Camp No Thank You Follow Up
This is the follow up to my previous post about Camp No Thank You, the concept Flipside camp I came up with a year ago. I started writing this in June but needed time to get it all put together. Now it’s time to do my “How was Burning Man” post and this is hanging over my head. So here’s that post. The camp required a lot of set up and different people played different parts.
The makers:
XT: Idea, consulting, button maker
Pixie: Fellow idea generator of buttons and co-creator of the No Thank You sign.
Russ: Schwag provider. Through hours at tech shop he created all the necklaces that was to be my good prize. He also bought the generator that powered our lights and brought the screens and leds that were our backdrop. In addition he helped with the tech that allowed us to run parts of the sign independent of the other parts of the sign.
PF: Co-creater or the No Thank You sign, builder of the frame that protected it, creator of the sandwich board that was on the ground and explained the rules, and teardown and mooper,
Thursday night was our first night. This was the test, while we figured out if people got it. And they did! When people approached we would ask them to step into the ez up, and tell us their offer. If we wanted the item, then the three judges all had office style bells that we could ding. (Sometimes if more than one of us wanted the item there would be multiple dings and we’d have to figure out who dinged first.) If they finished and there was no immediate ding, then we would go judge by judge while we all considered the offer, then say Camp No Thank You and maybe explain why or ding our bell. If we all say Camp No Thank You, we would say “Please take a prize” and gesture to the table which had our series of buttons. We each had 3 Thank yous to give out a night. If we did say Thank You then these things would happen:
Ding! from the bells
We would walk the person outside the ez up and we would turn off the No in the sign and then use the dimmer to make the Thank You get bright and dark. This alerts the crowd that We have a Winner!
We would put the super duper prize we had created around the neck. The prize was a necklace that said Camp No, Thank You! There were a few different versions but this is the most impressive.
Designed by me and Russ, Lasercut by Russ, and handpainted by Sylkia:
My first thank you was pretty much our first customer, my coworker Nakia. She wound up offering strawberries dipped in a chocolate raspberry sauce. And I was desertless and wanted to give one to her, so she got one. One of my first No Thank Yous was my friend Nobody who walked up and asked if we wanted to see his junk. [Camp no Thank You. Please take a prize.] I don’t remember what my second Thank You was. My last one was my favorite though. Brother Bob was a brother to my friend Jen, and it was his first real Burn event. He had come up and we explained what the concept was. He went away and came back near the end of the night. He came back in and said “I have a multi offer for you”. I offer you sweetness, wisdom, vanity and uselessness. Sweetness: hard candies Wisdom: a button of his with cool words (which now that I think about it he never actually took it off but that’s okay) Vanity: A t-shirt that said Brother Bob Uselessness: 5 cigarettes. Thank You’s that Peter Fuhry took: a lighter attached to a rosary for PF so he could light Pixie’s cigarettes, a tradge lapdance from Joe;; Pixie took: a stamped blank postcard from a girls penpal, a special BFF prize Things I know I said No Thank You to: a full pack of cigarettes, homemade booze, a look at what was under the tentakilt, tequila, clam candies
Penpal Postcard!
No Thank You to What's Under There
Friday night was one of those nights where you have to remember that these events are not the default world and sometimes the elements are stronger than you. It rained (sky opened and the ocean fell rain) all afternoon. I spent that afternoon napping and although I knew the world may be a little bit moist I was ready to get to it. I already knew PF was taking the night off because he was going to go perform somewhere else, but Sarah Science’s boyfriend Tyler was really into the concept and he wanted to be a judge, so he was going to fill in for PF. When I got up Pixie was not in a place to open that night. Their tent had been ransacked by the wind and rain and their tent was a lake and nothing was dry. My wife offered to fill in for Pixie. So already I was going to be opening with 2 people not originally part of this part of the project. But I thought, well maybe that’s part of the magic and it will wind up working. But then there was the issue of gas in the generator. This was my first time ever working with a generator. We were camping separately from the No Thank You setup and stupidly when we used the car to drop off all of the infrastructure for Camp No Thank You, while we left the generator, we did not leave the can of gas. So we had a 5 pound tank of gasoline which was too big to just carry over there. I had known that early in the day and Bustin had said he would drive us over there in his new art car when it was time. The bad part was that when we woke up, we found that the world was mud and the art car wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. So, now I was at no gas and none of the people I intended to do this with. I took myself to my car and put myself in time out for a few minutes and dealt with the fact that I felt powerless. I could ask my boyfriend to grab the cart and drag the gas through the mud in the dark even though it would suck, and I knew my wife would fill in even though there were other things she wanted to do but I decided Camp No Thank You to trying to force it. And one of the lessons I have learned in my many years of burn events is that trying to force it is a bad sign. If the universe is saying no, listen. So I said oh well and decided to spend some fun time with the camp as we went on a walkabout. But I do admit I felt guilt at taking up a good spot location wise and having a full night we weren’t open. However, there was walking and dancing and it felt good to just let go of the option. This was really my big night out so I’m glad I had it.
