Feedback on the 2008 BushMoot

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Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,131
1
1,878
53
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
Hi All, as we talked about on the feedback session at the Moot, here's the forum :D We'll end up splitting things further as we move things into years, 2003 - 2008.

If you've any comments, good or bad then list them in here. We used all the comments from last year to help plan this years Moot and it went very well indeed, I've got the feedback from the session and other notes from people below:

Great -
  • Location of Area 51 (aka The Naughty Corner)
  • Whiteboards with workshop information and Map of workshop locations
  • Children well behaved - a credit to all the parents :D
  • 'Organic' workshops are great (workshops that happen because of requests and wanting to share knowledge with others when not scheduled)
  • Everyone willing to share knowledge
  • Bring & Buy worked very well.
  • Excellent value for money - people would pay more.
  • Hangi was great
  • Plenty of wood for fires/main fire
  • Mods (Mootley Crew) around to help and stand out in t-shirts
  • Safe environment


Room for improvement...
  • Better signs leading into site - brighter rather than bigger
  • Bring and buy should be bigger
  • Signs/signposts on site for getting to workshops
  • letters in the key for locations confuses people, just use numbers
  • some of the traditional children's area used for parking
  • Atalatal area desired (where people can go and have fun with throwing things)
  • A kids sheltered area would be good (tarp, chute or some such so parents have somewhere to take them with things to do)
  • Too much and too little time to do it
  • Need subforum on website for the Moots (and here it is :D)
  • Too short, near unanimous request for longer event of 7 days and majority vote for 10 days duration.
  • Some catering would be good, even if it's only for part of the time.
  • More stock in the shop
  • 12 months apart is too long!


Other points
  • Should look into a small fee for children
  • More notice of BushMoot dates
  • Whole thing outstanding and well worth travelling to.

I'll add more as I get it, I'll be back in a bit, there's a break in the weather and I need to try to get these big chutes dry :D
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
Definitely agree with most of that Tony, and it is a credit to yourself that you are willing to listen to peoples' thoughts and ideas to constantly improve on the Moot. Everybody would enjoy more time, I'd like for it to run for 365 days of the year! Not much chance of that unfortunately, but is there a possibility of a Winter Moot?
 

Tripitaka

Nomad
Apr 13, 2008
304
0
Vancouver Island, BC.
All good stuff and struggling to think of stuff to add.

Definately 12 months apart is too long but also appreciate the logistics of staging such a big event. Maybe the way around this is more frequent regional events? Some areas have regular meets - others not so regular. I'd be willing to organise a NW regional meet if someone talked me through what to do.

£60 is good value for money but also need to consider the cost of travel etc. It's great value for someone from Bridgend but the costs go up massively if you are travelling from Scotland etc.

If you look at a fee for children, make sure that it has a lower age limit. Would I want to pay for my 19 month old who sat in a buggy or toddled all weekend? My 11yr old on the other hand had a ball and I would be happy to pay for him. I think that 8 or 9 would be a reasonable lower limit.

Consider your "no dogs" policy. It cost me £43 to kennel my lab for the period and I'd have preferred to have spent that money in the shop. It was a bit of a downer to have done that and then found other dogs on site.

Booking priority for BCUK full members. I think that for the next moot you are going to be massively oversubscribed; it's a natural pyramid effect.

Maybe invite some trade stands to help with the revenue?

Just my current thoughts; I'm sure I'll think of more.

Mark.
 

Rhoda

Nomad
May 2, 2004
371
0
46
Cornwall
www.worldwild.co.uk
Everybody would enjoy more time, I'd like for it to run for 365 days of the year!

Agreed! Can we form a BushcraftUK permanent community please? We had such a brilliant time and you guys all worked so hard to make it happen. If there is a possibility of a winter moot as well that would be great, I would be more than willing to help organise as I'm sure would many others - perhaps you could delegate jobs to responsible people to help make it happen without causing you any extra stress! :D
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Consider your "no dogs" policy. It cost me £43 to kennel my lab for the period and I'd have preferred to have spent that money in the shop. It was a bit of a downer to have done that and then found other dogs on site.

Mark.

If you mean the three legged white one and his larger shaggy coated compadre, they weren't supposed to be there. They belong to the landowner and just go for a wander apparantly :rolleyes:
They seem to be used to scrounging food, maybe the LARP crowd encourage them :dunno:

cheers,
Toddy......who's petrol bill, split with Warthog1981, came to a couple of hundred quid:rolleyes:
 

firecrest

Full Member
Mar 16, 2008
2,496
4
uk
I think something that would have made it a bit easier for me would be if the shop was stocked with a few odd food items, just essensials like coffee, milk sugar and a few tins. I know it would probably run out in no time,(and as bushcrafters we should be rationing ourselves right in the first place!) but I ran out of a couple of things and getting to bridgend was a pain, especially without a car!
 

