Miki Beach community,

 

It’s finally the right time to make an announcement regarding membership for Miki Beach at Black Rock City this year.  Thank you for being patient. 

 

The last few years have been anything but normal for all of us and we’ve oftentimes found ourselves in unfamiliar territory without a roadmap of how to chart the proper course.  Planning for Black Rock City this year is no exception. 

 

We’ve received an absolutely unprecedented amount of interest this year for Miki Beach. We are humbled by all of the love and support, but also, candidly, a little anxious over how we can accommodate everyone’s wishes this year. Our community has always been and continues to be our greatest strength.  It’s not lost on us how much everyone wants and needs to go home.

 

Coupling that demand with the also unprecedented limited supply of tickets released in the main sale last week (only 10,000), to put it mildly, is a real conundrum for everyone. 

 

With that in mind, we wanted to announce the process for membership for Miki Beach this year, as well as provide some transparency and perspective into the thought process.  It’s admittedly a long post, but the real key information is directly below.  For anyone with additional questions, we encourage you to read on. 

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Membership Process

• The questionnaire is now open and ready for you to fill out here: https://forms.gle/JNbgtxGGeQ25LhLW9

• EVERYONE who wishes to camp at Miki Beach must fill out this questionnaire. Given we have a really solid core community, whom we can rely upon to make membership decisions, the form is less of an application and more of a central planning and logistics tool

• We will begin giving out invites around May 1st to the camp.  Invites will come via email, with other key information

• Thereafter, additional invites will be given out on a rolling basis until around mid-July when we expect the camp to be completely full

• We are kicking off the membership process nearly two months early this year; however, we will also be closing the camp around mid-July as we want to focus on planning the build of Miki Beach and getting all of our campers involved

 

Insight into Membership Decisions

• Camp Size – despite the demand, the size of the camp (by headcount) won’t be materially increasing this year.  We do a survey after BRC each year and our community has opined on this many times. Additionally, there’s plenty of non-Miki research indicating we shouldn’t go larger (for example, Google “Dunbar’s number”).  It’s a top priority that we have a cohesive community and we can’t sacrifice that at all

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• Target Camp Experience Distribution – as always, the camp will consist of a mix of returning Miki Beacher’s and totally new campers to Miki Beach.  We feel as though it’s tremendously important to have new people, with fresh ideas and perspectives in our camp.  We will be targeting roughly 65% of returners and 35% new campers

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• Prior Miki Beach Campers – for those wishing to return, unfortunately there’s not going to be enough spots for everyone.  We’ve had almost 400 individuals camping with us since 2016, and the obvious massive ticket issues aside, it seems like the vast majority of those people want to come back.  We will likely have approximately 100 spots for returners.  We really cannot stress this enough, but if camping at Miki Beach does not work out this year, it absolutely does not mean you aren’t part of our community 

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• Participation – with the above in mind, we do value those who have historically participated and are truly part of our community.  We will prioritize those who have been more active members of our community.  It’s going to be very challenging to create space for those we generally haven’t seen or heard from in three years (especially those residing in Miami and NYC).

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• New Miki Beach Campers – we’ve all had nearly three years to branch out, form new bonds or relationships and make friends.  As a result, there’s also significant demand from new campers as well.  Again, we will prioritize targeting approximately 35% of the camp with people who have never camped at Miki Beach before (and many of them who have never been to Burning Man)

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• Core Community Member Opinions – whether you’ve camped at Miki before or not, the opinion and recommendations of our core community members are the most valuable resource we have for making decisions.  Our core community are those who have historically taken leadership roles or been very active members.  They are the ones who plan, build, and breakdown our camp. We will prioritize the people that our core community members need and recommend for the camp

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• Tickets – the current ticket situation is a unique and new problem.  We are going to be patient with membership this year.  We will be kicking off the process much earlier than usual, but we also aren’t looking to just immediately fill the camp based on who does or doesn’t have a ticket.  If you are someone who doesn’t currently have a ticket, but you belong at Miki Beach, we are going to be patient

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• RVs – as in prior years, everyone within an RV needs to be accepted into the camp.  We really don’t want to be telling you who should or shouldn’t be in your RV, so we will try to work with you in this regard.  But this year more than ever space is going to be very limited in the camp. Tents, yurts, etc are always easier to accommodate.  On a related note, in addition to having individual camp dues this year, we are also going to institute an RV charge (per RV and not per person) to hopefully minimize the number of RVs, while also raising much needed funds for the camp.  The amount isn’t finalized yet, but somewhere in the $500-600 ballpark (again per RV and not per person).  We thought it’s better to upfront very early on that

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• Your Membership Recommendations – for those existing community members wishing to recommend new campers to Miki Beach, the general theme of this very lengthy message is obviously that space is very limited in the camp.  Please be mindful of how many people you want to recommend and push to be in our camp. If everyone invited 5-10 persons, we would have a ridiculously sized camp.  With that in mind, it’s unfair for any one individual to push for large numbers of new campers.  Everyone accepted into the camp has a voice in membership and it’s important to think of these recommendations as a shared and finite resource

 

We very much appreciate you taking the time to read the above fully and carefully.  In the event that you did read it all and have further questions, feel free to reach out via email at Seifert.matt@gmail.com.  But also please be patient with those inquiries. 

 

Looking forward to seeing you all in the dust.  The Man will burn soon!

 

And as always, in the meantime, don’t do too much!!

Miki Matt