January 2016 Announce

FBSLogo

HAPPY NEW YEAR of NO! There’s a chill in the air, but the fire ever burns in our hearts as we gear up for Burning Flipside 2016: NO. Important dates are posted here, including the Ticket Request Window. Save your pennies (but don’t mail them, unless you’re mailing 11,100 of them in the form of a money order)!

Stay tuned to the Flipside Flame, the Announce email list, and the official Burning Flipside Facebook Page. Remember, if you have something you’d like to contribute to the Flame or Announce, use Flipside Flame/Announce Submission page to send it in. Announce tends to be at the beginning of the month, and Flames usually get published around the middle of the month. Get me the info at least a week before then, and I’ll do my best to get your contribution included.

~Editor


Combustion Chamber Meetings

The first CC meeting of 2016 is TONIGHT.

The Combustion Chamber is an advisory committee to the Austin Artistic Reconstruction LLC to facilitate community input & transparency for the policy-making process and organization of burn community events. CC meetings each start at 7:42 pm at the Warehouse. Special topics are as follows:

Jan 4:

  • LLC/Regionals/AF Updates 
  • Calendering
  • Volunteer Recruitment

Have a topic you believe the community needs to discuss? Please send suggestions to us at
https://www.burningflipside.com/contact
Please keep in mind that we discuss community and policy issues, not operational ones.


Ticket Window

The official ticket window is January 7 to January 22, 2016. If you haven’t created a profile for yourself yet, go and get one at profiles.burningflipside.com. After you have your profile completed (or if you have one already), got to secure.burningflipside.com to find the Ticket Request/Transfer link. The system is in “Test Mode” until the ticket request window opens, so if you want to practice, go ahead. Anything entered now will be discarded before the system goes live.


Leads Selections Announced

And now, for a word from our Volunteer Coordinator:

As volunteer coordinator, it is my pleasure to announce our slate of 2016 leads for Burning Flipside!
We are still looking for leads for some departments, and we are definitely looking for assistants/lieutenants/volunteers for many departments.  So, if you’re interested, please contact me at
https://www.burningflipside.com/contact
or get in touch with the relevant lead and offer help if you’re so inclined!

And with that, here is our slate:

Area: 360/24/7
(AF Meredith Fortner)-

  • CC Scribe: Chuck
  • CC Scribe: Chim-Chim
  • Warehouse Manager: Gallows
  • Warehouse Manager: Rocky
  • Warehouse Manager: Lurko
  • Warehouse Scheduling Guru: Dawn Korthals
  • Off-Season Event Coordinator: Emily Sparkles
  • Edjumication: Kristine Seljenes
  • Equipment Librarian: T.Rey
Area: City Planning
(AF Stephy Vyborny)-

  • Placement: Bravo
  • Flagging: Terran Priest
  • Theme Camp Liason: Mercedes Vaughn
  • City Planning Administrator: Ste. Michelle
Area: Communications
(AF Russ Sherman)-

  • Survival Guide: Gwen Rice
  • Tickets: Loribug
  • Media Content: Edie Cosmos
  • Media Liason: Yertle
Area: Site Prep
(AF Shortcake)-

  • Mistress of Important Papers: Mizu
  • Work Weekend Communication: Saraphina
  • Land Search: Brisket
  • Work Weekend Tools: Bill Hawker
Area: Site Ops
(AF Clovis)-

  • Pre-Ops: Lurko
  • Cartelle: Switch
  • Special Operations: Sodium
  • Ice: Kate Ludlow
  • Shaven Apes: Fractallia
  • Safety Lighting: Maxwell Martinez
  • Safety Signs: Ronin
  • Fuel: Nyla Walker
  • Equipment Vendor Liason: Robin McShaffry
Area: Safety
(AF Serious)-

  • PETs: Ben
  • Guardians: Froggy
  • Echelon: Shugabear
  • Meterology: Bean
  • Sound: Levi Witt
  • Sanctuary: Phaidra
  • Rangers: Judge
  • Fire Safety: Hellkitty
Area: Art
(AF Dotti Spearman)-

