Green Moop Map Camps- Need your Tips Please!

[googbox2]

Well our camp showed up on the 2011 Moop Map... mostly yellow w/ a big ugly red spot right up front. Our first two years we were green. I am reaching out to fellow E-Playans, especially those of you who are part of a large theme camp and successfully de-mooped your space to a green level (congrats!)

Our camp's challenges- We just about doubled in size this year, going from about 50 campers to 100. We got a super awesome location which meant that in addition to our campers, we had hundreds, maybe thousands of guests throughout the week. Don't get me wrong, we LOVED having all the traffic- our camp was interactive and fun and we met so many great people, both camped with us, and those who just came by to get a drink and hang out. A big chunk of the campers who stayed through September 7 to do break down had been on playa since August 19 or 20. So understandably, a little tired. Our camp was comprised of about 1/2 returning members and close friends and the rest were just people who were looking for a cool camp and we had space. They paid their camp dues.

Questions for those of you who have successfully run big theme camps--

1) What is your strategy for De-Mooping and Tear down? How do you get buy in from all campers? Do you have a specific MOOP team or is it more that it's EVERYBODY's responsibility?

2) How do you ensure that you are welcoming to new camp members, maybe camp members who don't live in the same town, state, country as the majority of the camp, but add a fantastic diversity and create new friends in our camp family, while not winding up w/ the majority of the hard work to be done by certain "core members"?

3) What percentage of your camp stays through to the bitter end (tuesday or wednesday after the event) for tear down and de-mooping?


Like I said, I'm looking for best practices from those theme camps who have gotten it down. I'd love to hear how you do it. We're looking at this big yellow spot as a good opportunity to re-visit our organization, infrastructure, and learn lessons that we can apply for next year to be even better. (Green or bust!!)

Thanks!

[The CO]

We just about doubled in size this year, going from about 50 campers to 100. We got a super awesome location which meant that in addition to our campers, we had hundreds, maybe thousands of guests throughout the week.

Those two factors are going to be your biggest challenges.
I have found over the years that when theme camps get so large that the people in charge of them don't actually know everyone in the camp, issues begin to crop up.

That said, to answer your questions:
What is your strategy for De-Mooping and Tear down? How do you get buy in from all campers? Do you have a specific MOOP team or is it more that it's EVERYBODY's responsibility?
1-CONTINUOUS MOOPING BY EVERYONE IN CAMP, ALL DAY EVERY DAY! I'm not addressing the dues thing, that is not the issue. We have a rotating person in charge of MOOP each day, plus everyone should always be on the lookout for MOOP. Leaving no trace starts with not letting it hit the ground. Keep your camp clean at all times, and you'll have less crap at the end.

Assign cleanup patrols, 1-4 times daily, since you have so many people & a high traffic camp. Make that part of dues, make a schedule, whatever works for you guys, but make sure all of your campers know this in advance; that way you can rightfully call them out if they don't do their duty.

How do you ensure that you are welcoming to new camp members, maybe camp members who don't live in the same town, state, country as the majority of the camp, but add a fantastic diversity and create new friends in our camp family, while not winding up w/ the majority of the hard work to be done by certain "core members"?
2-With a camp as large as 100, you're going to have a tough time on that. My camp is limited to about 30-33 max, and newcomers must be well vouched for by vets.

A certain amount of work is always going to be done by a small group of "core" people. Limits on early arrival passes, nature of the organizers/engineers within camp, individuals that just love working. Make sure you use whatever natural leaders in your core group to help corral the rest, maybe put them in charge of daily MOOP squads & give them a chance to show new people how do do it right.

What percentage of your camp stays through to the bitter end (tuesday or wednesday after the event) for tear down and de-mooping?
3-About 35-50 percent. Again, the advantages of a smaller camp.

This thread and this one has some good advice on general theme camp operation & why camp managers are dicks sometimes.

[Bob]

Don't just walk by that used condom -- PICK IT UP!

[Irreverent Moniker]

Don't just walk by that used condom -- PICK IT UP!

With your teeth!

[Risky]

Check out the VIDEO: The Great MOOP March on this page -
http://blog.burningman.com/2011/09/news/moop-map-live-day-4-blazing-sun-biting-flies/

[Bay Bridge Sue]

EVERYTHING set up on heavy canvas tarps. NO PLAYA EXPOSED.

You sweep those more than your kitchen at home, plus do moop sweeps of them as well.

NOTHING hits the ground.

You resweep your tarps after tear down. fold them so the top stays on the inside, and put them in your vehicle.

THEN, you don kneepads, shade hat, gloves, whiskbroom, moop container, etc... and you grid your area, on your knees, 3 times - Radially, longways, and then diagonally. EVERYONE does this. To 2 meters beyond your border, and out to the FAR SIDE of the street.

IF it's not crumbly dry PLAYA DUST it's moop. Period. ANYTHING that doesn't look like hard, cracked playa (remember it should, because it was covered with tarp!) is suspect. Run the whiskbroom thru the dustpiles to make sure nothing's hiding, and then spread it out. I even have a water spray bottle to dampen these back down... But not too much. Repair all water spill scars. EVERY camp member must do this. Takes bout 2-4 hours... per person... but your area is green clean.

We did this religiously every year (and I have no doubt we did so this year, I had to leave early, tho)... And you see someone mooping, you grab them, and make them pick up their shit. Period.

[trilobyte]

It's all about the continuous Mooping. If your camp is cleaning up through the week as it goes, there's no mass of work for the clean-up crew to do.

[trilobyte]

Today's Moop Map Live blog entry has some great info on the top MOOP and how to deal with it. Thanks to The Hun and the whole playa restoration team.

[jkisha]

This jumps right out at me...from past experience, I would say this meant you had 1/2 of your members doing the work of the entire camp. Paying dues is NOT ENOUGH. In fact, it's probably the least important criteria. We stress the importance of PARTICIPATION to all new members and their number one participation is MOOPING followed by doing a shift of serving floats, then last on the list is help with break-down, though this is rarely left to new members. We try to make sure the new members know that being new they will have the lion's share of MOOP patrol and make sure in pre-playa and on-playa meetings they know exactly what is expected. If someone doesn't seem to want to buy into this in the pre-playa meetings/screenings, we don't bother collecting their dues, we just tell them they don't seem like a good fit for our camp. We actually had several people say they only wanted to pay dues and use the "facilities". I have no clue where they ended up camping, but I'd be willing to bet their camp didn't get scored green on the map this year.

Our camp was comprised of about 1/2 returning members and close friends and the rest were just people who were looking for a cool camp and we had space. They paid their camp dues.