New Wine 2010 - Post script

(Best viewed large)

When all was packed up and ready for home, I discovered this large scale laminated site map lying in the outer office. During the Conference, it had been on the Control Office wall. The black croses show the location of the Village Hosts. The whole site is split into villages so that campers can pitch with others that they know, or who are from their home area. Most people come with friends or church groups, but there are those who come alone, and part of the New Wine experience is the fun of living as part of a community. Village Hosts are volunteers who help this to happen.

For those of us in the Control Office, the Village Hosts are an essential resource. To my knowledge, we telephoned Village hosts to ask about lost children, medical emergencies, lost property and thoughtlessly parked cars. They, in turn, reported blocked toilets, cold showers, low water pressure and missing fire buckets. One Village Host even made an emergency call to us to report a tent fire. Thankfully, the fire was extinguished with only one person suffering minor burns to the hand, but it reinforced our message about the use of naked flames inside tents!!!

On the whole, Village Hosts do a great job and many offer to take on the role year after year. They help to make the Conference a happy experience for so many people!

Incidentally, my village was Red 3. It was a good spot; nice and handy for the Office but fairly quiet. I wasn't camping with my own church because many were not able to go this year. Instead I was 'adopted' by a pair of churches from Shipley in Yorkshire, which are home to a number of fellow team members. I didn't spend a lot of time in the village, but when I did, I knew that I was amongst friends. Thanks guys.  :)

New Wine 2010 - De-rig

It's always sad to see the site being de-rigged; delegates packing up their belongings, tents disappearing, the cherry picker out taking down the big venue banners, chairs being folded and loaded into stillages and eventually, even the big marquees coming down. The packed and busy site slowly becomes more and more empty!

Four of us spent the greater part of yesterday morning packing up the Control Office, whilst still fielding questions; especially for the 'valuable' lost property which delegates had suddenly discovered they had lost (including 3 sets of car keys!) and for the de-rig vehicles arriving at the various gates seeking entry. The biggest job (as always) was trying to account for the 55 radio handsets along with all of the accessories (earpieces, fist mikes, holsters, belt clips) and this is where the importance of the radio log comes in! Thank you to Mel and the night crew who re-checked the log nightly to ensure that all radios were accounted for, and thank you to the Control Office team who logged them in and out so diligently every day.

We have learned a few lessons for next year, but overall, everything went very well. I had a brilliant team and sincerely hope that most of them enjoyed it enough to want to return in 2011! Now, I feel like I could sleep for a week to recover!

Roll on New Wine 2011  :)

New Wine 2010 - 7

Next door to the Control Office (separated only by a line of blue screens) is the Information Office, which is led by a delightful character named Mark. We are both really pleased with the communication between our two departments and how smoothly everything worked out throughout the week.

As part of making this happen, Mark and I both spent the day in head office, Romiley, just before New Wine began. During that day, he was wearing this brilliant T shirt..!

:)

New Wine 2010 6

Some people go for vehicles a little bigger than a buggy! This is the shifter vehicle, with a very small number of authorised drivers.

While the kids bomb around site on a much more lethel mode of transport!

New Wine 5

There are three buggies available for stewards to ferry stuff around site...

...though there are times when others manage to get their paws on the key.

New Wine 2010 - 4

The tent for little kids :)

New Wine 3

The Eden bus is a resource working with youth around the country, particularly in our inner cities. Here it is parked up outside our youth venue, Thirst.

New Wine 2010 - 2

Tent furniture..

New Wine 2010

You remember those empty fields..?

Set up 3

This is the Control Office. I had to wait until ten o clock at night to take this, and then wear a mobile radio to take calls whilst typing, because this place has been MANIC!! 

Even as I type, two members of the night crew are sorting through torches and batteries to begin their first overnight shift; keys and radios are being signed in and we are waiting for the electrical contractors to come and sort out an electrical hookup for a team member whose son has a disability.

Pretty typical then really! :)

Set up 2

Empty fields! these are the 'before' photos!

The building in the back is the main Meeting Place.

and looking towards the Youth venue (Thirst)

and looking towards the Empower building.

Set up 1

Going live! Wednesday was a beautiful morning, so what's new on site?

A smart new patio area just outside the Control Office window.

'Impact', the new location for Venue 2 (the Urban Stream).

Seminar venues in the making...

...and the younger kids venues ready constructed.

2008 continued

The main adult celebrations happen here. In Showground parlance, this is the George Stephenson building. We call it the Meeting Place.

and the other high traffic area is the food court.

But, I spend much of my time in here...

...pretty much behind the scenes!

I think they've fixed the roof now :) But the orange blobs are still there! Never mind. Once I'm behind the 'desk' (bar) I can't see them. Hehehe!!

Tomorrow, we should have internet up and running and I hope to go live.

Followed by a much drier year

2008 was much drier. It was also my first year out of the main adult venue (where I had been an Usher) and into the Control Office. To be honest, when the Chief Steward rang me, I was slightly hesitant about making the move. I had enjoyed the face to face stuff with the delegates and the atmosphere of the main meetings. I wasn't sure that I would like being in an office all week and, frankly, the thought of operating the radio scared me silly! (I don't mean the mechanics of operating it because a two year old could manage to do that, I mean the 'knowing what to say after you've pressed the button' bit!)

Anyway, that was where the need was, so I thought I'd give it a try. After all, I reasoned to myself, I could always swap back next year if I hated it!

Swap back..? NO WAY!! I loved it! The Control Office is the communication hub for all of the teams and everything goes through us. I took to the radio like a duck takes to water and couldn't wait to get on shift each day! And so that is where I have been ever since, gradually taking on more responsibility as I have become more experienced.

For inside the Control Office, look here, but these are a few rather prettier ones from outside in the early morning sunshine :)

People enjoying living in community.

and this is always home for the week.

The wet year!

Tomorrow, I head off for set-up! Around 6,000 delegates are expected to register into the New Wine Conference on Saturday and there's a little bit of preparation to do before they arrive!

For those who haven't a clue what I am talking about (probably quite a few of you), I explained a little bit here, but this one makes it much clearer. My boys grew up with annual trips to New Wine South, but these days, the one I do is North and East, while the boys choose between joining me or doing the Soul Survivor Conference (for youth) at a slightly different time.

During the Conference, I'm hoping to post a daily photo, but I'm starting off with a couple of days of tasters from 2007 (today) and 2008 (tomorrow). I have no pics for 2009, so I'm thinking that I must have been too busy to want to bother. This year, I'll make sure I do!!

2007 was the wet year! It was my second time on team, though the first time on the Newark-on-Trent site. Because of the dates, the boys and I travelled straight from school on the Friday night. The journey was through torrential rain and we arrived to find our camping 'village' four inches deep in water! Ben spent the night in a tent with a friend who was pitched on slightly higher ground, while Mark and I joined 40ish other 'refugees' in one of the permanent buildings; seen here on the sunny day!

Unfortunately, my airbed deflated at about 1a.m. and it's hardly considerate to start blowing it up again with so many sleeping bodies all around. Under the layer of carpet, that concrete floor was rock hard!!

Next day, we set up in a new location on one of the 'high' points of a pretty flat site. I think we came off fairly well overall...

...though you can see the mud.

Some villages were much worse off...

and...

but the kids still managed to have fun!

and the full programme of events went ahead, so everyone made the most of it!