  • Graphic Arts: Monk
  • Temporal Art Installation Navigation Logistics: Erich Pelletier
  • DMV: KennyB
  • Disinformation Kiosk: Caution
  • Sticket: Rusty
  • Pyrotechnics: Chainsaw
Area: Site Sign-Off
(AF Wrinn)-

  • Clean-up: Xander
  • Post-Ops: Lurko
  • Earth Guardians: Mulch
  • Recycling: Rose
  • Exodus: Mr. Huggles
Area: Genesis
(AF Julie Schmooley)-

  • Inte-Zone Coordinator: Doc Mittz
  • Greeters: Nobobodon
Area: Volunteer Coordinator
(AF Dahling Sweetiepoo)-

  • Volunteer Assistance Squad: Andrea Carter

Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, at
https://www.burningflipside.com/contact
or contact the relevant AF, and we will try to answer them for you.


Thinking about missing Town Hall: NO!

Come see your friends, make some new ones, and learn all the ways you can participate.

Spring Town Hall
Saturday, February, 6, 2016
At Lloyd the Warehouse
3106 Industrial Terrace
Austin, TX 78758


No, Really. Call for Sticket Designs

Hey Flipizens! Would you like two free tickets to Flipside 2016?
And did you know that designing the art for the ticket or the sticker is actually the only way to get TWO free tickets to Flipside?!? Leads, volunteers, even LLC members, pay for their tickets.

Design the Flipside ticket or sticker and submit your design today! The person who submits the winning STICKER design will get TWO free tickets to Flipside 2016. The person who submits the winning TICKET design will also receive TWO free tickets to Flipside 2016.

Keep in mind all designs must be original. No clip art, and positively NO copywritten material may be used. The designs can be created digitally or by hand. You must follow the specifications listed below, or your design could be disqualified.

SticketSo break out your pen, marker, crayon or stylus and get the ideas flowing. Hand-drawn submissions are perfectly fine, but must be delivered before the deadline: 10 pm Friday January 29, 2016.
Submit your designs or any questions to Rufus & SuzyQ at
https://www.burningflipside.com/contact

We will positively confirm every submission we receive, so if you do not receive a confirmation within a few days, please email us back, and we will confirm receipt.

Burning Flipside will do its best to include all submitted designs, in some form of hype, the survival guide, or the website, so your art should get seen. When you submit you are implicitly giving permission for us to use your design – on the ticket or sticker, on the Burning Flipside website, or in the Survival Guide. If for some reason you do not want to give this permission, please specify that when you submit. Also please indicate how you would like your art to be credited.

TICKET Design Details:

Please include the following information within your Ticket design:

Burning Flipside
No
May 26-30, 2016
www.burningflipside.com

Please do not post or display your ticket design anywhere else until after the contest ends. (The artist for the winning ticket design will be asked to refrain from posting it anywhere until after the event.)

  • Artwork should be 2.375 x 4.375 inches.
  • 1/8 inch all around WILL BE CUT OFF creating a final size of 2.125 x 4.125 – this extra space is called bleed.
  • Artwork should be CMYK.
  • Artwork should be supplied at 100% as either vector based art (Illustrator or Inkscape) or at 300dpi if it is a Photoshop file.
  • If Photoshop – .tif, .eps, .psd and .jpeg files are preferred. Please save jpeg files with “maximum quality”.

Tips for successful reproduction of your design:

  • Do not place text too close to the edge of your design. It should be 1/8″ in on either side once the artwork is trimmed. Pick fonts that will be easy to read and try to not use a font that is really thin on a dark background. It will “plug-up” and be hard to read.
  • Do not get too complex, it is often easier to create artwork at a larger size and reduce it down. Keep in mind what it will look like at the smaller size.
  • If you create your art in layers, be sure and save that layered file just in case the printer needs anything altered – this will make it easier on them and you.

