Not gonna lie, my wife and I were chuckling about the McDonald’s cheeseburgers
We said the same thing many people were thinking, Would it really of been that difficult to bring a grill and spend the time to grill up fresh burgers?
And..now we know! Food permits?? Wow. Thanks government :gonnablow
That's what I got out of it. Met some great people too.
If registration was $90 last time that would be $110.28 today. That's using the CPI not real inflation.
Pretty wild if you need food permits for a group event not selling things to the public. I would be surprised if there wasn't an exemption.
I didn't mind the Mcdonalds. Our trail ended late and we had some modifications to make to the jeep, I wasn't feeling picky.
I like the flashlights, something you just can't have too many of, squirreled away in various nooks.
As far as the texting I think if that is a service that would cost
money then I wouldn't bother.
I believe this is something that google calendar can accomplish for groups though.
I'm not sure if you either of you were there in 2013 (maybe 2008, foggy memory), we had the show and shine and a chapter offered to cook burgers for dinner. Someone had to transport a grill from wherever they lived, that year I believe it was charcoal and it took forever for the burgers to be done, I think it was 8pm before we ate. It's stressful and time consuming. Unfortunately it's not been as easy as one would think.
Permit wise, believe me, there was no exemption. If you cooked food you had to get a food permit from the county and follow all of their rules for cooking food for a group. If you have it catered, the caterer has to have a permit from the county to prep food for a group. The Friday night caterer does have such a permit. MWC could not afford a caterer for the show and shine meal. I know NWC spent some money on pizza, they were great, thank you, MWC had over $300 in the burgers and another $200 in the other food/drinks that was there.
The process for having this event is incredible. The permit process started on November 3rd of 2022. I started by trying for the dates that we normally go, but was told there were other events going on. They had suggested the dates that we used then (17-21). I had to fill out a preliminary plan for the event then. I asked several times over several months for them to confirm that the event would be approved. I got the initial plan approved but then had to do another process and was told that I wouldn't have an official approval for the event until just a couple of months before the event.
Finally a phone call with Grand County gave me some comfort that we'd be approved and the dates were announced in March, I wanted to announce it earlier, but it would've been terrible if we weren't nearly sure everything was going to happen.
We had to have a plan for everything that we were doing. I had to draw a map and plan for the pizza party at the KOA, where the bathrooms were located, the exits, the trash cans, even had to get a permission slip signed by the KOA to show that we could be there. Same for the show and shine location. I had to submit a plan for the entire event on what impact we would have on traffic, trail staging, trash disposal.
has to carry a separate insurance rider just for this event. We also have to keep a permit with the BLM. Just before opening registration, they wanted a plan for cpr cards and communication that worked if there was no cell service. The entire plan had to be reviewed by every agency in Moab, police, fire, fire rescue, waste, risk management, on and on and on....
The week before the event everything was approved and I got the permit. The day I left I was told that all trail leaders had to have a copy of the BLM permit and the grand county permit.
Needless to say, there is a permit for a permit and it's a nightmare. I can't tell you how many hours were involved in the process.
More than anyone wants to know, but that's what is required by Grand County for an event to be held.
As far as the texting, I'm not worried about a cost, just more curious what folks think of text blasts for information on the event. We ask for emails in the registration and I have no idea if people ever see the emails that I sent or if they would get one on site should something need to change. Since the entire group doesn't meet all that often, there's not a good way to communicate and I wondered if a test group made sense for the next event coordinator.
Thanks for reading all that if you did..
mac 'rest of the story' gyvr
At one point during a trail run I looked in the rear view mirror and all I saw were wranglers.
I know, cool story.
