Re:A Brief History of Who Ruined Burning Man
by akiselev on Friday October 07, 2016 @12:51PM
(#12662087)
I have no doubt they work really hard and believe in what they do but Burning Man succeeds every year because of the attendees and volunteers, despite the BM org best efforts to throw a wrench in the works at nearly every stage. I'm not talking about portapotties [1] or road signs or exodus (I don't expect BM org to magically expand the two lane road from Gerlach into a megahighway anyway). DPW does a great job with what they're given by management.
I camp with a lot of volunteers, former employees, and people in charge of setting up BM's telecom, power grid, and organizing some of the other invisible infrastructure. Their work is done before the gates are open to genpop. The horror stories I hear from them every year range from missed payments for equipment and well past due invoices for infrastructure services to miscommunication among the staff that makes it hard for specialized volunteers to do their work (like setup telecom, organize logistics) to the occasional temper tantrum by leadership. Look no further than the utter hell they go through nearly every year negotiating with the BLM and LEOs, entirely of their own doing because they butt heads with the other negotiators. Pro tip: don't antagonize your only two vendors for land and security because your attendees suffer the consequences through harassment and higher ticket prices!
More importantly, infrastructure has not gotten that much better over the years despite the sky rocketing ticket prices and attendance. It wasn't until a few years ago, too, that someone with actual experience in logistics and infrastructure was finally put in charge of the work.
Also, DPW handbook not for public release? It's right there on the BM website accessible through a Google search [2].
[1] When did portapotties get shade? They should have had them since the 1990s and I don't remember any in 2014.
I camp with a lot of volunteers, former employees, and people in charge of setting up BM's telecom, power grid, and organizing some of the other invisible infrastructure. Their work is done before the gates are open to genpop. The horror stories I hear from them every year range from missed payments for equipment and well past due invoices for infrastructure services to miscommunication among the staff that makes it hard for specialized volunteers to do their work (like setup telecom, organize logistics) to the occasional temper tantrum by leadership. Look no further than the utter hell they go through nearly every year negotiating with the BLM and LEOs, entirely of their own doing because they butt heads with the other negotiators. Pro tip: don't antagonize your only two vendors for land and security because your attendees suffer the consequences through harassment and higher ticket prices!
More importantly, infrastructure has not gotten that much better over the years despite the sky rocketing ticket prices and attendance. It wasn't until a few years ago, too, that someone with actual experience in logistics and infrastructure was finally put in charge of the work.
Also, DPW handbook not for public release? It's right there on the BM website accessible through a Google search [2].
[1] When did portapotties get shade? They should have had them since the 1990s and I don't remember any in 2014.
[2] http://dpw.burningman.com/docs/dpwhandbook2016.pdf