STICKER Design Details:

Please include at least the following information within your Sticker design:

Flipside 2016

  • Sticker Art should cover a 2.5″ circle at 300dpi.
  • Make your design simple! Intricate and super-fine lines (less than 1-pt) tend to dry up in the screen and will not show up on the sticker. (For your reference, 1pt lines are roughly the same size as what a medium ball point pen will draw. It is a good idea to keep important elements of your artwork at least 1/8″ from the edge of the sticker to allow for cutting. Serifed fonts can be a nightmare – especially at small point sizes. Set all type to at LEAST 10 points.)
  • In the past we’ve only printed black and white stickers, or another color and white. Grayscale or gradients are a real pain and don’t print very well, so try to stick to solid colors. All halftones are screened at 55 lpi.

We look forward to seeing the designs as they come in. It is an incredible outpouring from this intensively creative community! It’s a pleasure to serve as your sticket team.

If you have any questions, just let us know.

Love,
Your Flipside 2016 Sticker/Ticket Selection Team,
Rufus + SuzyQ

 

December 2015 Flamounce

FBSLogo

‘Tis the season of DaFTmas, and in the Warehouse
Every burner was building up Lloyd, in a souse
The framework was screwed to the wall with great care
In hopes that Spring Town Hall soon would be there

Stay tuned to the Flipside Flame, the Announce email list, and the official Burning Flipside Facebook Page. Remember, if you have something you’d like to contribute to the Flame or Announce, use Flipside Flame/Announce Submission page to send it in. Announce tends to be at the beginning of the month, and Flames usually get published around the middle of the month. Get me the info at least a week before then, and I’ll do my best to get your contribution included.

~Editor

DaFTMas TreeO DaFTmas tree, o DaFTmas tree
Where is my fucking impact
o DaFTmas tree, o DaFTmas tree
Fuck, I need a torx bit

Each splintered board,
and each poking screw
Gonna burn
the shit out of you

O DaFTmas tree, o DaFTmas tree
I need another lonestar

~Dan Oliver


Ticket Window

Hello Flipizens from Loribug the Ticket Lead.

The official ticket window will be January 7 to January 22, 2016.  Follow all the instructions!

I hate returning ticket requests, but I had to return ticket requests last year for the following reasons:

  • Late/early Postmark
  • Personal Check,
  • Underpayment,
  • No Money Order Included,
  • Late Postmark AND Underpayment,
  • Late Postmark AND Personal Check,
  • The person who sent in a 1¢ Money Order

Advice for Mailing in the Ticket Request

  1. Decorated envelopes are so much more fun to open than plain vanilla envelopes.
  2. Check your postage! Extra weight = extra postage. Inadequate postage can get your envelope returned to you from the post office.   SEAL your envelope well.
  3. Some extravagantly decorated envelopes were mailed INSIDE of a USPS flat rate Priority Mail envelope. It costs a bit more (around $6), makes it easier for the Post Office to read the address, protects your decorated envelope from evil postal machines, and tracking is included in the price.TRACKING IS GOOD when it comes to the post office.
  4. If you are getting really close to the deadline, make sure you get your envelope hand stamped at the post office.
  5. Don’t send personal checks! Don’t sent cash! If you include additional funds, tell us what they are for! If we do not get explicit instructions, we may have to refund the whole ticket registration. 🙁
  6. Contact the ticket team when you have problems.Really!  We help a lot of people before, during, and after the ticket window.
  7. Keep your money order receipt!If there is any kind of problem with your ticket order, having that receipt can save your bacon.

Most Sincerely,

Loribug,
PS: See the Tickets page for more information. The secure ticket registration page is currently in “test mode” if you’d like to practice filling out a ticket request early. Requests submitted from “test mode” are deleted before the official request form is posted. We’ll make more noise about this when the time comes.


