I will be mailing and emailing this info over the next two days. However, if you would be kind enough to email ME to let me know you've read this post (or post a response with enough of your name so I know who you are), that will save me a little time because it will mean fewer emails to track down. 

Thanks...and see you next week! 

SOME NOTES ABOUT FOLKTOBERFEST 2008 

If you are registered for FTF you are probably wondering what we will be doing and when. This is the first installment of information. A schedule will be developed as soon as I can figure out the logistics of passports, points, performances and priorities. 

Folktoberfest Games, Activities, Challenges, Contests, Etc. 

The focus of the competitive side of this year’s event will be on winning points, which can be used to (a) purchase the Leopard Devil, (b) enter raffles, and (c) win other WFF prizes. Here’s how it will all work. 

First, everyone will receive a passport at registration which will serve as your name badge. Please wear this passport during all “common” meeting times during the event. It will be stamped each time you achieve some goal worthy of points. There are lots of ways to earn points: 

Icebreakers 

You will solve a puzzle and face other challenges on Saturday in your icebreaker groups. Winning tables may choose immediate gratification (select a WFF piece from the prize container) or may take points instead, which will be used on Sunday. These icebreakers will prepare you for The Hunt for Big Game, which will occur Saturday afternoon and evening. 

The Hunt for Big Game 

We will have sign up sheets for groups. Each group will need at least one member with a vehicle, because this challenge will require some member(s) of the groups to leave the Bavarian Inn Lodge and locate items “planted” in Frankenmuth. Each group will also designate one passport (every guest will have one of these) as your official proof someone stopped at each of the prearranged stops and did not simply borrow information from some other group. (Actually, you should feel free to beg, borrow or steal, as you see fit, but the top point winners will win the Leopard Devil so helping others to earn points would be a kind thing to do that could cost you in the end. The kinder, gentler Folktoberfest was TWO YEARS AGO now. This year the claws come out...). But I digress. 

You’ll have a specified number of hours (yet to be determined) to gather all the necessary supplies for this challenge, which is really multiple puzzles to solve similar to the one solved during the Icebreakers. You can then meet as a group or dyads or however you want to manage it to complete as much or as little of the challenge as you wish. Points will be awarded for each puzzle solved, and all members of the group will receive the points IF all passports are presented at the time the puzzle solution is revealed to the judges. Judges will be in the WFFCC suite until 11 PM, waiting for those puzzle solutions to be presented and the passports to be brought in for stamping. 

The hunt will begin with one clue, which will lead you to a destination in Frankenmuth. At that destination you will find a package which will contain items you need to solve puzzles (they will be numbered, if more than one puzzle is involved) and a clue to the next destination. The passport designated as the “group” passport will be stamped at each destination. When all packages have been retrieved, you will receive a final stamp to indicate someone from the group completed all the necessary steps. 

You need NOT got to all destinations if you do not want to solve all of the puzzles. Do as many or as few as you wish. In fact, there is no reason why you have to participate at all. If you’d like to be an observer or would prefer to spend your time sipping beer in the bar, that’s your choice. Earn as few or as many points as you wish. 

The task is to assemble the items from the packages to form a sentence, sort of like the drawings that were interpreted in the old “Concentration” game. The clues may not form a word perfectly but will sound close to correct when spoken. For example, you might receive a package containing candy eyeballs. The correct interpretation would probably be “eyes.” “Eyes” could stand for the word “ice” or it could be combined with the letter M to form the word “mice.” However, there is also the possibility you’ll have the eyes and a pie, which could form the words “I spy.” Easy, huh? That’s why you get to work in BIG groups! And here’s a little hint: the puzzles all relate to WFF in some way. 

If you are a helper assigned to stamp passports at the various destinations, you may still be a member of a group and can help with puzzle solving after the time to collect materials has expired. Naturally, you are sworn to secrecy with regard to ANY destination information you may acquire. Participants may cheat; helpers are held to the highest standards of secrecy and ethics! 

Survivor 101 

For this challenge groups will combine various bits of primitive engineering to accomplish some rudimentary task (e.g., swatting a fly, making toast, adding cream and sugar to a cup of coffee). You’ve no doubt seen those gizmos in movies where a ball rolls down a chute and hits a lever which shoots a marble into a cup, dumping the contents of the cup into another chute which activates some other mechanism and on and on until the final mechanism falls or shoots or flips and a light turns on or a bell rings or whatever? Hopefully you have because it’s tough to describe. Points will be awarded based on how many mechanisms have to operate in your chain to get to the final goal. More points will be awarded if the thing actually WORKS. Even more points will be awarded if the gizmo actually does something that would be useful to someone on safari in Bavaria. 

