need to be active pre the event, other burns don't find it necessary and we don't yet have a big enough pool of trained rangers to cover the main parts of the event.

If participants got their theme camps packed down on monday / tuesday instead of continuing to drink and party then things would be much easier,

Two of our Rangers (Jeannie and Koi) had to spend a big chuck of tuesday preventing a drunk participant from being a problem instead of getting paddock relief tent packed down and helping me pack down our Home for wayward girls and boys.

I am told the same drunk participant walked through the ashes of the temple while it was being cleaned up and she caused general mayhem, Poppy called an ambulance for this drunk person who then caused problems with the Ambulance officer who called the police. Was a report on all this filed by Poppy ? as that would explain it all better.

[Isa Ritchie]

Will need to make sure we have enough radios. Build crews usually has some pre event. Last year we didn't have enough radios during the event because of increased security needing them.

[Wendy]

I don't think we need medics/security post event, just pre-event.

Theme camps have until Tuesday afternoon to be offsite. By Wednesday morning, there was only one theme camp still packing down, and the troublemaking drunk woman was also gone by then.

I do think it's worth policing non-essential people getting offsite on exodus day, but in terms of paying for services, I believe they are more necessary pre-event when the numbers are growing than for after when we're chasing off stragglers.

[Poppy Norman]

I have pretty strong opinions on this but busy until Tuesday night. Will respond then.

[Nan]

if we look at when dramas occur it's post event not pre event, and i strongly support having medics and security for the Monday. to me this makes so much sense. we us organisers are tired and having paid professionals to deal with people would make life so much easier. i don't feel we need rangers.
Lumos if you want to walk around an stop people drinking on monday then please do, but I don't see drink as the problem. the incident this year was not about drink, and neither was the woman trying to walk through the fire

[ben curran]

Having them around for the Monday sounds like a good idea. The years I've been there, pre-event has never really felt like a problem. 

[Poppy Norman]

As one of the main people that has had to deal with Monday situations for the last 6 years I feel really really strongly that we need medics and security for this day. Rangers would be ideal but if they don't have enough people then they don't have enough people and the staffing for the event is more important. 

For years we have been working on getting people to leave as soon as the event is over, we have strong policies and procedures in place but there are always stragglers. Mostly these stragglers can be talked to and pushed and they end up leaving. However almost every year there has been someone who is not your average straggler, when the crowds clear there is some person who took too much or didn't sleep or had a breakdown and they went under the radar. These people aren't easy to deal with especially when we don't have any professional help onsite.

We need medics and security to stay another day, I feel really strongly about this.  2 security guards would be enough, ideally the shift would be 2pm to 2am. 

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[Wendy]

Ok, the people who know have said they want medics and security for Monday, so we should do that.

What is the feeling in before the event? I get the impression this seems less necessary?

[Poppy Norman]

If we had excess cash I'd say it would be a good idea but can definitely cope without for now.

[Rainbow Ronan]

i feel its not as necessary. if we had lost of spare cash for it then yeah, but my experience over the last couple of years is that the day before the event is relatively quiet and drama free. i think most people know each other, and are saving energy (and their booze) for the festival to start proper

[Pete Wyatt]

I don't see pre event as a good use of money

[Oliver Macro]

Pre-event in my books isn't so bad. Maybe in the years ahead we'll start seeing a need for it on the Tuesday, but I'd be surprised if that does end up happening any time soon. Typically the vibe is pretty chill, somewhat celebratory (ladies night..) but not like, in dire need of extra eyes on watch.

Most people are still working/setting up camps/etc for the most part. 

[Isa Ritchie]

It should be our policy to have security and medics on-site until the punters all leave. It is irresponsible not to especially since we have had problems in the past

[Brendan]

Based on this thread and also on the "Making room in the budget" thread I propose:

* We have medics and security on site from Wednesday to Monday, these being the days that most participants will be on site including arrival and exodus.

* We fund the extra one day of cover by delaying the new shipping container until next year and reducing the community project provision if necessary.

This is a major change to the budget so it might deserve a vote. We're finalising quotes for medics and security now so it's a good time to decide.

It looks to me like we're pretty close to consensus on this. Would you agree Wendy? Any other thoughts or objections?

[Wendy]

I'll give it till tomorrow morning for last minute thoughts, then call the vote.

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[Rainbow Ronan]

i'm more then happy with that idea Brendan. me, Poppy and Pat had a good chat about the containers and are pretty confident we can make it work for another year with what we have