2019 Festival Committee Meeting – Nov 29, 2018

Charity

• Want to present “big check” donation to AZDS during a ceremony during festival
• Michele Laye will present to them
• Diane wants to put it in program schedule – i.e. allocate a time slot

Sponsorship (Russ)

• Sponsor sheet has same dollar value as last year?  Yes
• What about online registration for sponsorship?  use paper for now, no real traction for sponsorship that would warrant time investment to create online registration
• Colorado Sponsor – reached out to Russ
  • Bean Beverage – worked with Sprouts and Ability360
  • were waiting for us to meet to discuss their proposal
  • They would like to sponsor _and_ also get a Vendor Booth
  • They are looking at a named sponsorship – $5k
  • we can waive the vendor fee if thats the case
• Wells Fargo sponsorship packet
  • They requested feedback on how their sponsorship money was spent- Russ couldn’t figure out how to fill out the survey, so gave up
  • They are planning to bring the wagon again
  • Wanting to do something with the Kidz
• Toyota
  • check came in as a single check for both boat registration + sponsorship
  • we need to notify them to clearly itemize how the money should be split up
  • Heads up for Treasurer to be on lookout for combination checks like this

Entertainment (Ronnie Sebastian)

• n/a

Creative (Ash)

• n/a

Media and Publicity (Jordy/Russ)

• Jordy presented new Festival flyers –
  • will tweak to make AZDBA more prominent;  want to make it easy for people to remember what to google when they get back to their computers
  • Jordy will play with a few adjustments and send out revision to committee
  • We need to put them up all around lake – Tempe Marketplace would be a good place to blanket
• Budget for Creative/Publicity/Advertising is $11k
  • bulk of this will go towards medals
  • We should advertise with Phoenix Magazine (got Best of AZ this year)
  • We should purchase ads in New Times – not that expensive.. Jordy to reach out to them to find out cost
• Russ will reach out to Channel 3, Fox, etc.. and see what we can do to publicize with them

Website (Ben) / Social Media (Betty)

• Everything updated as of right now except Volunteer Packet-
  • Des: need to get insurance approval before we can get the Jot Form up
  • The volunteer info packet will be the same, just need to change the year to 2019, can do all of that at once as soon as insurance is approval is final
• Festival Merchandising from Excel – Auntie Dianne needs to talk to Steve to get more info
• Only other thing is the finalize Teams/Registration/Divisions, and any changes to rules

Team Party (Jordy)

• Planning to have at Dave and Busters this year – kid friendly
• In addition to Food and Drinks, they will throw in $10 game cards
• Might be a little bit pricier than last year, but will be a lot more fun
• By next meeting will have a lot better idea of the cost

Vendors  (Desiree/Rik)

• Big AZ promotions is in this year (Not going with Classic – they moved to CA)
• Lulu’s Italian Ice is in
• Rik
  • We sent out 6 inquires (all of last year’s vendors were notified – got 2 responses so far)
  • Have 12 total now
  • Snow Cone/Shave Ice Vendors
    • we have 4-5 now
    • Snow Cone Avalanche is in
    • Glacier Snow
    • Joe Snow Cone
  • Will make final selections in January
  • Layout?
    • Des will send Rik the layout from last year – worked well
  • Security Deposits
    • required in case vendors dont clean up after themselves after the festival
    • will hold it, then just send them back, once verify they cleaned their area
    • Last year, Des just handed their check back on Sun PM at end of festival – saved a stamp and time to mail

Insurance/Permits (Desiree)

• Permits done
• Insurance – just waiting for confirmation from them we are approved
  • will update the waiver forms once we receive confirmation
  • Everyone will receive email notification whenever Google Sheet is updated.  This will happen for
    • vendor registration
    • team registrations
    • expect a LOT of spam

Facilities/Security (Desiree)

• We will have overnight security guards for Friday night and Saturday night
• We will have 2 security guards for Saturday (Day) and Sunday (Day)

Parking/Transportation (Ronda)

• Ronda to secure ASU Lot 59 for March 30 & 31, 2019
• Kwok wants to do RFID for parking only (can’t get vol;teers for Corp)
• Signs last year worked Ok
• Need more A-Frames(sandwich boards), they are running low – can we buy a few  more?
• Need about 50 parking cones.. or as many as we can get
• City of Tempe Parking Lot
  • we will close Marina parking lots on Wed night (we will have Marina lot from Thurs onwards through weekend)
  • On Thurs, we will start tagging cars and leave notice that their cars will be towed if they are not moved
  • Russ will make signs/flyers for cars – will have a week in advance- need double amount of signs
  • Will start coning off empty spaces on Thursday

