Greeters experienced one of their best years in 2013, primarily due to a solid core staff of volunteers.
Formerly known by the rather pedestrian and nondescript moniker of “collated materials”, the Tip Sheet, the What? Where? When? playa events calendar guide, and the BRC map – that the Greeters distribute to each arriving participant – were re-christened more fittingly as “Acculturation Materials”.
The Greeters Collation and Build team of 35 hit the ground running pre-event on Friday the 16th. Well, perhaps there were a few stumbles along the way, but the bulk of the Greeters Station and Greeters Camp were up and running by Sunday night. (The Collation teams started their work a day late due to the late delivery of the printed Acculturation Materials, but were still able to assemble the most packages ever). Working with the Gate staff, we succeeded in a new effort to have the materials distributed starting on Monday pre-event, to the early-arriving setup crews and artists.
Greeters Station officially opened on Thursday the 22nd at noon. Greeter shifts are four hours long and ran 24/7 until closing at midnight Friday the 30th. It is anticipated that Greeting may begin on Monday pre-event next year.
There were more than 300 individual Greeters along with 18 Theme Camps rounding out the Greeting schedule this year. We learned in 2012 that by blending shifts with individual Greeters and Theme Camps that the shifts were better covered.
There were five new beacons added to the Greeter line for a total of 21 open lanes of traffic. Wait times were overall shorter. In 2014, Greeters hope to add express lanes, where veteran, pre-acculturated participants are just handed their packets, given a super-short hello, and then sent on their way.
The cooperation and communication between departments continues to get better and better.
Thank you so much, to all the amazing volunteers.
Submitted by,
Deb Stiers AKA Topless Deb