2019 Festival Committee Meeting – Jan 17, 2019

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

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

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

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?

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