A brief telegram from your Combustion Chamber at their retreat:

COMBUSTION CHAMBER SEEKS TOPICS FROM THE COMMUNITY STOP REMIT TOPICS TO CC AT BURNING FLIPSIDE DOT COM STOP


Continued Call for Sticket Designs

Hey Flipizens! Would you like two free tickets to Flipside 2016?
And did you know that designing the art for the ticket or the sticker is actually the only way to get TWO free tickets to Flipside?!? Leads, volunteers, even LLC members, pay for their tickets.

Design the Flipside ticket or sticker and submit your design today! The person who submits the winning STICKER design will get TWO free tickets to Flipside 2016. The person who submits the winning TICKET design will also receive TWO free tickets to Flipside 2016.

Keep in mind all designs must be original. No clip art, and positively NO copywritten material may be used. The designs can be created digitally or by hand. You must follow the specifications listed below, or your design could be disqualified.

SticketSo break out your pen, marker, crayon or stylus and get the ideas flowing. Hand-drawn submissions are perfectly fine, but must be delivered before the deadline: 10 pm Friday January 29, 2016.
Submit your designs or any questions to Rufus & SuzyQ at stickets16@BurningFlipside.com

We will positively confirm every submission we receive, so if you do not receive a confirmation within a few days, please email us back, and we will confirm receipt.

Burning Flipside will do its best to include all submitted designs, in some form of hype, the survival guide, or the website, so your art should get seen. When you submit you are implicitly giving permission for us to use your design – on the ticket or sticker, on the Burning Flipside website, or in the Survival Guide. If for some reason you do not want to give this permission, please specify that when you submit. Also please indicate how you would like your art to be credited.

TICKET Design Details:

Please include the following information within your Ticket design:

Burning Flipside
No
May 26-30, 2016
www.burningflipside.com

Please do not post or display your ticket design anywhere else until after the contest ends. (The artist for the winning ticket design will be asked to refrain from posting it anywhere until after the event.)

  • Artwork should be 2.375 x 4.375 inches.
  • 1/8 inch all around WILL BE CUT OFF creating a final size of 2.125 x 4.125 – this extra space is called bleed.
  • Artwork should be CMYK.
  • Artwork should be supplied at 100% as either vector based art (Illustrator or Inkscape) or at 300dpi if it is a Photoshop file.
  • If Photoshop – .tif, .eps, .psd and .jpeg files are preferred. Please save jpeg files with “maximum quality”.

Tips for successful reproduction of your design:

  • Do not place text too close to the edge of your design. It should be 1/8″ in on either side once the artwork is trimmed. Pick fonts that will be easy to read and try to not use a font that is really thin on a dark background. It will “plug-up” and be hard to read.
  • Do not get too complex, it is often easier to create artwork at a larger size and reduce it down. Keep in mind what it will look like at the smaller size.
  • If you create your art in layers, be sure and save that layered file just in case the printer needs anything altered – this will make it easier on them and you.

STICKER Design Details:

Please include at least the following information within your Sticker design:

Flipside 2016

  • Sticker Art should cover a 2.5″ circle at 300dpi.
  • Make your design simple! Intricate and super-fine lines (less than 1-pt) tend to dry up in the screen and will not show up on the sticker. (For your reference, 1pt lines are roughly the same size as what a medium ball point pen will draw. It is a good idea to keep important elements of your artwork at least 1/8″ from the edge of the sticker to allow for cutting. Serifed fonts can be a nightmare – especially at small point sizes. Set all type to at LEAST 10 points.)
  • In the past we’ve only printed black and white stickers, or another color and white. Grayscale or gradients are a real pain and don’t print very well, so try to stick to solid colors. All halftones are screened at 55 lpi.

We look forward to seeing the designs as they come in. It is an incredible outpouring from this intensively creative community! It’s a pleasure to serve as your sticket team.

If you have any questions, just let us know.

Love,
Your Flipside 2016 Sticker/Ticket Selection Team,
Rufus + SuzyQ


Thinking about missing Town Hall: NO!

Come see your friends, make some new ones, and learn all the ways you can participate.