Volunteers (Desiree/Aunty Dianne)

• Des waiting for insurance to be approved, then will update Jot Registration Form
• Will update volunteer packet and registration form at same time on website
• volunteer packet info will be same, just need to update year to 2019

City of Tempe (Ryan)

• Has taken over for Alicia, his first festival at the helm
• Requests
  • Does he have contact for cleaning people?  dumpster not being emptied (Ryan has already put in the request)
  • Overgrowth of weeds right in front of main gate (west side)
  • Dumpter owner
    • need to make sure they come out on Friday, and empty it just before festival
    • dumpster needs to be emptied on Saturday night, then again on Sunday after festival, otherwise trash will overflow
    • corp teams will produce a lot of trash, so Saturday night emptying is esp important
  • Parking for Adaptive Needs? Ronda…
    • Yes, we need it, but Ronda will find out by next meeting what the total number of spots needed will be
• Concerns
  • New construction on west side of Rural- when will that be open?  They might try to invade our parking spots, so we need to find out
  • What about the UHaul and Best Western areas:  Does Ryan know of any plans for these areas?  Ryan will find out

Team Hotel Accommodations (Desiree)

• Baymont Suites will be closed for renovation, so we will most likely cross them off the list
• Best Western has changed ownership – holding our rooms and contracts
• AC Hotel (Marriott)
  • Near water
  • nice big luxurious rooms
  • They offered to open more rooms if Baymont falls through
• Baymont Wyndam might also be an option (holding that in back pocket)
• Lots of teams like to do AirBNB, so demand of rooms might be less this year

Teams/Registration (Michele/Julie)

• Website is incorrect: Change Youth Division age to 8-14 yrs old (currently its 8-12 yrs old)
• High School – remove age restriction completely as High School kids can be held back(older) or advanced (younger)
• Remove Juniors for now until next meeting- need to decide if we are going to have a Juniors/Elite Division (< 18 yrs old)
  • if we do it, will probably be $350 early bird and $450 regular, and they would race 500m
  • depending on number of teams we get (not enough for separate heat), we may need to race them with Open, Mixed, or Women’s Divisions, but not Collegiate
  • Whatever we charge, we need to at least cover the cost of the medals
    • 3 teams medal in a Division x 25 medals = 75 medals
    • Each medal between $3-$4, so total would be $275
  • Des: lets table the discussion until December meeting, review proposals/possibilities then, then make a decision
• BCS – need to decide what qualifications we want to place on BCS paddlers – currently we state have to be a Breast Cancer Survivor, may change
• Corporate
  • There was a mistake in the October Meeting Minutes
    • Its states we are making Corp use Festival Equipment – THIS IS NOT CORRECT
    • We are allowing Corp teams to use whatever they want – we will not police equipment … too difficult
  • Kwok does  not want to do RFID as he can’t get enough volunteers to pass off the work to
  • Biggest RFID Glitches from last year’s festival
    • Toyota registered 3 teams, but at last min couldn’t get enough for 3rd team, so they had to mix up paddlers from Boats #1 and #2, and the rosters were completely turned upside down
    • Wells Fargo were switching up their paddlers all day long, after some paddler dropped, some left early, etc…

On the Water

• N/A

On the Land

• N/A

Start/Finish Line

• Timing Tent (Eric)
  • N/A

BCS

• N/A

Boat Equipment

• We have a full quiver of 20 boats now that the new festival boats have arrived and put into storage
• We have enough PFDs
• Paddles (wooden festival paddles)
  • We have a shortage
  • We need 480 paddles (plus few extras) – need to ask the board for $4k
    • Set of 120 (6 boats x 20 paddlers) in water/racing
    • Set of 120 on docks/heading out to start line
    • Set of 120 in Marshaling Tent
    • Set of 120 in Pre-Marshaling (paddlers standing around on hill who like to take paddles prematurely… even tho told not to)
• Paddles (CF) to Rent from Kwok/Eclipse
  • Julie:  Kwok said his rentals aren’t really worth it, since he has a hard time selling used paddles afterwards
  • Kwok might limit each team a set of 5 or some number that needs to be determined

Julie

• BCS paddler recently passed away on Tuesday – can we do something for them?   Maybe too early in grieving process? let some time pass
• will Ryan be there both days Sat and Sun?  Yes
• More people have moved into the Condo area
  • Has the City gotten any complaints about the noise levels- e.g. early AM drumming/noise?  Ryan: haven’t received any comments

Aunty Dianne

• We are lucky to have Ryan onboard!!

Thursday, December 13, 2018 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at McFate Brewing Company, 1312 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257