AFTERBURN REPORT 2016
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE PADDOCK

www.kiwiburn.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF ILOVEPHOTOS.COM / ILONA HENNEContents
I. A WORD FROM OUR FOUNDER by Mark Stirling AKA Yonderman

2

II. ORGANISATION/OPERATIONS

3a) Organisation by Wendy Allison

3b) Operations by Poppy Norman

4c) Administration by Tania Bracey-Brown and Nicola Treloar

4III. FINANCIALS by Karl Matthews and Brendan Stafford

6

IV. ART

9a) Art and Art Grants Programme by Rohana Weaver

11b) The Effigy by Jaimie Waititi

13c) The Temple by Ben Prince

15

V. ENVIRONMENT, SITE MANAGEMENT, AND MPW

16a) Set-up and infrastructure by Poppy Norman

16b) Crew Kitchen by Poppy Norman

17c) Pack Down, Clean-up, and Moop Report by Poppy Norman and Wendy Allison 19d) Noise Management by Oliver Macro21e) Traffic Management by Poppy Norman

21

VI. PADDOCK SAFETY24a) Health & Safety by Paul Chaffe24b) Medics by Paul Chaffe & Kirsty Illston

25c) Gate by Jasmine Hunter

25d) Paddock Relief by Jeanne Waldron

27e) Security by Poppy Norman

27f) Head of Security by Paul Chaffe31g) Fluffers by

32

VII. COMMUNITY SERVICES

33a) The Depot by Isa Ritchie

33b) Town Planning and Placement by Oliver Macro

35c) Art and Theme Camp Registration by Anne Starkey Taylor

35d) Greeters by Marla Percival

36e) Centre Camp by Hana Tuwhare

37f) Artery by Eryn Gribble

38g) Innovation Grant by Pete Lumos

39

VIII. COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY by Media Subcommitteea) Public Relations and Electric Fence Post Newsletter by Shelley Watson

41b) Technology (Website, Sys Admin) by Shelley Watson

43

IX. FUTURE VISION by Wendy Allison
1

41

44

I. A WORD FROM OUR FOUNDER
by Mark Stirling AKA Yonderman
Welcome to the 2016 Afterburn report!
Kiwiburn has had another milestone year. Our numbers reached well over 1000 people –almost 1500 this year – and the event sold out for the first time in its 13 year history. We
also had an unprecedented number of Theme Camps and Art Installations on site, and theevent expanded physically, primarily for camping and car parking. With the expansion has
come challenges such as traffic management, increased mainstream media interest, and theneed for more volunteers. Capping ticket sales is a reality we are facing in the long term, as
unbounded growth isn’t yet viable from a volunteer resourcing point of view.
The happiness and success of Kiwiburn was marred by one serious harm incident1. A
review process has been undertaken to establish the root cause(s) of the accident, and our
processes will be updated accordingly.
As usual I give thanks to the multitudes of volunteers, artists, Theme Camp organisers andmore who helped make Kiwiburn the success it was. Several of the Kiwiburn’s Team Leads
deserve special mention for their large contributions pre-, during-, and post-event. You know
who you are, and I don’t know what we will do when you eventually decide to call it a day.
Digest and enjoy this Kiwiburn Afterburn report. It is the summary of a milestone event fromthe oldest and best international regional ever!

1

A serious harm incident is a specific term in New Zealand’s Health and Safety in Employment Act
1992, used to describe the kinds of incidents that are serious enough to trigger a report to WorkSafe
and an internal or external investigation.

2

II. ORGANISATION / OPERATIONSa) Organisation by Wendy Allison
2016 has been a year of firsts for Kiwiburn: the first time our population cracked 1000, thefirst time the event has sold out, the first time art has been burned outside of the main
structures, the first legal wedding, and unfortunately our first serious harm incident. Almost
all of these are the consequence of growth; growth of nearly 50% on last year’s numbers. As
Kiwiburn continues to grow and word spreads of our crazy five days on the Paddock, we’ll
continue to encounter these consequences and being prepared to deal with them as anorganisation is an important focus for us in the year to come.
The population cap was a controversial decision, but in hindsight it was a sounddecision. The ticket sales reaching their cap by December (and associated extra sale
SNAFU in which they oversold by 150-odd tickets) indicated that many more tickets could
have been sold, which would have overwhelmed our groaning infrastructure. I take my hat
off to the Site Operations crew who coped admirably with the logistics of the unexpected
extra population. That behind the scenes work – sourcing extra toilets, finding space forextra camping, hiring extra security – is what made the event possible at all, and it’s a credit
to the Site Operations team that many people didn’t notice the extra strain on our resources.
An uncapped population would, I think, have made this impossible. The question of whether
and how to continue constraining growth is a big one in everyone’s mind for the coming year.
These considerations alongside feedback from the Census suggest that there are two mainareas for the organisation to focus on in order to achieve sustainable growth: maintaining
and growing our volunteer base, and improving processes and communication between
departments.
We currently have a ratio of approximately 1 volunteer per 10 participants on site, and 1
volunteer per 60 participants for year-round organisational duties. This is barely enough, andin order to grow by say, 30% (which would make a population of 2000), we would need atleast another 50 on site volunteers and another 8 year-round volunteers to maintain current
levels of service. Food for thought in a do-ocracy, yes?
Volunteering for Kiwiburn is both rewarding and draining and while we all do it because welove it, it’s important to recognise that nobody can do it forever. We need to be considering
succession planning. This means having a constant flow of new volunteers who wish to growtheir roles. Some of the roles involve a significant time commitments and responsibility, andways of managing this to make high-level volunteering more appealing has to be a priority
for us all if Kiwiburn is to continue to grow. Additionally, creating documentation that
captures existing institutional knowledge for the benefit of people moving into new roles isvital, and will be high on the agenda for this year – anyone with the skills and time to do thiswork, please feel free to step forward!
Which leads to the other area of focus, processes and communication between
departments. The organisational structure that was developed two years ago continues toserve us well, but it has emerged that the Kiwiburn organisation is something of an
ecosystem, with most roles being a combination of operational and administrative. On top ofthis, people’s ability to carry out their tasks effectively is reliant on information-sharing andsupport between teams. Clarifying how this information is shared and ensuring team leaders
are supported is another priority for this year. We’ll be having a close look at our manuals,
processes, and support structures to see where they can be improved. Again, anyone who
has the time and skills to help with this work, particularly the documentation aspect of it, we’dlove to hear from you!
I guess the bottom line for this year is that it’s clear Kiwiburn is experiencing a burst of
popularity, which is fantastic. After all, part of why we do this is so we can take a little bit ofKiwiburn back to the default world with us and spread our culture. Sustainable growth3

supported by community involvement will be the theme for our work this year. We can’t do it
without you!

b) Operations by Poppy Norman
The 2016 Operations team consisted of Poppy Norman and Karl Matthews. We both hadvarious other managerial roles and this unfortunately meant that Ops was not given all theenergy it needs. Because of a lack of time and energy operational issues were often dealt
with reactively rather than proactively.
During build the Ops team held daily morning meetings with the build leads to discuss theday’s schedule, weather, trips to town, resource sharing (ie ute use, all-hands tasks), andtroubleshooting. These meetings ensured that we were all checking in regularly and we
found them very valuable.
We held a volunteer briefing session on the first day of build (and again later in the build
period) to go over the Volunteer Guide that was sent to all pre-event volunteers – basic info
about life working on the Paddock, what support was available, what rules were in place,and recommendations for survival. I think the meeting was a really great way to open theseason, for the volunteers to meet the Ops Team and for everyone to ask questions and geton the same page.
Once the event started our focus shifted to the day-to-day operations of the event. Meetings
were held on Effigy days between the Ops Team, the respective Effigy leads and key staff,
and our fantastic fire safety crew. These meetings were a great innovation that really helped
make the burns a cohesive group effort, and I’d strongly recommend that they continue
under a Burn Night Stage Manager and grow to include representation of the wonderful fire
performers who put on a great show every year!
Overall, the Operations team have been developing great strategies and plans but due to alack of time the execution was somewhat lacking. There’s work to be done in terms ofdefining role scopes and responsibilities, recruiting some new members and working on
bringing people up through the ranks to take on these high-level roles, communication within
the team, and making sure everybody feels supported and isn’t overworked. But thedirection we’re heading in is the right one – a more cohesive, organised, supportive andprepared team.

Recommendations•

Operations managers should not have any other roles•

Reporting and recording system to be created•

Develop systems to help communication between Ops and Team Leads•

Daily meetings with all operating departments during the eventc) Administration by Nicola Treloar
This year we said goodbye to Jax, who stepped down as Secretary and head of the Admin
subcom. She’s been able to channel those skills into new venture, such as organising thepre-fire show for the Effigy Burn. With Jax moving on, we’ve implemented therecommendation from 2015 to split the ExCom Secretary (Nicola) and Admin Chair (Tania)
roles.
The split of roles is still a work-in-progress: some things don’t easily fit into a specific role sothere’s a bit of writing the role as we go. However, both are big jobs so there was definitely aneed to split them.
The ExCom Secretary role is now primarily focused on keeping the ExCom on track withscheduling, following up on actions, and creating minutes for our big annual meetings. It’s
also the “front of house” for Kiwiburn, picking up any general enquiries that come through the4website. The general enquiries can be quite broad, and were a bit of a surprise addition to
the role. One thing Kiwiburn could consider is splitting off jobs like monitoring emails so that
more volunteers can ‘dip their toes’ into admin with smaller roles. It could help volunteers todemonstrate their skills and see if they’re interested in a bigger role before se havevacancies.
Aside from learning the ropes, the main challenges for this year were updating our insurance
coverage so that we are covered for hired gear and continuing to develop documents to help
new volunteers come up to speed with their roles.
In some ways this year was a bit of a trial by fire, though I don’t know if there is such a thing
as a “normal year” for Kiwiburn. The incident reporting work triggered by the accident on site
has highlighted the need to have some level of legal and process/procedure skills within the
ExCom. This work has mean we have needed to communicate with other organisations
quickly, and quickly come to grips with specific parts of the Health and Safety legislation. In anormal year the administrative work of the Secretary is manageable, but it would be useful tobe able to call on other people within the ExCom in years like this where there is more workthan usual. As we look beyond 2016, site contract negotiations or resource consent renewal
may also bring up the same resourcing issues.
For next year, I’d like to focus on how we get the most from out ExCom members while also
managing out workload better. This could include getting a clearer understanding of what
each ExCom member is responsible for/focused on, and getting a clearer work programme
for the ExCom – including scheduled times when ExCom is on a break.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year

5•

Consider is splitting off jobs like monitoring emails so that more volunteers can ‘diptheir toes’ into admin with smaller roles•

Agree on what each ExCom member is responsible for/focused on•

Establish a clearer work programme for the ExCom – including scheduled times
when ExCom is on a break.

III. FINANCIALS
by Karl Matthews and Brendan Stafford
As other sections of the Afterburn report will attest 2016 was a truly exceptional year for
Kiwiburn. Since our move from Whakamaru we have now experienced just short of 100%
growth, 64% of which came this year! This year we sold 1,485 tickets (allowing for no-shows,children etc. we would estimate about 1,500 participants on site). It feels like this was thefirst year of a new phase for Kiwiburn.
Ticket priceCosmic Online

Cosmic PhysicalTickets

On SiteTotal Sold

%

$95

230

20

35

285

19%

$125

310

40

n/a

350

24%

$155

760

76

n/a

836

56%

$200

14

0

n/a

14

1%

1314

136

35

1485

100%

Ticket Sales and General BackgroundWe had anticipated at least 20% growth, which has become fairly normal for Kiwiburn over
the years. Due to concerns about the number of volunteers and the physical size of the site
the decision was made to cap tickets for the first time.
The initial cap of 1,200 sold out by 24 November. These early sales gave us a good level ofcomfort in authorising significant spending on infrastructure and capital items. A further 100
tickets were authorised for release on 16 January to allow for first timers who learned about
the festival late and to provide an opportunity for those who were not able to commit tobuying a ticket earlier in the year. These extra tickets sold out within minutes.
The demand for this second round of tickets overwhelmed our ticketing system and a further
153 tickets were issued due to related technical difficulties. The over-sale of tickets so close
to the festival created a huge challenge for our town architect and site operations team, whopulled out all stops to put a plan in place and make the festival work. Last minute increases
to various areas of the budget needed to be authorised to ensure that we had enoughmedics, security, toilets, and other infrastructure.
This dramatic demand meant that our previous modelling for ticket tiers was no longer valid.
The previous model assumed that a few participants would buy early lower cost tickets whilemost would wait until closer to the festival. The fourth tier was intended to replace gate sales
however tickets were well and truly sold out by the time the gate opened. As such this may
be a good time to review the ticket tiers and consider the best way to provide lower costtickets to the participants who would benefit most from them the most while also providing
easy options for participants to donate extra if they choose to.

