Directed sale?

[uncle sticky]

Anybody know how you end up in directed sale? I know generally how it works, but how does the BMORG decide who they're going to invite into the sale? Had a pretty successful, but very small, registered camp last year, after attending for most of the last twelve years doing stuff, but I've always mixed it up. Camps, cars, art, whatever, but never a big, consistent camp offering more or less the same concept year after year.

[AntiM]

I was invited into DS after my first year as a registered theme camp. Five people small! So probably. Maybe.

[Eric]

This is the full summary of who gets invited from the ="Directed Sale FAQ"

Access to this first-come, first-served sale is by invitation only and is based upon past history of contribution.

Placers watch the interactivity of camps in their areas, any placed camp that does a good job could be chosen. Beyond that it's all up to the Placers & the Org, based on non-public criteria. I do know that camps that have only been placed once have gotten invitations for their second year (like AntiM's), and that camps that have been invited in the past have lost that due to lack of participation/ meeting the criteria. The one constant seems to be that you are a placed camp - without that they have no way of easily finding out how well you held up to your plans.

Personally I think they're smart for not making this too transparent - it cuts down on camps feeling entitled even though they fall flat on the playa. By keeping it opaque it encourages people to do more (doesn't mean you have to spend more, just "bring it"), which means a more interesting playa for everyone.

[Elderberry]

I think the important thing is how a camp ups their participation every year. Doing the same thing over and over each year without making any changes to keep it fresh is important to the placers.

[remi]

I would hope that the moop map results would also weigh into this decision.... but that's just my opinion.

[AntiM]

I would hope that the moop map results would also weigh into this decision.... but that's just my opinion.

They do. Takes a lot of red (or the dreaded Black Spot), but they do.

[SnowBlind]

I would hope that the moop map results would also weigh into this decision.... but that's just my opinion.

They do. Takes a lot of red (or the dreaded Black Spot), but they do.

Case in point: Flower Power Gypsy camp probably didn't get DGS tickets this year.

[Elderberry]

I would hope that the moop map results would also weigh into this decision.... but that's just my opinion.

Definitely. Goes without saying.

[trilobyte]

The directed group sale is typically done by invitation, and go to some (but not all) of those who've either registered a theme camp, built a mutant vehicle, or built a placed art installation in the past. They use a bunch of different criteria, it's far from simply a biggest, or most popular type of thing.

If I remember correctly, one of the fields in the registration forms for the various projects gives you the opportunity to list or mention other projects that you've been a part of in the past - that's not only an important field to fill out for your application for that project in that year, but it's something the respective team might consider when making their decisions for directed group sale invitations in the future.

Hope that info helps, and good luck!

[uncle sticky]

I got an email regarding directed sale, which suggests strongly that I'll be invited to participate in the directed sale. Can anybody tell me what happens next? Do the ticket masters decide how many they'll offer me, and that's that, or is there a form to fill out, telling them what the plan for this year is? I was planning on doubling the number of classes offered, which means more people that need to get tickets, of course.

[trilobyte]

If it was the same form letter that was sent out to all camp coordinators who'd registered theme camps in the last several years, then it did not suggest strongly that you would be invited to participate in the directed group sale. If you believe you received something other than that message, PM me privately or send details to me via [email protected].

The important information that the placement team needs at this point are significant changes (such as leadership, or a camp joining/leaving a village, etc). Contact them immediately via [email protected] if you have such a change.

Directed Group Sale invitations are not distributed based on future ideas or goals, but on past performance.

The email said that more information about the sale and group allocations would be made available in the next week. While that message did go out 7 days ago, I read that as talking about coming in the next week as in the week that followed... I expect to hear something by the end of this current week.

[LowePro]

Same boat, Uncle,
Playing Hurry-up-and-wait. I have no inside info but checking email and spam folder like crazy!
Some camp mates and I got that same email and they interpreted it as you seem to, like we had good odds of getting into DGS; the email would seem to inspire confidence with such lines as: "As the organizer of a Theme Camp and/or Mutant Vehicle we recognize your important role" and "More detailed info about the sale and your group's allocation to come in the next week."

But I suspect this is just a mass email blast to all the names on the Theme Camp Organizer email lists and we shouldn't infer that we've made it through any screening yet. Because it also says they're busy running the database, etc.
Good luck!

[uncle sticky]

Ah, got it, maybe I was reading into it. I'd never received such an email, although I've been running camps and cars for ten years, and Directed Sale has been going on for a few now.

