Poppy Norman
fireyemz
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "kiwiburnExComLIVE" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to kiwiburnexcoml...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
bex Wil
Poppy Norman
First of all I think it is important for me to mention that I really struggle with getting thoughts out of my head and onto paper, this is the best I could do and hopefully it will suffice. I would like to use this more as a list of talking points rather than a full report.
Internet: Soz Hippie there were no wifi signals to be seen other than Marks and from what I can tell I wouldn’t bother asking him if we can hoon it, at least not this year. 2degrees barely works onsite, there were a couple of spots where I would get 1 or 2 bars. Telecom was shitty and Vodafone was all good, I had full bars in all the spots I checked and my intertron was as speedy as ever.
Water Safety: That river is a beast! I’m sure it will be calmer in January but we really need to talk to community about the dangers of the river and provide information about water safety. FB, Survival guide, EFP, Greeters and Paddock Support.
Site Manager Vehicle: We absolutely need something for the site manager to get around on, particularly at night when the types of things that go wrong need a quick response time. Mark has a lot of quads and I think it is worth asking him if he would lend us one, I am happy to ask him. If that isn’t an option then I am not sure what else we can do? Maybe just use a car? Or the MPW ute for nighttime shifts?
Generators: I did not get an opportunity to go and see Paul when I was in Auckland and I won’t be back down there until the 21st of December. Patrick is happy to go and see him if the excom thinks that is a good idea. Otherwise Hippie are you certain he doesn’t have a phone number that I can call him on?
The Road: There is a fair amount of bush/scrub/trees growing along the road into the site, MPW will deal with this once onsite in January. Also there is a crack, damage in the road as you go down the steep curved bit (sorry to those that don’t know the site, I can’t explain it better than this), if we are paying for the road to be re-graded after the festival I think that it is important that this is noted.
Running power to Man/Temple build sites: We will need to run 400 – 600m of cable depending on the exact location of their work sites.
Water pipes: We will need to run water pipes from the willows next to the lower paddock to the corner next to the containers. Either we ask mark to give us a quote for him to do the work, otherwise Jim has offered to help with this. Also if we do separate kitchens where do we want water?
Container
Area:
- We need to have a gate put in
so that we can access this area. Mark is happy to put it in and said that it
will cost us about $400
- I found it very hard to
visualize what the area will be like once the groundwork has been done and the
containers have been put in place however from what I can tell I think it is
going to be pretty sweet. Easily accessible so we shouldn’t have any problems
getting a ute in front of the containers to load and unload.
- We won’t be able to build
structures off the sides but at this stage I think that is fine seeing as Man
and Temple will have their own work areas and MPW can just use a carport.
- Digging work: Oh boy! See talk
with Mark section below.
Trees: Patrick’s warning: “All the trees are dangerous!!” There is no way to prevent branches falling, for example on Saturday we saw that two large branches had fallen right onto the roadway in the camping area, the tree had been checked the day before by Patrick and Rich. There was no way to know that these branches were going to fall. The boys got rid of as many obviously dodgy branches and trees as possible and Patrick will do another look through when we get to site in January. We need to warn people that they camp under the trees at their own risk and provide tree free camping for those that do not want to take the risk (will talk more about this in town planning discussion). Patrick and Rich did a fucking incredible job, they checked the trees in the areas we will be using (THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE SAFE!) and they chopped down anything that appeared risky. They also chopped up a bunch of trees that were fallen over in the container area so they don’t get in the way.
The Flood: So there was a huge flood onsite 6 weeks ago, the 2nd biggest in 20 years. It changed where the river is by about 10-15m at some points. It also changed the bank alongside the river pretty significantly with large parts now gone. It doesn’t really affect us very much but it means any maps we had of the site are now redundant (not to worry we have created a pretty decent map anyway). The flood covered the whole flood plain area in silt and trees have been smashed down. We managed to clean up most of the trees and branches that were on the ground in the areas we plan to use so again this shouldn’t affect us, just thought it was worth mentioning. The main thing that will affect us is the uneven ground that the flood left behind, most of the area along the riverside until a certain point is essentially unusable as is a significant area in the trees. However, after some onsite marination we came to the conclusion that actually these areas aren’t actually needed and to exclude them would make the site flow better. Hopefully you can see what I mean by this when you look at the map? If not I will be able to explain it better at the phone meeting.
Talks with Jim & Bridget
- Trailer: Jim is lending MPW a small
trailer for the build! Wooo! However it is small and illegal so we will not be
able to use it for the site move.