6

Year

Attendance

Average ticket Other income Average cost
price
per Participant per participant

GrowthNet income perparticipant

2007

145

n/a

2008

182

25%

$53.54$27.47$60.90$20.12

2009

250

37%

$68.68$28.08$69.30$27.45

2010

405

80%

$72.00$12.35$82.36

$1.99

2011

530

17%

$85.21$11.00$99.21-$3.00

2012

536

0%

$93.72$11.24$102.74

$2.22

2013

754

41%

$93.76$10.22$91.86$12.11

2014

783

4%

$126.39$0.68$118.13

$8.94

2015

954

21%

$133.88$2.67$128.56

$7.99

2016*

1485

64%

$137.08$2.51$122.86$16.72

Revenue and Cash Movement
So what did all this means for the finances? Revenue for the year doubled from a little over
$130k last year to over $200k this year.
Overall our net cash movement is looking healthy. At the time of writing there are still a few
items to be reconciled so it’s hard to be precise. So far we are tentatively looking at a cash
surplus of about $15k taking our bank balance from $38k to $53k. This includes various
costs that are yet to be paid and will appear on the books for next year (for example, someof the Summit related costs). From this surplus we need to allow for next year’s provisional
tax which is estimated at about $6k.

Spending
The cash movement might not appear to reflect our doubled revenue. There were a few
increases to our normal costs but the most significant factor was extra spending on site
improvements and fixed assets. These included: new or improved structures including the
medics and the depot (allowing the site office to be separated from the depot for the firsttime); a second generator to assist with the effigy and temple builds and to provide power tothe depot etc. during the festival; improvements to address erosion of the unsealed roadleading to the site; new culverts to allow access to the paddock used for parking; thegeodesic dome which was previously a theme camp feature and is now Kiwiburn property
serving as a spectacular Town Hall; a new chainsaw; and replacing one of our aging
shipping containers. This spending will continue to provide benefits for several years,
particularly if we remain on the same site.
Less significant increases to our normal costs included Site Safe training for the build crews
and a good allowance for extra portable toilets, security, fire service donations, medics etc.
to ensure the best experience possible for our increased population. Some of theseincreases were at short notice due to the ticket over-sales and costs may reduce slightly withmore careful planning next year. Several areas ran slightly over-budget but in retrospect thiswas well managed and a very successful outcome in the circumstances.
7

Ice Sales
There were some significant challenges for the Depot team relating to ice sales this year
including the hired refrigerated trailer breaking down leaving some participants disappointed
when ice wasn’t available. Kiwiburn sold over 800 bags of ice lost $182.50 over-all. This issomething to look closely at next year. This was also the second year embedding new
systems. Despite these challenges the team have done very well with the bookkeeping andremained calm and friendly in the face of adversity. Next year should see a few of the final
wrinkles ironed out and we’ll look into using a different trailer!

Art Grants
Kiwiburn provided over $18,800 in art grants this year with some payments still to be made.
This included $4,309 for the Effigy and $5,559 for the Temple. Art grants (including thecommunity art project) and the innovation grant made up the remainder. Some of the larger
art projects were partly pre-funded. It was fantastic to see the various art pieces large andsmall on the Paddock.

Team Roles
This year will be Karl’s final year as Treasurer and we’ll miss his energy and insight. Lauracontinues as our main bookkeeper, Xero expert and stalwart of the team. Brendan has spent
the year learning the ropes and will step up as Treasurer from 1 April 2016. Kathy remains
available as a mentor / advisor.

Recommendations / Improvements for next year

8•

Recruit at least one (preferably two) more team members•

Review the relevance of the current tiered ticket pricing system•

Review the robustness of the current ticket sales system and consider alternatives•

Communicate clear expectations around receipts for compliance (for example GST
receipts should be addressed to the organisation Kiwiburn rather than to individuals)•

Overhaul of procedures and tools (budget spreadsheet, bank account access)•Investigate how robust / compliant our accounting systems are as the organisation
continues to grow.

2016
BUDGET(1,230Participants)

2016
ACTUALS(1,485
Participants)

ACTUALS –ORIGINAL
BUDGET% OF
INCOME$619.00$762.27$143.270%

ticket sales: first tier:$26,558.00$27,134.00$576.00

13%

ticket sales: 2nd tier:$43,758.00$43,750.00-$8.0021%

ticket sales: 3rd tier:$82,758.00$129,877.50$47,119.50

63%

ticket sales; 4th tier:$7,199.00$2,800.00-$4,399.00

1%

Ice Sales Donations:$1,996.00$2,919.00$923.00

1%$162,888.00$207,242.77$44,354.77

100%
% of
Expense

Office Expenses/Web Hosting:$300.00$473.79$173.790%Accounting (Xero Software):$324.00$295.98-$28.020%$10,000.00$8,562.27-$1,437.73

5%

Community Art Project:$800.00$0.00-$800.00

0%

Innovation Grant:$600.00$600.00$0.00

0%Effigy/Man:$5,000.00$4,308.89-$691.11

2%

Temple:$5,000.00$5,603.24$603.24

3%

BANK CHARGES$110.00$122.00$12.000%

CARBON OFFSET$3,120.00$3,866.00$746.00

2%

New container + Delivery:$3,500.00$3,565.00$65.002%

New Generator:$2,145.00$2,145.00

$0.00

1%

Dome:

$4,500.00$4,500.00

$0.00

14%

$0.00

$725.00$725.00

2%$2,200.00$3,500.00$3,000.00$500.00$1,765.23$1,858.83$3,180.20$370.30-$434.77-$1,641.17$180.20-$129.70

1%
1%
2%
0%

$500.00$2,000.00
$0.00

$0.00
$1,351.75$0.00-$500.00-$648.25
$0.00

0%
1%
0%

$750.00$1,200.00$1,000.00$1,200.00$1,000.00$7,500.00$1,064.34$1,125.99$1,200.11$830.99$259.07$7,945.05$314.34-$74.01$200.11-$369.01-$740.93$445.05

1%
1%
1%
0%
0%
5%

INCOMEInterest earned:

total income:
EXPENSESADMINISTRATIVEARTS RELATEDArt Grants disbursement:

CAPITAL ITEMS (Over $500)

Chain Saw:
CAPITAL ITEMSNew Depot:
New Medics structure:
Tools:
Power Equipment:
SITE MAINTENANCE
Work Weekends
Site improvements
Site Search/Visit
OPERATIONS: DEPARTMENTS
Artery:Town Hall:
Depot:
Gate:
Greeters:
Kitchen:9

MPW:
Paddock Relief:
Site Manager:
Site Office:Site Survey/Parking:
Crew Support (fluffers)
Clean upOPERATIONS: MISC
Crew Appreciation
Utes/Fuel
Cost of Ice
Ice Trailer Hire+ Delivery/Pick up
Golf Cart:
Generator Petrol:Comp. for personal vehicle use
Paddock Lighting
Crew Training:
Miscellaneous
INSURANCE
Indemnity Insurance
Liability Insurance
RENT
Use of Hunterville site
SERVICES
Artery Marquee
Event Medics
Head of Security Management
Toilets
Radio rental
Traffic Management Plan/Signs
Security Guard Hiring
Fire service donation
PRINTING
Printing: Stickers / postcards /Patches
Printing: Entry Signs
Printing: Flags
Printing: Wristbands (1600)
Printing: Event
Guide/Census/Survival Guide
10 Year Pin:
Telephone/Internet:
Summit 2016:
Taxes (on previous year):
Taxes Provisional:
GST (paid or received during
period)TOTAL EXPENSESNet Cash Movement (Before
Taxes & Current GST)

10

$2,000.00$1,000.00$250.00$1,000.00$500.00$800.00$500.00$2,259.95$1,206.91$79.94$1,458.36$633.32$590.00$775.52$259.95$206.91-$170.06$458.36$133.32-$210.00$275.52

1%
1%
0%
1%
0%
0%
0%

$750.00$5,200.00$2,000.00$900.00$1,000.00$300.00$500.00$1,000.00$2,500.00$2,000.00$446.00$5,310.40$3,101.50$900.00$1,465.00$984.07$215.13$1,051.05$2,800.07$1,452.17-$304.00$110.40$1,101.50$0.00$465.00$684.07-$284.87$51.05$300.07-$547.83

0%
3%
2%
1%
5%
1%
0%
1%
2%
1%

$1,725.00$2,892.00$1,725.00$2,892.00

$0.00
$0.00

1%
2%

$18,950.00$21,876.00$2,926.00

12%$1,000.00$7,500.00$515.00$16,200.00$1,750.00$788.00$14,790.00$2,000.00$1,000.00$8,395.00$500.00$20,501.05$2,104.50$100.00$15,254.50$3,000.00$0.00$895.00-$15.00$4,301.05$354.50-$688.00$464.50$1,000.00

1%
5%
0%
12%
1%
0%
9%
2%

$588.90$320.39$282.25$955.52$1,200.00$600.00$400.00$619.00$611.10$279.61$117.75-$336.52

1%
0%
0%
0%

$1,328.25$500.00$590.00$6,000.00$4,344.00$1,896.12$740.00$500.00$750.00$2,776.16$4,344.00$1,896.12-$588.25$0.00$160.00-$3,223.84
$0.00
$0.00

0%
0%
0%
2%
2%
1%

$4,120.30$170,984.73$4,120.30$175,742.05$0.00$4,757.32

2%
117%-$8,096.73$31,500.72

IV. ARTa) Art and Art Grants Programme by Rohana Weaver
Kiwiburn Arts Committee Members: Rohana Weaver (Chair), Hippy Tim Jago, Amelia
Hitchcock, Leo McGregor, Nicholas Lealand.
With non-voting members Eryn Gribble(Artery Lead), Wendy, and Yonderman

Facts and Figures
This year the Kiwiburn Arts Committee (KAC) had $10,800.00 to allocate in art grants. This
included the new $2000 Extra Large Art Grant, $800 for the Community Arts Project, $6000
for Large Art Grants and $2000 for Small Art Grants.
Our Actual Allocation was as follows:
Large Grants:$4713.00

Small Grants:$3100.70

Extra Large Grant:$2000.00

Total:$9813.70

We had a total of 10 applicants for Small Art Grants (9 Successful) and 6 applicants forLarge Art Grants (all successful, with one allocation of the $2000 Extra Large Art Grant toNico Woodward's ‘The Healing Hand’)
We received more Small Grant applications than Large Grant applications this year so we
allocated some of the remaining funding from the Large Art Grant pool to the Small Art Grant
Pool.
All grantees who received funding were allocated 90% of their grant request from their total
allowed budget.
We had two applications for the Community Arts Project, with one being suitable and being
offered the grant and then pulling out before receiving the money. The other application wasdeemed not suitable for funding so this year the Community Arts Project was not
successfully allocated.

Funds Granted
Small Grants
Title

Lead Artist

Grant

Effigy Pyro

Logan Elliot$400.00

A Potluck of Emotive Words

Captain Lumos$490.00

The Flaming Teacup

Benson$500.00

Burn the Kiwi

Leon Deverick$270.00

Play with your Food

Amy Potenger$500.00

Plinths of Emotion

Roh and Nan$450.00

Sacred Seed

Hannah Mitchell$200.00

11

The Gold at the End of the Rainbow Tania Bracy-Brown $200.70
Virtual Reality

Reuban Osborne

Total$90.00$3100.70

Large Grants
Title

Lead Artist

Grant

Paddock Lighthouse Bing

$1,500.00

Hippie Soup

Simon Cooke$1,500.00

PsyPalm

Stacey Lupton$563.00

The Healing Hand

Nico Woodward $2,000.00

Amhran na foraoise Connor Boyle$700.00

Sloths at Sunrise$450.00

Total

Marika Pratley$6713.00

Changes within Kiwiburn Arts Committee
As of 21 February 2016 Kiwiburn Arts Committee has five active members and three nonvoting members, with a public call for two new members in process.
Rohana was elected chair after Kylee stepped down and left KAC in July 2015. Thanks
Kylee for your hard work serving on the Committee – your energies are much appreciated!
Last year we saw the departure of Bianca Beebe, and the induction of new members
Nicholas Lealand and Amelia Hitchcock, and several non-voting members: Wendy (KACExCom liaison), Yonderman and Eryn (Artery Lead).
Before Kylee left we did significant work on the Committee’s Policies, Procedures andProtocols. We now have an evolving document outlining our processes including Code of
Conduct, which has been useful for new members induction.
The art submission process was a little late to be advertised this year, due to the handoverof Chair responsibilities. To counteract this I am working on a timeframe document for all
KAC processes as a guide which will enable lots of time for promoting Grant Applications
and hopefully promote more interest in grants.
We had several applications require pre-funding. This year we set a deadline to apply for
pre-funding which worked well and we will continue to hold to. We had one incident of nonpresentation of pre-funded art of which a resolution is currently under discussion with
ExCom and concerned parties.
The presence of The Artery, and its promotion of art on the Paddock was wonderful! We ran
two successful arts tours through this and hopefully The Artery has helped to promote moregrant applications for next year. Thanks Eryn outstanding job!