Bimble

Forager
Jul 2, 2008
157
0
Stafford, England
I had a great time, thanks to everyone. I have some possible suggestions to improve things a bit....
1) It would be good to have a hot water earn, some tea bags, milk, sugar and a hobnob or two at reception area. People could make themselves a brew in their own cup (no nasty disposables) for a few pence. Nice especially if it’s raining or at the end of a long journey.
2) Some sit benches (logs and planks) at the parachutes would have been nice, perhaps some could be provided next year. The flint napping benches were a good example of the sort of thing.
3) I would have loved to have seen some display /pin boards in the reception area. On these could be placed examples of peoples craft work or some photos from expeditions, etc. I think these would be very interesting and seeing/touching projects for real is much better than photos on the web. (The display of tree samples was interesting, could have had other useful plants, etc.)

Hope this is of help. Well done again!
:You_Rock_
 

Bimble

Forager
Jul 2, 2008
157
0
Stafford, England
Oh yeh, I almost forgot. Get a stack of what ever Mors was smoking/drinking :240: and issue it to all the instructors.

The guy is a lecturing machine...........we are not worthy! :notworthy
 

Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,131
1
1,878
53
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
This is great feedback, keep it coming :D We'll wait for a bit more before I start the process of clarifying certain things, I will say at this point though that Dogs aren't going to happen, there's not supposed to be any dogs on site.

Winter Moot is already being talked about in the background;) That's likely to be a bit more hard core as families are unlikely to be so inclined to attend it. That's discussion for another day though.

Thanks again :You_Rock_
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
If benches are such a problem, I suggest we make some. It would be a simple construction and we could do it as an online project to bring along to the Moot and have a competition or just enjoy their use. If a number of people made one or two, we'd have ample seating arrangements. They could be left for others or the option could be there for anyone to take one away for their own use if people are happy with that.
 

Tripitaka

Nomad
Apr 13, 2008
304
0
Vancouver Island, BC.
What about considering alternate sites? There must be other places around the UK with similar facilities. For instance, there are a whole raft of scout campsites that could be available; they are always looking for extra cash.

It would be nice to see other places. We used to do this when organising the Polaris Challenge MTB events.
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
I'll start a new thread, but I've just knocked up a rudimentary bench in roughly half an hour. First one I've ever made and learnt at least one lesson on the way. easily done by any one of us, but I'll explain more in the thread to stop this one wandering. Suffice it to say, anyone of us could solve our own seating problem at least with a small amount of effort. Problem solved!

Done! http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32644
 

peds8045

Full Member
Sep 4, 2005
183
1
65
Telford, Shropshire
My booking experience for the Moot was a bit 'hit and miss' insomuch that i almost left it too late to book and i think i got one of the last places ( i assumed there were plenty of places available). It would be a good idea to inform the forum of approximate places left rather than simply announce MOOT NOW FULL once all the places are taken.

A potential earner for BCUK would be the provision of milk/bread/eggs available for sale which could be 'marked up' to cover costs. This could reduce the traffic to and from Tesco's. At best this could be carried out on a daily basis by the Mootly crew or, request volunteers (who may be heading that way anyway) to get bulk quantities.

Otherwise an extra day or two would be nice, though it may prove difficult to retain the 'guest instructors' who have got there normal jobs to go to.

At the risk of starting a discussion, i would prefer that the No dogs rule remain in place, but that should apply to all, there were some dogs onsite, at least two of which were left to roam around off the leash.

Can't wait for the next one.
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
I like the idea of a run to the shops for basic supplies, but to be honest I didn't go once after my initial trip, and only then did I pick up a few things I'd forgotten in my haste to leave such as a few tinnies and onions, plus a few other bits. A good cool box, planning and a bit of luck left me with a decent amount of food at the end. I could have probably ate for a few more days comfortably, and no doubt about another four if I didn't object to an oatsosimple diet! Ditch milk in future, get yourself some canned condensed milk. Pour the contents into a nalgene and add water for your breakfast milk, you're just making the water up that was removed in the condensing process. Alternatively, punch two holes in your can and pour straight into coffee or tea to get the desired strength of beverage. Carting gallons of normal milk weighs a ton! Just a tip, try it out.
 

Graham_S

Squirrely!
Feb 27, 2005
4,041
65
50
Saudi Arabia
I was thinking that after the parking problems, maybe get some mods/volunteers to direct traffic for parking to keep everything tidy and prevent people getting blocked in.
All we should need are a few high-vis vests and a plan.
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
Mine tape or equivalent could be used to mark areas that need to have clear access routes. Saying that, it again boils down to common sense. I saw one or two blocked right in, and thought it was a bit ridiculous on the part of the drivers who did park there knowing full well that others would not be able to get out. Names on tickets hanging in the window was a good idea, but finding those people once they rove into the bush would be nigh on impossible. I can think of no easy solution to that one.
 

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