- Food: Bridget is happy to source food
products locally for us however she will need a shopping list well in advance.
- Pigtails: They are happy to help us
create replacements for pigtails and supply us with material to use instead of
rope. This is to mark out the road along the river edge and possibly for burn
perimeters.
- Power: I did not end up talking about
using their solar panels. I think we should assume this isn’t happening.
- Toilets: Jim and I did not get a chance
to talk about composting toilets.
Talk with Mark
Mark took me on an extensive tour of the site on his quad, was really helpful to see things from that perspective. We then went and had some beers and a bloody decent chat in the lodge (sooo fancy, the summit is going to be so good). I think he gets overwhelmed really easily, especially with large groups and seems to prefer a one on one face to face chat to any other method of communication. Below are the highlights of the conversation.
- Lack of knowledge about Kiwiburn: I was
shocked about how little Mark had heard/read about Kiwiburn. He barely knew
anything, some of the responsibility is on him for not bothering to do any
research but I think we should have given him a bit of an information pack
about the festival. I talked about the history, principles and organizational
structure among other things. I will be following this up by sending him some
links.
- Concerns about sneak ins from Vinegar Hill: Mark is seriously concerned about people coming across the river
from vinegar hill, there is an area of about 150m that he thinks people could
easily come through, he thinks that the river will be easy to cross at that
point at that time of year. He isn’t
concerned about them sneaking into the festival, he is concerned that they will
fuck with the lodge on the way to the festival. He wants us to put a security
guard in this area on Friday and Saturday night at a bare minimum. He said that
ultimately he will go with what Shane thinks so we need to consult with Shane
on whether this is a legitimate concern.
- Burn Scars: Mark wants us to completely
clean up and re-seed any burn scars. Will this be the responsibility of Man and
Temple or MPW? What do we do about Nylas?
- Digger work for container site: Mark is
pretty darn hard to get any clear answers from. He is keen to do the digger
work sometime in December but was unable to lockdown when. We did some work in
the area getting rid of the trees that are in the way. I think I will need to
call him about various things after the excom phone meeting anyway so I will
put this on my list of things to talk to him about. I think its important not
to nag him, he seems like the type of guy who won’t respond to that sort of
thing.
- Coming and going: Mark reiterated that
he wants us to minimize the comings and goings of people. We need to make sure
we communicate this to anyone with early entry.
Talk with Nic
I spoke to Nic on the phone on Sunday or Monday night, I was pretty drunk and stoned so hopefully I managed to absorb all the information.
- Lack of communication: Nic said that he
was surprised and disappointed at the lack of communication from the excom. We
basically said the job is yours and left them to it, he said that he has found
it difficult to get any response when trying to talk to any of us. This is something
we should keep in mind for next year. Perhaps we need to identify an excom
liaison for man and temple as soon as we decide who is building them?
- Crew numbers: Nic told me that he will
have 15-20 people on crew and Troy will have 20. This is basically double what
we have been planning for. That is a lot of people onsite early which creates
some problems eg. will we have enough toilets?
- Tools: Nic and I didn’t actually discuss
this but I would like to find out in advance what Temple and Mans plans are for
tool use. Will they have their own? Will they solely be using Kiwiburn’s?
- Power: Nic was shocked when I said we
had discussed having a large generator and running cables down to them. He was
planning to be self sufficient on this front and I think its safe to assume
that Troy is planning the same. We need to decide what we are doing with power
asap so that man and temple can plan accordingly.
- Arrival dates: See ‘Arrival’ section
below.
- Kitchen: See ‘Kitchen’ section below.
Town Planning
Okay so this is a bit chaotic right now. Once I finish the maps everything should make a lot more sense. I am happy to have a phone meeting with the town planners once the map is finished so we can go over this in more detail.
- Camping in the trees: I think that we
should seriously consider making the tree area car free, or at least mostly car
free. Access to a lot of the area is difficult and it is quite a precious area
that would be wasted on car parking. I think we could still have some tree
areas available to those who have vans etc that they sleep in. There is a
paddock that I think would be ideal for car parking across from the hayshed. I
didn’t ask Mark about this but I think he would be into the idea as the paddock
seems like it hasn’t been used in a long time.
- Tree free camping: I think we absolutely
have to provide plenty of space for people that do not want to camp under the
trees. I have several areas in mind and will try and explain it in the
scenarios below (again this will be a lot easier once the maps are completed)
- Heat: The two paddocks are already hot
as fuck, its like some kind of heat trap. I imagine this will mean people will
want to be in the trees and by the river during the day. We need to plan
accordingly so that we don’t put daytime camps in an area that will be
potentially empty during the day.
