If you have any suggestions on things that could be better next year, post them here so we can fix them.

1)Parking/Buses (just about every aspect)
2)Lighting
3)Sound system...this would allow for better yell practice, Last Corps Trip while everyone is still there, and is just needed overall

Note: If your suggestion is along the lines of "Don't have Bonfire if it is not sanctioned by the University." please just don't respond. We've all seen that discussion a million times before.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but I was turned off of helping when I was told you couldn't really discuss the details of the insurance policy.

Other than that I think you guys have done one hell of a job.

Next year it would be cool if Southside helped.

Going hand in hand with the sound system and lighting, have a real stage that's elevated at least 8' off the ground for good visibility by the crowd.

Also, details like plywood over cattle gaurds and muddy areas are important. Someone really needs to visualize the whole guest experience and think of every possible detail that could be an issue.

[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 11/23/2003 9:38p).]

1. Give 2 more feet (at most, 1 foot atleast) for each stack/tier.
2. Persuade dorms to pick dorm logs not as big.
3. Outhouse a little smaller...
4. Raise centerpole a little earlier
5. Don't let a moses guy saw dicks off of waltons dorm log
06. Lay off the Sniff-Snuf
7. ill think of more later

First--great, great job.


More pre-fire publicity. While this is a student activity, I am sure many business people would cooperate--more press releases.


If same place is used next year, Hot Rod Hill was great for parking, but black signs with duck tape arrows really did not show up well at night when trying to follow them.


I will be glad to help with any writing I can do. All I knew to do this year was to bring last year's diary back to the front of football hoping it convinced some more people to attend.

Have you though of inviting some of the school officials or even the regents to drop by during cut and stack. That might be one way to convince them of your concern for safety--let them drop in.

Even with the number of buses last night, one problem was that they were backing to turn, and just having a better traffic flow for them would have cut turn around time by several minutes.

All the Bonfire workers were nice, but the private security were downright rude in several cases that I heard.

If you counted tickets you should have a pretty good idea of the number you sold. Plan for that plus 30 percent next year.

I would love to see even a 20 to 40 member band. That would not be too hard to coordinate. Band might need a separate gathering place and a bus just for them.

I mentioned elsewere it would be great to next year (on the 5 anniversary--have as many of the 99 yell leaders as possible--in their same coveralls if they fit--to lead this Bonfire yell. Then each year move up one--so that Bonfire becomes a reunion of sorts for the Yells.

If the university won't support the yell, there are ways to still have much of the old one.

I know for a fact some of the football team were there by the way.

One idea would be to contact local lettermen, and have a couple of popular former players talk to the crowd.

quote:

---

Next year it would be cool if Southside helped.

---

**laughing**

Now, a bit more serious, I have met several people from southside that are interested in it, but had no idea of who to talk about it with.

Parking is obviously one of the biggest things that needs work. For one people who are going to be working the parking lots need to be recuited much early. Not to mention having more people doing it as well (there were two of us doing it at Harry's the entire night, and I can't imagine what Post Oak was like).

I'll try to think of some other stuff

Fightin' Texas Aggies Class of 2007, 3rd gen Aggie

quote:

---

Have you though of inviting some of the school officials or even the regents to drop by during cut and stack. That might be one way to convince them of your concern for safety--let them drop in

---

Van Alstyne dropped in at one cut this year, actually. Officially he was making sure that no outfit names were displayed on pots, but from what I understand he enjoyed himself and was impressed with what he saw.

[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 11/23/2003 10:25p).]

1) Event Planning
2) Event Planning
3) Event Planning

An arm separate from the grey pots needs to deal with nothing but this, and they need to start soon planning logistics, with intensive planning starting once stack site is set.

I know quite a few former students who have commented on this and are willing to help.

FWIW: The owner of Hot Rod Hill offered his place for stack next year. I dont know if he has wood or not, but he said he would like to help us any way he can.

A couple of Knockouts and I talked with him and his wife for a while around 1am. Really nice guy. He is from the Crimson Tide, but he is supporting us. Good bull.