Spring Town Hall
Saturday, February, 6, 2016
At Lloyd the Warehouse
3106 Industrial Terrace
Austin, TX 78758


Important Dates

The Ticket Window isn’t the only thing you should mark on your calendar. Sticket Designs are due January 29th. Spring Town Hall is scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2016. The First Work Weekend is slated for the weekend of February 20th. All these things will be revealed to you if you stop by the 24/7/360 calendar and help yourself to a steaming cup of calendar!


Combustion Chamber Meetings

There are no more CC meetings in 2015, but they’re back on the calendar for January 4, 2016.

The Combustion Chamber is an advisory committee to the Austin Artistic Reconstruction LLC to facilitate community input & transparency for the policy-making process and organization of burn community events. CC meetings each start at 7:42 pm at the Warehouse. Special topics are as follows:

Jan 4:

  • LLC/Regionals/AF Updates 
  • Calendering
  • Volunteer Recruitment

Have a topic you believe the community needs to discuss? Please send suggestions to cc@burningflipside.com.  Please keep in mind that we discuss community and policy issues, not operational ones.

Flame for August 2015 (2015 Vol 5)

FBSLogoAugust is here, along with the hard-baked heat. A lot is going on during the lull between Burning Flipsides, so make sure you stay tuned to the Flipside Flame, the Announce email list, and the official Burning Flipside Facebook Page.

Remember, if you have something you’d like to contribute to the Flame or Announce, use Flipside Flame/Announce Submission page to send it in. Announce tends to be at the beginning of the month, and Flames usually get published around the middle of the month. Get me the info at least a week before then, and I’ll do my best to get your contribution included.

~Editor


Feedback on Combustion Chamber Nominations

Hey-o! The Combustion Chamber recently put out a call for new members, and we have six nominees! We’d love community feedback on each candidate. If you know them, or you’ve worked with them before, feel free to tell us what your experiences with them are, and whether or not you’d feel comfortable with them representing your community — Our Community. The CC Nomination Feedback page has a menu with each candidates name. You will need to submit a new form for each candidate.

The candidates are:

  • Amy Heidel
  • Christopher “Chin-Chim” Sabater
  • Cooper Crouse
  • Jillian Selcer
  • Kati Taylor
  • Katrina Decker

The Combustion Chamber advocates for the Burning Flipside community and its principles in creating policy recommendations & by fostering an open forum to exchange ideas and information between Austin Artistic Reconstruction, LLC and the community at large.

Thanks in advance for your time!

Best,
The Combustion Chamber


Warehouse Art Relocation Team

The Wherehouse is moving. There’s a lot of art. We’re going to move the art.

WART-0

There is a team – the Warehouse Art Relocation Team.

There is a form – http://goo.gl/forms/KTuszwKx4w

If you have art at the wherehouse and want to have a say in what happens to it, or want it back, please fill out the form. If you want to help us catalog, clean, pack, and move all this precious art, please fill out the form. If you just want to tell us why a particular piece is super important to move to the new warehouse, please fill out the form.

Again, the form – http://goo.gl/forms/KTuszwKx4w

You can also send email to warehouseart15@burningflipside.com.
The WART thanks you for your participation!


Fall Town Hall

The Facebook Event for those of you who schedule yourselves with it…

Saturday, September 26, 2015! Tailgating will start at noon, meeting portion will start at 2:34PM. We’ll be picking the theme for Burning Flipside 2016, talking about the DaFT selection process, volunteering, and so much more!

Town Hall will be in the new warehouse, with an after party at the old/our current warehouse at 1023 Springdale Rd. We’ll keep you posted!

Invite your fellow Flipizens! Get your theme presentations ready!

More details to come.


