2019 Festival Committee Meeting – Jan 17, 2019

Date / Time:

January 17, 2019, 6:00PM

Location:

McFate’s Brewery, 1312 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257  6:30pm – 8:30pm

Attendees:

Desiree Simmons, Michelle Laye, Jordy Mosely, Ben Choi, Laura Rasmussen, Eric Tang, Julie Hensley, Ash Lagazo, Aunty Dianne, Sharon Sebastian, Ronnie Sebastian, Rick Elias

Scheduled Absence:

Gary Cumberland, Russ Downs, Rick Gay

General

Public Relations Director (Russ)

Charity

  • BCS paddler – Karen Root Radke
    • Husband is good with whatever we are planning for Karen’s memory
    • Can we name the BCS race after her?  Yes
    • Can we also add something to the program in her memory?  Yes

Sponsorship (Russ)

  • Wells Fargo sponsorship packet
    • Steve no longer in charge – a new person (female) is in charge of the team
    • Russ needs to fill out grant documentation by Jan 31, 2019 for their team/boat registrations + sponsorship
    • Michele and Ash were (inadvertently) CC’ed on their team communication – WF is working to get their teams and volunteers together for this year’s festival
  • Toyota
    • They do the same thing as Wells Fargo (team registration + sponsorship to AZDBA)

Entertainment (Ronnie Sebastian)

  • Haven’t started yet (normally start in January), but 2 groups have already approached her about performing in this year’s festival
  • Des asked if we can get the Japanese Drum Group back.. for the same price?  Yes, we can
  • Des asked if we can get the Monk?  Yes

Creative (Ash)

  • Medals
    • Hasty Awards (hastyawards.com) has completed the Artwork Concept- Ash passed it around the festival committee to review – lots of oooohs and aaaaahhhhs
    • Started the artwork in October
    • Need to submit art by Jan 9, 2019
    • $3.59 per (die-cast) medal (our cost)

Media and Publicity (Jordy/Russ)

  • Jordy completed the tweaks to the Festival flyers –
    • ready for printing and posting
    • will give a electronic PDF version to Ben for website download
  • Russ wants to do publicity using Bill Boards ($2500)
    • That might get us 1 day of advertising 2 weeks before the festival
    • overwhelming response was that this is too expensive and not effective
    • Des told Russ to take it out of $11k budget if really want to do that
    • Eric suggested we hire a high-school kid to do sign-flipping on a street corner for $5/hour- might be more cost effective and get same amount of interest.

Website (Ben) / Social Media (Betty)

  • Des said the Corporate information needs to be consolidated – Ben to review and make the modifications
  • Ben to add the Youth information as a new Division
    • < 18 years old
    • $300 / $400 (verify with Julie/Des)
  • Julie to send Ben updated requirements for BCS division

Team Party (Jordy)

  • Dave & Busters
  • Set a max of $30/head, but their final estimate came out to $42/head
  • Their $10 play card ended up at $20.69 when they tacked on extras: $3 activation + $5 unlimited play + $2.69 unlimited soda
  • They offered $12.69 for $10 play card  + unlimited soda

Operations Director (Desiree)

Vendors  (Desiree/Rik)

  • They are trickling in a little at a time; taking them in as we go along

Insurance/Permits (Desiree)

  • Insurance
    • Laura R has sent $450 to Diane at the Insurance Co. and she knows the check is in the mail.
    • Once the check has been received and the Insurance Release has been approved, the Volunteer Waiver can be posted

Facilities/Security (Desiree)

  • Porta-Potties
    • We are no longer using A1
    • We are going through United Rentals this year
  • Marshalling Area
    • Rick suggested we move the Marshalling tents down a bit, so that some Pop-Up tents can be set up for Steers/Drummer volunteers to hang out there
    • Des gave feedback that we did that last year, and Puppy said no one used them

Parking/Transportation (Ronda)

  • Des wanted to know what the ASU Lot 59 situation was, but Ronda was not present
  • Des said as far as she knew Kwok was still committed to providing RFID for parking scanner

Volunteers (Desiree/Aunty Dianne)

  • Des will update Jot Registration Form on website once Insurance Release has been approved/received
  • Aunty Diane meeting with Steve (Excel) about t-shirts (they will be Magenta/Pink)

