Author: adamrice

Church Night Returns This Wednesday, November 24th
(and hopefully Wednesday, December 22nd!)

Santa is checking his list of names but we’re watching the numbers. Right now it appears that even with the increase in travel and holiday gatherings it’s possible to safely give everyone a little time to see their chosen family while providing an escape from their real one.

So let’s catch up before Thanksgiving and, assuming the COVID monster continues to mostly behave, do it again before Christmas (stay tuned for an announcement closer in). With any luck, next year we’ll be able to jump right back into our weekly regimen and everyone will be sick of each other again before you know it.

Covid Protocols will be in place:

• Masks are to be worn when inside the warehouse
• Social distancing encouraged
• Get consent before crossing into anyone’s personal space

We can’t wait to see your faces!

AAR, LLC, TBD, YMCA, LOL

As mentioned in the cancellation message, AAR has sent a questionnaire to all current ticket-holders. Please check your e-mail, check your spam filter, etc.

If you did not receive the questionnaire, it may be that the ticket was not registered in your name or that we don’t have your correct e-mail address. Please log in at https://secure.burningflipside.com/tickets/ to check your ticket status, and if you are in fact ticketed but did not receive the questionnaire, send a message to Tickets via our contact form at https://www.burningflipside.com/contact.

Short version:

Everyone who submitted a valid ticket request will be getting a ticket.

Long version:

As soon as the ticket window closed, it was clear that this was going to be a big year. More ticket requests had been created in our ticket system than ever before. There’s always some percentage of requests that get created but never get mailed in. That percentage would need to be unusually high for this not to be a record year.

The requests were opened and processed on Saturday, February 22, by a hardworking team of about 50 volunteers. And in fact the percentage of requests that got mailed in was slightly higher this year than last. There is also always some percentage of requests that are not valid—generally these are either requests accompanied by personal checks, or requests mailed outside the request window. This is a small percentage—just 2–3% most years.

Milam County approved Flipside’s permit application on Monday, February 24. While we were expecting to receive it, the fact that we did not have the permit in hand at ticket opening meant that we held what we call a “soft lottery.” In a soft lottery, we draw down just below the number where the mass-gathering act kicks in, just in case we don’t get it. Then once we get our permit, we accept the requests we drew. This is a manual process where all the requests (except lottery-exempt ones) are assigned to one of eight bins at random. Then members of AAR LLC randomly draw requests from each of those bins in turn, and read out the names on those requests. Even though we had every reason to believe we would be getting our permit, this was still a difficult process. We drew the names of friends, campmates, former board members, and hardworking community members. Four of the people who were in the room to volunteer for request-opening had their names drawn.

The number of available tickets is not straightforward. First, there’s the mass-gathering limit of 2500: without a mass-gathering permit, we can’t exceed that number. Flipside has applied for and received this permit every year since 2014, but we don’t take it for granted. Second, there’s the maximum number of people that we’ll admit to Flipside, based on the land’s carrying capacity and volunteer capacity, even with our mass-gathering permit. For 2020, we set that number at 3100. Third, there is a “lottery exempt” number. These are people we can identify in advance who will (you guessed it) be exempt from a lottery if we need one—leads, AFs, etc, and their SOs. We try to keep this number as small as possible, because every person that gets added to this group pushes us that much closer to a lottery for everyone else, and lotteries suck. This year, that number was 199. Finally, there are “set asides.” These are slots for people we cannot identify in advance, but we know we’ll need to set aside tickets for to make available closer to the event. Again, we try to keep this number small. This year it was 160.

So, without a mass-gathering permit, we need to have a lottery to get down to 2499 minus set-asides, or 2339. With a permit, we need to get down to 2940 requested tickets.

In 2020, we received requests for 2937 tickets. That gave us a margin of 3 under our cap. That’s a first.

In past years, we haven’t been so close to our limit, and have been able to honor late-postmarked requests. This year, we can’t do that.

As of this writing, your request status will not show any change. We are still dealing with a very small number of “special handling” requests. Once those have been dealt with, we’ll flip the switch in the system and you should see your status as ticketed here.

We’ve received nominations for lead roles, and now we’d like you to give your input on how those folks would do in the roles they’ve been nominated for. Here’s the form for that feedback.Update: Feedback is now closed Thanks!

Would you or a loved one be interested in being a department lead for Burning Flipside’s 2020 event cycle? Put in a nomination! [nominations now closed]

Get ready for Fall Town Hall, Saturday September 28nd, 12:00pm–5:30pm. This is the kickoff for the 2020 Flipside season where we choose the theme for Flipside 2020.

12:00pm – Tailgating and Socialization

Come mingle with your fellow Flipizens pregame. Show off your burner finery. Reminisce about next year. Pitching or supporting a theme? This is a great opportunity to promote your theme suggestion(s) one-on-one or from your gussied-up pop-up shade.

2:34pm – Meeting, Theme Presentations and Theme Voting

We’ll give you a little info to kick off the Flipside 2019 season, and hear theme proposals from the Flipizens proposing them. The theme that gets the most votes during the break will grace Flipside 2019.

Meeting agenda:

• Welcome, Pledge, and Leave No Trace Reminder
• 2019-20 Update from Austin Artistic Reconstruction, LLC
• About Area Facilitators, Leads and Volunteers
• About the Sticket Contest
• Submitting Effigy Proposals to the DaFT Selection Committee
• Theme Presentations
• Break and Voting
• Warehouse Use and Opportunities
• Combustion Chamber Update
• Closing: Community Announcements, Winnerest Theme Announcement

All this happens at Lloyd the Warehouse, 3106 Industrial Terrace, Austin TX.

We recently put out a call for nominations to the Combustion Chamber and y’all delivered.

Now we’d like public feedback on the people who have been nominated. Please fill out this form, once for each nominee you’d like to give feedback on.