Will Call sucked real bad

[Nipple]

http://burningman.com/participate/boxoffice.html

Same as most any... Fill out the questionnaire and tick the ticky box for the jobs you want.

https://profiles.burningman.com/participate/

Problem solvers: Join up and get to solving problems.

[maladroit]

http://burningman.com/participate/boxoffice.html

Same as most any... Fill out the questionnaire and tick the ticky box for the jobs you want.

https://profiles.burningman.com/participate/

Problem solvers: Join up and get to solving problems.

These are top-down resource planning problems, you're suggesting that someone work up to recognition through several years of volunteering, eventually give up their career and work up through the org employee structure, and after however many years it takes to be in charge of Will Call and oust whoever's there by then, fix the problem.

Alternately, people like you and I directly bitching and whining to BMORG about this could actually help get the problem solved for 2015.

Fuck the attitude that the only way to get things done is to do them yourself. Bug reports are valuable tools for people who already have the necessary power to make the necessary changes.

[Nipple]

I mean, we can also keep standing in this parking lot and complaining to each other that the lattes taste like shit.

I work for one of the departments out there. My joining was started by a thread like this. I thought: If I *REALLY* want to have an opinion in a do-ocracy, in a reputation economy, maybe I should show up.

So, yeah... my opinions on some subjects mean a lot more than random guesses from outside the candy store, because I bothered.

I suggest you bother, too.

Fuck the attitude that problems are to be solved by someone else. I challenge you to dump a bucket of ice on your head to improve Will Call wait times next year.

[theCryptofishist]

Having a box office on gate is useful, how about having one in Reno too? Hire a disused office or conference suite for a week and sort it all out there while we are still in hotel rooms, have the internet and a phone signal. Rather than make people drive 120 miles, queue for hours in the baking heat with limited access to communications and then to get told something is wrong or they have been ripped off.

That's renting some sort of office andstaffing it. I think they do really well with volunteers, but I think volunteers have their limits. I bet that the volunteers don't want to drive in and out from Reno at the beginning and end of their shifts. I suppose they could hire temps, but that's one more step away from the funky, improvised past.

[Mkhandschke]

Well, I guess I'll give some of the line trolling ticket seekers the benefit of doubt that maybe they got scammed. THAT would be crushing!

I would think anyone who is on ePlaya would know better, but did anyone on here actually get scammed in this way? It would be nice to know what the numbers were of folks who were both turned away from gate due to counterfeit paper tickets, and those who were turned away from Will Call due to being scammed.

Publicizing this info would dampen the aftermarket for-profit ticket sales.

Many of us on eplaya fell into the scammer pit of fake "will call tickets" this year with the result being a lot of people freaking the fuck out when they got to the front of the line. It's not allowed to publicize someone's personal info (even in regards to scams) on eplaya for legal reasons so it won't be here that you see these asshats get theirs. But they will, get theirs.

[Joeln]

Hell with this shit. I just volunteered for 2015 box office.
Money - mouth: say hello to each other.

[Elorrum]

Hell with this shit. I just volunteered for 2015 box office.
Money - mouth: say hello to each other.

Good man! respect for that.

[ygmir]

Hell with this shit. I just volunteered for 2015 box office.
Money - mouth: say hello to each other.

Good man! respect for that.

seconded!!

[MoBo]

Hell with this shit. I just volunteered for 2015 box office.
Money - mouth: say hello to each other.

Mad Props to Joeln...
And Nipple for that matter. I worked a shift with him and he gets it done.

[desertwind]

Having a box office on gate is useful, how about having one in Reno too? Hire a disused office or conference suite for a week and sort it all out there while we are still in hotel rooms, have the internet and a phone signal. Rather than make people drive 120 miles, queue for hours in the baking heat with limited access to communications and then to get told something is wrong or they have been ripped off.

That's renting some sort of office andstaffing it. I think they do really well with volunteers, but I think volunteers have their limits. I bet that the volunteers don't want to drive in and out from Reno at the beginning and end of their shifts. I suppose they could hire temps, but that's one more step away from the funky, improvised past.

If I remember reading the $ spend breakdown by the ORG, they paid Ticketfly over 1m for printing and distribution of tickets. . ermm. why cant Ticketfly or the ORD take a few $ of that money and just pay some carnies to make a smooth will call system - truck in a few more trailers and some reno temp workers for 3 days. Problem solved. Reality is this is not some de-commodified cluster love, (maybe it is on the end playa, but not everything around it)

[darkfred62]

Wow $1 Million to ticketfly? so lets see 70000 tickets , that would be around $14 something per ticket.

Changed my volunteer questionnaire to have "box office " in it . Specified "Box office will call crowd control" in remarks My skills are better suited to utilities and heavy equipment, but hey I said I would volunteer to help. I will even come with a bullhorn and a podium to direct the masses. I can be a "Carney Barker" with absolutely no political correctness. I will call an asshat a asshat.

[maladroit]

Changed my volunteer questionnaire to have "box office " in it . Specified "Box office will call crowd control" in remarks My skills are better suited to utilities and heavy equipment, but hey I said I would volunteer to help. I will even come with a bullhorn and a podium to direct the masses. I can be a "Carney Barker" with absolutely no political correctness. I will call an asshat a asshat.

