Following are some frequently asked questions from our members. We chose not to include much content here because we would rather you learn all the information we provide in the Members’ Area pages.

How to Register

1. Go to opulenttemple.org/members and login. If you don’t have an account, click on ‘Create an account’ below.
2. Enter your real name, user name, password, password confirmation, email address, email address confirmation
3. Fill out the Captcha security passphrase
4. Click Register
5. You will see a confirmation message thanking you for registering and that your account must be verified before you may login.
6. You will immediately receive an administrator email to verify your account by clicking a link.
7. You will be redirected to a system message thanking you for verifying your email address and that one of our admins will approve and activate your account promptly.
8. Once we have activated your account, you may then login to opulenttemple.org/members with the credentials you chose during registration.
9. When logged in, you will have access to the members’ only pages of our site. Register as an official camp member by filling out the form on the Members Registration page.
10. Enter all required fields and any/all other fields you wish.
11. After submitting the registration form, go to the Member Dues to read out about our camp dues structure and click on ‘Pay Dues with PayPal’ button.
12. Send your camp dues, RV service requests, power usage fee in the same PayPal transaction with a detailed description and breakdown of your dues.

What if I change my mind about my plans or contribution/dues level?

No problem, just send us a message here letting us know your plans.

The below is basically explicit common sense, but we’ve added to it over the years as a better safe than sorry read. Some of it will be news to you, a lot of it won’t.

Safety

• Make the safety of yourself and the people around you a priority at all times.
• Wear protective equipment, Gloves, Eye protection and be careful. Watchout for one another out there.
• Bring rebar to secure to your camp. After driving Rebar, put a water bottle/tennis ball (have before starting) or other object over the exposed rebar to protect the rest of us. Do this immediately after your rebar is in. DO NOT use a 6 foot piece of rebar and bury it with only 3 inches sticking out of the ground. 24″ rebar is sufficient for most personal tents and 36″ rebar for carports. In addition, DO NOT use rebar to mark a driving path or walk path and never put rebar in the middle of a walkway. Rebar has a well deserved reputation for catastrophic puncturing of tires and people. Remember, we need to find every stick of REBAR we put in the ground at the end of the week!
• Keep your personal camp in order, strapped down and protected from wind.
• No personal generators (except a quiet honda eu1000i/eu2000i generator which can be used for temporary power). There will be power drops throughout the camp. Get involved to make sure your close to the power you might need. Turn off your AC at night. We need the power for the System and our show.

Respect

• Respect yourself and your campmates. NO DRAMA. Don’t overdo it, drink water constantly!! (if your a grouch or don’t feel awesome, you need water!)
• Show up for your scheduled duties and work as a team. Many hands make light work, work together.
• Respect the parking plan. Please place a sign on your vehicles dashboard with your NAME and LOCATION of your tent/camp. Nobody likes to move vehicles after you park, but many times it is a necessity. Please be aware that you may have to adjust the position of your CAR or RV or Hot Tub on wheels for the good of the camp.
• Respect our neighbors camps, introduce yourself, be a humble ambassador.
• Keep a watchful eye on our camp for trespassers and thieves especially burn night. Ask questions to people who are in our camp that you don’t recognize.
• Keep your cool in tight situations; a calm composure (or something close to) makes for an ideal ending.
  Use a tool, bring it back to the person you borrowed it from. There will be a designated tool wrangler this year. Don’t use tools your not comfortable with or qualified to use.

Act, Participate

• If you see something that is dangerous or needs to be dealt with, ACT, participate and accomplish. Round up campmates to help with the task. (Don’t let the shower holding tank overflow, Don’t let fuel leak onto the playa, Act if you smell propane). Don’t assume someone else will do it – you are someone else.
• Do Not abandon your back stage door station unless your relieved and have another OT campmate take over if you need to see the porta. This area is our safe zone. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to leave.
• Do what you said you were going to do. Don’t ignore opportunities to help out. We have a great crew, lets keep it up.

