Events

[Rick]

this ones for our events that are coming up.  Seperate from our woek days.  Maybe we can keep them seperate.   Correy,  can you give us a rund down on the BLHA's event plans for feb.   Are you looking for anything specific for help.   

Rick

[Ctwilley]

Ok,
Here's what I have in mind and if you have any questions or concerns Rick, let me know.

Thurs. Feb. 19th
The advance party of the crew will start arriving at around 5pm. We'll work through the evening to setup the boat and get settled in before the rest of the crew arrives.

Fri. Feb. 20th
Our plan for Friday the 20th of February is to get roughly 400 school kids and their chaperones through the boat with no casualties. That's going to require some precise prior planning and coordination but the reward will be some $$$$ for the museum at $3 a head plus gift sales. 

The busses start showing up at 8:30am. The the teachers bring the payment for each student directly to you in the museum and leave the studets corralled in the busses with the chaperones. At 8:45 we'll start admission in the side gate. Every group of 15 will be given a tour number. The first group will line up and we'll start the tours at exactly 9:00am. We'll have it limited to 15 students a tour and a tour begining every 10 minutes. The tours will advance to the next compartment every 10 minutes. This will give the kids an hour of learning aboard the boat. As the tours get done, they will then be directed into the museum in groups of 30 where they will spend about 20 minutes. Much more than that and the museum staff is going to be overwhelmed and things are going to get out of hand (but we may have to adjust the time if the entire class has to go to the bathroom). After the museum experiance, they can either go back to their busses or they can let the kids burn off some energy out in the field beside the boat. I think we're on our own for lunch unless David has plans that I don't know about. Lunch will be from 11:30-12:30.

Personnel needed: one person in the museum, preferably another at the register, one person at the rear entrance of the museum to regulate inflow, and a person at the side gate to assign the tour numbers. If more volunteers show up, we'll have places for all of them. It would also be nice to have a person at the gang plank keeping kids from entering before time. I'm also expecting at least 6 BLHA guys for the tours. The majority of the crew probably won't be able to arrive until after 5pm due to work schedules so I'm not counting on them as help on this day.

I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a long day and this is the first time that we've accepted this many kids so there will probably be some trial and error, but it'll be worth it both in terms of educating the kids and getting money for the museum. We broke the museum's record for the ammount of money earned in one day last time and I think we'll break the record for the number of people visiting the museum in one day this time, although we may break our money record too (I hope).

Sat. Feb. 21st
February 21st will be a normal living history day (thank God). The kitchen staff will be rousted at 0600 and the crew will be up and around at 0700 and we'll serve breakfast at 0800. Breakfast will be followed by KP duty begining at 0830. We'll be ready for the museum to open it's doors at 0900 but you can do that whenever you're ready Rick. Throughout the day, we'll work and perform demonstrations for the public as well as training classes for the crew. Dave and Cody will start serving lunch ataround noon and supper at somewhere around 1800. A couple of guys are bringing cards, checkers, and a few other games. I'm working on getting a 1930's Monopoly game (the crew will have all been paid in 40's currency so this should be interesting to see what everyone does with their money). We'll be showing a couple of 8mm movies later on in the evening (I have a bazillion news reels dating from 1939-1945) in the galley. I'm expecting a good turnout from the BLHA.

Sun. Feb. 22nd
This will be a repeat day of Saturday but a good portion of the day will be spent tearing down and cleaning. Mr. Twilley and two others won't be cleaning the entire boat by themselves this time unless someone wants to be found hanging by their thumbs from the observation scope. 

[Rick]

This all sounds good. 

For Friday, I am working in my head as to how we are going to manage this from a flow stand point.  I will put the bug out to the other volunteers today.  This will be in the form of a general message to everyone on my email list.  I am hinking of creating parking for bus and for POV's this will help control the congestion in the Parking lot.  I am also thinkinng of creating a que line into the entrance area of the museum. This will be people control #1.  If I have enough people, I will place a rover or 2 there to keep them entertained.  I will try to do my usual and be a roaver.   I am best at making sure that everyone is entertained.   We have access to the Legion Room.  We will use this for a quiet place for the workers to stay while on break.  We can also use it for a storage place for everyones personal equipment.   I would like another chat session with the crew.  I do not have anything on mind in particular but I felt it worked out very well last time.   We can also use this time to address any issues that anyone may have.