Combustion Chamber Meetings

The Combustion Chamber is an advisory committee to the Austin Artistic Reconstruction LLC to facilitate community input & transparency for the policy-making process and organization of burn community events. Meetings are open to everyone, starting at 7:42 pm at the Warehouse. Special topics are as follows:

August 17:

  • Fall Town Hall: Town Hall – Who is running this show?
  • Early Dropoff/Vendor Interaction at the event: Some of the large-scale art projects and theme camps that come to Flipside have sought to drop off their infrastructure  pre-event and/or pick it up post-event, and some have had material/infrastructure drop-offs by outside vendors. We’ll discuss how we can make this work for those projects, our volunteers, and the event as a whole.

September 14:

  • Town Hall: Getting ready for the big show.
  • Calendaring: Where we put things on the calendar. 
  • Exodus:  Leaving Burning Flipside and You! An exercise in patience.

Who Can/Should Attend:
You! If you care about the event and especially if you care about any of these topics you should come to discuss them.

Why this matters:
The CC provides advice to the LLC. The LLC provides the overall direction and policy guidance that end up making the event happen. The topics discussed at this meeting may have a direct impact on you during the actual Flipside event and/or at the AAR, LLC warehouse.

You can’t stay involved if you are uninformed. Meeting minutes will be posted as they are received. Thanks for your patience. http://www.burningflipside.com/organization/cc/minutes

Have a topic you believe the community needs to discuss? Please send suggestions to cc@burningflipside.com.  Please keep in mind that we discuss community and policy issues, not operational ones.


An Hour In The Life Of…Volunteering!

We love volunteers. A lot. And we want more of them! To help our community better understand what volunteer opportunities exist, we’re posting a series of descriptions detailing what it’s like to be a volunteer in various capacities for an hour. As your Content Lead, I’m setting the stage:

Content Lead is a year-round position that has peaks and valleys of activity. In the busiest times, I’ll spend an hour in front of my computer, sifting through emailed articles that have been submitted through the Flipside Flame/Announce Submission form (hint, hint!), and grazing through the Burning Flipizens Facebook page to capture as much as I can. I then log into the burningflipside.com site and make a publication just like the one you’re reading now.

Where I need help: Gimme content! Take photos (with consent)! Make Art!

Use the submission form to let me know what you’re trying to get out to the community. What you submit doesn’t have to be “publication ready.” I’m happy to edit things as they come in, and will gladly share drafts with you if it helps you.

I have to make judgement calls about which articles go into the Flipside Flame, and which go to Announce messages, but I have lots of support from the LLC and the CC to make those decisions. I’d love to make the posts more visually appealing, but I need your help with that. If you draw, if you take photos, if you’re interested in graphics, let me know!

Flipside Flood Relief

Our friends at Flipside Flood Relief are putting on a fundraising event, Sam Houston’s Drag Show & Rococo Rodeo.

Flipside Flood Relief is raising money for both Flipizens and Milam County residents affected by the Memorial Day flood. If you want to help, this is a great opportunity. They’re also encouraging folks to hold their own fundraisers.

Here are the details on their upcoming event:


What’s better than elaborate-to-the-point-of-excess gender bending? Gender bending for charity, of course!

Come join Flipside Flood Relief as we make our fantasy of late baroque cowboys and cowgirls a reality at Sam Houston’s Drag Show & Rococo Rodeo!

Ticket info:

General Admission- $30 in advance, $40 at the door ($30 for those dressed extra fabulously)

Includes a commemorative Silipint, a raffle ticket, drinks, games, prizes, and an evening of spectacular costumes, music, and merriment!

VIP package- $75 (advance sales only)
Includes all of the above plus a fabulous VIP dinner and concert and 5 raffle tickets!

Additional raffle tickets can be purchased for $5 each.

Ticket link:

http://flipsidefloodrelief.com/fundraising-events/

More details about the party and specific timeline to come, but for now:

7pm – 10pm: The (only slightly) less raucous part of the evening. We’ll have dinner, entertainment, and a hootenanny. Maybe even a hoodang.

10pm – midnight: The tomfoolery kicks into high gear. We’ll have more entertainment and dancing.

All proceeds from this event will go through Flipside Flood Relief to benefit attendees of our local Burning Man-style event, Burning Flipside, and residents of the county where our event is hosted, Milam County, who were impacted by flooding and tornadoes on Memorial Day 2015.