Some of the the parking problems could be solved by have parking within walking distant of Bonfire. More buses could have been freed up for the mall and other areas.

Full Speed Ahead - Fire At Will - Gig'em

how big is hot rod hill exactly?

Fightin' Texas Aggies Class of 2007, 3rd gen Aggie

I did parking duty at hot rod hill. It's 40 acres of land. Definatly enough parking for everyone if it were held there next year.

However, as I was talking to the guy from hot rod hill about using the place for actual burn, I don't know how comfortable i was thinking about seeing our Bonfire in the middle of a stadium like setting.

40 acres of parking x 125 cars per acre (widely accepted constant) = 5000 cars. That should be adequate if there are 2+ people per vehicle.

[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 11/23/2003 11:08p).]

Bonfire03- I was talking about that with my friends today actually, just having a logistics team that coordinated the events of the day, as far as parking, buses, ect. I think it would have been better to have a line as you leave for people to get into for the specific busses they took, instead of having everyone congregate up on that road.

A sound system would be nice in the future so that what is being said could be heard.

Overall, I enjoyed myself and had great fun

BTHOB 2004!!

Have the security, police officers, bonfire people all on the same page. It seemed like nobody knew what was going on as far as crowd control and where people could and couldn't stand. Something as simple as holding a meeting with the police and security people to get everyone on the same page. After Bonfire is lit have different lines roped off for the buses. I'm suprised nobody was hurt last night trying to get on the buses.

BTHOtu A-A-A WHOOP!!

Matt,
I was surprised nobody got hurt too, especially some of the smaller kids. You had to love the cops.

Evil Lady Cop: "Back up!!!"
Aggie: "There's nowhere to back up!"
Evil LadY Cop: "Too Bad, Back Up!!!

http://www.studentbonfire.com/latest.shtml

Please email your thoughts and suggestions to myview@studentbonfire.com

[This message has been edited by AggieMarcHere (edited 11/24/2003 12:54a).]

was the star supposed to be on the outhouse? i hate to bring it up, but i think they got the Turkish flag and the traditional tu Frat house confused...

Excellent Job on the Bonfire.

I have nothing to compare this one to because I've never been to one. I thought it was awesome, and the group I was with decided to walk back to our car(it was in the lot that charged $10). Someone was kind enough to stop and let us ride with them there, but the walk back took about an hour. It was still awesome.

Thanks to all who worked on it, and I'm really glad I decided to go.

-------------------------------------------------------
www.aggiecroquet.com
Don't tell me that you aren't the least bit interested in this site. Check it out.

is there anyway to find out about the old bonfire lines in each southside dorm? try to get ahold of them now before they are all too old to know anyone here on campus. we need to get southside involved.

I personally spoke with the 2000 yellow pot from Aston, and he seemed disinterested in helping us out. This means that Southside dorms are going to have to find someone redass enough to step up and restart the lines.

Hopefully, if he reads this and I am in error, he will contact someone from Student Bonfire.

quote:

---

Van Alstyne dropped in at one cut this year, actually. Officially he was making sure that no outfit names were displayed on pots, but from what I understand he enjoyed himself and was impressed with what he saw.

---

Yep, he was "impressed" enough to insure that many corps units couldn't attend due to constant Saturday morning meetings (Cut).


[This message has been edited by diehard03 (edited 11/24/2003 7:57a).]

Thanks for all the constructive criticism. It is greatily appreciated. We have already thought of and are working on correcting that has been mentioned so far. Keep the suggestions coming. Thanks and Gig 'Em

The security people were not very good. Lines were set up to organize the return busses (you may have noticed all of the stakes by the entrance), however the securtiy officers failed to inform poeple and direct them to the correct line which made the problem much worse.

First of all, fantastic job on the design and execution of the Fire. Looked great and was obviously very stable. I built 5 fires in my day and I honestly did not miss the extra footage of the old fires. Great job.

