2019 Community Information Report

2019 was the 15th Myschievia, and the 14th held at Armadillo Acres in Hughes Springs. Our theme this year was We Are Made of Star Stuff, which lent itself beautifully to amazing art, costumes, performances, and of course our amazing Effigy and Temple, along with the burn night spectacular show.

TICKETS AND ATTENDANCE:
For 2019, we sold 855 tickets: 17 child and infant tickets, 521 General Admission tickets, 57 Art Tickets, and 290 Volunteer Incentive tickets. 803 tickets were used for a no-show rate of 6%, on par with the approximate 10% no show rate of years past.

INCIDENTS:
Nature:
The weather this year was temperate for Thursday but turned cold and rainy on Friday. Daytime highs were in the 50s-60s for most of the event, nighttime lows were colder, dropping to the 30s Friday night. This kept most of the insect issues low and the event itself was fairly quiet overnight. Some rain showers were scattered throughout the event, causing some low spots to accumulate water, and there was one reported incident of a stuck vehicle on Hidden Creek Trail.

Medical:
We had one ambulance transport this year, due to a participant choking on food. They were stabilized on site and transported to the local hospital. The vast majority of medical assistance given was for minor lacerations or insect stings. There were a couple of minor injuries. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the busiest days.

Sound:
There were no reported sound complaints from neighboring properties this year. There were few reported sound complaints from within the event. 

Interpersonal:
We had one report of a problematic interaction that led to an ejection this year. As always, if you experienced or witnessed an interaction that resulted in a violation of our Code of Conduct, you can always report that by emailing [email protected].

Fire:
There were no unplanned fire incidents. There was one report of an unattended fire in Degobah that was handled with warnings.

Perimeter:
There was one reported incident of ticketed gatecrashers that arrived after posted gate hours. They were escorted off property until gate reopened and then allowed to attend. There was one other incident of an unticketed person driving down to gate to ask questions, and they left on their own.

CITY:
Work weekends began August 28-29th and continued through all weekends in September. Work weekends were well attended, with an emphasis placed on clearing roads, increased space for shaded camp sites, and felling dangerous trees. New footpaths were cleared connecting Degobah to Hidden Creek Trail, and the safety areas to the top of Hidden Creek Trail. 

We had 57 registered theme camps this year. We also had approximately 50 RVs on property this year, the most we have ever had. RV placement proved to be a bit of a challenge, with RV overflow going into Parking to accommodate everyone. This will need to be creatively addressed in future years, if the numbers continue on the same trends.

Load out for Site Ops equipment was handled Friday 10/4, and had enough volunteers to get quickly loaded and to the property. We could have been more successful with more volunteers for both load out and on site unloading. Clean up of Site Ops gear post event was finished by Monday 10/14 and all equipment was transported back to the warehouse. Unloading of gear post event was very poorly attended, as well as packing of gear post event, with only one other volunteer helping the Site Ops Lead at the warehouse. 

The loan of a large generator for powering the safety tents was somewhat successful. It was not utilized as well as it could have been for some of the event, so future use will have to be reviewed.

ART
There was a lot of ART this year! We had 36 total registered art projects. We gave out 25 art grants this year, funded by Art Ticket sales. The total spent on Art Grants was $7,854! We had a total of 42 art grants applied for, WAY up from 16 applications in 2018. We will have to increase the number of Art Tickets sold for next year!

The Effigy this year was the Sagan Station. It was a beautiful multi-level observation tower with a curved staircase. The META team this year built the entire structure on site in the week leading up to the event, a first for Myschievia, and quite the feat of planning and execution. 

This year’s temple was an Observatory dome with elegant lines and in tradition of Myschievia’s past, was pulled to the Effigy burn scar Sunday morning to burn in a quiet, gorgeous burn on Sunday night.

MEDIA
The media team revamped our website this year and had a running blog, The Echo, that was quite successful at keeping up with Myschievia news and excitement. They published a whopping 34 blog entries this year! You can follow The Echo at ntxb.org. The survival guide was updated and published and featured artwork submitted by the community for our first ever sticker contest!

PARTICIPANTS
Volunteering took on a life of its own this year. We did not have to close down our safety departments during the event this year! We rolled out a new volunteer incentive program to reward people that complete 8 hours of shifts before or during the event by offering a code to purchase a ticket for the 2020 event during a presale window before general sales go live next year. It was quite successful! Overall, Myschievia had 825 Volunteer Shifts; 578 were covered (70%), 155 shifts were signed up for but did not show up to work (18.8%) and 92 shifts had no one sign up and no one covered them (11.15%). There were a total of 3,050 volunteer hours to cover the event. Of those shifts, 774 volunteer hours were considered Graveyard (midnight to 8 AM), and of the graveyard hours, 469 hours were covered and showed up (60.6%), 139 graveyard hours were signed up for but had no shows (18%), and 166 hours had no signup and no coverage (21.45%) 

Parking was in the usual location known as the Bacon Strip and was able to accommodate all vehicles and some added RVs. Most cars were kept off of the event fields with the exception of decorated or disguised vehicles above the lower field. Keeping the lower field clear of vehicles was mostly successful this year.

Earth Guardians report should be forthcoming but overall, the lower field was in great shape post event. All that remained during clean up weekend was one event structure, and mostly flags and pyro debris, in addition to the burn scar clean up. The event was cleared by the landowner by Saturday afternoon, 10/19. 

SAFETY
MEATS: See medical incidents above. Volunteering was good this year. Shift coverage was somewhat light, but only one no show for a shift and MEATS did not have to be shut down at any point during the event.

Sanctuary: 88% of all shifts were covered by 60 volunteers with 412 total hours total worked. 10% of shift hours were picked up on site. Sanctuary encountered 25 documented visitors, 5 of which involved MEATS and 2 involving Rangers. 40% of the visits occured on Sunday. 80% of visitors stayed less than 1 hour. All shifts were well staffed. Sanctuary did not close at any time during the event. We were overwhelmed with generous donations of art supplies and water. Overall, this burn was cold and quiet with a high volunteer turnout and low incident rate.

Rangers: Rangers had volunteers on all shifts, covering close to 90% of total shifts filled! In years past the Ranger department has averaged around 70-80% shift coverage. Ranger teams responded to one major medical incident (and did an AMAZING job securing a perimeter and assisting the outside emergency response teams to navigate the property), one consent violation report, and the unsanctioned shooting of fireworks.

Fire: Fire team had minimally adequate coverage for both Burn Events and could have used more qualified people for rotations. The cool weather assisted in preventing teams from overheating, but in the future, more volunteers will be needed and training will be provided to anyone interested. Fire team also responded to the medical incident and was able to do so quickly thanks to the availability of carts. Minor responses needed throughout the event for unattended fire pits or fire pits without visible extinguishers; reminders to store fuel cans AWAY from generators and exhaust, as well as away from tents due to ventilation risks.