A short summary of my history at the Fair!

My history with the Oregon Country Fair goes back to the very first fair at Hawkins Lane in 1969. I went to an organizational meeting at the Ulrich’s and showed up at a couple of work partys before going to the Fair. I seem to remember it cost 50 cents and we had an attendance of about 1000 people per day, Friday and Saturday.

I missed the second Faire, the spring of 1970 in Crow and I believe it is the only faire I have not attended.

I just came as an attendee at the first Faire at our current site in the Fall of 1970. I remember walking in on Chickadee Lane that was little more than a farm road, undulating and muddy. I also climbed up the platform tower erected in the middle of Main Stage and watched the entertainment from the top.

In the spring of 1971 the Kasler clan and I had our first booth, selling copper enameling products we had made. This was over on Strawberry Lane where the bank is washing away.

For the Fall Faire of 1971 I was back in Astoria but came down for the weekend. I really like the change in foods in the fall fairs.

In 1972 the Kaslers and I did Chow Fun ( a Hawaiian noodle and pork dish) with the Patsy Mink for President campaign committee in the back of what was to become Energy park.

In 1973 we started Phoenix Rising. Actually the first year we did not have a name. Bill and Cindy gave us the location because we were willing to provide meals where main camp could eat.

Phoenix Rising got its name the second year. In between 1973 and 1974 Miss Piggy’s was loaned to the Boy Scouts for a Jamboree. They took the 200 firebrick we had left behind and used them for fire pits and burnt half the booth wood. With the major reconstruction the booth earned its name.

I burned out of doing a food booth in 1978 and joined a friend of mines craft booth for several years.

In 1985 I helped with the Friends of Bagby Hot Springs Booth and moved into my current neighborhood at the Faire. This lasted through 1987 as we got moved into and out of Energy Park.

1988 and 1989 I couldn’t find work so I snuck in. In 1990 I showed up, again looking for work, when they built the pumphouse and Wolden Pond. I worked cutting pipe for the pumphouse and earned my first staff pass.

After traveling in 1991 I found I had a job with Water Crew. Shortly after that there was the big BOD recall and I decided to run for the Board. I then spent 7 years on the BOD in the mid 1990s.

At the time wristbands were instituted, Photo ID was set up to deal with people who could not or would not wear wristbands. Since then I have run the Photo ID part of the Wristband Crew, my current position with the Fair.

Where did my three year, two fair policy for planning come from? And what do I mean?

It came from the posters that were placed around the dragon last year (2004) about changes coming. It got people really talking about what they needed and what their concerns were.

Over the years I have observed many problems arise in our planning process despite our best efforts to try to accommodate everyone. Most of these come from lack of communication or rushed decisions.

I have long thought that we need to use the time we get together to engender discussion. It is the only time we are all here. It is the only time we can communicate with all of us.

So when I saw this great discussion going on around the posted plans I realized we were on to some thing interesting.

I have found that if you give the faire family enough information they will support the final decision. There was a lot of disagreement with the preliminary drawings but everyone was full of suggestions to make it work for them.

I could see that if further, more detailed plans were posted the next year, most everyone would buy into the future design. At the very least no one could say it caught them by surprise.

Some would say this is too slow. I think it is a good idea to do our path planning on a slow basis. I have observed over the years the fair works best with slow changes.

This process is designed to give the most people notification, both to involve them in the process, or at least expose them to what is happening in the faire.

This is really designed for our normal path planning process, not for emergency relocation, also. I also don’t think it should apply to a single booth, even if it is a faire construction. It really refers to changing multiple use areas.

Now there will always be emergencies, due to trees or bank erosion, which may need to be dealt with that year. I think those can be helped on an individual basis. Planning should not be driven by emergencies.

As part of the planning process I would hope the faire will keep at least 15 booth spaces as temporary, ones that can be filled with emergencies or new crafters. I think we need to increase the temporary booths to at least 20.

Why Run

My decision to run for the BOD had its roots in going to meetings over the last year. I have mentioned in Path Planning how the three year, two fair process was based on an observed process and worth adopting. Many agreed that would be good but I could see little movement towards adoption.

This combined with going to the July BOD meeting, finding a last minute surprise legal disclaimer and watching the process of convincing the BOD of the necessity. In the end I too would have voted for it. However I was concerned with the unimaginative process. For years now I have been thinking that we could use our lawyers more creatively. To really discuss this almost requires being a BOD member.

Finally, I am concerned about our population growth and recognize it will be a topic of concern and discussion over the next year. I think I can add a valuable perspective to the discussion.

I guess it couldn’t be ‘finally’ as I am continually interested in things like the elder’s program, job transitions, better communications and use of the internet, an audio feed of the BOD meetings, an OCFWiki, glowing things in the dark……