12

Health and Safety and Operations Liaison
This was the first year we had an Extra Large Art Grant and the first time in recent years we
had art that warranted separate burn nights.
Despite sending the ExCom Burnable Arts Policy to those wanting to use fire or burn their art
there was a lack of communication from these artists with the relevant people in Health and
Safety and Ops. As a response to this I am creating a checklist for burnable or potentially
dangerous art and it will become part of our processes to alert ExCom of any art that may
require a specific Health and Safety meeting and sign off as well as those that may require aseparate burn. This will also require large art to have a clear and coherent cleanup plan
before they arrive on the Paddock.

SummaryThis year has seen a number of challenges come to light as Kiwiburn grows and KAC
continues to define and refine its processes. We have worked well to streamline our voting
processes, which are now working more efficiently. Having more large and burnable art on
the Paddock has made it apparent that we need further communication with artists andrelevant parties to enable these to happen safely and without stress or incidents.
Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Induct new active members•

Create document outlining timeframes for KAC (underway)•

More pre festival liaison with Operations and Health and Safety about art
requirements.

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More promotion of Art Grants to the Kiwiburn community and through Artery•

Promotion of the Community Art Project grant to enable it to happen or for it to bereassessed.

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Create check list for burnable or potentially dangerous (underway)•

Make changes to application to make detailed cleanup plans mandatoryb) The Effigy by Jaimie Waititi
With a crew of ten including myself we built a representation of Maui in bird form. The
structure was of 6x6 and 1x6 timber and cladding was both found and bought materials,
which were mostly organic/natural.
As it was my first experience with Kiwiburn it was important for me to have past attendants
or builders from either Kiwiburn or other regional burns. With those on the list we also had
five newbies that were recommended to me by the burn community. When I decided on thecrew I was looking for a range of skills that would benefit the entirety of the structure
including lighting, engineering, muscle, build experience, design and artistic craftsmanship.
Unfortunately, due to work commitments I arrived late. In my absence I left Jack in charge,
as we had been discussing the project from the design stages. During such time they had
completed the build to plan and attended scaffolding training which gave them confidence toclimb and use the scaffolding adequately.
We worked in teams of twos and threes, concentrating on specific aspects of the workloade.g. two people on wings, two people on the skull, three for engineering and structure etc.
This worked well as everyone had a piece of the Effigy to call their own, and they had the
responsibility to see it through till the end.
The crew was eager to work and achieve desired deadlines. This was the first time most of
us worked together so I was impressed with the community that came from this, which13helped our collective work ethic. We finished early enough to move camp, play with lights
and help other crews where needed.
As a newcomer to the festival and its community I couldn’t have asked for a better crew.
Being a manager was awesome. Great crew, great community, great project! Poppy, Karland MPW were a great hand in the project, couldn’t have done it without their work.
I spent a lot of time pre-build with Jack and Christina developing the project andunderstanding the build side of things so I knew how to manage the crew accordingly.
However, the lift was another story. I was keen to lift with everyone but the crane did just fineand I will consider this for next time.
Now that I’m more experienced with the way things run at Kiwiburn and the nature of thiskind of work, I know working with experienced people will improve the function of my role.
In the build process I noticed the meat eaters getting uneasy, especially with the sheep
crapping everywhere – so I purchased dried meat and chilled drinks for the crew and it madea massive difference to their behaviour, energy levels and work ethic. One thing that wassuggested, which I suppose the Community get a lot, was that some of the kitchen, crew
appreciation or fluff budget go toward boosters as in meat treats or coffee for build crews.
Our budget was $5000.00. There are a few unconfirmed purchases Jack made through Karlduring my absence but we lightly discussed the estimates. These are some of them andother major purchases we made; $1200.00 timber for the structure – which was over what
we budgeted for, $200.00 on twine which wasn’t in the budget, $500.00 for the ute for a few
days which we budgeted more for. $400.00 for swag that was just a little over. So our
original budget plan became more of a loose shopping list rather than an estimation of
production cost. However, the majority of our cladding was found or free materials, which
made a huge difference to the final outcome of the production and the budget. We talked
with Karl about contributing to the purchase of a generator rather than renting one, which weconcluded would be the remainder of our budget.
I spent a lot of my focus on the production itself rather than concentrating as much energy
on the budget, which I will definitely be changing if I would to manage again.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year

14•

No sheep shitting everywhere.

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The option of camping near the project site during build.

•

FLUFFERS ARE THE BOMB!

•

More scaffolding; what was there was adequate for a 6m build but more is needed to
speed up jobs done at height and to utilize more people at once.

•

The shared kitchen was great to unite the crews, keep it going!

•

Trainings through out the build not just at the beginning as some people arrive
afterwards.

•

To all managers, new and experienced, I would definitely recommend organising a
special clean-up crew, rolling schedules for caring for the Effigy and its perimeter
during the festival.

•

More volunteers.

c) The Temple by Ben Prince
Kiwiburn 2016 was an amazing experience. This year brought many surprises and difficulties
that were mainly caught up in the 2D-3D aspects of the design. When geometry is drawn flat
it is incredibly hard to explain the finer details, which made the crew confused most of thetime despite my idea of keeping it simple.
My crew – a loveable bunch of nerds in their own rights – worked magnificently from dawn topast midnight on occasion and from 2 days prior to build plan and 1 day into the burn. Thereis no measure to the effort that was made by the crew, I simply wish I had had more time todraw things up with diagrams and 3D sketches to confirm my thinking.
SiteSafe came and gave us a course about better site management, which was taken on
board as much as possible. With that we had no serious injuries, and one accident where acrew member bruised their leg.
I enjoyed the process of manager thoroughly and would do it again. My biggest obstacle washaving the time to explain things carefully due to a lack of three-dimensional drawing anddiagrams, and having crew ask me about issues and confirming their ideas. This led to threeor four aspe4cts that were made differently and changed the workflow and final design of thetemple.
Our fluffer crew was great to begin with, but over the course of the build we ended up having
to call them on the radio a few times, which wasn’t great.
Our budget was well used. We slightly exceeded the budget because of over-use of screws
and driver heads. Sharing gear with other crews – from set squares, chainsaws, generators,
and even wood – on site also impacted our ability to finish on time.
Radios seemed pointless rather than helpful – we used them to confirm that meals wereready more than anything else. This could have been missed by those with radios when they
were using power tools.
Clean up was good despite some of the crew leaving to have fun somewhere else while we
kept on going. I did not confirm a total clean up plan with MPW, but in the end we needed to
ask them for help removing rubbish from site which I regretted. If I had my own vehicle I
would have made better plans for cleaning up.
Thanks MPW for a wonderful Kiwiburn and I hope we can make things bigger and better.

15

V. ENVIRONMENT / SITE MANAGEMENT / MPWa) Set-up and infrastructure by Poppy Norman
MPW were onsite from the 8th of January until the 6th of February this year.
Below is a list of tasks that MPW completed during build. These are not all the tasks but theones that were written down. MPW responds to many requests from other crews andcommunity members and we do our best to be as helpful as possible.
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Clean up thousands of poops
Set up site office
Desks and shelving in site office
Door handles and locks for site office
Lean to, awning, deck and steps forsite office
Paint site office
Set up power grid and trench cables
Change oil on generators
Refuel generators
Drainage under taps
Build shade structure
Set up dome
Move dome
Build kitchen structure
Set up califont
Set up and maintain trash zone
Dump runs
Keep other crews watered
Compost hole
Build shower box
Dig out rut
Build kitchen furniture
Unload containers
Set up small marquee
WeedwhackContainers
Pre clean all toilets
Site perimeter
River signs
Site signs

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StilesTroll bridge
Drainage for kitchen sink
Build depot
Desks and shelving for depot
Door handles and locks for depot
Lean to and awning for depot
Paint depot
Scrub containers
Grind, bog and rust killer containers
Paint containers
Build medics
Steps and ramps for medics
Door handles and locks for medics
Awning for medics
Missions for other crews
Toilet signs
Put up greeters
Put up Gate
Gate signs
Road/Traffic signs
Quote signs
Mark out carparks
Danger tape ditches and otherhazards
Set up paddock relief
Herd sheep
Set up Artery
Build fence
Driveway reflectors

Management
Poppy Norman – Manager
Milena Zuccarello – Assistant Manager
Rainbow Ronan – Construction Lead
Karl Matthews – Adviser and all round helpful guy
This year we had more people involved with management of MPW which was great. It
spread the workload out and gave Poppy time to work on her other roles. In previous years
16Karl has acted as the construction lead but due to other commitments he hasn’t been able togive this role the attention it deserves. Having someone whose sole role is construction lead
was awesome.

VehiclesMPW had two utes this year, this was really good and both utes were used almost
constantly. Despite the need for flexibility I would recommend that a detailed roster for bothutes and drivers be created for next year.

Bump in
We had between one and four utes running constantly between 10am and 10pm. At times
four utes was not enough to keep up with the demand. The people working these driving
shifts had already been working for weeks. It would be wise to plan for bump in as aseparate crew from MPW.

During event work
MPW began work onsite as early as the 8th of January and by the time the event started
most of them had been working for about two weeks. The official plan was that apart fromthose who sign up to work during the event they would not be needed. However bump in,
the tree incident and some other situations led to MPW being called on. Because they areshining stars they jumped in and did what was needed to be done.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•••

Have someone whose sole role is construction lead
Create a detailed roster for both utes and drivers
Plan for bump in as a separate crew for MPWb) Crew Kitchen by Ben Curran and Cathleen Dorvilus
This year we found having two people co-manage the kitchen to be ideal. As soon as Ben
showed up, there was an immediate sense of relief for Cat. I was very grateful for thebalance he brought into the kitchen. It meant that we could schedule meals off (thoughmaybe we didn’t do quite enough of that), there was someone to bounce ideas off, and formost of the meals we could have one person running the special needs food group and one
person running the larger, “anything goes” group. There definitely needs to be at least two
people who are good at doing the special dietary needs cooking (which we had). The only
issue was with the Dietary Requirement list. It wasn’t totally accurate until the last few days.
Communication and assistance from MPW were exemplary. The shelters were sufficient, theeffort to deliver hot water was appreciated. This was the first year with the califont for
running hot water and I don’t think it can be understated how much this helped in the final
few days when it was actually working. Communication and support from Poppy on bothbudget and staffing issues was also excellent.
Kitchen is a hard job, and we’re probably still not at the point where we have a surfeit ofvolunteers willing to do it. Not all of our volunteers were ready for the amount of work
involved. We think getting in contact with people prior and letting know what exactly the
kitchen entails is a great idea. That way, there will be no surprises. The kitchen also would
not have worked as well as it did without the system of volunteers from the various crews to
assist with dishes. This was easier when we had two volunteers rather than one, things got
finished a lot quicker and people got back to their crews quicker.
17

As we get bigger, I think some changes to the budget, new equipment, and a different setup
will make a difference.
$6 per person per day is hard. Really really hard. This year we were lucky enough to have acrew that worked harder than they should, as a lot of things were made from scratch. I
believe we came in only a little bit over budget, but as a result of that, a lot of extra work was
put in and even still, some meals were lacking. $8 per person per day would make things alittle easier. But since we are feeding people who are out working all day every day, weprobably should be looking at least $10 per person per day.
For equipment, we had a three ring gas burner (but due to the size of the pots, we could only
really use two), a single ring butane gas ring and two barbecues, one with a lid. Thissignificantly limits what can be done. Especially for the special dietary needs people. To
open up options, especially for the special dietary needs people, Kiwiburn really needs tolook at getting an oven for the kitchen. It’s a significant capital outlay, but it will allow kitchen
to prep and pre-cook a lot more, so that things are being juggled at high speed immediately
prior to service and would significantly open up the options for the special dietary needs
people as well.
In addition, one or two extra either single ring gas burners, and at least another two extra
gas bottles needs to be purchased. We should also look at getting more/better pots andbowls. Some of the pots are lightweight and nasty, not good for cooking on gas. Bowls were
just generally in short supply. And a whisk please. Finally, a lot of time was spent trying tocome up with creative ways to store things, so containers/pots with matching lids would be
useful.
The shelter built for us stood up remarkably well. However, it probably needs to be about 4050% bigger than it was. I would also suggest a floor and a roof structure for kitchen. The
sides could be left canvas, as there needs to be significant ventilation. The main reason for afloor is safety – I would feel a lot less nervous about electrical connections being left on the
ground overnight whilst it’s raining, and the barbeques are currently being used on unevenground which isn’t ideal. It would also help with cleaning A roof structure would add much-needed shade. When the dome was available it had amarked effect on the temperature, making a reservoir of slightly cooler air outside the
kitchen. In the last couple of days once the dome was moved the heat in the kitchen wasawful, and it made getting people through for lunch a nightmare, significantly extending theamount of time kitchen crew spent in the kitchen at the height of the day. Next year, even if
it’s just a temporary tarp or some such, something needs to go up.
Placing the freezer outside the kitchen so fluffers can access it would also be a good idea. It
will need shade and kitchen will need another work surface to replace it inside.