City of Tempe (Ryan)

  • Ryan was not present – no updates

Team Hotel Accommodations (Desiree)

  • Met with Mariott- opening up new rooms in Scottsdale
  • Giving Des more rooms at A-Loft- once confirmed, we can update the website
  • Ref (official) rooms will be given

Race Director (Gary-absent / Julie representing)

Teams/Registration (Julie)

  • Juniors
    • 3 teams are committed to festival- Gary ready to go with Juniors Division with these 3 teams
    • Ben to update website with Juniors info – under 18 / $300EB/$400/RB- Julie to confirm rates
    • Ash asked if they are willing to race both days or just one day?
      • if 1 day, then they will only have 2 races (1 seeding, then finals)
      • if 2 days, then can have up to 4 races
  • BCS
    • Julie will send Ben updates for the website as to requirements for BCS teams

Corporate (Michele)

  • Captains and Coaches Meeting (Michele)
    • Michele will be setting this training meeting up in January, most likely at the Baymont
  • Drummers (Julie);
    • highly recommend (STRONGLY SUGGEST) that each company train a drummer for their boat; we can always draft someone if they can’t find someone, but we should get them to at least try to find someone
    • Des likes the idea but would like to make that applicable only to “tenured” crews (crews that have been in at least 4-5 festivals)
    • Michele is trying to get kids to do it;  Ash said she doesn’t want kids to be blamed for situations if things should go wrong
  • Paddles from Kwok (Julie/Des)
    • Kwok changed his mind and will be renting paddles this year after all
    • Will have 100 paddles / Each Corp team allowed to rent up to 6 paddles
    • Additional Rules
      • Teams will have a time period (e.g. Feb 1 – 28) to RSVP their 6 paddles;  After that, any Corp team can claim/rent the extras (gives opportunity for everyone to have equal access to paddles)
      • Des will give Arin/Burnwater same opportunity to do same (rent paddles to Corp), but doesn’t think he will take offer
    • Des wants everyone to have same opportunity, while not forcing them to do so.. but they can rent if they want
    • Michele said she would contact the teams to let them know these paddles are available for rent
    • Des also wants rules on paddles – e.g. what happens if team breaks them?   Kwok says if they break they break… so what?
    • Des said Gary offered to help Kwok with wording together for Paddle Rental rules
    • Des also said Kwok offerred to put together Jersey orders in for Corporate team.

Steerspersons

  • Julie/Gary discussed and they are in favor of having steers assigned to the boats (not teams)
    • 6 would be in the water/racing at any given time
    • 6 would be marshalling or at docks (preparing to head out) at any given time
    • if a team had their own steer, then we could accomodate that, but in general:  steers assigned to boats
  • Next step: we need to identify who our “pool” of steerspersons will be
  • Rick wanted to send a letter to entire AZDBA community.  The gist of the letter is:
    • We need help – call for steers to step-up for corp practices and races
    • Ask teams to provide their steers more time on water/practice
    • Rick wants to offer another class in Jan’19
    • Concerns:
      • Who is going to certify them for race day?  Just because they are certified doesn’t mean they are ready to steer for festival
      • Don’t want newbie steersperson for Corporate: if they have a bad experience, they won’t ever come back
      • Eric gave some feedback that one corporate boat actually filed a complaint about a steersperson who messed up one of their races (Eric’s response: shit happens)
  • Des suggested putting Ronda in charge of Steers pool so that they can decide who’s ready and who’s not- let her make the call

On the Water

  • N/A

On the Land

  • Julie sent out a letter to Jack and Dr. Joel, waiting for a response
  • Eric wanted to know if Puppy is under contract
    • Des confirmed that he is coming
    • Ash said he asked about accomodations in AZ

Start/Finish Line

  • Timing Tent (Eric)
    • N/A

Round Table

Eric

  • Do we want to adopt IDBF rules for crews – e.g. min 8 women / 8 men?  No, would be too much extra bureacracy

Ash

  • Do we want to put additional restrictions for Youth Crews like we do with Mixed and Collegiate as to min/max males/females?

Next Meeting

Thursday, January 17, 2019 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at TBD location

Meeting adjourned at 7:39 PM.

Submitted by: Ben Choi