RVs and Cars

• RV people take special care to keep your tanks from leaking onto the playa. Get on the RV services list and be hassle free.
• Cars and Trucks will be parked outside our camp in an adjacent area (if possible!) or used as a border to our camp for enhanced security.

Etiquette

• Never use the camp trash (kitchen, etc.) for your personal garbage. Recycle and pack out what you brought. Leave No Trace is an everyday reality.
• Leftover Food scraps that will not be eaten should be burned in a burn barrel to stop the stink. Specifically Melon rinds that reek a day later

You’re like a lifeguard, paying attention, and treating the dance area and camp like you would if you were hosting a party at your house, discouraging unsafe behavior. Supervision requires responsibility, which equals a certain level of sobriety. But having fun IS encouraged – after all, you are the host of the party and get a front row seat to the best show on the playa 🙂

Signup for a hosting shift

Opulent Temple Hosting Shifts are for the most part CAMP MEMBERS ONLY > Hosting sign up is first come first served. While a HOSTING shift is required of our Working Camp Members only, it is viewed as VERY VERY cool for a Non-Working Supporting Member to still be involved with a Hosting Shift Commitment.

Some guidelines about HOSTING SIGN UP PROCESS:

• Be SURE you want the shift you sign up, for since later changes require manual processing
• Try not sign up for your friends unless absolutely necessary
• IF signing up for a group of friends, be sure to input each person’s full info (EMAIL) and ensure that hosting policies are well known. Consider yourself responsible to confirm/remind the shift time with them!
• Consider stepping up during prime time since it helps us keep the dance floor safe and allows more people coverage to respond to emergencies when they are most likely to happen. Stepping up for the prime time shifts is a good way to pitch a hand for the camp as it helps us maintain safety and keep the vibe positive at our dance floor
• Though you should obviously be prepared to be there your whole shift, based on conditions there are times when we cut you loose for an hour to come back and switch with someone else to take a break. The last shift of the night usually has some people cut loose early.
• Stand-by for upcoming limited roles to help out in the kitchen at Opulent Temple

HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN – an opportunity for leadership

If you are a RETURNING CAMP MEMBER and have had experience with a hosting shift at OT @ Burning Man before with interest in a temporary leadership role, please email OpulentTemple@Gmail.com if you would like to instead volunteer as a HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN which is a point person who patrols all the Hosting Shift stations and is the eyes and ears of all issues regarding vibe and safety.

STANDARD HOSTING SHIFT

Hosting means you will report to a HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN who will assign a designated area that is your post to guard, usually for the purpose to ensure safety for all, for example:

MANDATORY PRE-PREP:

• attending the camp meeting on your hosting day to check in
• report for your shift ON TIME or early – report to your ‘Hosting Shift Captain’ next to the backstage gate (campside)
• Remaining generally sober enough to respond on your toes to any emergency, including reporting medical emergencies and speaking to emergency staff !!!

SHIFT DUTIES:

Arrivine on time or prior to the start of your designated shift, meet your HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN backstage at the gate closest to the camp entrance to receive your assigned station or task

Sticking to an assigned area to make sure:

TIPS ON CHOOSING A SHIFT:

• PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING > viewing these shifts as a privilege, rather than an obligation, will help make the volunteer experience much more meaningful for you – instead of aiming for the slot that seems ‘easy’ try and sign up for where we need you most
• we need the MOST help in the middle shift and towards end of week!!
• some people choose to host during their favorite OT DJs performing since you know you will want to be at Opulent Temple on that night and will not feel tied to the camp during a time when you would prefer to roam
• select a time where you can commit to maintain a level of sobriety to guard your post to re-act quickly to emergencies
• if important to you, coordinate amongst your friends to be hosting on the same night (requests will be accommodated only as they are possible)
• if caffeine is needed to keep energy level up, remember that hot coffee and espresso drinks are sold at center camp 24/7, when in doubt – ask your HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN

Each person must sign up them self and understand the guidelines. Quantity 1 slot PER email entry. If you MUST sign up for others, please check with them before committing anyone to a specific day and time AND input the email address and contact info of anyone you sign up for. Changes to sign-ups must be made manually so please choose carefully, thank you.

