MeetingMinutes20090510

12 attendees, yo: Bethany, Brian, David Levy, Doug, Dream, Ike, James, Kim, Pete, Ronny, Steve, Tristram.  Thank you, Ronny, for hosting!  Brunch was delicious, and it was a good meeting.

Next meeting: Sunday, May 24, 1pm, at Futurehouse in Cambridgeport.

In these minutes:

• Pods
• Dome, Sweet Dome
• Fundraising & Dues
• Other Notes
  

Pods

Pods are filling out!  Here's what we've got so far:

Early Early Crew:  Ronny, Steve, Tristram, Ike?  (Ronny and Steve will drive The Truck from Reno)

Reno Early Crew:  Bethany, Dream

Weekend Early Crew:  FiG

Beloved Late Crew:  Hannah, Ike, James, Pete  (Pete will drive The Truck back to Reno)

Buildings and Grounds:  Steve, with Ronny, David II?

Power and Water:  Blake (Hooch), with James

Kitchen: Dream (she needs minions!)

Art Pod:  Tristram

Bar Pod:  Tristram, with Brian and Pete

Sound Pod:  Brian, with Doug as contact

Beer Pod:  Doug

Trash and Recycling:  Ken?

Classical Cafe:  Bethany

Finances:  Pete

Web, Wiki, Spreadsheets, and Pie Charts:  Bethany

Doug Pod:  Blake (Hooch), with all A.Sub. females

Pastie Pod:  Dream

Dome, Sweet Dome

• The dome is also coming along!  Many thanks to Blake (Hooch) for all your work, and to everyone else who contributed!  The final design is 20' tall, with a 30' diameter at base.  The second story will be made of netting 14' off the ground.  There will be enough space in the center for silks and other dangly-fun-things.  I'm told this thing is over-engineered like mad, and Blake wants to hang Doug's car from it.
  
• Next steps: Pete and Steve are ordering supplies.  Pete, Steve, Ronny, and David will cut the pieces to size (this weekend?), then pass them along to Doug and Xuth, who will flatten and drill the ends.  Once that's done, we can begin construction (in Steve's back yard in Waltham, I believe).  The goal is to have the structure done by the end of June, not coincidentally in time for Firefly (though we may or may not actually bring the dome to Firefly).
• Alexis and Colin are researching skins (any news?) and David Levy is researching netting.
• Tristram has an idea to turn the dome into a face: a small hookah dome as the "nose", our swirly lights as the eyes, with a hand atop The Head (now a mini voodoo head, used as an entrance).  A job for Art Pod?
• We plan to have two tunnels to funnel traffic into the dome, plus a private camp entrance/exit behind the bar.  Question: How to lure people from the esplanade into our tunnels?  (Another job for Art Pod?)  Idea: Make the entrance more welcoming at the beginning of the week, but use the tunnels as a buffer between us & the yahoos at the end of the week.  Pete and Bethany will be drawing up a plan of the camp, to send along with the Theme Camp Placement Questionnaire.
• Question: Do we store the dome and skin in our Reno storage locker, or someplace in Boston?  It would be nice to have it here, so we can make changes or updates throughout the year.  Ronny may be able to get us space in Boston.

Fundraising & Dues

The dome is expensive.  We're currently within our budget, but by the time we acquire skin, netting, and etc., we may not be.  Fundraising ideas:

• AutoSub car wash.  Get your vehicle scrubbed by folks in their playa-finest.
• Host a party in the completed dome, with our very own DJs, etc.  Exciting idea, but where could we host it?  (noise- and permit-wise?)
• Early dues.  Pay more than your 2009 dues, and we'll take your donation off of your next year's dues.  For every extra $50 you offer, we'll discount you another $10 or so (exact amount to be discussed) off of next year.  (Or if you don't go next year, we'll reimburse your donation, though possibly not including the extra $10 per $50--again, Pete and I need to discuss it.)  This is feasible, because next year we won't have the giant expense of the dome.

Pay your dues!  It's $375, until May 31.  Thereafter, it's $425.  Within a month of Burning Man, it'll be at least $475.  What do dues cover?  Why, you'll get:

• a wonderful cooked meal every night (seriously, I eat better on-playa with AutoSub than I do at home),
• a kitchen (with cooking supplies and running water!), fully stocked for breakfast, lunch, and snacks,
• more bacon than you could imagine,
• all the water you'll need for drinking, plus a small amount for showering,
• devices for showering and water evaporation,
• gray water and trash removal,
• CBC beer on tap and other camp booze,
• shaded camp space, with picnic tables and couches,
• an awesome dome to share with the playa,
• most likely, a small amount of power to run your lights at night,
• exciting campmates, and plenty of work to help you bond with each other.

Remember, we have these glorious amenities because we make them happen ourselves; being part of AutoSub takes work.  But for us over-achieving freaks, it's oh-so-worth-it.

Other Notes

• Keep an eye on when entries for the What Where When are due.
• Should we set up our stage?  FiG, do you have any interest in booking music for the stage? (or does anyone else?)
• Make morning ice pick-up part of kitchen shifts for which folks can sign up.
• We'd like to camp around 7:30-8:00 & esplanade, and not near a sound camp.
• David will talk to his New York camp about the possibility of camping near AutoSub and sharing a generator.
• On our dome, post a public schedule of AutoSub events.  Give out AutoSub business cards, with a pretty image on one side, and our schedule of events on the other?
• Camp greeter shift Wednesday midnight to 4am (that's Tuesday night/Wednesday morning).  We've offered 15 people.  If we can't get 15 AutoSubbers, we'll talk to Kaos or other Boston burners.
• Dream wants to host a big masquerade party, with a mask-making workshop beforehand.  Wednesday party?  We could tell folks about it during our Tuesday greeter shift.  Or do we start the party at 8pm on Tuesday, then go to our greeter shift, and bring folks back?
• James wants to have a subliminal message screen.  Others talked about video-recording what's going on inside the dome, and projecting it across the esplanade.  Anybody want to make that happen?
• This June, Bethany and Ronny hope to visit the Reno storage locker (a side-trip while in San Francisco) to inspect and inventory everything we have.

Next meeting: Sunday, May 24th, 1pm, at Futurehouse in Cambridgeport.  Have a friend you think would fit with AutoSub?  Met someone great at the meet 'n' greets?  Invite them along.

Not on the AutoSub email lists?  Join the yahoo group here.  To get on the list of official 2009 campers, pay your dues, or talk to Bethany and Pete.

Did I miss anything?