While on the walkabout we did go by NTY to see if it was blown apart and it had in fact held up very well. I had been trying to think about what I would do if I didn’t have a boyfriend or an art car as has been my station pretty much every year and I thought that I would ask Red Camp our neighbors for help, so we went across to red camp and asked Flash for a gallon of gas so we could work the generator and make sure everything was working. He was so great and did not loan but gave us the gas, and we found it was good and would be ready for the next day. (Flash got one of the few necklaces without having to go through the full process.)
Saturday everything got up and running again, and we had a late night shift (midnight-4am) as we had gone on our rampage earlier that night. and now that we had this down a little better. We had Tyler and Presley as guest 4th judges. I said yes to a patch based on early Burning Man drawings, Pixie said yes to the amazing corn. Pixie gave D.A. a necklace for his sing a long in our camp earlier that day. The Great Wendini came in and made us close our eyes and hold this chicken butt and chant about it being our talisman and light and love. I really appreciated the thought she put into it. My favorite thank you of the night was a violinist who had an led on his bow and we wound up with a crowd watching us and clapping and dancing along. Getting to look out at their faces with the light of the No Thank You sign above it was my “this was all worth it” moment. Pixie got a headache and went to bed. Lisa Joe got the wife Thank You for a tradge light show. Sister Sue was recruiting walker bys and we gave one to a light show. Said no to a scratch of these crazy nailhooks. Peter accepted his first Pickle Back. I didn’t have my phone which was my notetaker so I don’t have records of the other things we said no to. There was a guy who came in and had a briefcase and offered us a warm beer which we said No Thank You too. However, he had this crazy musical instrument and we had him play for us and it was awesome so we tried to teach him the lesson that his talent is better than a warm cheap beer. Said yes to an acknowledgement from Tiara. Said no to dental dams and leaving them there in our space after we said no. Two of my favorite offers we said No Thank You to was one offer of the Shirt off his back and one offer of the tip of the hat.
Patches!
My tradge video of the amazing Corn
ChickenButt
Pickleback!
Sunday night was our final night and we really enjoyed the offerings that night. People really understood what was happening and came prepared. We were offered: Spoken word, (1 yes) , singing (said 1 yes to Monk and his unicorn song) A crazy lady with a full meat platter shook her hips and shoulders and gave us a song about it “You know you’re hungry... You know you want it....” Sadly we were all not hungry and down to our last Thank Yous, so we said Camp No Thank You. She stomped off bitter and said no thank you to our prize buttons. There was a beautiful Princess who blessed us knowing we would say Camp No Thank You, but didn’t do it for the button prize as she said she was only taking yeses that night. We said no to pirate cup the guy had had for 3 flispides. PF had one of my favorite Thank You’s. A girl came up and offered us a beautiful flask with a cigarette case inside of it. She explained that she doesn’t smoke, but she would bring it to burn events and offer them to smokers. Now she has gotten to a point where she doesn’t drink either really, so she was ready to let it go. My final Thank You of the night was from my friend Morgan which would up being an hour and a half footrub and a great conversation. After we closed and turned off the sign and I was sitting there with Morgan people kept trying to come up and play. We got accosted by a unicorn rampage. There was a musician who kept trying to play flute and lute at us, and I finally had to explain we were closed. He replied “I know you’re all out of gratitude.” I agreed I was.
That last night we learned that letting people see that the prize just for trying was buttons made a huge difference. Previous to that night they had all been in little boxes, but the rain had molted the boxes. So that night they were plainly buttons on the table. Suddenly we needed a bouncer to stop people from just walking up and taking the buttons. We explained they had to play for them. So now we know that that having the buttons visible is important. And some sort of barrier so they can’t just take them. Other logistical things we learned: We needed a “Times We’re Open” sign. We needed a white board so we can record what we say yes and no to. The gas for the generator lives where the generator lives. It is easier to have just the judges in the judging area because having other people in there gets confusing for the participants.