- Greeters: There is only a small amount
of space for Greeters in the spot outside the top paddock. There will only be
room for the greeters structure and 5 or 6 cars.
- Gate: There is plenty of space for Gate
just before road splits. I don’t see anyway to avoid stopping Mark’s people on
the way to his house. Karl will need to talk with Mark once onsite about how
this will work.
- Quiet Camping: There really isn’t
anywhere ideal place for quiet camping everywhere will be somewhat loud. The
maps I am creating will show you the areas I recommend be ‘slightly quieter at
times camping’.
- Roadway along river: Parts of the ‘road’
along the river are gone after the flood. It was pretty shit anyway. Mark told
me he will put in a road, I imagine this involves driving a tractor or digger
or something back and forth a couple of times. It certainly isn’t going to be
fancy (another reason to have car free camping). Mark and I did not discuss
whether there would be any cost to us for this. It is an improvement for his
property so he benefits from it too. I will talk to him about this when I give
him a call next week. The layout of the
road will be similar to the last one but further from the river.
- Scenarios for layout
a) Top paddock: Depot, Medics, Centre Camp and day time theme camps, Bottom Paddock: sound camps, Temple and Man, Trees: Camping. This is what I understood to be the original plan.
b) Top paddock: Depot, Medics, Sound Camps, Man and Temple. Bottom paddock: Centre camp, daytime theme camps, tree free camping. Trees: selected theme camps and camping. This depends on whether we can have the burns and sound camps in the upper paddock.
c) So many possible scenarios! I think I will leave this until the maps are completed so it makes sense. There isn’t much point going into it right now.
Below are some other thoughts that I have but they don’t really relate to the work weekend.
Arrival: I would really really like MPW to have at least one full day onsite before other crews get there. This will give us time to lay out service roads, mark out camping areas, mark out out of bounds areas etc. In the contract it says that we have the site from the 10th and I asked Mark if he would mind if 6 MPW came on the 8th and he was cool with that. I don’t think he wants many more there until the site is officially ours. As mentioned earlier Nic said that he is on the boat on the 3rd and wants to be onsite as early as possible, he also said that Troy is planning on being there on or before the 8th. We need to make a decision on this asap so that Nic and Troy can make alternative plans.
· Kitchen: So we basically have two options
a) Shared Kitchen: As we have been planning for: Bruce or someone else with a decent crew cooking for MPW, Man, Temple and other key people. Using the centre camp marquee, kitchen items we already own and purchasing whatever we don’t have. The main problems I see with this are:
§ Bruce’s lack of confidence and certain peoples lack of confidence in Bruce (also Bruce’s late arrival date).
§ The lack of any other kitchen manager.
§ The fact that both Temple and Man have waaay bigger crews than we have planned and budgeted for.
b) Separate Kitchens: MPW, Man and Temple all running their own separate kitchens, I am assuming that the other key people would eat at the MPW kitchen (not sure why I assume this). This has many benefits and many problems but at this stage I am personally leaning toward this option. The issues that I have thought of are:
§ Water: we were planning on running the water up to by the container area, will man and temple just come and fill up barrels or?
§ Structures: Nic said they will have the valhalla structure so they are sorted. What about temple? Is it our responsibility? Will we still hire the marquee early? Will that be MPWs kitchen? Is that fair?
§ Equipment: Who does the equipment we already have go to? Ant’s and I sourced most of it from our houses and families houses so I would like that stuff to go to MPW. What about stuff Kiwiburn paid for? What about freezers, do we all get a section each? Will there be any money to purchase additional equipment for the crews?
§ Budget: I can’t remember if its $7 or $10 per person per day? Either way if we separate the kitchens how many people do each crew get the budgets for? The original 10? Because if we gave the budget for actual numbers we would be over budget.
· Medics: We need to check with Paul and Kirsty what the plan is for their structure. Are MPW building something for them?
I think the responses to this could get rather chaotic so perhaps if you want to comment on something rather than replying to this email (unless it’s a general remark) check that there isn’t already a thread on the topic and if there isn’t then start one. Make sure to quote the topic you are referring to.
I intended to go through this report and create and agenda for the meeting, task lists for me and others and that sort of thing but I’ve just spent the last 5 hours writing this and I’m tired so I’ll do it tomorrow night after work.
Poppy Norman
Bruce Scanlon
Poppy Norman
Pete Wyatt
Kathy Guidi
I will try to start organising some semblance of an agenda.
Karl Matthews
Thank you for this poppy. Very thorough.