I hope they will have no need of crowd control measures...there really shouldn't be a huge crowd at Will Call. The line on Gate Road is the Will Call line, they need to be able to handle whatever comes through it.

[theCryptofishist]

Wow $1 Million to ticketfly? so lets see 70000 tickets , that would be around $14 something per ticket.

$12 service fee? Doesn't account for all of it...

[Nipple]

Hell with this shit. I just volunteered for 2015 box office.
Money - mouth: say hello to each other.

Mad Props to Joeln...
And Nipple for that matter. I worked a shift with him and he gets it done.

Kick ass, Joe! Regardless of top down planning whatever... things need people to show up and do things. Thanks for showing up! Unless we all want to get Sherpas and have our experience catered to us... Maladroit... you getting a laminate with your picture and name on it next year?

aw, thanks, Offarock... You're gonna give me a complex. I'd work with you again any time! Also: Congrats! Looking indefatigable, Midshipman!

[maladroit]

Maladroit... you getting a laminate with your picture and name on it next year?

Definitely, if my group doesn't put up an honorarium project in 2015. Not in Will Call though, if the plan for next year is the same as this year.

[kittyrodriguez]

We arrived Saturday early afternoon (pre-event) and waited in the "staff/credential" line for over an hour, maybe two. There were maybe 10 people ahead of us. Why such a delay, you ask... Every special situation from every other window got funneled down to our window. And let me tell you, most of the special situations were people not reading the instructions for will call tickets.

"What, I need an ID? I don't have an ID."

"What, I can't pick up someone else's ticket? I don't understand."

"What, my friend overseas, who cannot be reached, had to change the will call ticket over to me on line? Can't you just take my word for it? I have this piece of paper..."

I guarantee you that most of the issues with will call were the people in line and not the people behind the windows.

[Jovankat]

But having more people behind the windows to deal with the problem people would still speed things up though right?

[Nipple]

I would imagine so... I'd also imagine that Box Office folks need to be a pretty vetted special breed, since they're dealing with people's private info.

Burning Man also has an intricate credential/ticketing system. There are all manner of credentials... staff, vendor, local, tribal, guest, one time use, re-entry... Throw on top of that, EAs, Haul Passes, and Service entrance access...

Lots to keep track of...

[Jovankat]

I would imagine so... I'd also imagine that Box Office folks need to be a pretty vetted special breed, since they're dealing with people's private info.

Good point. Hopefully there will be some sort of move by the org to recruit more of those sort of folks to ease the pain next year.

[Nipple]

Seriously... tell your friends.

Post it in your local community. Waiting for the ORG to do something is like sitting in camp waiting for your sherpa to show you art.

Volunteering to do these things ticks off a bunch of your principles too... It's participatory, it's got immediacy, it's pretty gifty, communal effort, civic responsibility, and it's radically self-reliant being a part of the solution.

I don't think everyone should volunteer, but it's a pretty rad way to get involved with the event. It's a great way to visibly "do it right", while stewarding our values.

[Jovankat]

I had been thinking about volunteering but kept thinking it would clash too much with camp set up during early entry and at the start of the week but it's just occurred to me that I'm basically useless in the midday heat and the hours either side anyway so maybe this is a way I could use that time more usefully without either giving myself heat stroke or feeling bad for not being more productive.

But I would still really like to see the org take some action on this, they have a helluva lot more reach and sway than I do and it does really seem like something they should be looking to fix.

[Nipple]

Well, so... again, it's like a dust storm.

It's part of the experience. There's going to be a fiasco. Next year the fiasco won't be will call. Maybe it'll be Exodus again, or maybe Gate's turn... The airport is getting pretty big, maybe it's THEIR turn to have a weird bottleneck.

The problem changes and shifts every year. The ORG (when people say that, I imagine a giant floating black cloud of ennui) will on some level try to do something...

But think about this... Who is the Org... is it first camp? Like... the board? Is it the paid volunteers that oversee these departments?

Who do you want to do what? Be specific.

[trilobyte]

Next year's will call experience will be different. Of course it will, next year's damned near everything at Burning Man will be different.

This year, the box office was hit with a number of really unique and extenuating circumstances that caused a lot of problems, resulting in some ridiculously massive delays starting as early as a few hours after the box office opened during build week and into Tuesday morning during the event. Yes, they knew how many will call ticket holders there were, they were within expected numbers, and they'd more than adequately planned for staff and coverage to support the event.. but then the universe unfortunately had other plans ranging from technical problems to personal emergencies. I'm not at liberty (and don't think it's necessary) to get into the details and specifics, the bottom line is that team had a really difficult time of things until around the time they re-opened the gates on Tuesday. From there, my understanding is that wait times were back down to normal (or what passes for normal on a Tuesday in BRC).

You can be sure that both game plans and contingency plans will be revised for next year, and the team that works all year round on planning and preparing for the event will look for ways to help improve and streamline the process.