[Elliot]

.
With all the Sturm und Drang regarding tickets and related things, I would like to chime in with this opinion:

Surely, the Directed tickets program is the best thing BM HeadQuarters has ever come up with, other than the Event itself. And they have increased the number of DGS tickets each year so far, making it better and better.

So.... Three cheers and a tiger for BMHQ! They are "doing it right"!

[DrYes]

.
With all the Sturm und Drang regarding tickets and related things, I would like to chime in with this opinion:

Surely, the Directed tickets program is the best thing BM HeadQuarters has ever come up with, other than the Event itself. And they have increased the number of DGS tickets each year so far, making it better and better.

So.... Three cheers and a tiger for BMHQ! They are "doing it right"!

I completely agree, though I've heard other long-time Burners bitterly complain about them, labeling them as 'entitlement'. I guess I can understand that, but the good outweighs any bad there awfully heavily imo.

[trilobyte]

I think that the Directed Group Sale is a positive thing, though it's important for Burning Man to maintain a balance. If you weight it too heavily on one side, you wind up with most of the same faces every year and newcomers having an impossibly difficult time of securing the all-important ticket. If it's weighted too heavily the other way, it becomes an increasingly uphill battle for the people who build and bring some fantastic and amazing projects to the playa. From the tiny budget to the ridiculously humongous budget, it becomes even more of a struggle to make it all happen if you can't even get your essential crew members covered.

It is kind of entitlement, but it's just as fairly described as an enticement to participate.

[FIGJAM]

There are virgins who get Direct sales tickets by being vetted into established camps.

Convincing leaders that they can and will contribute may get them the invite.

Call it the Burning Man apprentice program and the DGS tickets promote this weeding process.

[Dr. Pyro]

Nobody, including me (the go-to point person) have heard a thing, except from people in this forum, on DGS tickets. I for one am more than just modestly concerned. I've contacted Tickets, they told me to go to my Placement team for further information, who told me to contact Tickets, who in turn told me to contact Placement. A rather frustrating circle of so far inconsistent advice. Or more accurately, consistently inconsistent.

[LowePro]

To the Good Doctor, we got the preliminary DGS announcement email on Feb 4, it came from [email protected]
It got blasted to all of my camp mates whose emails were on the Placement questionnaire from last year. Check Spam folders? Not to beat dead horse....

[Elliot]

I think that the Directed Group Sale is... [snippity-snip, picking out my favorite part of his post] ...just as fairly described as an enticement to participate.

Aaaaannnnnd... Trilo nails it!

[LowePro]

I have a weird feeling that today is the day. Waiting to be proven wrong.

[LowePro]

Wellllllll I was wrong. Bad week here, hoping for some good news and a distraction soon.

[zorro sings]

On February 4th Placement sent out emails outlining this years DGS procedure. More information was to come "next week". Well it is now 16 days later and we have heard nothing and judging by activity here nobody else has either. The sale is supposed to begin this Thursday. With only 5 days to go (assuming notices go out today) will they even be able hold this sale as scheduled given the short lead time?

[lucky420]

I thought dgs starts on March 9?

[zorro sings]

From Placement....The Directed Group Sale form opens Feb 25 Time warp corrected!

[Jovankat]

The form is just adding the email addresses of the people in your camp who are getting your invite codes. You've got until March 4th to fill it in and when in that time frame you fill it in won't matter since each invite will be allocated tickets.

Also there has been some word since the 4th. Placement sent out an email on the 15th about the Theme Camp Symposium which also included mention of the DGS. They said getting the list of DGS invites sorted was their top priority but it's taking some time to do that as well as update the 200 odd contact details changes that have been sent in from theme camps.

So yeah it's annoying it's taking so long and they did say invites would be out by now but they are working on it.

[myloststuff]

Has anybody received a DGS invite yet??

[bigbluedoggy]

So if we have not heard anything from Placement in the last two days, we are excluded from the sale? Are they not even bothering to let us know we are excluded where we were included last year? Just wondering.

[bigbluedoggy]

OK... nevemind. It sounds like I misread the above and that nobody has heard squat yet. I will go back to sitting on my hands.

[motskyroonmatick]

I haven't heard of anyone getting a DGS invite yet this year. I'm going with no news is good news and means they are still working on it. I haven't got a thing since the Feb 15th email. This does not surprise me and I think we will all get the relief we are looking for soon. Then we will get to be concerned by the next things on the horizon.