Monk teaches us that Unicorns Are Evil
I really got everything out of it I wanted. I definitely want to do it again next year now that we have a handle on it and more other people understand what we’re doing. So I end by saying Thank You to the Flipizens for understanding my art.
The makers:
XT: Idea, consulting, button maker
Pixie: Fellow idea generator of buttons and co-creator of the No Thank You sign.
Russ: Schwag provider. Through hours at tech shop he created all the necklaces that was to be my good prize. He also bought the generator that powered our lights and brought the screens and leds that were our backdrop. In addition he helped with the tech that allowed us to run parts of the sign independent of the other parts of the sign.
PF: Co-creater or the No Thank You sign, builder of the frame that protected it, creator of the sandwich board that was on the ground and explained the rules, and teardown and mooper,
Thursday night was our first night. This was the test, while we figured out if people got it. And they did! When people approached we would ask them to step into the ez up, and tell us their offer. If we wanted the item, then the three judges all had office style bells that we could ding. (Sometimes if more than one of us wanted the item there would be multiple dings and we’d have to figure out who dinged first.) If they finished and there was no immediate ding, then we would go judge by judge while we all considered the offer, then say Camp No Thank You and maybe explain why or ding our bell. If we all say Camp No Thank You, we would say “Please take a prize” and gesture to the table which had our series of buttons. We each had 3 Thank yous to give out a night. If we did say Thank You then these things would happen:
Ding! from the bells
We would walk the person outside the ez up and we would turn off the No in the sign and then use the dimmer to make the Thank You get bright and dark. This alerts the crowd that We have a Winner!
We would put the super duper prize we had created around the neck. The prize was a necklace that said Camp No, Thank You! There were a few different versions but this is the most impressive.
Designed by me and Russ, Lasercut by Russ, and handpainted by Sylkia:
My first thank you was pretty much our first customer, my coworker Nakia. She wound up offering strawberries dipped in a chocolate raspberry sauce. And I was desertless and wanted to give one to her, so she got one. One of my first No Thank Yous was my friend Nobody who walked up and asked if we wanted to see his junk. [Camp no Thank You. Please take a prize.] I don’t remember what my second Thank You was. My last one was my favorite though. Brother Bob was a brother to my friend Jen, and it was his first real Burn event. He had come up and we explained what the concept was. He went away and came back near the end of the night. He came back in and said “I have a multi offer for you”. I offer you sweetness, wisdom, vanity and uselessness. Sweetness: hard candies Wisdom: a button of his with cool words (which now that I think about it he never actually took it off but that’s okay) Vanity: A t-shirt that said Brother Bob Uselessness: 5 cigarettes. Thank You’s that Peter Fuhry took: a lighter attached to a rosary for PF so he could light Pixie’s cigarettes, a tradge lapdance from Joe;; Pixie took: a stamped blank postcard from a girls penpal, a special BFF prize Things I know I said No Thank You to: a full pack of cigarettes, homemade booze, a look at what was under the tentakilt, tequila, clam candies
Penpal Postcard!
No Thank You to What's Under There
Friday night was one of those nights where you have to remember that these events are not the default world and sometimes the elements are stronger than you. It rained (sky opened and the ocean fell rain) all afternoon. I spent that afternoon napping and although I knew the world may be a little bit moist I was ready to get to it. I already knew PF was taking the night off because he was going to go perform somewhere else, but Sarah Science’s boyfriend Tyler was really into the concept and he wanted to be a judge, so he was going to fill in for PF. When I got up Pixie was not in a place to open that night. Their tent had been ransacked by the wind and rain and their tent was a lake and nothing was dry. My wife offered to fill in for Pixie. So already I was going to be opening with 2 people not originally part of this part of the project. But I thought, well maybe that’s part of the magic and it will wind up working. But then there was the issue of gas in the generator. This was my first time ever working with a generator. We were camping separately from the No Thank You setup and stupidly when we used the car to drop off all of the infrastructure for Camp No Thank You, while we left the generator, we did not leave the can of gas. So we had a 5 pound tank of gasoline which was too big to just carry over there. I had known that early in the day and Bustin had said he would drive us over there in his new art car when it was time. The bad part was that when we woke up, we found that the world was mud and the art car wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. So, now I was at no gas and none of the people I intended to do this with. I took myself to my car and put myself in time out for a few minutes and dealt with the fact that I felt powerless. I could ask my boyfriend to grab the cart and drag the gas through the mud in the dark even though it would suck, and I knew my wife would fill in even though there were other things she wanted to do but I decided Camp No Thank You to trying to force it. And one of the lessons I have learned in my many years of burn events is that trying to force it is a bad sign. If the universe is saying no, listen. So I said oh well and decided to spend some fun time with the camp as we went on a walkabout. But I do admit I felt guilt at taking up a good spot location wise and having a full night we weren’t open. However, there was walking and dancing and it felt good to just let go of the option. This was really my big night out so I’m glad I had it.
