5/17/2016 UPDATE

The Apogaea board voted to not cancel or postpone the event on May 17. Read the update here!

Dearest Apogaeans,

In every endeavor, there comes a time to “sink or swim.” There comes a time to “do or die.” For Apogaea 2016, *this* is one of those times.

I’m not going to sugar coat it: The situation is dire, and we need our community’s help (that’s YOU!) to fix it, so we can come to a resolution.

We have some HUGE challenges to make this event happen this year, and we are on an extremely severe time crunch to do so.

At last night’s board meeting, our experienced safety leads made clear to us that we do not have the necessary preparations in place to safely hold the event as planned. The board voted to give ourselves until tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 5PM to mitigate the current dangers and to insure a safe and successful event.

If we can’t find the needed volunteers in that *very* short time frame, we face postponement or even cancellation of the event. If it comes to that, as responsible leaders and human beings, we will have to make that hard choice, because the safety of our community comes first, ABOVE the desire of each and every one of us to have an Apogaea this year.

Here’s where “sink or swim” comes in…

We need the following things to be in place in order to move forward with the event as planned in June:

An ICS lead. This is the biggest linchpin right now. Without this, the wheels literally come off. You may have heard this term, “ICS” it means… Incident Command System. It’s the protocol that goes into place in the event of a major safety incident (i.e., missing child, tornado, flood, ground fire, hailstorm, etc.) The ICS lead is the person who runs the operation that would get people out of harm’s way if something happened. It could be your loved one, your camp-mate, your best friend. We *cannot* go forward with the event without these protocols in place, and the person to step up and execute them.



How you can help: call *today* anyone and everyone you know who meets the qualifications listed at the end of this announcement, and put them in touch with [email protected]

. More volunteerism. We still have many shifts unfilled, some of them *vital* to throwing a successful event. The event simply cannot happen without these vital volunteer shifts filled. How you can help: Sign up today to volunteer, and persuade your friends and camp-mates to do the same. We are lacking in most departments, but the following are some of the most “mission critical” gaps in the system:

Parking – Shuttle Driver + Other Roles – 40+ shifts need filled!! Email: [email protected]

Rangers – 40+ shifts need filled! Email: [email protected]

Placement, DPW, Gate, and more…

NOW is the time to get involved. Sign up for a shift or two. It really is that important.

The place to find where you fit is: http://volunteer.apogaea.com/

The decision to postpone or cancel the event is not one that we would come to lightly. Countless people have spent countless hours trying to build this event into something safe, amazing, and fun. We *don’t* want to make that hard call. But the safety of our participants is #1. If we throw the event, but without required safety systems in place, we risk paying the ultimate price, and that’d be on all of us. With your help, we may have a chance to get this event over the finish line, but the window is small and our time is short.

So… do we sink? Or do we swim?

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Incident Commander Description – do you know someone like this?

The Incident Commander (IC) position is extremely complex and requires personnel with extensive experience and the ability to think holistically (non-linearly). The IC must have the ability to communicate effectively with the public and to bring a cohesive and effective local response organization to bear on an incident in a high-risk environment.

Training in Risk Communication techniques and everyday public affairs should be considered a must. A critical skill is the IC’s ability to bring together the membership of a local response community (over some of whom he/she has no authority) and to form a consensus-building organization

Mission: To manage the ICS organization in pursuing an effective, coordinated, and cooperative emergency response.

Key goals include:

Establish incident response objectives and strategies

Acquire and apply the most accurate, up-to-date assessments of the situation

Supervise an effective, safe, and efficient ICS organization

Deploy and monitor resources

Keep stakeholders and staff well-informed

Demobilize Incident Command

Specific experience working with the Apogaea organization is prefered; other equivalent experience working with similar type organizations will be evaluated.

Shift requirements – on call, 24 hours, ready to respond and initiate an ICS team activation in case of an incident.

This includes a gifted ticket to the event. Any further conditions or accommodations can be discussed.