Summary
Hopefully the greater numbers attending burn will help with volunteer numbers andexpanding the kitchen, but I realise, budget-wise, this is probably a lot to ask for. It is,however, where I think we should be aiming.
All in all, it was exhausting and hard work, but we enjoyed running kitchen this year. None of
it would have been possible without the beautiful team we created. Lydia and Adele wereabsolutely amazing to work with. I know we couldn’t have done it without them. We also hada couple great volunteers from Effigy Crew (Dan, Jack, & Ben) who were a BIG help!
Several meals, I did because I thought it would be hilarious (i.e. making sushi) and it mostly
worked. I got the impression that the food was generally reasonably well received, which
was nice. Next time I’ll make crumpets.
Lastly, I’d really like to thank Poppy for everything. It was a great pleasure to have worked
with her and fed her.
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Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Increase food budget to $8-10 per person per day.

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Purchase more kitchen equipment: an oven, better pots and bowls, and storage
containers with matching lids.

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Expand the kitchen size and add floor and a roof structure, to keep electrical cords
off the damp ground and providing shade for volunteers.

•More volunteers, and checking in with volunteers before starting to make sure they
understand the role.

A note from Poppy: Ben, Cat and their crew did an exceptional job with the kitchen this year.
However due to various reasons their jobs began very close to the event and there is a lot ofprior planning that must happen in the months leading up to the event. As it has done for thelast few years a lack of suitable volunteers had meant that the responsibility of prior planninghas fallen on me. This cannot happen again, I have many many other responsibilities and I
cannot give the kitchen the time and energy it deserves. We need capable volunteer/s tostep up early on and take over the responsibilities of the kitchen from the very first stage ofplanning.

c) Pack Down, Clean-up, and Moop Report by Poppy Norman and Wendy
Allison
Pack Down – Patrick Norton and Poppy Norman
This year pack down ran from Monday 1st February until Saturday 6th February, the quickest
clean up ever. This is mostly due to the new separation between clean up and pack down.
The pack down crew were only responsible for packing down and putting away all
infrastructure.
Below is a list of tasks that we completed. This is just a general overview and does not show
all of the small and random things done.
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Pack down Gate, Greeters, Town Hall, Paddock Relief, Kitchen, Site Office, Medics,
and Depot.

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Take down perimeter danger tape, pigtails, signage, lighting, bunting and stiles.

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Collect odds and ends from around site.

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Pick up and pack away all department items.

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Dump runs.

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Wood runs.

About 10 volunteers were involved over the first 2 days. This was great for taking down the
major structures (Gate, Medics, Town Hall, Depot, Site Office) and doing ball-ache jobs like
winding up heaps of danger-tape.
On Wednesday some crew headed off leaving six with and another two left on Thursday
leaving four people to finish things off. Most infrastructure was initially staged in the front
yard, consolidated, then given a home in a container. The greatest difficulty is in keeping
different departments’ infrastructure distinct while also maximising space by tetris-ing thethings. This aspect can often involve lengthy logistical debates and waiting for D to do C sothat A and B can follow.
The major challenge of this job is maintaining ones sanity. It is easy to get caught up in a
frenzied state of activity and stub your toe. Also necessary but draining, is the constantmoving of things from one staging spot to another as you slowly whittle down theconfounding amount of pieces that tie Kiwiburn together. An efficient and user-friendly
inventory system remains an enigma.
19Graciously afforded us by the universe, is room for improvement. The shit got done, but it’s
the details that prove painful – often a truck, trailer and a couple crew members were off site
on poorly timed dump-runs or other missions.
On container organisation at the moment the packing system is flawed because it relies tooheavily on individual spatial creativity, meaning the next poor bugger to come along andopen them is faced with a barely coherent wall of stuff. While less space efficient, bigger
boxes or more shelving would perhaps allow for greater distinction of departments.
Also an issue, every year, is the scrap wood and broken pallets etc left over from buildcrews. Burning is not an option due to the fire-ban and extra mess it creates. Thankfully
Medic Paul took a heap for firefighter training/Guy Fawkes. Unfortunately this meant we had
to make about five trips to Marton to drop this stuff off which was a total time drain on bothpeople and vehicles. This is not the solution. I’m not sure what is.

Cleanup by Wendy Alison
In the past, cleanup has been done by MPW and our thanks go to them for carrying the canfor so long. 2016 is the first year Kiwiburn has had a dedicated Cleanup crew, and thus wewere able to focus entirely on the Leave No Trace aspect of our principles. This involved:•

Identifying spaces allocated to theme camps, art, camping, and public space;•

Individually MOOP sweeping each space, then itemising and photographing collected
MOOP;

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Creating a report for each theme camp and artist so they can see how they did anddiscuss any issues with the Cleanup Manager;•

Creating a MOOP Map that shows how everyone did and identifies problem areas;
and•Re-seeding and watering the burn scars for the first time. How well this worked is yet
to be seen.

The 2016 MOOP map can be viewed here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z7a6wwukGjSU.kq7dFveuYT2s&usp=sharing
One of the purposes of the MOOP Map is to hold theme camps and artists to account for
their MOOP footprint – in future those with a consistent green record will get priority forplacement and/or grant considerations, so there is an incentive for everyone to work on thisissue. This year, the response from theme camps and artists has been amazing, with eventhose who got a green rating considering ways to do even better! Some theme camps also
reported the MOOP they collected from their public areas – from this it’s clear that camps
are dealing with Kiwiburn rubbish on a daily basis and taking away far more than what we
found. The most switched-on camps have a dedicated person in charge of cleanup, and acleanup plan.
Another purpose for the MOOP Map is to inform Kiwiburners of areas we need to collectively
work on if we truly wish to Leave No Trace. As you will see from the map, it was the publicareas that had the worst levels of MOOP. As a community we really need to think about how
to improve this – particularly the swimming hole and the Keyhole. We all use these areas,
we are all responsible for them. Items of note found during MOOP sweeps include: foodscraps, clothing, incense sticks, peg ninja pegs, cigarette filters, zip ties, and bits of string.
People leaving bags of rubbish in the Keyhole on Exodus day was also an issue. Educating
ourselves as a community about how we can reduce our MOOP footprint will be a focus forthe next year.
A note on food scraps: some people believe that it should be okay to leave food scraps
because they are biodegradable. If it were one person leaving an apple core, that might be
the case. However it’s 1500 people for 5 days, and that’s a lot of apple cores. Food scraps
20

(even buried ones) attract vermin, which go on to do fun things like eat the eggs of native
birds. Take your food scraps away!
Reflections for next year:•

The Cleanup budget is set at an appropriate level. This year we bought someinfrastructure items, next year we will continue to build our inventory.

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This year the whole site was mooped by two people. It would be useful to have ateam of four. We will also be seeking volunteers to monitor the Keyhole and gateareas on Exodus day to prevent people using them as their personal rubbish dump.

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Timing the cleanup to finish at the same time as MPW packdown would be useful.
This may involve some downtime for the team in the first two days.

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We will seek more reliable ways of identifying theme camp and art installation
boundaries, as these don’t always match the site map.

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Seek better ways to help all attendees to Leave No Trace.

d) Noise Management by Oliver Macro
Following on from the 2015 event, Noise and Sound Management was once again
approached with a pre-emptive form of logic. The sudden increase in population has meanta record number of registrations for sound camps and related sound installations in 2016.
Placement strategies and inter-camp communications were specific in order to successfully
manage the diverse auditory phenomena on site. Sound camp placements were typical of
the past two years at our present site. Placements were as far apart from each other as
conditions would allow, with larger camps in key locations, and sound systems carefullyorientated away from each other. As in previous years at our Hunterville location, thisstrategy proved highly effective, with even the largest camps being almost completely
inaudible in many areas of the site itself.
Routine checks of the site did not show any major issues, and only two sound related
incidents that were brought to my attention during the event: the first was a camp in thequieter end of lower paddock, who brought a PA system more powerful than theirregistration had indicated, the second was an unauthorised sound system in the Forest. Bothissues were dealt with through discussions with myself and/or the duty Site Manager.
As in 2015, a noise logging device was employed to record overall SpL (Sound Pressure
Levels) during the event. While we haven’t examine the recorded data yet, we’ve beenadvised that no major issues were detected and that levels with within the limits of ourresource consent..
Overall, I consider this year’s efforts in sound management were a resounding success.
Both the preparation prior to the event and the cooperation and engagement of those
responsible for the sound equipment on site were key to achieving this. Well done to all
involved!

Recommendation/Improvements for next year•

Continue working on achieving wireless connectivity with the noise logger via an onsite LAN, or similar system.

e) Traffic Management by Oliver Macro and Patrick Norton
Internal Traffic Management by Oliver Macro
With the significant population growth, and our limited available space, on-site traffic andplacement of participants vehicles had to radically evolve in 2016.
Last year we employed a separate paddock space for vehicles that would not be slept in,
however allowing access to the central connecting ‘keyhole’ for access the forest created21

major traffic congestion, with participants not adhering to the instruction of crew members
stationed in the area.
In response, a strict policy for controlling on site traffic was developed for 2016. All vehicles
were restricted to the designated parking area, with the exception of vehicles being slept in,
used for Theme Camp storage, or otherwise permissible by exception.
Upon arrival at Gate, Gate staff asked participants whether their vehicle fit any of the
exceptions, and radioed for placement and instructions if they did. Symbols were used on
the cards to designate whether a vehicle was to go straight to parking, permitted on thefestival grounds, or would be directed to their relevant camp on the Upper or Lower
Paddocks.
The system worked well, however miscommunications in the arrival process caused a few
moments of confusion. The instruction sheet given to Gate, Greeters, Placement, and Trafficcrew members was followed effectively. The main issue was individual departments notcommunicating effectively via radio when required, and some isolated incidences where
volunteers didn’t follow the instructions given.
Use of the Parking Paddock was predominantly efficient. Traffic crew members did a fine jobof directing vehicles into place, and the area set aside for vehicle camping was usedefficiency. The only major concern was that the parking space filled up much faster than
expected, leaving us concerned as to whether we would have sufficient space, which as itturned out – we did.
We’ll need to fine tune this process and set up a dedicated crew in the future, and shouldlook to secure a reasonable budget for demarcation equipment, and crew shelter. A reliableand dedicated volunteer has stepped up to the plate, and I’ll be collaborating with him
throughout the year to get the new department up and running.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Refine parking policy, and start a dedicated department.

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Allocate budget for demarcation equipment, and crew member support/shadestructures.

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Refine crew rostering and standardise procedure across all relevant departments.

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Keep up the fantastic work!

External Traffic Management by Patrick Norton
The role of Traffic Management relates to the Council required Traffic Management Plan
(TMP) for public roads affected by the festival. When, where and what traffic management isneeded may be subject to change from council or other road authority.
This role requires:
1. Obtaining a Temporary Traffic Management Plan from council or road controlling
authority
2. Place order, pick up and return traffic signs, cones etc. to hire firm (currently
Manawatu Events Equipment Trust, located near Fielding)
3. Implement TMP in accordance with council and other regulatory agencies (NZTA,
Police) in regards to sign placement and working on the carriageway. Undertake
checks at required intervals.
This year’s TMP mandated ‘Advanced Warning’ signs on State Highway 1 and State
Highway 54 and speed restrictions on Cooks Road. These were in effect for 48 hours over
Kiwiburn opening days and for 24 hours while participants disbanded. The intermediate22

period saw the signs on the State Highways removed and the speed restrictions on Cooks
Roadd remain for caution.
This role is straightforward but requires some ungodly timings. The signs were put up initiallyat 5am on the Wednesday morning before Gate opened and removed 48 hours later. Thenreinstated at 11pm Sunday night for 24 hours through Monday exodus. The signs need to bechecked periodically to make sure they haven’t fallen over or something. It takes two people
approximately two hours to set up or take down the road signs.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Difficulties were mainly around crew and truck availability. This could be improved byseparating traffic management from other operational/MPW duties.

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We should canvass for community members with relevant qualifications orexperience to volunteer to share duties.