[Jovankat]

If the main problem with will call taking forever is a lack of volunteers I'd like to see a push to get more, either by incentivising the role (not necessarily with free tickets) or just a general recruitment drive (that phrase sounds wrong but I can't think of a better one) I think a lot could be achieved just by promoting the expeience that is volunteering for box office.

Edit - so maybe it's not even the main factor but I imagine having more people would be helpful

[Ano]

Org action or not, warm bodies are always helpful!

I was really hesitant heading in to my first year of volunteering for a variety of reasons - time away from the event, it might tire me out too much, it would make me jaded, I would be too tired, it would clash with what I want to do - but it ended up being my absolute favorite thing on Playa. Way more so than anything else, for some reason, I really really love the difficult, odd, and challenging work that volunteering provides me. I've solved fun problems, interacted in weird ways, and made a ton of people have a much better day. I love Burning Man, and all of the stupid shit I do, and all of the ridiculous shit I see, but I really adore and look forward to my six hour shifts in the gate lanes of BRC. Maybe you will really enjoy sitting in the box container and helping folks out? Who knows!

[trilobyte]

@kittyrodriguez - my understanding was that there was a lot of that, too. Anecdotally, almost everyone I talked to who had waited more than a couple hours had a similar story about people who didn't have ID, or somehow needed other special handling. I heard a few horror stories as well from box office staffers I got to spend time with on Friday evening before the Alien Siege Machine burn. That's all just anecdotal, though, so it's tough to really say what percentage of the problems came from that.

My gut tells me that's a fair percentage of the delays every year. This year's extra special "7th level of hell" edition of box office delays were due to some back-of-house issues. Great people with a lot of experience, really working hard, but dealing with some serious challenges. I'm glad they finally overcame them, but am really sorry to hear about all the delays (most of our camp had tickets in hand, but those with will call definitely suffered).

[trilobyte]

That said, people who are interested in participating and want to help should definitely go hit up their burner profile and fill out the form.

Speaking personally, fuck incentivizing. Participate and volunteer because you can and want to help, not because you're in it for rewards.

[Jovankat]

That said, people who are interested in participating and want to help should definitely go hit up their burner profile and fill out the form.

I am literally trying to do exactly that but keep being distracted by emails telling me there new posts here!

Speaking personally, fuck incentivizing. Participate and volunteer because you can and want to help, not because you're in it for rewards.

While yes, on the individual level I agree that should be why people volunteer on the larger scale you get results with incentives and promotion. And the incentives don't have to be material, what tipped me over the edge from wanting to help but not being sure it was a good idea was realising I can sit in the shade in the middle of the day and still feel useful. That is incentive enough for me,

[Nipple]

Org action or not, warm bodies are always helpful!

I was really hesitant heading in to my first year of volunteering for a variety of reasons - time away from the event, it might tire me out too much, it would make me jaded, I would be too tired, it would clash with what I want to do - but it ended up being my absolute favorite thing on Playa. Way more so than anything else, for some reason, I really really love the difficult, odd, and challenging work that volunteering provides me. I've solved fun problems, interacted in weird ways, and made a ton of people have a much better day. I love Burning Man, and all of the stupid shit I do, and all of the ridiculous shit I see, but I really adore and look forward to my six hour shifts in the gate lanes of BRC. Maybe you will really enjoy sitting in the box container and helping folks out? Who knows!

I had a similar experience. I worked more this year than I ever have out there, and I'll say that it makes the Black Rock City far more immersive. You have to get up and make the donuts. It kicked my ass into getting out and doing whenever I had me-time. The work is also novel, so even though you're working on your vacation, it tickles new areas of your brain. You also get gifted some pretty cool swag.

I got a giant coffee cup that I pretty much want to have sex with every day.

My partner volunteered for the airport, and she got a near-death experience. YOU CANNOT (LEGALLY) PURCHASE THAT. It only cost her 4 hours to have an event that made her think about her ENTIRE LIFE and come to the conclusion "YEAH...IF THIS IS IT..THAT'S PRETTY GOOD."

[kittyrodriguez]

@kittyrodriguez - my understanding was that there was a lot of that, too. Anecdotally, almost everyone I talked to who had waited more than a couple hours had a similar story about people who didn't have ID, or somehow needed other special handling. I heard a few horror stories as well from box office staffers I got to spend time with on Friday evening before the Alien Siege Machine burn. That's all just anecdotal, though, so it's tough to really say what percentage of the problems came from that.

My gut tells me that's a fair percentage of the delays every year. This year's extra special "7th level of hell" edition of box office delays were due to some back-of-house issues. Great people with a lot of experience, really working hard, but dealing with some serious challenges. I'm glad they finally overcame them, but am really sorry to hear about all the delays (most of our camp had tickets in hand, but those with will call definitely suffered).

I will say that for all the difficulties they had, the will call staff really kept it together. Whether they were faking it or not, they came across as very professional and unflappable. For all the horror stories I heard about the wait at will call, I never heard any complaints about the staff themselves. Talk about keeping ones cool. You know people were heaping shit on them the whole time. So, thanks to all those selfless individuals for handling yourselves so well, and thanks to anyone who is considering volunteering.