Early Build Team Orientation

Take care of yourself, first

• Don't work on build when you're not sorted out
  • food
  • bathroom
  • rest
  • shade
  • sunscreen
  • water
  • electrolytes
  • gloves
  • hat (wear hat at all times)
• Work at 75% speed; it's hotter and difficult than you're used to. That could mean 15 min break per hour or just work a little bit slower than you think
• Take a pickle / nap break at any time. No penalty. Don't be a hero
• Hopefully we have Gayflower or other water by Wednesday end-of-day for first shower
• Don't work on EMT without gloves (your hands will get chapped and not recover all week)
  • I actually like three layers: moisturizer, nitrile gloves, then work gloves

Work smart

• Set up tables and chairs in the shade for detailed work
  • don't "save time" by squatting in the dirt to do something
• Set up tool stations first so everything is at hand and you can always find things
• When setting up lights, DMX, DJ gear, etc, set up a bunch of tables and lay it all out first. Get it working on the tables before dragging it up and installing it
• One of our first priorities is to set up the kink fort - a shade structure that is well protected against wind and dust - and get some AC, lights, tables and chairs in there. This will serve as our hangout and refuge, where we take meals and cook, etc. until more infrastructure is assembled.

Work clean

• If something is out and not being used, put it away before doing anything else
• Assume wind storm at any minute. Nothing is ever lying around that won't survive a windstorm. 
  • The only things that survive a windstorm: milk crates of hardware and closed black & yellows
  • Anything else should be out if and only if you can carry it inside by yourself in one trip
• Always keep all the tool battery packs charging up
• Carry a moop bag at all times
• Don't just have random milk crates of shade hardware lying randomly around the camp
  • This results in people walking around for hours looking for, say, a lag screw
  • Just keep a single, neat row of milk crates with the hardware you need next to where we are building shade right now.
  • Take the time to get a new crate from the Empire Fort if you run out
  • Take the time to move the crates when the place where you are working changes
  • Take the time to move empty crates back to the Empire Fort

Save water

• Clean dishes using a paper towel first instead of rinsing them
• Use the RV dishwasher instead of running a lot of water to wash dishes

Work safe

• Never attach a tarp to anything other than a fully anchored & ratcheted EMT structure.
• Use two people on two ladders to bungee tarps, so they don't turn into sails
• Always bungee with gloves on or risk injury 👹

Team Vocab

• "Sticks" - EMT
• "Hangers" - EMT anchor things
• "Lag bolts" - Lag Screws
• "Black & Yellow" - one of those totes from home depot
• "Have a pickle and a nap" - you're cranky, take a break
• "The bus" - the RV

Hard EMT Lessons From Past Years

• Five-ways must all be oriented the same way: so that you can look at the man through the hollow pipe
  • otherwise they won't line up
• Take time to line up sticks by eyeballing them carefully with a friend moving them to align them, before you drill them into the ground
  • Errors will compound and eventually something won't work
• Measuring exact ground tarp overlaps shown in the plans is not optional
  • It is important that the sticks drill into the tarps to anchor them to the ground properly
• Don't even think of attaching a tarp until the EMT structure is complete
• Wrap each ratchet around its stick twice so it won't twang in the wind
  • but not so many times that it doesn't provide tension
• Wrap up excess ratchet slack and tuck away so it doesn't make a dune collector / tripping hazard
• Sloped tarps facing the wind must be fully tensioned, so they don't become sails
• Sloped tarps should be anchored to the ground via bungees, not just drilled directly
  • to prevent extreme noise in the wind
• Don't over tighten eye bolts. Fingers are enough.
  • they will snap off. Eye bolts are not for strength, just for keeping things in shape until the tarps go up.
    
• If we get sand dunes blown up on the tarps during build week, don't try to blow them off with a leaf blower.
  • this will take all week. Instead use a broom and brush bulk sand into pans and remove.
• Use the same size bungee cord along each edge of a tarp
  • otherwise the longer ones will just fall out
  • we have different size bungee cords and the color is not a code.
• Secure bungees on all four corners first (and nearby holes if possible) to balance tension and avoid tearing or overstretching bungees.
• Use red bungees in public areas. They're pretty.

Weather 

• We're likely to have heavy wind at some point during build week.
  • While it is possible to put down ground tarps and put up shade tarps in the wind, it's 10 times harder. Think about whether we can do something else instead.
• The afternoon is super hot.
  • Look for things you can do in the shade in the afternoon.
    
• Rain sucks
  • We'll have to stop everything and wait for it to dry
  • Walking in the mud is a disaster, resulting in churned up playa that is bumpy, collects moop, and becomes dust dunes. Don't walk in camp if the ground is wet.

Build Schedule and Cadence

• My dream schedule would be
  • waking up at 6 or 7 am,
  • having a light breakfast,
  • working a lot in the morning while it's still cool,
  • having a big lunch
  • having a little bit of a siesta in the shade during the hottest part of the day
  • quitting by 5pm or 6pm
  • enjoying a leisurely dinner
• If we are fully on track and have caught up with the day's plan by dinner time, you can use the evenings to meet neighbors, explore art projects, and just generally enjoy playa and recharge.
  • Celestial Bodies has "bartender training" Friday and Saturday night
  • It is fun to take a field trip to see DMV inspection (Saturday it opens at 1pm)
  • Art projects may be in the weeds and really appreciate volunteers
    
• We should only consider working after dinner:
  • on the first night if we don't have a place to sleep and eat set up in time, or,
  • if an external dependency requires it (e.g. a delivery arrives) - rare, or,
  • if we are more than a day behind
• We do want to finish the public pavilion, DJ gear, and lights by Saturday midnight for our first party
• That said, if we get behind on everything else, most turtles will arrive on Saturday and with all that manpower we can finish things quickly.
  • As things fall behind just say "leave it for the turtles." They need some experience building anyway.

Teams

• I've attempted to divide the schedule into roughly three teams and each team will have a leader for the day.
  • Leader may change
• You can switch what team you are working on, or go help another team, if that makes sense. 
  • Sometimes a team is blocking on another team and they should just help the team they are blocking on. Use yer brains
• Every night we'll go over the plan for the next day and assign teams.
• We'll also assign chefs for the meals. Most of our meals are pretty easy to prepare but some take a few hours so those chefs may leave work early.

Turtle Spirit

• If you see a turtle doing something, just help them
• At the end of every meal, everyone swarms to clean up and nobody stops cleaning up until the dining area and RV kitchen are restored to their original glory
• Nobody should come into our camp without being greeted
  
• Keep the music going!
• Let's line up and cheer the arrivals when the bus gets in on Saturday