Negotiate different terms for the TMP to make life easier

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VI. PADDOCK SAFETYa) Health and Safety by Paul Chaffe
So let’s start by ignoring the obvious and discuss the rest of the event, all in all it was a great
event with very little for the Health and Safety person to do, theme camps and crews werereally good at getting Health and Safety forms filled in pre-event and structures and art
installations on the whole followed what they had written down, unlike last year there were
no issues with laser light installations, the burn perimeters were well controlled with no one
breaking them and the cliff face above the swimming hole although slightly less stable thanlast year was well sign posted and on the whole people heeded the warnings.
Now let’s talk about the obvious…. The tree.
It’s important to remember that the tree could have fallen anytime, there was nothing
Kiwiburn could have done that would have stopped the tree from falling, in fact Kiwiburn hadtaken extra steps this year to warn participants pre-event about camping in the forest andhad put up extra signage within the forest warning participants about the trees, andundertakes basic operations to ensure trees are made safe whenever there is obvious
danger.
After the tree fell, Kiwiburn quickly taped off the immediate vicinity and moved a number ofcampers; further signage went up notifying reminding participants of the dangers of camping
under the trees. What does this mean for the future? It’s not going to be popular but I highly
recommend that there is no camping under any of the large poplar trees, theme camps andart installations may be set up in this area i.e. Tribal Zone but participants may not camp
here. The landowner should be approached and asked if further forested areas to the North
could be opened up for camping, this area is predominately willow and lupin and although it
may not offer as much shade as the poplars it is much safer.
This burn saw a couple of firsts in fire safety, it was the first time we had burner volunteers
help us provide burn safety and it was the first time Kiwiburn had a 24/5 fire fighting
capability on site. This is an area we’d like to look at expanding next year, to the point we arethinking of introducing a non-traditional theme camp: ‘Kiwiburn Safety Third’!
The camp would be based around the Medics station with burners volunteering pre-event,registering their skills and attributes with us, and those meeting NZ/AS Standards being
offered the opportunity to assist with burn perimeter safety as well as onsite emergency fire
response. If the community is interested then we would seek expressions of interest via theKiwiburn Facebook Group.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year

24•

Prohibit camping under any of the large poplar trees.

•

Look in to starting a ‘Kiwiburn Safety Third’ camp, for assistance with burn perimetersafety and onsite emergency fire response.

b) Medics by Paul Chaffe and Kirsty Illston
More participants equals more work for the medics with over 150 participants being treatedon site. The most serious injuries we dealt with this year (other than those associated withthe tree fall incident) were lacerations. Due to the nature of the event many participants
choose to go bare foot and many of these same participants end up visiting us with cuts tothe feet. There was the same demand for Panadol and other over the counter pain relief
medications, band aids and antiseptic creams.
The tree incident was the most challenging incident we have dealt with in a number of years
at Kiwiburn. The team responded quickly and professionally to the injured participant and the
Ambulance and Fire Service were called immediately. Although the participant looked
unharmed she had suffered a number of serious injuries and required immediate
hospitalisation. My hat goes off to the numerous burners who came to the aid of the young
lady and assisted the medical team, fire service and ambulance service.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Look at a new roster system for our staff, with a self-help facility and will look to
introduce an ‘emergencies only’ service from 2am until 8am.

c) Serious Harm Incident
This year we had a Serious Harm Incident where a participant was badly injured when partof a tree landed on her, leading to an investigation. The participant had suffered substantial
injuries that required multiple surgeries, a lengthy stay in hospital and rehabilitation
afterwards.
This was our first major accident at a Kiwiburn event, and the first one to trigger a legal
process. Kiwiburn has been working with Worksafe to ensure all relevant information begathered and presented for them to make an assessment and recommendations.
Following the accident, Kiwiburn’s ExCom conducted a duty holder review following theaccident and have identified a number of areas where processes can be sharpened. We will
be making some adjustments to our processes for how we handle and record incidents, andhow we interact with participants and work with the media when a health or safety incident isreported on site.
In June 2016, the ExCom also announced a series of measures that will be taken as a resultof the risks identified by this accident, including negotiating more land outside of the Forest,
undertaking further checks with a qualified arborist, and potentially closing off parts of theForest until any risks identified can be safely managed. This Action Plan will help to keep ourcommunity even safer during the event while still supporting camping under trees where thisrisk can be managed.

The legal process
The tree fall incident was significant enough that it falls within the category of a ‘serious harm
incident’ in New Zealand law.
This triggered legal processes, including:
•
•
•

25

Reporting the incident to Worksafe New ZealandInterviews and an investigation by Worksafe New Zealand
A voluntary ‘duty holder review’ – a process in New Zealand’s Health and Safety Act
where the organisations conducts a self-review. While voluntary, the decision to selfreview is viewed as good practice.

Throughout the legal process, there was a very real threat of prosecution – its stressful, andmade any kind of decision-making about future planning hard. While it’s important not to lose
sight of the impact this accident had on the injured participant, we would also like toacknowledge the immense effort put in by volunteers to review the accident and support thelegal review as well as the way the broader community pulled together to support thoseaffected. A special shout out also goes to Shelley, who took on the role of liaison between
the ExCom and the affected parties.
A short summary of the process, and some of the lessons we learned, will be circulated to
the Burning Man Regionals Group so that other regionals can learn from our experience.

d) Gate by Jasmine Hunter
Crew Performance
Gate processes the largest number of participants in Kiwiburn history this year with
Wednesday being the busiest shifts for the event.
Date

Total Per Day

Total on site

23/1/201622

24/1/201652

74

25/1/2016

63

137

26/1/2016

152

289

27/1/2016

784

1073

28/1/2016

179

1252

29/1/2016

119

1371

30/1/2016

20

1391

Gate Volunteers were emailed a copy of the Gate Manual prior to the event and were given
training at the start of each shift either by myself or by the experienced Shift Manager.
I would like to improve the Gate Manual by having a copy of each section displayed on theinterior walls of the Gate Hut in large print for easy reference and constant reminder tovolunteers.
The shorter shifts of 4-5 hours worked well for volunteers with quite a few offering to doanother shift during the event.
Resources
This was my first year as Gate Manager after taking over from Karl Matthews.
It was initially planned that the role would be shared between 2-3 Gate Managers but thisdidn't happen in the end. In my opinion the pre-event organising is best done by one personwith the responsibility shared by two Managers or a second in command during the event.
Crew t-shirts$564.42

Groceries$168.76

Lighting/electrical$97.41$830.59

This year we implemented a new option for the vehicle reentry charge of $20. Vehicles were
given the option of either paying the $20 re-entry fee or donating the equivalent amount in
the form of a beverage or food item. The intention was to build supplies for the MPW clean
up crew and save going off-site for more groceries for Gate Crew.
26

Recommendations/Improvements for next year:•

Clear intentions of the gate re-entry fee with everyone including security for if wewere to give the same option for payment again.

•

Order more t-shirts•

Either a second in command for Gate Manager or a second Gate Manager taking
responsibility for half of the shifts.

•

Gate closed at midnight Thursday and Friday, 8pm Saturday and closed Sunday or
only open Sunday for the first shift of the day.

•Exodus sift removed from the Gate roster and handed over to MPW.

•

Clear indication of when Gate Management completes duty on the Sunday.

•

More training for security on proper procedure during the night and on radio use.

•

No gate sales for locals•

Parking windshield symbols to be simplified with inclusion in the manuals for all
relevant teams.

•

The early entry list to be strictly in alphabetical order.

•

Different wrist bands for under 18 year olds.

•

Update the terms and conditions regarding youth being accompanied by a legal
guardian•

No flush portaloo at Gate, standard portaloo.

•

Pegged off area or barrier between the vehicles and the area in front of the Gatebuilding with a sign stating one vehicle group at a time, please stay near your vehicle
if you are not being ticketed.

•

The coned lanes to have tape running between them clearing indicating the twolanes with signage leading up to gate instructing vehicle to park in the lanes shown.

e) Paddock Relief by Jeanne Waldron
I received all the information for running Paddock Relief in November, so my experiencerunning Paddock Relief this year was very last minute and was a bit stressful, especially as I
had no idea what I was in for. Thankfully I had Pete for advice, we got lots of volunteer
emails through reminders in Electric Fence Post and from the volunteer coordinator.
We ended up with 33 volunteers including some friends I had recruited and seven volunteers
who joined during the burn. It was hard coming onto PR inexperienced with a basicallyinexperienced crew: most of the crew were new, only four had worked paddock relief before,
and some were new burners. Having a Red Earth (Australia) and a Black Rock (US) Ranger
plus a planner and infrastructure leader from Burning Seed (Australia) was an incredible help
and I learnt a lot from them. I was very lucky to have the rangers, a diving specialist and an
NZ soldier to teach us some things, at first we were all a bit unsure of ourselves and what wewere doing but by the end of it we rocked as a team and most have remained in close
contact and friendships have been ongoing between crew. There are quite a few who wantto come back next year.
Crew training involved a two hour training session before the event which included radio
protocols, medics advice about what to do in case of medical emergencies, a run through ofsupport available from the site manager, and a site orientation.
27

This year we increased Paddock Relief hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday hours from
2pm-3am to 10am-6am and it worked well. We has planned to close at 2pm on the first night(Wednesday), but ended up with incident with a distressed participant, and didn’t close tillafter 3am so obviously we need to have longer hours on first night. By Friday we had six
crew going from 10 pm until 6am, two teams out roving and two in the tent: we were at full
capacity and encouraging some to move on who were feeling okay especially between
11pm and 2.30am. In future years, I would like to have six crew for all the burn night shifts, amaybe be able to go 24/7.
Paddock Relief did a lot more call outs picking mostly intoxicated people up and getting themhome or to somewhere safe. There were not as many needing the use of the tent as there
were 2015. Also this year a lot of people came up to us out roaming a told us of someone
who need help and we would assist. A lot of people were ready to look out for each other.
The crew interacted well with others when out roving building great rapport.
We had two tents outside in the “wasted space”: male and female. These were used aboutfour times for people who were okay but no well enough to go home. They worked well andallowed us to check on them. Another thing that worked well was that before the burn stared
I spoke to a couple of camps – The Library, The Hangout – and asked if they minded if we
met someone who needed a place to chill if we could bring them there, they both thought
this was an awesome idea. The rovers took a few people to go lie in the hammocks and thecrew there talked with them. We took a few to the Library where they could chill and read orjust lie and be quiet.
MPW were awesome helping to set up the tent and putting a veranda on it that was reallyappreciated by all. Anything I needed they supplied so thanks to them. And thanks Poppy forthe bench seats. It was very dark in the keyhole so I got Lumos to put up more lighting forsafety. Site Managers and Security were awesome to work with. Paddock Relief worked inwell both; the Security team checked on us and updated us every round.
One issue we should address is changing the symbol for the tent. The cup of tea symbol
meant everyone thought it was the drop in tea hangout and we found a few people helping
themselves. The tent was broken into every morning when I went to open up: people hashelped themselves to coffee, were using it as a sleeping space or had made a mess. We
need a secure, lockable space.
We also took a lot of flack being called Paddock Relief with some very sexual innuendos
coming up. The crew and I would like a name change to Black Sheep Rangers, we took avote and also voted on designs crew came up with. I’m all for personalising regional burns,
but think that as the Ranger role is universal across all burns, that the name should beconsistent. We should also look at different training, including how Seed’s structure works.
I’m going over there at the end of this year to train with them. Interestingly they are justincorporating a place called sanctuary which is a lot like Paddock Relief so they will have a
mixture of the Rangers and Paddock Relief which I would like to see incorporated here. I am
also interested in looking at PEER Rangering: Psychological & Emotional Emergency
Response (P.E.E.R.) Rangers work closely with the medical team and head rangers toprovide support on the Paddock for participants who are having an emotional, mental or
psychological crisis while on-site and during some critical incidents. As we are increasing in
numbers then I think ranger training is very important. Of course it would be incorporated
into a style that suited Kiwis.
We also had several challenges with gear: some of the existing paddock relief gear was
mouldy when we unpacked it. We threw some away and washed sleeping bags and mats,28

aired out pillows. The gazebo tent was also not wind or water proof. Rain gets in throughsides, and it’s cold in middle of night.
On the Monday after the burn had finished there was an extremely intoxicated woman thatmyself and Kirsty Raye (Red Earth Ranger) were keeping an eye on whilst we packing. She
ended up taking up over two hours of our time when we were tired and trying to pack up. We
need to think about what happens to Paddock Relief when the burn is over. Technically no
one is responsible by this point, so what to do in these scenarios: do we need an extra dayof Paddock Relief?
My budget was increased to $1.000 and with this I bought a couch, mattress, torches, foodsupplies tea, coffee, soup etc, soft blankets, pillows and cushions, floor mats, items for thesensory modulation kit, gas heater and bottle and had badges made up for schwag.

