Notes from the March 1st Meeting

Final Venue confirmations-A few minor re-arranging needs to be done, but looking good and full! Its going to be a great year, and with venues confirmed, we have a few months to really coordinate some solid interactions and stories to tell. Marianne has been the main park point person for venue coordination.

Registration Process- Registration packets have been mailed out to 150 past participants, and are already flooding in. As part of the packet, we expounded quite a bit on the event rules, particularly so that any newcomers will be better oriented, or can express concerns prior to the event, when we have time to work with people.

The new department weapons policies will be an issue, and will impact some folks, but we are trying to work with visiting interpreters, and their home docent coordinators wherever we can.

Lynn will be the park staff person processing these registrations, and coordinating as much of the details as possible now, before the event.

Scheduling- This is new this year. Why are we doing this? Mainly because it is good volunteer management, and to resolve staffing issues from the past. When a venue is overstaffed, people don't feel needed, and tend to not stay or show up for their next shifts (which occurrs). This has left venues with spotty coverage. Also, some volunteers feel pressure to work longer than is healthy under the conditions, and we'd like to give people an opportunity to work with a better understanding of their time committment when they start.

We THINK this will work better, but of course, there is always an unknown when trying out new things. We have received feedback from various venue heads on needs and preferences, and are trying to come up with something that works for everyone. Please help us make this work.

Amber is the primary park contact for scheduling.

Budget We'd like to have the budget set by March 15th (roughly). There will always be unforseen expenditures, and we'll hold out some funds for those. However, don't count on money being available later, if you need it, get your requests to Kim ASAP.

Those who have been approved to spend money will get their approval in writing, with a copy of the Friends spending policy. Please don't make purchases without these, it can undermine our credibility with Friends, and make it harder to get funding approved in the future.

If you need purchases, you can request a check from the Friends' treasurer (through Kim), use petty cash, or in some instances, you can spend your own funds and be reimbursed. If you need bulk food purchases, we can coordinate if you'd like. Many of the standard items have already been purchased for the event.

Construction Status Larry and the construction team have a lot to get done, and could really use some help. Please coordinate with Larry if you are available to come out and work on any of the work days. There are no guarantees that there is enough labor to get the site ready, so we need you!

School Program- Amber is the main coordinator for the school programs. Since we always need more tour guides, she's recruiting now to cover those spots. She passed out some of the venue themes (which we'll post later) and talked about some of the pending improvements, which include simpification of tour guide responsibilities (less waiting!), perhaps longer stops at venues, tour guide planning meeting prior to the event week.

Venue Sharing, Topics and Themes Roundtable This was a fun part of the meeting. Everyone got to go around and talk about what they were working on, and it opened up potential for interactions. In brief:

Mr. Ho will be operating an herb shop. Working on appropriate items for sale. Miners may wish to make a visit to Mr. Ho for advice on some of their ailments, he's right around the corner from the mining area, set off from the camp a bit.

Maddie Hawkins will be selling eggs again, and next door she will be caring for Mr. Bassett's milk cow. She'll be storing items in her evaporative refridgerator and interpreting that technology to visitors. Mr. Bassett, as some of you may know, sold milk to miners for $1 a pint (empty whisky pint, I believe).

Mrs. White and Mrs. Canon will be running the bakery, in its new building this year. They will be allowing the public to assist them in kneading bread, squeezing lemons, and will be expounding on the benefits of the sole trader act, and the benefits to women running business in Gold Rush. The bakery will be selling a better quality product this year, including bread, cookies, fruit and meat pies. Lots of volunteers needed here for scheduled shifts.

Laundry As last year, excellent simulations of how soap is made. Some discussion of introducing real fire, but determined that interpretive message may not be as effective. 3 volunteers a shift are needed, especially Thursday and Friday.

Brown's Store Mr. HN Brown and his sister will be discussing how wagon trains bring the goods, how road conditions affect them, price of labor and goods. Would like to have a framed lithograph of President Polk

Theatre The Theatre scheduling will be done by Kelli, with lots of acts this year, Don D. will be running the saloon as an agent of Cazneau. Some discussion of holding AM activities in the theatre, such as church, or trial.

Reading Room will be much expanded from last year-- literally. A new wall tent will be here. Will be serving iced tea & coffee, and is producing a paper for the camp, which will be available for reading, as well as a collection of books. All in the camp are invited to stop by for a beverage and civilized discussion of current events.

Star Spangled Saloon- Hotbed of gambling, with sasparilla and other sodas available.

Mining Area Succintly summed up: Gold=Good, Water company=Bad. Mining activity, as usual, will be demonstrated.

Nearby, on Saturday and Sunday, we will have the hands-on rockers again. This hasn't reached its potential in the past, but we are giving it another go-round. We need volunteers to encourage visitors to try their hand at working the rockers.

Throughout the camp, there are many opportunities for discussion among participants of how well, or poorly the miners have been doing, and how that impacts businesses. Supply Agents can interact with various businesses (see Jim, who is looking for competetors!), and the Express Office and Water Company should be visited by EVERYONE in camp. These are very important places! We'll have more of this later at the interpretive meeting, as well as on this blog.

If you weren't at the meeting, please email us your ideas, topics, and themes, and we'll post them here. We want Diggins to be like a real town, where everyone knows everyone else's business, and its hard to create that in just 4 days. The more we know before you come, the easier it is!