If you have not sent me a list of 10 people you’d like to have in your group, please do so right away. If you are new to FTF, don’t worry. I will add you to a group and give you at least one e-mail address for contact information. If you HAVE sent your list, it wouldn’t hurt to send it again. I’m not saying I might have lost it, but, uh, well, my dog might have eaten it. Your group should contain no more than 10 so that I can add two more. 

Gizmos will be demonstrated on Saturday afternoon, at least that is the plan at the moment. 

McGyver Challenges 

Your packet will contain several scenarios where McGyver is in trouble in the jungle or on safari and you’ll be asked to use the tools he has at hand to save him. Fill these out at your leisure but return them to the WFFCC suite by 11 PM on Saturday. The five “best” as determined by the judges will be read on Sunday morning. 

Other Ways to Win Points 

1. Perform a Jungle Boogie (a little musical number in costume to be performed for us, probably on Saturday afternoon). 

2. Display Contest (Friday evening). Please stick with the Safari in Bavaria theme. 

3. Dress Your Mouse for a Safari in Bavaria (Friday evening; any medium allowed/encouraged). 

4. Do Your Own Thing (Friday evening). Make up a contest, decide on judging criteria and provide those to our judges, and enter the contest. We’ll decide how many points your work is worth. 

5. Vote for the Hall of Fame Contest (Friday evening; you can earn points just for voting). 

6. Dress up! This event is a costume contest all day on Saturday, so come ready for the safari. 

7. Find the jungle animals. Stuffed animals will be “planted” around the event areas, just waiting to be discovered. Right now we just have elephants, but we’ll pick up a few more types of animals for variety. Find a jungle animal we’ve hidden, bring it to the designated helper or location, and win points. (All stuffed animals will be donated to a children’s charity after FTF so feel free to “find” some in the gift shops, if you are so inclined.) 

8. Keep your materials with you! There may be clues hidden in anything we give to you (except for the actual WFF and the boxes in which they live; you are not expected to carry those around)! 

9. Visit Frankenmuth and treat stranded helpers at the same time. Points will be awarded for nibbles of goodies you provide to helpers on the job on Friday and Saturday (and only when they are on the job!). You’ll find cheese (always a good choice for mousers) plus fudge, popcorn, taffy, fresh fruits and veggies (I feel a need to put something healthy in this list), pastry, pretzels, beer, stollen and other cool breads, brats, ice cream, and old-fashioned candies all over town. Goodies delivered to Lorraine (who is always on duty) count double. 

What to do with the points: 

The top 50 point earners will win a Leopard Devil. If you are NOT in the Top 50, you may convert your points to raffle tickets and put them into raffle jars on Sunday morning. Raffle drawings will be just about the last thing we do before we close on Sunday. You may purchase tickets, use your participation points, or both. You may also convert your points to WFF regular line prizes. There will be a redemption table set up at 8:30 AM on Sunday for this purpose. The ratio of points to WFF pieces has yet to be determined but will be posted at the WFF prize table. 

If you do not accumulate enough points to be in the Top 50, you may purchase the Leopard Devil for $114, including tax. 

Points will need to be added early on Sunday to allow time for everyone who is not in the Top 50 to purchase Devils, if they wish. Anyone at the event who either purchased the Full registration or the Attending registration may purchase a Devil. 

Please bring your passport or send it along with someone else either (a) to the WFFCC suite by 11 PM on Saturday or (b) by 8:00 on Sunday morning to have your points totaled and be entered onto our guest point list. 

See? I told you it would get a little confusing.... 

Well, as it turns out my first post was too long. So here is the rest of it: 

Live Auction and Silent Auction 

This year’s auction will take two forms. Some of the charity pieces (Camping Out and Pedal Pusher) will be placed in the live auction, with an indication of which charity will benefit from the sale of each piece. Winning bidders will then write their checks to the designated charity. 

In addition, several of the charity pieces will sold using a silent auction format. Two boxes will be placed in the auction area following the live auction and will be available most of the afternoon on Saturday. Interested bidders will place a bid in a sealed envelope and drop it into the appropriate box. Top bidders will win the pieces for whatever price they specified on the bid. 

DO NOT bid an outrageous amount to be the high bidder in the silent auction, because that is the amount you will pay for the piece(s)!!!!!! 

No matter which format you choose, you may only win one of each charity piece. 

Being a Helper at FTF 2008 

If you thought being a helper in 07 was complicated by the many facets of the County Fair, this year might top that by a few dozen pretzels and a keg of beer. In fact, the various jobs needed to pull this off are so different and demanding that I may decide not to be a helper! 

In any case, you will have to make some sacrifices: participation points, time, sleep, and in some cases even food (or at least you may be eating while doing other things). We really only lose Saturday evening, but it seems as if that loss has changed a great deal about how we will do business. 

If you believe your assignment is too much of a sacrifice, just let me know. Being a helper should be fun, not a huge burden.