2025

Docs related to preparation for Burn 2025

Agendas


Apr 23rd, 2025

Attendees: Jon C, John B, Alejandro R, Brooke D, Ed H., Christophe L.

tldr:

Walk through of Shift Lead role instructions. Reminder on food sensitivities. Food sensitivity survey to go out end of current week.

Can expect 6 hours of Turtle labor during food shifts. Some meals might possibly be assigned an extra turtle if they require extra labor, but you should expect 6 hours labor total.

Walk through of Meal Planning Spreadsheet and critical tabs (2025 Meals).

Run through of Food Fort equipment photos and previous year's equipment list.

Reno work weekend team: Alejandro, Brooke, Michael S, John B

Meeting notes:

Follow ups: To do for next meeting (3rd week of May):

Apr 6th, 2025

Overview of tasks and roles before the Burn (see below from Feb 26th).

Expressed interest to participate: Martin (NYC), Ben Schmid, Adam, Edouard, Brooke D, Sean L, Ed (via Alex)

Next steps:

Feb 26th, 2025

Attendees: Romain D, Alejandro R, Will S, Jon C, Sean E

Introductions

Meet and greet

Roles and Tasks

Food team members: pick 2

Shift Lead: leads ~3 meal shifts on playa, working with a team of 2-3 sous chefs to deliver a delicious experience. Responsible for choosing the meal, scoping the required ingredients for ordering and laying out the recipe ahead of time

Work Weekend / Build Week: attend one of the off-Playa events to help get Food Team ready! Primarily will be Reno Work Weekend and Build Week

Czar Roles: take a leadership role in either executing or improving a critical food team function!

Czar Roles

Build Week:

Food Fort Driving and Testing Czar: test all key components of food fort and drive it to Playa

Procurement Czar: ensures all the ingredients, equipment and stuff food team needs gets ordered and makes it to Playa

Advance Prep Czar: ensures we have prepped as much of the shift work before getting to Playa as possible, working across ingredients sourcing and if necessary an advance prep team function during build week

Planning:

Recipes Czar: ensures complete meal recipes (following last year’s template) are collected from shift leads, compile a recipe book with 4 copies of each recipe to bring to Playa

Training Czar: develop and roll out a training plan for food team members on key food fort processes (propane, water, griddle, sinks, cleaning)

Ingredients Czar: ensures ingredients for meals are correctly formatted and are compiled into a master order list for Build Team

Supplies Czar: review current supplies list and identify any additional equipment and supplies required for BM’25. 

Dry Snacks Czar: review and update the shelf stable snacks list 

Kitchenette Czar: develop and organize a new freely accessible kitchenette in the dining area for Turtles to reheat 

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Czar: ensure food fort, fridge, kitchenette, snacks is organized and develop standard operating process for how food fort and food spaces are left between shifts. Signage


Food Team Initiative Ideas for BM’25



Pre-preparing ingredients


Reconfigure shift responsibilities to relieve food shift duration


Operation Flexible Dinner



Food Team Roles

This doc provides an overview of the various of roles for the Food Team who help plan and prepare everything food related for the Burn. It is also intended to act as a reference guide for what needs to get done by each role in a concise but comprehensive way.

The three buckets of roles for Food Team Turtles are: Food Shift Lead, Food Czar, and Reno Advance Team.

Some helpful reference docs are compiled here:

Master Planning Spreadsheet

Turtle Recipe Book

Food Training Doc

Standard Operating Procedures Guides (to come)

Food Shift Lead

The Food team prepares and serves 19 meals over the course of the Burn (from Friday dinner through to Strike Dinner on Sunday). Each meal is planned and led by 1 shift lead with the assistance of 2-3 Turtle chefs.

Food Shift Leads should plan to lead 2 or 3 meals.

Planning for a meal consists of:

Leading a shift meal consists of:

Meal choices will be coordinated during 2-3 Food team meetings in the Spring and early Summer before the Burn. We collaborate out of the Master Planning Spreadsheet.

Meetings serve to ensure meal choices are appropriate for the Camp and feasible within the constraints of the Playa. They are a helpful way to prevent any SNAFUs when we're miles from civilization :)

Food Czar

Food Czars lead a workstream, station or initiative. Food Czars do not necessarily do everything required for that division, but they are responsible for ensuring it is done.

Food Czar roles are tentative and may change in the lead up to the Burn and from year to year. Some Czar roles may be consolidated in the lead up to Burn.

Czar Role Description Turtle
Facilities and Training Czar

Final expert in all things Food Fort operations (equipment and facilities). Ensures Food Turtles are all trained on safety and SOPs.

Ensures before (turning on gas, preparing dining room for service, how to lay out food in buffet, etc.) and after (cleaning griddle, turning off gas, etc.) shift checklists are ready for posting in Food Fort, as well as day before Shift Lead checklist (are meats out to thaw, etc.)

Alejandro R
SOP and Recipes Czar

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and documentation. Ensure food fort, fridge, kitchenette, snacks is organized and develop standard operating process for how food fort and food spaces are left between shifts. Lots of Signage.

Ensures complete meal recipes (following last year’s template) are collected from shift leads, compile a recipe book with 4 copies of each recipe to bring to Playa.

