Camp Placement

[sensei_88]

Question - can you get placement without organizing or registering a Theme Camp?

Am trying to organize meeting up with three different crews from around the US and Australia on the playa to camp together. Have always just joined organized theme camps but this year we have decided to go no camp - just wondering how hard it's going to be to find a spot to fit us all and whether we could just set a point on the edge of the map (e.g. K street) and bet that we'll find space there on the Sunday/Monday?

Thanks!

[theCryptofishist]

There will be room someplace. There's stuff buried around the board about how to make sure that the rest of you can find the first car full.

[FossaFerox]

There's always space, and no, you can't get reserved placement without an approved theme.

If you're arriving the same day pick a location to meet in Reno, caravan in together, and have a backup rendezvous point inside the city to meet up at in case anyone gets separated coming through the gate. Make it somewhere off the beaten trail like K and 3 or K and 9 depending on which side of the city you'll be looking to find land in.

If anyone is arriving after the main contingent, make use of center camp.

[Savannah]

True, there's no placement without a registered camp. Good communication beforehand can eliminate the need.

Choose a side of the city and a span of "time" on the clock (6:30 - 8:30, for example) and a desired likely street (I, J, K, etc) and make sure everyone in camp knows that much. Broadcast what the signs (and infrastructure) will look like if you can. Squares of wood and 2 colors of canned paint work well. Bring a dropcloth. (What I don't remember: the means of attaching the signs. Might have been gorilla tape or an interesting web of extra long zip ties; God only knows . . . )

The first folks to arrive bring 3 signs and choose the spot the spot for everyone else as best they can.

Everyone driving in after them should start watching for the camp signs beginning at the agreed upon earliest "time" of 6:30 (or whatever).

The first sign goes on the outer street signpost. An arrow points into the city meaning turn here. Attach firmly. Campers turn right and inward (on the other side of the city, left/inward).

When you get to I, J, K or whatever, post the second sign pointing either North or South. You won't know until you get there which way the arrow will need to point, so wait 'til you get there to paint the arrow.

Third sign should be biggest and anchored at the front of camp. Flags are also nice. (Bold signals are good, 'cause tents and vehicles tend to be a sea of white, khaki, blue and green; terribly indistinct.)

This method works really well, but have someone bicycle down and register your camp location at Playa Info in Center Camp anyway, to be on the safe side.

[sensei_88]

thanks all!

[trilobyte]

As others have said, no you can not. But so long as you're not aiming for prime real estate or something within registered camp space, you can probably 'make it go' without registering. So long as everybody understands that all addresses are approximate (meaning once you arrive you may find that someone's beat you to it, so you camp beside them and are off by a few minutes on the clock dial), you should be good to go. The best thing I can recommend is good signage for your camp (either big bold letters, or some symbol everyone would recognize). Put a sign out front, and possibly plan to put some kind of marker at the nearest intersection to point friends and family to your location.

Once your early team has landed, they can also go enter their location into the computer at Playa Info. That way, friends and family who may be arriving later can touch base there to get your up-to-the-minute placement info as they arrive.