While on the walkabout we did go by NTY to see if it was blown apart and it had in fact held up very well. I had been trying to think about what I would do if I didn’t have a boyfriend or an art car as has been my station pretty much every year and I thought that I would ask Red Camp our neighbors for help, so we went across to red camp and asked Flash for a gallon of gas so we could work the generator and make sure everything was working. He was so great and did not loan but gave us the gas, and we found it was good and would be ready for the next day. (Flash got one of the few necklaces without having to go through the full process.)
Saturday everything got up and running again, and we had a late night shift (midnight-4am) as we had gone on our rampage earlier that night. and now that we had this down a little better. We had Tyler and Presley as guest 4th judges. I said yes to a patch based on early Burning Man drawings, Pixie said yes to the amazing corn. Pixie gave D.A. a necklace for his sing a long in our camp earlier that day. The Great Wendini came in and made us close our eyes and hold this chicken butt and chant about it being our talisman and light and love. I really appreciated the thought she put into it. My favorite thank you of the night was a violinist who had an led on his bow and we wound up with a crowd watching us and clapping and dancing along. Getting to look out at their faces with the light of the No Thank You sign above it was my “this was all worth it” moment. Pixie got a headache and went to bed. Lisa Joe got the wife Thank You for a tradge light show. Sister Sue was recruiting walker bys and we gave one to a light show. Said no to a scratch of these crazy nailhooks. Peter accepted his first Pickle Back. I didn’t have my phone which was my notetaker so I don’t have records of the other things we said no to. There was a guy who came in and had a briefcase and offered us a warm beer which we said No Thank You too. However, he had this crazy musical instrument and we had him play for us and it was awesome so we tried to teach him the lesson that his talent is better than a warm cheap beer. Said yes to an acknowledgement from Tiara. Said no to dental dams and leaving them there in our space after we said no. Two of my favorite offers we said No Thank You to was one offer of the Shirt off his back and one offer of the tip of the hat.
Patches!
My tradge video of the amazing Corn
ChickenButt
Pickleback!
Sunday night was our final night and we really enjoyed the offerings that night. People really understood what was happening and came prepared. We were offered: Spoken word, (1 yes) , singing (said 1 yes to Monk and his unicorn song) A crazy lady with a full meat platter shook her hips and shoulders and gave us a song about it “You know you’re hungry... You know you want it....” Sadly we were all not hungry and down to our last Thank Yous, so we said Camp No Thank You. She stomped off bitter and said no thank you to our prize buttons. There was a beautiful Princess who blessed us knowing we would say Camp No Thank You, but didn’t do it for the button prize as she said she was only taking yeses that night. We said no to pirate cup the guy had had for 3 flispides. PF had one of my favorite Thank You’s. A girl came up and offered us a beautiful flask with a cigarette case inside of it. She explained that she doesn’t smoke, but she would bring it to burn events and offer them to smokers. Now she has gotten to a point where she doesn’t drink either really, so she was ready to let it go. My final Thank You of the night was from my friend Morgan which would up being an hour and a half footrub and a great conversation. After we closed and turned off the sign and I was sitting there with Morgan people kept trying to come up and play. We got accosted by a unicorn rampage. There was a musician who kept trying to play flute and lute at us, and I finally had to explain we were closed. He replied “I know you’re all out of gratitude.” I agreed I was.
That last night we learned that letting people see that the prize just for trying was buttons made a huge difference. Previous to that night they had all been in little boxes, but the rain had molted the boxes. So that night they were plainly buttons on the table. Suddenly we needed a bouncer to stop people from just walking up and taking the buttons. We explained they had to play for them. So now we know that that having the buttons visible is important. And some sort of barrier so they can’t just take them. Other logistical things we learned: We needed a “Times We’re Open” sign. We needed a white board so we can record what we say yes and no to. The gas for the generator lives where the generator lives. It is easier to have just the judges in the judging area because having other people in there gets confusing for the participants.
Monk teaches us that Unicorns Are Evil
I really got everything out of it I wanted. I definitely want to do it again next year now that we have a handle on it and more other people understand what we’re doing. So I end by saying Thank You to the Flipizens for understanding my art.