As for what to change? This hit it on the head.

quote:

---

1) Event Planning
2) Event Planning
3) Event Planning

An arm separate from the grey pots needs to deal with nothing but this, and they need to start soon planning logistics, with intensive planning starting once stack site is set.

I know quite a few former students who have commented on this and are willing to help.

---

Someone (or several someones), whose job is only logistics and event planning is a must. Hell, let the "logistics pot" have a torch and light the fire along with the grey pots...the logistics job is every bit as important.

Oh, and maybe a tad less diesel.

Thanks for doing this again. Last year was a lot of fun, but this year was just awesome. Two of my buddies, my wife & I stayed until a little after midnight, standing inside the perimiter just outside of the perimiter poles waiting & hoping that stack would stand until midnight. There was probably a span of 30 minutes at one time when we all just stood there--noone saying a word--staring into the fire, each of us reliving our own personal memories from Bonfires past. Thanks for giving so many Aggies the chance to do that.

I personally wasn't in the band, but I was out there with a BQ Class of '94. He made the suggestion of getting a bunch of old BQs to play at Bonfire for next year, & since Saturday night he already has told me that it wouldn't be a problem to get the necessary people.

If this is something that ya'll would be interested in getting some more info. on & possibly getting in touch with him, email me.

Dustin00whoop@yahoo.com



Will Florida's stellar recruiting class translate into a championship team?
NO, Ron Zook will be the next Mack Brown!

Poll on CNNSI.com

quote:

---

Hell, let the "logistics pot" have a torch and light the fire along with the grey pots

---

Maybe his pot will be bright yellow like the shirts and really piss off old army. </bad joke>

Just FYI, The grey pots, and most of the directors or "business people" lit the fire this year and last.

One suggestion I have is reduced ticket prices for students and children.

If there is not a blanket reduction in ticket price, I'd like to see something like $3 for students, $1 for children. That money would be made back when those student and future Aggies BTHOB in the subsequent years.

The only piece of advice I can offer is to continue to make your top 3 concerns:

1. Safety
2. Safety
3. Safety

- You need to scream "safety" at every opportunity and not just give it lip service.
- Every bonfire should in some way be safer than the year before.
- NO ALCOHOL should be allowed anywhere close to cut or stack....period.
- Professional behavior should be maintained at all times.
- The pictures of the guys wearing "pro hazing" shirts standing up on top of the bonfire really make me uneasy. A way to keep kids from working unprotected on top of the stack must be devised. Maybe it's scaffolding or some other type of safety harness suspended from a crane, etc., but kids crawling around like ants on top of a stack will never represent a "safe bonfire" to anyone.

You must always be cognizant of the fact that the margin of error you are working on is non existent. Just my 2 cents....

Speaking of - having the organizers photographed wearing Pro Hazing shirts is a REALLY bad PR move

Dustin00whoop

Check your email.

I mentioned this on the football forum

Seriously consider forming a Fighting Texas Aggie Bonfire Band as a bridge tradition until the time in the distant future when this can come home.

Even a group of 20 former bq's could provide the basic group, but they MUST BE OPEN to working with other students. Then recruit the large numbers of former high school band musicians who do not belong to any of the A&M musical groups.. There have to be hundreds of these on campus.

Many would love to have that ONE shot playing the Spirit and the War Hymn. It could be a further unifying element--perhaps a few rehearsals during push week.

Key will be for the FTAB bq's to open their hearts to these students. Need copies of the music for each part, and at least one former drum major to conduct. Also need some bugle ranks guys--and those slots should always go to BQ's, but I bet it would not be hard to get a Bonfire Band as a major new tradition.

[This message has been edited by 3rd Generation Ag (edited 11/24/2003 6:32p).]

What wouldthe bugle rank guys do?

And you wouldn't really need copies of the music. Everything A&M plays would be exceedingly easy for someone who marched in high school to pick up.

AGxellence91,

Standing on top of the stack was not routine this year; IIRC, it was done only for the graypots' yell practice.

Except for the 4 people in the swings, we were always on the ground during construction.