August Newsletter
Greetings Soft Landing!
We are all counting down the days (hours? minutes?) until we can be together again at our Soft Landing home on playa! Please take a minute to review these updates and reminders. We are also looking to bring new campers into leadership roles at Soft Landing; please consider gifting your time and skills to continue creating this magical community in the dust.
Shifts and dues
All the information you need to sign up for shifts and pay dues is on our webpage. We have an amazing awesome new page to sign up for shifts – please be sure to use the link below!
Sign Up for Shifts! NEW LINK
If you signed up for shifts but haven’t paid dues, please do so by Tuesday, August 11th! When we cross-reference our “dues paid” list with our shift sign-up list, we don’t want you to be inadvertently removed from the schedule.
Join the Talent Show!
Have a talent you'd like to share? We'd love to see it! Whether it's music, comedy, poetry, dance, magic, storytelling, circus arts or something completely unexpected, all talents are welcome. The talent show will take place Tuesday from 5:00–6:30 PM.
If you'd like to perform, please email river.poague@gmail.com to sign up. Be sure to include any special needs or requests for your performance (sound, space, props, setup time, etc.) so we can help make it a success. Come perform, cheer each other on and celebrate the amazing creativity in our camp!
Supper Club
If you are new to Soft Landing, you may be wondering if the camp offers a meal plan, as some other camps do. We don’t. Instead, the Love Kitchen facilitates a voluntary, self-organizing alternative known as Supper Club. To learn more about this amazing opportunity to share meals with your fellow campmates, please review details here. You can also reach out to the Love Kitchen team at letsspoon@campsoftlanding.co if you have any questions, special needs or suggestions.
Water & Gray Water Service Opportunity (!!!)
This year, we will be offering limited water filling service and gray water disposal service. Check out this link for details, and please pay attention to the waitlist deadline of August 1st.
Leadership opportunities
We would love to see you, YES YOU!, join our camp leadership team! Over the last 3 years, we set forth a goal to have multiple campers participate in various camp leadership roles to provide opportunities, help grow the knowledge base and support the roles, and be in a position where the leaders didn’t need to commit to coming to the Burn each year. For many of these, you don’t need to be on Playa; the help goes a long way in successfully running camp!
We are looking for 3 to 4 people for each position, so don’t be shy to have a conversation with us!
Build Co-Lead
Building camp is one of the most rewarding experiences as you help build our home and see the city grow from nothing!
Invaluable leadership training! Some of the best in the world!
Work with our Camp and Build Leads throughout the year and learn all the inner workings of camp!
Help plan camp layout, build crew, and order on playa resources.
Help plan and distribute early access passes.
Help manage and/or attend our annual Gear Sort and help transition us to 1 Gear Sort every 2 years.
Average time per month is about 1 hour until June when camp planning goes into full effect, which is about 10 hours per month. Gear Sort is a weekend in April or May and a lot of fun!
Tea House Lead and Co-Lead
The Tea House is one of our gifts to playa!
Learn how to plan and run the Tea House!
Prepare the teahouse logistics off-playa: ordering teas, making sure the inventory of our supplies are correct, etc.
Help open the Tea House on playa each year and train our campers to run it!
Average time per month starting June is about 4 hours per month. On Playa, time spent is mostly on Sunday and Monday with the Tea House and its shift volunteers.
Strike Lead and Co-Lead
Strike (camp teardown) is essential to return our portion of Playa back to its natural state and prepare our infrastructure for future years! Strike keeps getting easier every year and more organized since we bought/built out our new trailer in 2024.
Plan and run our Strike Crew.
Work with Pod Leaders on striking, sorting, and staging materials for packing.
Help our Build Lead maintain our inventory database.
Develop a list of infrastructure with the Build Lead/Co-Lead that needs to be replaced in the following year.
Help us figure out how to do as much gear sort as possible to help save camp funds each year through reducing our annual gear sort trips.
Strike starts the day of Man Burn, striking the PN tent. Pods start striking their shade on Temple Burn Day. Monday is a full day striking the Tea House, Love Kitchen, packing the trailer, and moop sweeps with the Strike team. Weather participating, Strike should be done by Monday evening, but typically runs to Tuesday noon. Exodus from camp to pavement was 22 minutes last year!
Communications Team
The team manages our newsletters, website, social media, acculturation, and new campers. The Communications Team spends about 1 to 2 hours per month on their various tasks during the slow season, and 1 to 2 hours per week as we get closer to the Burn.
Communications Coordinator
Our amazing lead, Oracle, is stepping down after this Burn. She has helped transform and streamline our team in so many ways and really set us up for success! We are splitting her responsibilities into different roles. The Communications Coordinator manages our Communications Team and helps our Camp Leader manage each year’s schedule.
Newsletter Content Creator
Create those amazing monthly newsletters and manage our mailing lists.
New Camper Coordinator
Answer new camper requests to join camp and share information to help integrate them into camp.
Acculturation Coordinator
Be the first interaction with campers before the Burn to help them learn and prepare for the upcoming year! Teach campers how to be safe, help each other, know what/where the year’s resources are, what to prepare for, and work with our Community Care team on what consent topics are relevant to keep our campers safe! Time spent is about 2 to 3 hours in July/August updating our presentation, then 1 hour per Acculturation meeting mid-August. These are done on a Pod level to keep meetings short and more intimate. We typically have 4 to 6 pods and smaller pods can combine these meetings.
Upcoming Dates
Apply to join camp: Applications for new campers are open! Remember that all new campers must be sponsored by an existing camper. Please direct them to apply here. Make sure any new camper reads camp orientation guidelines here.
Acculturation meetings will take place in virtual Pod meetings, during the first few weeks of August. These will be co-led by your pod lead and a member of our acculturation team! Please check in with your Pod Lead to see when your acculturation meeting is scheduled.
Dues and Shift Sign-Up: Open Now! Please sign up and pay no later than Tuesday, August 11th.
On-Playa Camp Meeting: Monday, August 31 @ Noon in Palenque Norte.
Love and dusty hugs,
SL Leadership Team
info@campsoftlanding.co