Tips For A Successful Placement Questionnaire 2015

[trilobyte]

That April 30th deadline is fast approaching, people! If you hope to register your theme camp or your art project or MV support camp, you need to have that completed no later than April 30th at noon pacific time.

To do so, go here and enter your Burner Profile info (if you don't have an account yet, you'll need to create one.

If you're still struggling with getting things together and organizing yourselves, take a look through the info below (from placer HepKitten's presentation at the 2012 Theme Camp Forum).

Tips For A Successful Theme Camp Questionnaire
presented by HepKitten

• Who should fill it out? A key person! Not the sparklepony newbie who doesn't have any answers, your contact needs to be able to answer questions and make decisions and possibly determine who in the camp gets tickets. That person needs to be available by email/phone from the time the question is submitted until placement is announced. Not necessarily 24/7, but don't have your contact be the person going to Africa for 3 months
• Pretend that you have no clue who your placer is, that they don't know anything about your camp, that you haven't been coming for ten years
• Interaction - most important! Be specific, vague is bad. Use enthusiasm, show us your personality, don't be dry.
• Please consider the placers - don't use all caps, do use punctuation, make it as easy to read and understand as possible
• Camp plans - make sure you mark what's the frontage on your map. Account for all your space, so you can contain your whole camp within the camp (no 'we'll just park the rest of the cars by the porta-potties). Make sure your plan has all your big things on it (domes, major structures, etc). Include containers, specify container info if it's a container through Burning Man.
• RV Fortresses - please consider decorating the sides of outer-facing RV 'walls' (paint murals on sheets, etc). Plan your front yard/front facing public space, and plan your back yard/private space.
• If your camp's name is changing, INCLUDE THAT INFO! If you need to send something to placement, use [email protected] and the team will see it. MAKE SURE that you have your camp name in your subject line or at the start of your email.
• Who should be on the early arrivals team? Only you can decide that, but please make sure it's essential people who are familiar with your camp's plans. Try not to send the sparklepony who doesn't have answers about any questions to meet with your placer.
• Do the right thing.

Questions:
How does size affect placement/location? Where you're placed doesn't have any relation to how big you are. It does have something to do with how much you're doing. If you want that premium placement for a big camp, you need to be doing a lot.
When will you know when you'll be placed and how big you've got? Beginning of July
Can we request camps that we'd like to be near/adjacent? YES - put it in the special comments section, they'll do their best to accommodate. Big camps who need to be near specific camps should seriously consider forming a village. CLARIFY when it's a want (we like them) or a need (we share a generator).
Do you estimate what you're going to do, or only list what you know you can do? Definitely include what you know, and mention what you're working to try to accomplish. Make your best estimates now, if you have to update the info at a later date, email [email protected] with your camp name and what's changing

Interaction Is Important! Camps need to do more, even the old school long-time camps.

[trilobyte]

This is a friendly neighborhood reminder for camps who have not yet completed (or even started) their placement questionnaire to get started. The deadline for completed questionnaires is April 30th at noon PDT, but you don't have to wait until the last minute to complete it and hit the submit button. In fact, it may even be to your advantage to get 'er done early. Getting it done sooner gives placement more time to review your plans, and to ask followup questions if they have them.

Placer HepKitten made a great comment that bears repeating.. "We very much appreciate all of you who are able to get your questionnaires in early - it allows us to spread the work out over a longer period - which translates into happier placers reviewing. Nothing worse than looking at the number to review on April 30 and seeing that in 4 weeks you've got to review over 200 questionnaires in (in addition to your full time paying job). That can be a bit daunting." That's over 200 questionnaires in each of the placement zones/neighborhoods.

If you have never submitted a placement questionnaire, know that the web form has several pages and could easily take hours to complete. You can save your progress and come back at a later time, but the longer you wait to get started the less time you have left. And when filling out the text boxes where you describe interactivity or other aspects of your camp, more descriptive beats less descriptive.

When you submit the form, you will get the opportunity to request a first, second, and third choice for placement location. Pro tip: being flexible and choosing three different neighborhoods will improve the likelihood that your camp will be placed. For an extra bonus, get your questionnaire completed early and be flexible, that way the placement team has time to find the best possible fit for your awesome camp.

If you fill the form out early and some part of your plans change, you can easily update the placement team by sending an email to [email protected] with your camp name and the word 'Update' in the subject line. Making sure the camp name is in the subject line makes it very easy for whoever is wrangling the team email address to get it to the right people.

Good luck, and get 'er done!

[motskyroonmatick]

Helpful posts Trilo! Thanks!!

[EmilyD]

Thanks for all the useful tips trilobyte. I'm probably on my 20th hour, in 2 weeks of working on this application but I hope to be nailing it down in the next few minutes and finally sending it in.

[trilobyte]

haha - you can do it, and congratulations (once you hit send). Yeah, I probably should have said that it could take a LOT of hours to complete. And taking more time is better than taking less time, you want to make sure to give the placement team plenty of info to help understand what you're up to. That is especially important if this is your first time applying for placement, since they don't have any past performance history to look at.

[robbidobbs]

I'm bailing on this. Probably let the playa gods whisk me to my landing spot. Hoping for 7:00 outer potty bank.
It's not like there's a run on potty bank frontage.

[Fan C]

BTW thanks for all the tips. This is our camps first time applying for placement.

[leismanpo]

We are a theme camp who is considering joining with a much smaller theme camp. We aren't sure to absorb them or to partner with them. Do villages have different guidelines or standards for placement?