Preliminary event report

Ticketing and participation

  • 3193 tickets sold: the most ever, and very close to our hard limit of 3211. Why didn’t we sell all of them? Typically we hold back a few for last-minute volunteers in key departments, and sometimes they go unused–because the person got a ticket by other means, or couldn’t come to Flipside, etc.
  • 2852 past gate: second-most ever.
  • 10.6% no-show rate. That’s not as low as 2014, but lower than 2012 or 2013.

Theme camps

More theme camps than ever were registered: 155.

Art

More art projects than ever were registered: 74. Arc Attack debuted the world’s largest singing Tesla coils despite incredibly difficult conditions.

38 art cars were registered, although due to the mud, they were not able to circulate as freely as we’d like. Art cars were limited to the river road and corn-field road during those times that they could circulate at all.

There were questions during the event as to whether we would burn the Effigy. The conditions under which we would not burn it are generally high winds or a burn ban, neither of which prevailed on Sunday night. Wet conditions are not an obstacle.

Volunteering

Reports from the various departments are still coming in. We do know that Real Life kicked a few leads in the ass right before the event, which caused some scrambling, but our community is full of rockstars, and those positions did get filled.

As always, volunteering–particularly in the Safety departments–remains one of the key factors limiting event size.

Challenges, issues, community concerns

The line at Gate on Thursday

Sixteen truckloads of road base were laid on the roads at the event site immediately prior to the event. However, muddy conditions made it unwise for anyone to pull off the road, so everyone was as slow as the slowest vehicle. Effectively we were limited to one lane of traffic everywhere. We heard varying reports of how long the wait time was, but as of about 10:00 PM Thursday, wait time was about 2.5 hours (this is based on measurements of pulse time and a line count: pulse = 7 minutes, cars per pulse = 10, cars in line = 220). Everyone who was in line at midnight was processed, with the last people being processed at about 1:30 AM. Gate, Greeters, and Parking all went above and beyond.

To reduce the bottleneck at the Greeters station, Greeters moved out onto the road before Gate and “pre-greeted” people in their cars. Zone Czars (formerly Zone Greeters) was shut down by 10:00 PM, so Greeters on the road had maps and were helping people find their camps. Someone remained at the Greeters station with a map to give people a second chance to look at the map.

Gate pulsed people through and worked admirably fast. The new ticket system revealed a few quirks, but on balance was a huge improvement.

On Friday, some additional road base was laid at Gate to create a small pull-out area.

Pre-event tree collapses

A large pecan estimated to be 200 years old uprooted itself and fell the Friday before the event. This wound up being cut up and piled in the Plaza del Fuego area in the middle of the pecan grove. Another pecan nearby was identified as possibly unhealthy and cracked as soon as one of the landowner’s sons took a chainsaw to it on the Tuesday immediately pre-event.

Dogs

Three service animals were admitted with AAR’s permission. Kate Ludlow found a stray mother dog with four puppies on CR428, all were delivered to the Austin Animal Center. All have been adopted as of this writing. A stray yellow dog arrived on site on Saturday. It went home with a participant. A stray black dog arrived on site on Sunday. [not sure of status].

Gatecrashers

There were four known gatecrasher incidents, each involving multiple people.

Injuries

One serious injury. No ambulance rolls.

Monday

Reports from Safety volunteers and our Weather lead are still coming in. The following is preliminary. It’s safe to say that Flipside had a case of the Mondays.

We knew beforehand that Monday was certain to receive rainfall, and many Flipizens prudently prepared to leave early—many people left immediately after the Effigy burn, and many more left early on Monday. The result is that, of the 2852 people who participated in Flipside, only about 130 were left to experience the weather events on Monday.

On Monday afternoon around 4:00 PM, we experienced straight-line winds that pegged our weather station’s meter at 50 mph; the rainfall measurement was unreliable, but there was a lot of it. We escalated ICS shortly thereafter with Geo as Command.