 

Ben S: Recipes printing and bring to playa (need 4 copies of each)

Ben B, Christophe: signage while at food build week

Ben S

Christophe

Operation Kitchenette Czar

Defines the new Health Snacks and self-serve Turtle Kitchenette in the Dining Area. Define and roll out process for Operation Dinner Freedom.

Signage and instructions for Kitchenette (what equipment goes to kitchenette, how to clean and maintain, how to manage 

Ben B

Dry Snacks Czar

Plan the dry snacks ordering list.

Organize and prepare Turtle self-serve dry snacks station.

Ensure hot snacks: frozen burritos, sandwiches, etc (figure out w Kitchenette)

Ben B
Master Planning Spreadsheet Czar

Ensure spreadsheet linking and formulas work, especially ingredients.

Ensure ingredients for meals are correctly formatted and compile into a master order list for Reno Build Team.

Update supplies list based on Reno Work Week inventory and collate additional equipment and supplies required for ordering.

Christophe
Operation Advance Prep Czar Defines and leads the effort to pre-prepare ingredients and meal components prior to the Burn to minimize Food Shift labor once the Burn begins. Work with ingredients and Reno Build Week team to implement ideas. Will likely require being at Reno Build Week.

Christophe

Procurement Czar Ensures all the ingredients, equipment and stuff that Planning scopes are ordered and loaded for entry to Playa. Requires being at Reno Build Week.

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Christophe

Food Fort Driving and Testing Czar Test all key components of Food Fort and ensures it arrives to Playa on time and in one piece! Requires being at Reno Build Week. Sean E

Reno Advance Team

There are two group Turtle occasions in the Spring and Summer where a few Turtles are on the ground to audit, verify and prepare the Food Team for success on Playa: Reno Work Week and Reno Build Week.

Advance Teams have one designated lead and Turtles supporting the effort.

Reno Work Week (May 9th-11th)

Reno Work Weekend is our first opportunity to get eyes on the Food Fort, gather intel for the Food Team that plans, and perform testing and maintenance to get ahead of any issues ahead of the Burn.

Key Tasks:

Reno Build Week (August 18th-23rd)

Simultaneously to Build Week team arriving on Playa and building camp, a Food Advance Team goes to Reno to prepare the Food Fort, acquire supplies, and make any last preparation and 

On Friday some of the Reno Build Week team head to Playa along with the Food Fort to join Build Team and prepare Food Fort for all Turtles arrival Saturday.

Key tasks:

Reno Work Weekend Brief

The goals of Food Team at Work Weekend are to clean, to inventory, and to test equipment to scope any necessary repairs.

Reno Work Weekend Team: Alejandro, John, Brooke, Ben

Clean and Inventory

Cleaning and inventory can be bundled into one task and will be described together.

Task list:

As you are going through the process of taking and fulfilling inventory, wipe down and clean surfaces, equipment and the Food Fort as it sensible and logical. The Food Fort should be in pretty good shape following the 2024 Burn (fingers crossed, knock on wood, hoping I don't jinx it) and the cleaning should be straightforward, but you will be able to evaluate the situation once you are on the ground and have eyes on the truck.

Testing

Part of the task during Build Week will be to ensure the Food Fort is fully operational and to order and coordinate any necessary repairs before driving it into Playa. If we know about issues or broken equipment earlier (e.g. now) this is very helpful in giving us more time to have the issues addressed without the panicked rush of the impending Burn.

It is not strictly necessary to test every item in the Food Fort. The items are listed by dependency and are in order from the most important to least important to test. By test we mean ensure that the equipment will power on / run once plugged in.

Electricity:

Requires hooking up the generator. The generator should be inside the Food Fort.

To test:

The freezer and the ice machine are both highly liable to breakage and have a history of breaking down in the year between Burns and sometimes also on Playa. If all you can test and verify are these items, it will be a win.

Propane:

The Food Fort should have two propane tanks attached to it, of which at least one should have propane. It should be relatively straight forward to get the propane hooked up and turned on although it requires someone who knows how. Alejandro may remember from '24 Burn or ask for help from someone at Work Weekend.

To test:

Water:

This will be the most difficult utility to connect as it requires getting a hose up to the truck and hooked in. If possible, it's a very nice to have. Imagine the heroic stories you will tell if it works!

To test:

Following testing:

Log what was possible to hook in and achieve, what was tested, the results of testing and any repairs required.

Resources

You can find instructions for operating many appliances and food fort systems here as a first line of information.

You will likely have questions and run into snags and need help from experienced Turtles. Even experienced Turtles don't know everything and they themselves may need extra help. When you need help, the following points of contact are yours. They are listed in first line of support first and then in escalation order:

Also - Me! (Christophe) I'm available all weekend for you to reach out and will be monitoring Discord to the extent any activity is there. If you need to reach me my number is 415-269-1339. Don't get stuck, don't hesitate to reach out.

Food Build Week Logistics

Currently planned for:


Arrival Date Airbnb Slot Confirmed? Food Fort Friday BRC Arrival Slot Confirmed? Notes
Christophe Monday
BennyB Monday
SeanE Wednesday
Will Monday
Peter Monday
Alex Willis Tuesday
Matty Tuesday
Dimitri Wednesday
AlexS Friday NOT FOOD
Alejandro Friday NOT FOOD