Category: Announcements

UPDATE: Given the new guidance from the White House on restricting gatherings over 10 people, AAR has decided to suspend all meetings at the warehouse including, but not limited to, DaFT builds, Church Night, and CC meetings.

We are still determining what will occur with Burning Flipside this year and the logistics around any possible changes. We will communicate that as soon as we have made a strong determination.

The situation is evolving quickly, and AAR’s position may change. We will keep the community informed of any changes. If you have any questions or concerns please contact llc@burningflipside.com

UPDATE: Due to current CDC guidance (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/mass-gatherings-ready-for-covid-19.html) on events with more than 50 people Safetyside will no longer be held physically at Apache Pass. For those interested in Safetyside please wait on more information from the Safetyside organizers through the email list, Facebook group, or through your Safety leads.

While the guidance from the CDC does not currently cover Flipside, we are seriously examining whether to hold the event or not and exactly what that would mean logistically.

At this time we are not planning to cancel church night social events at the warehouse, as we consider this a good way to practice social distancing rather than complete social isolation. However, we would like to remind you that if you feel like you have been exposed to COVID-19 we ask that you seek immediate medical assistance and do not attend any of these events. Additionally, if you are immunocompromised, have respiratory problems, are part of any other vulnerable population, or have regular contact with any vulnerable individuals we ask that you consider carefully your attendance at Burning Flipside events.

The situation is evolving quickly, and AAR’s position may change. We will keep the community informed of any changes. If you have any questions or concerns please contact llc@burningflipside.com

As you are all aware, the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus outbreak has caused the cancellation or postponement of many events across the country. AAR, LLC and the Burning Flipside leadership team are aware of these cancellations and are monitoring the situation to determine its impact on Burning Flipside and related events. At this time, we are planning to hold Burning Flipside and continue to have all supporting events as well such as Safetyside, Work Weekends, Church Nights, and other activities at the warehouse. The situation is evolving quickly, and AAR’s position may change.

We will keep the community informed of any changes.If you feel like you have been exposed to COVID-19 we ask that you seek immediate medical assistance and do not attend any of these events. Additionally, if you are immunocompromised, have respiratory problems, or are part of any other vulnerable population we ask that you consider carefully your attendance at Burning Flipside events. We encourage our community to follow CDC and WHO guidelines to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. You can learn more here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/index.html

We will continue to monitor the situation and may have further updates going forward. If you have any questions or concerns please contact llc@burningflipside.com

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!