Recommendations, improvements for next year••••

Revised and updated training Manual
Include some Ranger training
Change the name to Black Sheep Rangers.
Better structure: A prefab like the medics have with a tent rigged to it so we could
lock up valuable gear in there, also very good in wet weather and new tent. It is
important to have a warm and safe environment for all of us.

f) Security by Poppy Norman
Security and Site Management – Karl Matthews and Poppy Norman
Site Management Team – Poppy Norman, Hippy Tim, Kim Cairns, Andy Flint, KarlMatthews, Milena Zuccarello
The 2016 event was very successful in terms of participant safety and security. Much of theevent went without reported incidents and overall the behaviour of participants was
exemplary which we attribute to the wonderful culture within our community. We did have
two serious complaints which resulted in the eviction of two participants, but these werehandled relatively smoothly utilising the strong policies and procedures that are already inplace.
Kiwiburn had been using volunteers from the Hunterville Volunteer Fire Service for adonation over the past two years. However it was decided that it was in the best interests ofthe participants on site, and the volunteers working as Paddock Relief and Site Manager tohire professional security guards for the first time since leaving the Whakamaru site. The
safety of everyone on site is our number one priority, and we felt that we were not wellenough equipped to handle potential incidents of a violent nature. We were very impressedby the level of professionalism and experience that Armourguard brought to the table, andwould be happy to have them back again next year. They did come at a considerable cost,
becoming our third largest budget item, however in our opinion it was money well spent.
We changed the times in which security was on site slightly this year. Instead of having four
guards (two at gate and two patrolling on site) from 8pm to 8am we had four guards from
4pm to 4am with an additional two guards from 8pm to 8am. This meant we had six guards
in total from 8pm to 4am, with two guards at gate from 8pm to 8am. This meant we could
deal with any ongoing incidents throughout the day when the first guards arrived in theafternoon. It also meant that the guards had a visible presence onsite before nightfall.
There were also some changes to the way the site management team was structured. It was
decided by the ExCom the position of Head Site Manager was no longer needed. The shifts
were changed from eight hours to 24 hours to reduce the amount of volunteers needed and29handovers required, meaning site managers would be better able to monitor and manage
incidents that played out over long periods of time. This was largely successful.
Poppy once again acted as Site Manager pre- and post-event with Karl taking overwhenever Poppy left site.
Paddock Relief made great strides this year to becoming a round the clock presence on site.
Their development is critical to the effectiveness of our overall participant safety. Having
visible eyes and ears throughout the event site made spotting and reporting of incidents
easier for participants. The training and procedures that are being developed within Paddock
Relief are outstanding and made a huge positive impact out some of the incidents that
occurred during the festival. Paddock Relief are always recruiting for new volunteers so be
sure to sign up for a shift or two next year!

Armourguard Security – Roger Walker
Security was on site 4pm (4 guards), briefing between supervising guard and Site Manager(Site Manager changed each night and they had varying levels of experience).
4:10pm guards commenced patrol of whole site in pairs of two (one experienced guard with
one newer guard). Patrols took approximately 45 minutes, each team of guards went
opposite way around venue. Each team checked in with staff at Paddock Relief tent toensure they were okay and had no issues, also where practical spoke with organisers of
theme camps. At approximately 5pm guards had meal break then recommenced patrols with
continuous process of 45 minute patrol and 10-15 minute rest after each patrol. Thus over
12 hour time frame we conducted 10 to 11 full patrols dependent on when burns occurred(some nights not all) and incidents where guards were involved in eviction of participants.
The supervising guard coordinated other guards via Armourguard radios, and whenassistance was required via Kiwiburn event radios (usually via the Site Manager). However
there were a couple of incidents where organisers at theme camps and Paddock Relief staff
directly requested assistance from patrolling guards (who advised the supervising guard
what they were doing).
There were two evictions during the event. The first eviction one occurred when the security
team arrived on site, were advised by Site Manager of participant they wished to evict andwhere to find the participant. We spoke to the participant, advising that event management
wanted to speak with them , and the Site Manager advised the participant that they werebeing evicted. Two guards escorted patron to their vehicle and supervising guard drove thevehicle to paddock gate where Site Manager drove the participant to the main road.
The second eviction spread over two nights, involving a participant who was reportedly
aggressive with medical staff, and was later involved in minor assault where they reportedly
pushed staff in the Paddock Relief tent. Security called and escorted the participant to theirvehicle, and Police were called. The Site Manager originally advised Security supervisor thatpatron was to be evicted, but changed their mind after talking with Police (Police did notwant to drive intoxicated participant off site to Vinegar Hill, but warned the participant theywould be arrested if they were called back.)
The next night at 4pm briefing the new Site Manager advised they had spoken to all event
staff and the decision had been made to evict the same Participant. The participant became
verbally abusive to security and refused to comply with requests to leave. Supervising guard
then verbally trespassed patron, advised him if they did not comply security staff could now
legally use force to remove him. Participant eventually agreed to comply and got in theirvehicle with the Site Manager, and supervising guard assisting in escorting the participant toVinegar Hill. This eviction took just over an hour and a half to complete (not including timespent on same patron on previous night).
At the first burn security were not briefed or given any instructions as to how to assist. Relief
Paddock supervisor called on the radio to assist keeping a participant from running into the30

fire. At subsequent burns supervising guard approached staff coordinating burns andstrategically placed guards inside security tape and no further incidents occurred.
Other minor actions occurred where security were asked to intervene where intoxicatedpatrons appeared angry or uncooperative. These were calmly dealt with requiring no further
action.
All security staff worked well as a team. Security staff built a rapport with participants, site
office, theme camp organisers, paddock relief and site managers. We received several
positive comments: "you guys have made us feel safe", "Its great I don't have to manage
security, you manage yourself" (from a Site Manager), "I was impressed with how you
handled that" (Site Manager after forced eviction). Security staff adhered to the workings ofthe event (the principles on Kiwiburn web site, including non-violence and acceptance ofdiversity).

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Involve supervising guard in Burn briefing with event staff, prior to burn commencing.
If security staff are briefed on what is required of them at the burns (i.e. when andwhere to be, how staff want security to assist) then security staff can be proactive as
opposed to reactive.

•

Site management to meet and work out guidelines on what offenses patrons will beevicted for (ensuring all Site Managers are consistent in applying these guidelines).
Develop an eviction process that is timely and gives clear authorisation andinstructions to security staff.

•

Armourguard to appoint/designate an experienced security supervisor to supervise
guards and liaise with Kiwiburn site management. Supervising guard took on this role
because it needed to be done.

•

From a security perspective this was a well-run event and a pleasure to work with adiverse environment with few issues.

•

Armourguard wishes the organisers well for future events and we looked forward withworking with your organisation in the future.

g) Head of Security by Paul ChaffeFirstly let me congratulate you all (ExCom) on your decision to hire a professional security
company for this year’s event. Armourguard were excellent to work with, they quickly
adapted to the event and handled themselves professionally at all times. If called they were
there immediately. My hat goes off to them.
2016 was a much clearer year this year procedurally, meaning the three evictions we didhave went very smoothly.
Eviction one
A challenge for all involved as it involved a long time burner and close friend to many. The
eviction came about as the result of a complaint laid by four burners regarding their campmate. The complaint was of such a concern that the participant in question was immediately
asked to leave the event. Security and Site Management drove the participant to the gate of
the event. It seems the participant may have re-entered the event twice after eviction but
both times they were quickly located and removed.
Eviction two
This participant had quite a nasty streak and was dealt with very well by Armourguard, thedecision to evict was an easy one to make and although he gave the guards a bit of a runaround it went through without major hassle.
31

Eviction three
A person was located without an armband (thus no ticket) after they were seen climbing overfences into the event. Their eviction was quick and painless and they even seemed
impressed we had such clear procedures. The person hadn’t heard of Kiwiburn, but had
seen the signs on the State Highway and had walked across farmland (and swamps) toinvestigate.

h) Fluffers by Poppy Norman and Hannah Mitchell
This was the second year that we have had fluffers at Kiwiburn. No one volunteered to takeon the responsibility of running fluffers so it was co-managed by myself, Milena and Hannah.
Hannah and her five year old son Levi did most of the fluffing and planned and shopped for it
once. Milena also did some planning and shopping and I helped where I could.
With a lack of a dedicated fluffer vehicle and that the site vehicles were constantly busy withother things meant that fluffer runs had to be done on foot. Due to Levi’s age it was a big
task for him and Hannah to go around the whole site and fluff four crews. On the days that
this was too much for Levi Milena, myself of other members of MPW took on the
responsibility of fluffing.
“Being able to bring a five year old to be on a build crew at a Burn is one of the greatest
opportunities I have ever experienced. It gave Levi real life experience of watching building,and being in a role of service. It enabled him to understand and embody elements of the Ten
Principles. I believe there was some worry about having a child onsite, but it seemed thateveryone adjusted and enjoyed having Levi on the crew, and being able to play and see theexperience through a child’s eye. Indeed having children on the team is the ultimate
expression of ‘Radical Inclusion’. Well done Kiwiburn.” – Hannah
Response to the fluffing from the crews was mostly very positive.

32

VII. COMMUNITY SERVICESa) The Depot by Isa Ritchie
Aside from a few minor and major issues, the Depot went really well this year. Julia was agreat co-manager, as usual. We had fantastic volunteers and a great set up. This was thefirst year that the Depot has been separate from the Site Office. I was very happy with thestructure, right down to the mint green colour it was painted. MPW did a great job of setting it
up and providing shelving inside. It worked well and suited our purposes.
The role of the Depot is still being developed as a separate entity to Site Office. Most of the
difficulties I had, both before and during the event related to a lack of clarity arounddelineation of the roles of the Depot compared to other operational parts of Kiwiburn. This is
to be expected under the circumstances, and will hopefully be clearer for next year. The
Depot is supposed to sell ice, provide information for volunteers (including displaying rostersof all the volunteer teams), provide information to participants, and run the lost property. It isa central point-of-contact during the event and people often came up to us with a wide
variety of inquiries. It makes sense to have this function separate from the Site Office, sothat the latter can focus on internal operational functions.
In future, it would be good to have volunteer radio batteries available at the Depot as it wasdifficult for many volunteers from different departments to swap their dead batteries forcharged batteries during the event when the site office was often closed. This is something I
brought up both before and during the event but no radio batteries were located at the Depot
causing unnecessary hassle for the Depot volunteers, those who were trying to replace theirbatteries, and whoever was finally located to open the Site Office (usually the Site Manager).
Having one of the two battery charging stations at the Depot would make sense and dealing
with radios could be incorporated into the Depot training manual.
In future it would also be beneficial to expand some of these services (e.g.
looking after event volunteers more during the event), and minimise others (e.g. excessive
lost property). In terms of the volume of lost property the major problems were theme camps
not bothering to drop it up until after most people had left and people dumping rubbish.
Theme camps need to be more organised if we want people to claim their stuff. It needs to
be clarified if Kiwiburn is responsible for dealing with rubbishy lost property left at theme
camps or if the theme camps should be taking responsibility for it because they have set up
an area that tends to accumulate that sort of thing.
Volunteers consistently showed up for their shifts on time and did a great job. One possible
reason for the good turnout rate was that most volunteers were people I already knew to bereasonably reliable. We had to develop new systems for keeping track of ice sales money,
using a till as well as a tally. These worked well and kept track of sales better than previous
systems. There was no previous volunteer manual for the Depot, and one should be
developed based on the systems and lessons from this year. This should be circulated tovolunteers who sign up before the event by email.
Difficulties included trouble with the ice supply and replenishment. This was something that
we didn't think carefully enough about before the event in light of the growth in participant
numbers. We ran out of ice several times during the event and had to rely on people togenerously give up their time and pick up the ice I ordered into the local Hunterville Four
Square. This has to be ordered (150 bags at the most) 24 hours in advance from before
8am. The Four Square is also not able to have ice delivered to Hunterville on Sunday. Somevery kind volunteers drove around to all the local ice supplies in Marton in as attempt toreplenish our supply. With cell phone reception being patchy on site, we had to borrow thesite manager phone to order ice. In the future, it would be better for the Depot to have its
own cell phone on the Vodafone network (which gets good reception) in the future. The ice
trailer also stopped working, making ice difficult to store. None of this was ideal. We need amuch better ice situation next year.
33