[trilobyte]

Yes they do. You may care to read the information posted on the main site.

[LowePro]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand done, questionnaire submitted. Definitely easier the second time around but still a lot of work. We're fired up! Good luck out there.

[trilobyte]

Woohoo and congratulations!!!!

To everybody else who is planning or even thinking about it.... time to get moving! Less than two weeks left, and spoiler alert... it is a long and arduous process, give yourself some time to be able to share your plans for awesomeness with the placement team. You can always start on it, save your place, and then come back to it later if you need to, as long as you hit that final submit button by noon PDT a week from Wednesday.

[Hope-a-Lope]

Thanks for posting the tips, trilobyte. I'm submitting my camp's application, and it's my first time, so this was great reading.

[EmilyD]

I should mention that after hitting SEND you should get a confirmation email, with a copy of all your application info. I initially did NOT get that email confirmation. I checked all my spam filters and whatnot, no email. After two days I finally wrote to the placement team ([email protected] - and put the name of your camp and the #1 sector you chose, in the subject line). They had to re-send the confirmation email and this time I did get it. I wanted to mention this because it might happen to others and they, like me, may not know that they're supposed to get a confirmation email after they submit the finished application. Hope this helps...Trilobyte please correct/add to this if I've gotten any of the instructions wrong.

And you have 11 days left to send in your application!

[trilobyte]

Nope, that's exactly right - when you write in to placement, you need to make sure the camp name (as it's spelled in the questionnaire) is in the subject line, that will ensure it gets routed to the right member of the placement team asap.

[trilobyte]

With the kind permission of the placement team, I'd like to share some info from a recent email sent out to their placement list. If you're still working on your questionnaire, or you have never requested placement before, check out these great resources.

First and foremost, Burning Man held a Theme Camp Forum event last month. They recorded the event, and you can check that out here.

The Placement Team is up and running at full complement and the Burning Man Headquarters team is fully operational.

We made some changes to our Theme Camp and Placement policies following events in 2014 involving TurnKey camps, and we wanted to inform you of them so you can plan accordingly.

Definitions:
TurnKey is a category of camps along a spectrum. At one end of the continuum are camps that depend on supported infrastructure to create on playa projects. At the other end are camps providing vacation type experience packages for campmates with no specific requirement for contribution.

In 2014 Burning Man placed 12 TurnKey camps all of whom indicated they would offer an interactive aspect to be enjoyed by the entire Burning Man community.

For 2015, all Placed Camps (other than infrastructure support camps) will be held to the same standards in order to receive placement, early arrival passes and access to the Directed Group Sale.

Theme Camp Placement Criteria / Standards:
Other than event infrastructure camps, all camps will be held to the same standards of inclusion and participation regardless of how the camp is structured. All Theme Camps requesting placement will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Theme Camps should be visually stimulating, have an inviting design and a plan for bike parking and crowd management.
2. Theme Camps must be interactive. They should include activities, events or services within their camps that must be available to the entire Burning Man community.
3. Theme Camps must be neighbourly. This includes keeping sound within set limits, controlling where camp generators vent exhaust, and easily resolving any boundary disputes that may arise.
4. Theme Camps must have a good previous MOOP record (for returning camps).
5. Theme Camps must follow safety protocols designed by the organization (this includes traffic management on the streets, proper handling of fuels, and any other areas defined by the organization’s production team including alternatives to RV lined streets).

Entering BRC with Early Arrival passes:

Only Theme Camps meeting all of the above criteria and receiving Placement, will be given Early Arrival Passes from the Placement team for entry to BRC for pre-event set up.

Post-event evaluation, Theme Camp Standing and access to the Directed Group Sale (DGS):

Post event, all placed Theme Camps will be reviewed on the criteria above, as well as:

1. MOOP score. If a camp receives a yellow or red MOOP score, the Placement team expects the camp to be proactive in addressing the issue.
2. Strain on resources. This refers to whether a camp requires extra BRC infrastructure support, which could include undue communication or interactions with Placement, Rangers, DPW or the playa restoration team. This could also include the processing of negative feedback from other departments. If a Theme Camp attracts negative attention by violating principles and cultural norms, this will similarly strain resources.

If a Theme Camp meets all of the criteria they remain in “good standing” and may be eligible to receive access to the DGS. Exemplary camps are the most likely to be invited to the following year’s DGS.

Good standing is of benefit as it will affect future placement.

Camps not in good standing will be contacted and will be expected to make substantial changes to their submitted camp plans to qualify for future placement of the DGS for the following year.

For most of you, this information is familiar and reflects what you are already doing. For some of you, this information means you are going to need to increase your interactivity and upgrade your public facing spaces to reflect the spirit of radical inclusion.

We are here to support all of you create an amazing and interactive city for everyone at Burning Man to enjoy.

If you have additional questions for the team or need to provide the placers with an update on your camp's questionnaire or plans, send an email to [email protected] and be sure to enter the name of your camp - either exactly as you entered it on your questionnaire, or as you plan on entering it when you start filling yours out.

[trilobyte]

Reminder folks... the questionnaire closes on WEDNESDAY THURSDAY (April 30th) at NOON pdt. If you haven't started, now is the time, and if you have, now's the time to get it finished and submitted.

[The CO]

Reminder folks... the questionnaire closes on WEDNESDAY THURSDAY (April 30th) at NOON pdt. If you haven't started, now is the time, and if you have, now's the time to get it finished and submitted.

And now the panicked last minute rush begins!

[Jovankat]

The Flamingo Trap's application has been submitted!