Maker Faire was interesting in that we got to use our contingency rain plan for the second time. My friend Norm and I coordinate the FIRST robotics tent at Maker Faire. The first time we used our rain plan was in 2013 where it poured overnight. See some pictures of all that water. Maker Faire was over 3 months ago. (I’ve been really busy writing my OCA book.)
This time, I wasn’t expecting it to rain overnight so didn’t cover everything. It did rain. I was advised afterwards to follow NWSnewyorkny on Twitter so as not to get caught by surprise again.
I got there early on Sunday morning to make sure things were in good shape and set up the tables. (We do put away flyers and the like.) I found puddles all over. Eek! I also found that the cloth bags containing many of the supplies were wet. As was the roll of paper towels I had left there. Eek! Eek!
The first thing I did was take out two plastic tablecloths. They were in sealed bags since I hadn’t used them before. I put them on top of the tables so I could start unpacking without getting things wet.
I also learned that a moist paper well can still be used to mop up puddles of water. They don’t make things bone dry, but certainly help. Norm brought dry rags which helped. I also learned just how many dry surfaces there were – from chairs to plastic wrappers we didn’t need any more.
Lessons learned:
- Know the weather
- Cover up even if the slightest chance of rain
- Be creative in finding dry surfaces
The pictures is Norm, myself and two ribbons. We won an editors choice ribbon again. We also won a Best in Class (Education) ribbon for the first time. Exciting!