Festival Basics Beyond Scheduling

Please review with Stephen (or the team lead) all the basics of running a booth. Here are some extremely-simplified basics:

Safety:

• Canopies are heavy. Make sure no one gets hurt lifting them, whacked by them when they are carried, and -- especially -- make sure they are tied down if there is even a breeze. They are basically sails with metal bars --> it doesn't take too much wind to send them flying dangerously.

Food:

• Make sure someone has fully reviewed the food safety issues when we have juice. Health inspectors are over-serious these days, and there are some risks of getting people sick even with our simple serving. Please take it seriously, keep the place clean.
• The juice is fragile, it's not heavily pasteurized, and so it has to be kept cold. We are supposed to have a thermometer and keep the juice below 41degrees. This isn't always realistic -- but do be aware of the requirement, and make sure all the juice is this cold even if we're not measuring. That means the juice in the coolers should be packed in ice and ice water. Juice on display be careful that it is quite cold, on ice. Be sure that opened bottles of juice are not floating with the cap in the water. (Apple juice and similar are particularly fragile; citrus less so, and lemonade the least.)
• Soap and running water in a "hand sink", and alcohol sanitizer. Make sure everyone at the booth is aware of washing their hands. We are generally supposed to have (depends on local health dep't) running water -- this can be as simple as a cooler with clean water over a bucket, and soap. Often we may be walking to a nearby sink and using hand-sanitizer more often than a hand sink that takes a lot of effort to set up, but it needs to be there and useable as needed.
• Paper towels. We must have clean paper towels. You can be green and not hardly use any, but we have to have them in easy reach.
• Soap and sponges for wiping the table. Use them!
• Cups need to be kept where they won't collect floating dirt (upside down) and cup's drinking surfaces can't touch anything not sterile: one option is to tape down the bottom cup and never use it, or put it on a nicely cleaned surface.

The Booth:

• Step back and walk up to the booth -- how does it look? Can people see the signage as they approach? Then do the same thing as a health inspector -- bring the above list, do we look clean and clueful, do we meet the checklist?
• Some talking goals, in some kind of order: (1) Introduce people to Columbia Gorge as the sponsor (if they are); (2) introduce the specific thing SpaceShare did (this is the least confusing way to start) that we built the carpool (and ???) for the festival. When there's time, (a) do you go to any conferences? We're hoping to get a thousand environmentalists at this festival to spread the word about carpooling and sharing to thousands of business and professional conferences. Ask the organizer if they have carpooling, hotel roomsharing, or a chance to meet on flights and share taxis, and then tell them about SpaceShare." (b) Volunteers and interns. Both volunteers for the festivals, and college internships, or even partners or people looking for work (see spaceshare.com/partners). ** Reread the last two newsletters before any festival, what volunteer needs are we searching for? (c) the Green Events Guide effort. Be sure to get contact info for Stephen to talk with any event planners or potential sponsors, etc.
• Set up a newsletter list at the booth, and a rideboard at the booth -- OR a sign to the festival's rideboard. It's nice to put out some flyers about our organization, postcards for upcoming events we're working with, and especially the "intern" flyers. These are all in the bluish box, just poke around.

Beyond the Booth:

• Get the rideboard announced from the main stage
• We have some compost/recycle materials designed to be posted elsewhere.
• If something is going wrong, tell whoever is in charge! If Stephen is around or in phone range, call right away! If the health inspector comes, get someone on the phone with Stephen right away if possible, so if you need a backup, you've got one. It's much better & less stressful to get extra help early than be laid back until everything crashes -- Stephen generally doesn't mind running in to help if there's a chance of an upcoming problem and you're looking for help getting ahead of it.