About an hour after the storm abated, the San Gabriel river started rising about 1″ per minute. The upstream gauge at the town of Laneport reached 16′ (normal is about 5′), and the river’s flow measured at Laneport was roughly 4000 cfs (normally does not exceed 100 cfs). These are unusually readings, and coupled with the fact that the ground was already saturated, the influx of water had nowhere to go but up. This led to flooding at the event site starting around 6:00 PM, with the waters cresting around 2:00 AM. By 7:30 PM, the event site was divided into three temporary islands, which we referred to as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie divisions. These had about 90, 30, and 20 people on them, respectively.

At 1:00 AM, a water rescue was requested for people in Bravo. At about 2:00 AM, a game warden from Texas Parks and Wildlife arrived and evacuated 6 people from Bravo, including 3 who had minor medical issues. There have been reports of 40 people being evacuated, but these are incorrect. After these six were evacuated to an area of the property accessible by road, which we called Delta division, the evac was called off due to receding water levels.

By morning, the waters had receded almost completely, the islands were reconnected, and we were able to leave.

Update 10:23PM Thursday May 28th

Thank you to everyone who has been asking about Post Operations.

I apologize for the delay in getting this message out but as you can
understand this year is unprecedented and plans needed to be worked out.

First let me say this Saturday is NOT the major cleanup day that has
occurred in past years. This Saturday is for individuals/theme camps to
retrieve personal items and minimal infrastructure work.

Post Operations Dates As follow:

Day 1: Saturday May 30th

Purpose: Individuals or members of theme camps with items on site are
requested to remove them (get your cars, find your valuables, get your camp
things, or throw it away)

Time: 10am-completed

Volunteers on site: Minimal needed for assisting individuals/theme camps
and general clean up. Meet up at 9am at Warehouse if interested.

Note: prepare for wet conditions as there is a good chance of rain on
Saturday. Additionally participants will need to understand that conditions
are potentially worse than when they left. Materials that have been sitting
out for days and are possibly in standing water so protective gear should
be brought out as well as a change of clothes for afterwards.

Day 2: TBD but potentially Saturday June 6th (Depending on continued
weather, analysis of conditions after Day 1 and arrangements with land
owner)

Purpose: First Pass Clean Up and Infrastructure removal

Time: 10am-5pm

Volunteers on Site: We need all hands on Deck!!!!

Note: Additional details will follow but expect this to be more challenging
than previous year line sweeps.

Day 3-?: Follow on dates to complete clean up will be determined as needed.

I understand how difficult the conditions this year were on everyone and I
appreciate your understanding and patience as we work out how to deal with
the aftermath. I am always amazed by Burners and the desire to jump in and
help!
-wrinn

2015 Site Sign Off AF

Update 5:50PM Tuesday May 26th

The last dozen volunteers are readying to leave Aquapolis (Apache Pastures).  They are closing and locking the gate behind them.

About 10 minutes ago, our volunteers had to turn away someone wanting to go through their camp.

Please don’t be that person who needs rescue with no one there to help. Please do not trespass on private property.

Weather permitting, folks would be able to come out and get their stuff this weekend Saturday, May 30th. A possible second work week-end to wrap things up is in the works.  Stay tuned…

-=t

For AAR, LLC

Patrick Boyd
Trevor Goodman
Noreen Long
Thomas Monclova
Adam Rice

Update 1:50PM Tuesday May 26th

Nearly everyone is out.  At this point, no one needs to head to Aquapolis (Apache Pastures).

Our volunteers are still pulling cars out and onto the roads.  We are down to some 30 people left.

We will be organizing the actual clean-up on Saturday, May 30th.  There is a chance another work week-end will be needed to finish the Leave No Trace work ahead.

Stay tuned to www.BurningFlipside.com for details.

Thank you!

-=t

For AAR, LLC

Patrick Boyd
Trevor Goodman
Noreen Long
Thomas Monclova
Adam Rice