When Will I Know My Theme Camp Status

[davemenc]

Hi!

Rongo! here. I've been doing the Golden Cafe for the last few years but this year some of us Golden Cafe people are starting a new camp, "Object of Whorship".

My question: I put in my application the first week I could and I've been waiting (more or less) patiently. But now, the deadline is past and I haven't heard a damn thing.

Oh, you who know the wisdom of all things Burning Man, how does this usually work? If I don't get tapped right away, does that mean I'm out? Or do they always wait until mid-may to tell everyone?

Love you all!

Rongo!

PS Someone suggested to me that Joy is a form of Fertility. So I plan to honor this year's theme by being JOYOUS! Join me!

[lemur]

my memory is a little fuzzy on the subject cuz ive never applied for a camp.. but i seem to recall the complaint type posts starting around July in terms of people denied placement.. in 2010/2011

dont know about approval

[Elderberry]

I don't do the submission for our camp, but I know we were given some tickets so I assume that means we were approved.

[Just_Joe]

If you want to use last year for a rough reference,
We received our first Placement Newsletter mid May (same format as JRS- a one way).
Being on the list didn't mean we were placed, it just meant that they had our application.
Our actual approved placement status was sent in the middle of July.

[davemenc]

We received our first Placement Newsletter mid May (same format as JRS- a one way).
Being on the list didn't mean we were placed, it just meant that they had our application.

Ok, they put me on the newsletter when it came out for a short time so that's a good start. They have our application.

Our actual approved placement status was sent in the middle of July.

Ok, that's not so happy. I will work on my patience in this regard.

Thanks

Love
Rongo!

[trilobyte]

Everyone who completed a questionnaire is added to the placement team's theme camp announce list.

In early July, placement sends out notifications whether camps will be placed (or not), as well as placement locations. This year, because of the directed ticket distribution program, the camps who benefitted from that program also effectively were told that their applications had been accepted (though they've got to wait until early July for placement location info).

Keep your eyes & ears open for emails or phone calls from the placement team - sometimes they need to reach you for additional information or some kind of clarification. If your camp's primary contact is traveling or otherwise unavailable, you may want to make sure that another responsible person in your camp (who can answer questions about setup or make decisions on behalf of the group) is listed as a contact. To do that, the camp coordinator needs to send an email to placement(at)burningman(dot)com with your camp name (as it appears in the questionnaire) in the subject line, so it can get routed to the right individual.

Hope that helps!

[davemenc]

As it happens the placement newletter list just went live (again) and all my questions were answered.

I've already failed the "patience test" -- if I could have waited 7 hours....

So this topic is now redundant. But thanks for the answers (trilobyte's is exactly what the newsletter says but all the answers were essentially correct).

One minor point: I think this year is weird since BMORG has essentially already announced their approval of all the camps they gave tickets to several weeks back. But that's a special case.

Thanks!

Love

Rongo!

[trilobyte]

I don't know if I'd say it was weird because of that... A tiny bit less stressful in that one area for the camps who were awarded tickets, but it hardly makes the process stress free.

[junglesmacks]

Not for WAY TOO FUCKING LONG. Honestly.. they need to speed this up. We're teetering on EA passes or not and having to fly from across the country.. and now with a July confirmation, plane tickets can't even be booked. It's ludicrous.

BMOrg LLC (or whatever the fuck your organizational structure du jour is), pick your heads up from the white, dusty mirror long enough to get your shit together.. please?

[trilobyte]

"and now with?" That's not a change to the process.

[lemur]

i dont see how it could happen a whole lot faster

if its anything like how we process stuff in the DMV, it takes longer than itd seem from the outside.. DMV can process roughly 30 apps in a 2 hour meeting, spending roughly 5 minutes on each one.. any of the apps with flame effects need to be looked at by the Fire Art Safety Team before making it to the review team.. which adds more time.. if consensus cannot be reached it goes back into a hold for another meeting and fresh eyes to look at it.. which takes time.. or perhaps it goes to the DMV council to be looked at.. which takes time..


in 2011 the placement crew had roughly 1000 apps to process.. and they arent only looking for approve/deny but also placement and likely again FAST stuff, and who knows what else.

even if the team is devoting only 10 minutes to each app, and they arent being forwarded to other people for inspection (fire art safety team, for example).. it will take nearly 21 full 8 hour days to get through them all.

Theme Camp deadline was April 26th.. I dont know but i imagine since a key component of placements job is ..placement.. that they probably dont get to deal with the real hard work until all of the apps are in.. i.e.. fitting them all together like a jigsaw puzzle

So0o.. If they start the real hard placement work the day after the deadline..and if we figure the placement crew working full time with just 10 minutes on avg for each camp at roughly 1000 apps.. that brings us to finishing at roughly May 25th

Of course.. we know that these people dont work full time on placement..

I imagine that getting it done in late june/early july is probably quite good.

[NyxValentine]

I imagine that getting it done in late june/early july is probably quite good.

So much this. Placement does a fantastic job of putting things together as quickly as they can in a way that gets as many camps put where they want to be, and they also do a great job of communicating what's going on. If you think about it, being a placer is a -lot- of work. There are so many factors that go into deciding who gets placed and where, and there are so many applications. I know it can be rough when you're trying to make long range travel plans, but be patient, they're doing their best!
*and no, I'm not a placement volunteer, I just run a theme camp, and have had very positive experiences with my placers over the years.