Another difficult situation arose around the use of a generator. Before the event I was toldthat the Depot would have a generator, but onsite I was told that we would have to ask touse one belonging to a theme camp. This created unnecessary issues, such as having to get
fuel, and making sure the owner of the generator was awake to turn it on when we openedso that we had power to run the till. This experience was really stressful for me, mostly
because I felt bad for putting pressure on the participant who was generously letting us use
his generator, but if I didn't I couldn't do my job. It would be much better if there was a
Kiwiburn generator available to power the Depot during operating hours.
The split of Depot and Site Office wasn’t as smooth as expected. Our budget was intended
to be an operational budget, and some resources were expected to be shared, but there wasconflicting information – e.g. whether MPW could do ice runs, whether there were appliances
belonging to the Depot that we could use, during the event I was told several conflicting
things by different people regarding this. This led to the purchase of equivalent appliances,which meant that we exceeded our budget. The Depot building was missed out of thebudget and this was only noticed in November. If we had been able to foresee these extra
set-up costs I would have asked for a set-up budget for the Depot, as we were actually
starting from scratch.
There also seems to be a big delineation problem with Kiwiburn regarding roles andresponsibilities, between MPW, Operations (which is very unclear), and other departments. I
was told by several people that the Depot probably didn't need a building since it wasn't
doing any of the important Site Office stuff. This is a wider problem, and one that needs
careful attention to resolve. Both pre- and during event I was frequently put in a position
where I had to argue for the Depot to be considered, valued and treated as important. This is
not just a Kiwiburn issue, apparently the same thing happens at Seed – we need to consider
the value of all departments rather than expect each department lead to fight for resources.
If I hadn't argued and complained and pushed for the Depot to be as it was, it would havebeen a couple of volunteers sitting in a stinking hot tent with no one to manage them.
Fortunately, this was not the case and the Depot was well established and equipped thisyear, despite it being the first year it has been separate from the Site Office.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year34•

buy cell phone for Depot•

radio batteries and one of the charge stations be located at the Depot•

research better ice situation•

raise price of ice to $5 per bag to cover costs•

have own generator somehow•

better separation of roles with ops•

keep better track of budget as it is spent•continue to improve ice sales record keeping especially around crew ice•

develop volunteer manual•build strong crew of managers•

develop a strategy to minimise lost property, e.g. more pre-event media informationand outsource lost property for non-valuables•build volunteer support, especially for managers to a theme campb) Town Planning and Placement by Oliver Macro
As with all of my relevant departments, the record population growth Kiwiburn has seen in2016 has radically affected town planning management and operation. Town Planning was
where the biggest changes were to be found.
2016’s addition of two extra large burn-scheduled art pieces and their burn perimiters,
alongside our significant population increase, provided a major challenge in layout for theregistered camps and art installations, as well as the infrastructure that comes with them.
My strategy was in principle no different from previous years, making tight use of the
Paddock perimeters to house registered camps and maintain as clear a service road throughthe paddocks as possible, whilst keeping burn perimeters clear.
The resulting layout was rather tight, with the perimeters of both Upper and Lower Paddocks
being loaded with all manner of camps, and the spaces between filled with art installations.
Whilst the planning stages proved challenging, and the placement phase slightly nervewracking, the end result meant activity could be found all over at all times of day and night.
To me, it felt like the first time that Kiwiburn was well and truly alive, all of the time, all overthe site. This is a highly satisfying experience, and a healthy indicator of a job very welldone.
2016 was by far my most enjoyable yet. I feel proud of what I’ve have managed to achieve
not only in this year alone, but the past few years on the whole.
As I see it, the next step for Town Planning is to expand, and on that note lies my primaryarea of concern. Kiwiburn has run out of available space with which to expand, and continue
with the regulated increase of our population. To grow past this point we are going to require
the use of extra paddock space, and reconsider the overall layout and spread of the town.
I believe we’re at a critical juncture in the event’s development. We have hit a comfortable
limit but past this point we stray into a situation where the event’s growth may be out of ourhands. We need to be considering our expansion in terms of a year ahead, and also in theyears to come. The future I see is bright, but to obtain that vision however, we must project
where we wish to go, and establish the framework within which we may inherit it.

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Formally establish department and take on new crew members.

•

Refine pre-event and on-site planning procedures, especially registration and site
demarcation.

•

Develop long-term expansion strategies and land-event frameworkc) Art and Theme Camp Registration by Anne Starkey Taylor
The role of the Art and Theme Camps Coordinator is to record all incoming registrations (Art,
Theme Camps and Events), and to facilitate the communications between the Art andTheme Camp hosts and the Kiwiburn Organising Teams. The best part of this volunteer job
is being the first person to see what will be happening on the Paddock!
Each registration is acknowledged by email and participants are sent information regarding
health and safety, early entry, sound levels, parking, pack down and MOOP. Camp/Art
information and space requirements are shared with Town Planning; The web page isupdated with the relevant info; Town Hall is booked as required; health and safety forms arecollected and passed on to the health and safety officer; early entries are negotiated andcommunicated to Gate and finally, the registration information is formatted for inclusion in
the Event Guide. This year there was an added requirement for individual Fire Permits to beobtained for each and every Art Installation or Theme Camp wanting to burn, these werecollected and passed on to the Fire Officer.
35Given the massive increase in population, it was expected that the role would be hugely
busy and we recorded a whopping 40 Theme Camps, 36 Art Installations and 100 Events.
The size and scope of both Art Installations and Theme Camps seem to reach higher levels
every year and the number of events meant that there was something interesting happening
on the Paddock all the time (oh wait, there is always something interesting happening at
Kiwiburn)!
This year the registration process was not without issue. Theme Camp registrations arecopied to two email addresses (Art and Theme Camps and Town Planning) to ensure
nothing is missed, but we had one Theme Camp registration go astray (possibly due to a
web-glitch or email link error on that day). Fortunately this was resolved pre-Kiwiburn andspace was allocated for the Theme Camp in question.
The biggest problem we had was that the Art Registrations webpage was not linked to the
Art and Theme Camps Coordinator’s email. This initially caused some delay with processing
registrations as I was unaware that the link was not working. The eventual solution was forme to log in to the Art Grants webmail to search for new registrations. This seemed to beworking just fine until a week before Kiwiburn when it was realised that a handful ofregistrations had been missed. With the help of the website team I went through theregistration pages on the back end of the web site to source the missed information. The
Town Plan was already done and the Event Guide had already gone to print, but our
wonderful Town Architect took it all in his stride and made room on the Paddock for the
missed registrations as well as a few last minute entries.
The positive outcome is that I was taught some web skills and am now able to log into theback-end of the website to check activity – this will be a good safety check going forward(although we will ensure that the Art and Theme Camps email address is properly linked).
The support and communication received from Town Planning was invaluable and I would
like to do a shout-out to Oliver who just makes the whole process such a pleasure!

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Check that the registration pages are linked to the appropriate emails.

•More checks in place to ensure each registration is processed.

•

More web training for me to smooth out some issues I had uploading events (I almost
broke the events page).

•This was my fifth year as Art and Theme Camps co-ordinator and I would like the jobback for 2017!

d) Greeters by Marla Percival
First of all... a Huge, massive thank you to MPW for providing us with an awesome shadestructure on such short notice. The shelter we had used on previous years was found to bequietly, and rather rapidly, deteriorating. It was rather rotted so they were able to whip the
awesome shelter we had up for us. You guys are life savers!
This was my first year as Greeters manager and I have to say thank you to everyone forhelping me out/being patient. My team of cuddle monkeys were amazing. Thank you to eachand every one of you, you rock.
I brought the paddles back to the Paddock this year, by request. Unfortunately there were alarge number of paddles that ended up broken – and one that was made very scary looking– I'm thinking I will leave then behind next year maybe? The wheel of miss-fortune was fixed
to a working condition (thankyou to whoever did this!). There were no incidents and we all
had loads of fun. Thank you everyone for an awesome time and I hope to see you all next
year!
36

Recommendations/Improvements for next year••

We need to work on getting the 10 Principles across a little more, because it's notjust about spanking and cuddles. I will have more info on the 10 Principles for people
to look at while at greeters next year.
Some more games or some art for greeters would be a great way to encourage more
people to come visit. There is a bit of space for a funky art instillation up there fornext year (hint hint).

e) Centre Camp by Hana Tuwhare
The aim for Town Hall this year was for it to be utilised a whole lot more, which was a
success. Personally contacting burners via email and Facebook was the most effective way
to encourage people to host an event. The close approximation to The Artery, The Depot
and the Washing Line also made a huge impact on this space being used. Using the dome,
a much more inviting structure, also helped.
Anne showed me the ropes of how to coordinate Town Hall via email and then there wassome do-ocracy involved. This worked well. Anne coordinated events coming in via email
while I coordinated events by making personal contact within the community and doing theset up/maintenance on site. This worked well. It would have been good to have one otherperson to help during the event to ensure smoother running and a clean space.
As I have previous experience within Kiwiburn I was able to figure out where to direct
queries. But I realised if I hadn’t had the experience before, it would have been difficult toknow how to do do-ocracy effectively (i.e. do managers have use of MPW tools?). I realise
this is part of the learning process for newbie managers, but it could be good to havesomething that gives more information about the overall functioning of Kiwiburn to newpeople, like what assistance is available to them.
I’m pretty sure Town Hall came in under budget. A lot fabric was purchased but not used as
it did not fit the space. Money in the future could be spent on simple décor ideas and making
the space more inviting (couches, paint, bunting, lanterns). A second solar panel was
supposed to be purchased, although I only saw one being used. This meant the soundsystem would fade in and out at a certain volume, and lights had to be set on a timer so as
not to waste batteries. This generally makes the inviting-ness of the space go down, we want
it to go up!
Recommendations/Improvements for Next Year:37•

Make the space even more inviting (more bunting! This was a really easy andeffective way to spruce up the space).

•

Paint the mini couches (perhaps bright colours or words saying things like “MOVEME” or “PLAY WITH ME”.

•

Another solar panel to keep lighting going throughout the night.

•

Have a PA organised before the event starts.

•

Lighting to be more ambient.

•

Improve signage.

•

Find a way to encourage more people to host events at the Town Hall.

•

More interactive art closer to the Town Hall, Depot, Artery.

•

Keep growing the atmosphere of the Town hall, Depot, Artery (more interactive art
even closer! Also having coffee/tea lounges closer would be ideal).

•

Provide more information about the overall functioning of Kiwiburn to new people, likewhat assistance is available to them.

f) Artery by Eryn Gribble
The Artery returned to the Paddock this year, the first time since 2012! With the “townvillage” vibe we were in good company placed between the Depot and Town Hall, thisensured it got lots of foot traffic and was a central hub. I was initially concerned about it
being a “dead space” having its own tent – but Artery was a constant hive of activity.
This year was all learning! e.g. how all the behind the scenes stuff work, who tocommunicate with regarding different things, and what Kiwiburn provides infrastructure
crews with. I feel the future of Artery as has been cemented and we're on to a good thing!
The plan was:•

To be cosy and welcoming – a space to create, with some basic materials for thoseinspired to work with!

•To educate and celebrate art on the Paddockowe displayed artist statements, designs and workings from artists with works
at Kiwiburnodisplayed history and information on effigy and temple builds (and shared theimportance of each sculpture to burner culture)odisplayed information on art grants and informed and encouraged people to
apply

•

To be a place to connect artists to each other•To support artists on and off the Paddock•

To host art events that promote Kiwiburn art

We had a core crew of two, myself (Eryn Gribble) and Hannah Holder (2IC). My job would
have been easier if I had a clearer understanding of what was expected of me or what myrole was! We assembled a team of four other volunteers and Rohana Weaver the Chairfrom the Kiwiburn Arts Committee came on board with much needed enthusiasm andsupport for some of the events (chur!!!) The Artery was “manned” three hours of each day,with the events falling outside these hours.
Training was in the form of a short “handover” from myself/2IC to the volunteers. A manualwas created that was onsite and emailed prior to event. The Artery was designed so that insome ways it could 'run itself' and there were very basic tasks needed from volunteers – shift
MOOP sweeps, education of art on the Paddock, helpful smiley faces etc. This worked reallywell. Big ups to all the volunteers and MPW for their help!
The events were a highlight of the Artery! The arts tours were silly, long and a lot of fun –we created a theme song complete with harmonies “We are the art-wankers....” to holler as
we roamed around the Paddock, picking people up (and dropping people off) as we went.
We had many a special guest (highlight: Tangle) come to discuss their artworks. We read art
statements out in silly accents and showed off Kiwiburn art! Feedback from these was
overwhelmingly positive and we had countless suggestions we should run “one a day”.
The art “swap” may have used the wrong name! Drop an item off, grab one if you want. Thisis a good way to share what's been made at the Artery so I don't cart it all home, and for
Kiwiburners to gift their talents to others. We will promote this better next year, as it could bemuch like the revolving washing line – something burners look forward too!
Our budget was $750 I went over budget by $165.28 – sorry! When initial budget
conversations took place, the idea of how the Artery would look was still forming in my head
(and it kept growing into the beast it was!) this made it challenging to know what it would
look like and therefore cost. I also wasn't sure how much wood would cost me, until it waspurchased. A lot of the budget was set up costs such as signage, gallery walls, printing,38

tables (all can be reused in the future). I was unsure of what Kiwiburn provided as so might
not have needed to purchase/bring everything like cable ties, screws, etc.
Artery supported greeters in their role of sharing some of the unique aspects (like theprinciples) to our community especially to new burners, of which there were many this year.
We heard loads of comments as people flicked through the portfolios of previous builds
reminiscing about past burns or discovering more of our history. Many parents commented it
was great to have a safe space for kids. It achieved everything it set out to do. Artist support
on paddock was not in huge demand but as the role expands to deal with more placement –this might change. Really stoked with how it all went down. Back pats all round to everyone
involved!