Do you want me to write up a Press Release or should I.  Maybe Bradley would be a good alternate?   

Keep me posted.

Rick

[MWALLEN]

I will put the bug out to the other volunteers today.

I can't make it, as it's a kid weekend for me.

I will be out the 14th & 28th...and yeah, my wife is OK with me being there on Valentines day...after all, I proposed to her in the Batfish conning tower.

If you give me something to post the website, I'll be happy to get it on there...or I can link to this thread.  Let me know.

Mark A.

[Rick]

Cool about your wife.  I did not know that.   This just goes to proove how special the boat is.     

I will send you a press release as soon as I can.  I need to get it out to everyone.   And, as you pointed out, I need to get the deck work out there as well.   

We will miss you during the christmas party.   Just a point,  kids are welcome.   

We will see you next week.

Rick

[Ctwilley]

Cody and David have both worked up an official press release but we're going to wait until after New Years to send it to the media. I'll have them send you a copy if you'd like.

Hey, I'm working on a list of demonstrations for the public for Saturday. The other day, I was talking to the pilot of one of the local B-25's (he's also the pilot of the B-24 in Jenks). I'm working the logistics right now and if I can't do it in February, we'll do it in August but here's what I'm thinking.

I'm going to try to get him to do a two-pass low-level flyover. We could use this as a great demonstration scenario for the public. What I'm trying to coordinate with the pilot is for him to fly over at a specific time during the day. We'll have the watch posted on the bridge and the public on the deck to observe the following sequence of events. I'm not going to tell the crew when he's coming or from what direction so they'll have to sight him, track him, and sound the alarm. They'll have seconds to I.D. the aircraft and then our signalman will launch the flare sequence of the day. If it corrosponds with the sequence that I give him, he'll wag his wings and leave. If not (and it won't because just like most of the aircraft in theater he will not have recieved the new code on the day it was supposed to go into effect {you can see several accounts of this in the log}) he'll do a low-level pass and begin his turn for his attack run. The watch will then have to fire "yesterday's sequence" in an attempt to keep from getting "blown to bits".

High speed, low-level learning for the public. How cool is that!

[Rick]

This is cool.  You will need to coordinate with the airport and the port authorigy.   With the Homeland defense in place you may need to get clearance.   I do not think this will be a problem,  but I do not want to tork off the Coast Guard.   

[Ctwilley]

It should be easy. I'll dot all "I's" and cross all "T's" before even starting to go through with this though. It can end up as a great idea or a great disaster and I'm really hoping for the former.

[Mark Sarsfield]

What kind of audio effects are we looking at doing for this particular weekend?  The stereo that Roger loaned to us was rather weak/not very loud.  You had to almost be on top of the speakers to hear any exhaust noises and they are rated at 100W each or more.  So, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the speakers.

Do we need 1MC set up and where would you want it, if so?  We could post someone in the CT and sound various noises as queued by the person below giving the tour.

I can probably take that Friday off (vacation day) and run equipment or help out wherever needed.

As far as crowd control goes, keep in mind that this will be mid-Feb.  My experience is that Jan. and Feb. are usually the coldest months - to me, at least.  So, a line standing outside waiting for warmth and entertainment may not go over too well.  We might need some GP tents set up with wood stoves or a heater of some kind.  After the kids leave the boat, they may not want to see the other outdoor displays, depending on weather.  The museum will be the choke point, because kids will be coming in and out through the same doors.  We could open the side gate and set up another tent.  People leaving the tour could be corralled here.  These are just ideas.

[Ctwilley]

We're looking at anything and everything that we can get our hands on. The more speakers and sounds the better. The 1MC can either be set up in the CT or the CR it really doesn't matter. I guess it depends on how many show up.

I like the GP idea. Do we know anyone with one or 5? All I have access to are several pups.

I can definately use the help on that Friday.

[Mark Sarsfield]

You have a lot more GI contacts than I do.  I guess we can start with the BLHA email list and see who has a GP and also the OkieWWII list.  We'll have to figure out what to do with the kids while they are in the tents, too.

I think we've exhausted our stereo supplies, as far as the BLHA is concerned.  So, investing in one might be the next option.

[Rick]

You guys have the contacts.   The museum could use some Military style tents.   Email me some good links I will check them out and check on a couple of other options.

Rick

[Mark Sarsfield]

Done.