Recommendations/Improvements for next year•

Night time arts tour later in the event (the first night, lots of art wasn't ready, andhosts weren't familiar with the layout of the site!)•Collaborate with town planning more•

Increase volunteers, simply for the MOOP aspect. A ridiculous amount of MOOP wascreated each hour of each day.

•Ensure the facilitators of communal projects housed at Artery these takeresponsibility for additional MOOP created.

•Space in the container to store artery items.

•

Define two key roles “paddock manager” and “events manager” – so Artery can hostmore events (these take a lot of energy and time on site and defiantly require theright people to host).

•

Host artist talks for effigy and temple.

•

Artery logo on the map!

•

Artery lead to join the Kiwiburn Arts Committee as a voting member.

g) Innovation Grant by Pete Lumos
This year misunderstandings and mistakes by me meant that the grants process did not
happen properly, after many discussions it was decided to proceed with Hippie Tims local
digital network project. This project is NOT about improving internet access on the Paddock,rather it provides a framework that allows participants and art works to connect in a digitalway for interesting possibilities and interaction. This project will grow as more people
become aware of it’s possibilities. For next year we have set up diary reminders and updated
our process to improve things.
Flags:
Some of our participants created good flags that were put up around the Paddock and in theforest but we needed more bamboo poles and the person who was going to help with thisdid not show up. MPW did have a few old and broken bamboo poles that I made do with, but
I was unable to do the job as well as I would have liked, I am looking to find somebody who
is willing to take the idea over and make it happen. There is a crate filled with flags andropes packed away in the container and I took some flags home to repair and wash ready for
next year.
Paddock lighting:Some of last year’s lights had been damaged but I had purchased from China a good
selection of various types of lights that were used to replace those and to light up many newplaces and hazards. There were some more loo lights to replace broken ones and someextras but the increase in loo numbers meant we still only got about 30% of them. Some of39

our lights and batteries were also used to help Temple and Effigy during build and to lookeven more awesome when the sun went down. Several participants were excited enough tobuild and bring along some great community lighting. After discussions with Poppy I
organised that at the end of the event all the Batteries would be loaded onto a pallet at ourcamp along with the rest of the lighting gear in a similar manner to previous years, I waslater told by the Moop crew that all this gear should have been transported by me to anunspecified staging area ready for loading into the container, next year we will improve ourcommunications.
Gate, Greeters, Town hall, Artery and Paddock Relief all received the new modular lightcontrollers that I built to allow me to easily setup a reliable solar powered light and soundsystem. These were easy to modify and add to once we got a better feel for what wasneeded in each case, users had simple switches to control the lights etc and there were USB
charging facilities for the phones and ipods. Unfortunately the sound system at greeters wasdamaged by the rain and in the future it needs to have a safe dry place as part of thestructure.

40

VIII. COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY
by Media Subcommitteea) Public Relations, Social Media and Electric Fence Post Newsletterby Shelley Watson
We like to engage the local community and had a lot of interest from local media wanting towrite articles about Kiwiburn. The Manawatu Standard and The Wanganui Chronicle sentjournalists and photographers and our media liaison took them around the site, with several
articles published. After a Serious Harm Incident, The Manawatu Standard came again to
get more information.
TV3 News was keen to come on site on the Sunday, requesting permission only a day
before, which was politely declined. The TV1 show, Seven Sharp, submitted a request forfilming a 3 minute 30 second segment and were turned down after a vote by the ExCom
before the event (note: The Census asked our community if they were happy with TV crews
on site and the majority indicated they were not comfortable).

Media Kit
The Media Kit was edited and updated with new information and 2015 images and uploaded
to the website.

Media / Photography Passes
Laminated passes clipped to lanyards were used for the second year so media andphotographers were instantly recognisable to our community.

Photography
Photography Liaison, Robert Jensen, once again offered guidance to new amateur
photographers and liaised with them before, during and after the event. He and his wife,
Krissy, set up Camp SMILE as a drop-in place for photographers for chatting, charging
batteries etc.
A Google Drive has been set up as a resource for collecting images of past Kiwiburn events.
Each relevant photographer is allocated their own folder to upload to in folders of each year.

Online Event Guides
Usually we upload our event to approximately 15 websites (e.g. Real Groove, Eventfinder,
Under the Radar, and Obscure) to help spread the word. With a sold out event, it wasn't
necessary, especially as it's a time consuming process.

Social Media
Each year Kiwiburn creates a Facebook and a Google+ event page with comprehensive
information and links to the website etc. The Kiwiburn community use Facebook more often
than our other communication channels. We post news and updates e.g. when tickets go on
sale, etc, with the community mostly using the Facebook event page as a noticeboard and tocomment (G+ is less-used by our community). This year 3,370 people were invited using theFacebook event and of those, 939 people indicated they were attending and 329 wereinterested. https://www.facebook.com/events/661875367279830/
We manage and monitor a community-driven Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/kiwiburn/ with approx. 3,900 group members, up from2,600 last year. Our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Kiwiburn, is the official
Facebook presence for Kiwiburn, used to make announcements and share information,
showing up in newsfeeds as 'Kiwiburn: New Zealand's Regional Burning Man event'. The
Page has more than 5,350 likes, up from 3,000 last year. Updates are made year-round, 2-3
times a week as needed.
41

Our Twitter followers have grown to 200 from last year's 115. Twitter is not our most usedcommunications channel, though it helps maintain momentum throughout the year. It islinked to our Facebook page, so Page updates also appear in the Twitter newsfeed.
We used our Instagram account for people to post their photos of Kiwiburn, taken on
smartphones, using the hashtag #Kiwiburn2016. An increased number of users uploaded
images and movies this year, though intermittent internet access onsite may limit somepeople.
Kiwiburn has a Pinterest page for people to view, though it is rarely updated.
http://pinterest.com/kiwiburn/Our channel on You Tube carefully sorted into years for easy viewing and updated eachyear: http://www.youtube.com/user/Kiwiburn

Poster
Kiwiburn ran its annual competition to design the poster used for promotion. The response
from the community was good despite the challenging theme. An anonymous shortlist wasmade and voting by the ExCom determined the winner, Shelley Watson, a graphic designer
and media subcommittee member.

Stickers
Event stickers with a design based the poster artwork, were printed in Wellington anddistributed at Kiwiburn, Burning Seed and Burning Man. 2,000 were printed.

Other collateral
The media subcommittee designed and produced volunteer patches, the event guide, ,signage, wristbands and updated the survival guide. A special 10-year pin was design andproduced to honour those who have been involved with Kiwiburn for ten years. A Style
Guide for writing was also produced to help promote consistency in writing in all areas of
Kiwiburn.

Newsletter
The Electric Fence Post (EFP) is a regular monthly publication with over 800 subscribers.
Mail Chimp tells us EFP readership sits well above average (16%) with a 22-30% open rate.
There has been some positive feedback with the new look and feel.

Census
The census helps us learn about who our community is. We used Survey Monkey again thisyear, running from the last day of the event until early March. There were 38 multiple choicequestions and a lot of helpful suggestions from burners. About 270 people filled it out.

Recommendations / Improvements for Next Year:

42•

Continue to use all channels of our social media.

•

Consider future media access for press.

•

Statement from Site Manager made available as soon as possible to the media teamafter a Serious Harm Incident or similar.

•

Media Training for Shelley.

•

Select images for Photo Galleries to go on the website.

•

Keep growing our Twitter and Instagram communities.

•

Electric Fence Post: sign ups at decompressions, sign-ups online throughdecompression communications etc

b) Technology (Website, Sys Admin) by Shelley Watson and Andy Ellis
The website is underwent a complete overhaul in 2015, being rebuilt in Wordpress by Andy
Ellis. This included:•

Working with Shelley and Isa to help decide menu categories and migrate content.

•

Working with Shelley on design and layout including imagery for home page.

•Set up a blog, called the KB-log, and managed by Isa.

•

Implemented a questionnaire preceding the ticket buying process to help educate
attendees.

•

A volunteer questionnaire, created by Isa.

•

Shelley editing the site where possible to be date-relevant and date-neutral andreduce double-ups.

•

Created online forms for poster competition, theme submissions etc.

•

Created a Calendar of Events, popular with the non-Facebook users of ourcommunity.

•

Updated email forwards.

•

Put monitoring in place for Google analytics and SEO.

After extra ticket sales crashed the site in January, budget approval was given for sitestability to be strengthened.

Recommendations/Improvements for Next Year:

43•

Website to be proofread by Technical Writer (Lydia Findlay).

•

Explore having our own ticketing system (similar to AfrikaBurn?) then implement if
approved.

•

Develop Photo Galleries on website.

•

Ongoing monitoring of Google analytics and SEO, make Wordpress Theme
upgrades and speed up site loading times.

•

Update home page images.

•

Set up of internal calendar to plan out future updates / release dates for new content(theme ideas, Theme Camp registrations, Art etc.).

•

Add in SSL certificate (free- suggested by BMOrg) to make sure the HTTPS workwith all volunteers who deal with Art, Theme Camp registrations, ExCom etc., tocustomise the information in the forms they are receiving.

IX. FUTURE VISION
by Wendy Allison
I always find these difficult to write as I see Kiwiburn’s future as the product of community
vision rather than that of one person. But someone has to write this and that job falls to me
so here goes.
It’s been 10 years since I first became involved with Kiwiburn. Back then, the event was
three years old and we were faced with a crisis – we could no longer just turn up in a
paddock and do our thing in an underground way – we’d been found out, the event had lostits original home, and its future was uncertain. The choice that arose from our attempts tofind a venue in the North Island was to go above board with council permits, ticket sales andrisk management strategies, or to give up. We stepped up and learned what we needed to to
make it happen. I remember being utterly amazed when nearly 100 people actually paid
money to come to this little event we’d organised. We honestly thought it’d be just the 14 ofus sitting in a paddock going “Well that was fun.”And now, looking at what it’s turned into, I’m no less amazed. It’s fifteen times the size, witha budget that has more zeros than most of us see in a year, and we’re starting to come tothe attention of the mainstream. This is fantastic, but it also brings with it more choices, andmore requirements to step up.
I believe the main choice facing Kiwiburn now is not that dissimilar to the one we faced backin 2006/7 – step up to the challenge, or give up and go home.
Kiwiburn has reached the brink of maturity, and this is mainly thanks to the work of a small
and dedicated group of people who have stuck with it through some pretty tough times,
stepping up every year, sacrificing jobs, relationships, and stability in the name of do-ocracy.
This has been fantastic for Kiwiburn, but it’s not sustainable and for many of these people,
the time has come to move on. This means it’s time for new people to become involved andcarry Kiwiburn into the future. We need to step up again.
My vision for Kiwiburn’s future is for all of our structures and processes to work together likea well-oiled machine. For our manuals to be comprehensive and up-to-date, and for ourvolunteers to be well supported so that when someone new says “I want to help”, they areable to step into a position and do it with maximum confidence and minimum disruption totheir life. For new people to be encouraged to grow their roles and gain skills that enrich theirdefault lives so they want to stick around from year to year. And for all this to happen
seamlessly, so our old hands can retire confident in the knowledge that Kiwiburn is in good
hands.
I know that isn’t a very exciting-sounding vision – no unicorns, no fireworks, no world
domination. But I believe that the unicorns and fireworks come from within the community,
and the foundation of our community is the people who dedicate themselves to making
Kiwiburn happen. I’m excited about making sure we can continue to make Kiwiburn happen
into the future, and that’s vision enough for me.
We’ll have a new Chair next year. I hope to leave Kiwiburn’s foundations in a solid state tosupport a grown-up festival.

44

IS THAT IT? THAT WAS OVER QUICKLY. KIWIBURN’S
ANNUAL AFTERBURN REPORT IS TRADITIONALLY
MORE COMPREHENSIVE, NOT HIGHLIGHTS. KEEN
ON THE NITTY GRITTY? WANT TO KNOW MORE? ARE
YOU A DETAIL PERSON? YOU CAN READ THE FULL
AFTERBURN REPORT HERE.

AND VOLUNTEER HERE. ANYTIME.