We are pleased to be working with the Dubgypsy Kitchen this year who is offering a meal plan for a hearty and healthy brunch and dinner every day. Vegi options available. Info on the menu and payment options (you pay Dubgypsy Kitchen directly) here. *Again – please note – they are not on site this year. We will also have our usual simple kitchen set up for people to cook their own meals in our camp kitchen. You obviously bring your own food but can use our basic infrastructure (microwave, stove top, pans, etc). More info HERE

Dislcaimers

If you have special food allergies or questions about your situation please contact Chef Brian directly. Please know Dub Gypsy Kitchen is essentially a friend of the camp and we have a great track record, but this is not a meal plan provided by Opulent Temple. He is operating as a third-party vendor at the camp so your financial transactions are with him directly, and your expectations around your transaction are to be dealt with him directly. However, if an issue arrises, we would be happy to address it and facilitate resolution.

Let us know if you have other questions. We can say from experience, not worrying about meals at Burning Man is awesome. The down side is making sure you’re at the camp when meals are served, but certainly your friends can make a plate for you and stash for you in your cooler or RV fridge with proper communication with the kitchen staff.

The following RV services and rentals are available to our camp members.

BLACK/GREY WATER PUMP SERVICE:

Opulent Temple works with a third-party vendor to schedule black/grey water pump service on the playa. More info coming soon…

*Note: We are not responsible for RV serviciving vendor, their schedule or thoroughness with schedule routes. Since this is Burning Man, there will be times where service schedules may not be met in a timely fashion, but we will do our best to advocate for the camp to get the service that is expected and paid for. Your cooperation and understanding is appreciated.

FRESH WATER REFILL SERVICE:

For those of you in RV’s, you have the option to purchase water to re-fill your RV from our central bladder. This needs to be pre-purchased before BM. It’s $1.00 a gallon. We’ll have a hose on a rolling cart that hooks into the main bladder tank, that can reach your RV.

You must handle your own refills. We do not do it for you, but one of our OT vets can show you how to do it yourself. (Ask the Day Lead to help you). It’s as easy as turning on the right faucets and standing there while the tank refills. Most RV’s have a 50 gallon tank. A proper quick playa shower should only use ~ 3 gallons so depending on the amount of showers in your RV, flushing, dish washing etc. you can try to calculate. 2 people in an RV doing quick showers daily + other use will likely need 1-2 refills in a week, with more people, naturally, you’ll need more.

To pre-purchase water for refills, send a paypal before you leave for BM to: donations@opulenttemple.org and make sure to include whose RV the payment is for. Buying more water on playa if you do not pre-purchase enough water won’t necessarily be impossible, but it will pose some challenges we prefer to not deal with. If they do happen, it will require cash. Questions?

Below is a helpful list of essential items to bring to the playa. Although we are an established theme camp with many convenient amenities, we encourage our camp members to follow one of the Burning Man principles of “Radical Self Reliance”

Helpful Links:

anybodyburns.com/bmcamplist.htm
zenzibar.com/bman/BM2006/equipment.htm

The most important item:

Your Burning Man Ticket!

WORK

• 2 PAIRS of work gloves
• work shoes/boots
• headlamps (lightweight LED are the best, available at REI)

PLAY

• common Sense, an Open Mind, and a Positive Attitude
• gifts for new friends
• costumes
• your own supplies of entertainment and more than enough beer

PROTECTION, HEALTH and SAFETY

• sunglasses
• sunscreen
• wide Brim Hat to block the mid-day sun (chin strap will keep it from being a 100 yard game of “Stop the Hat”)
• dust Mask
• work shoes/boots
• condoms and a silicone based lubricant that wont dry out
• blinky lights to keep you visible at night (Bring extra for your playa date)
• fire extinguisher
• EARPLUGS for downtime
• vinegar, the plain white kind. For washing feet and hands to neutralize alkaline and prevent playa foot.
• vaseline to heal and stop chaffing and to lube your cracks
• glow sticks
• evian mist (can based, neutralizes alkaline damage on body)
• goggles
• portable ashtrays for those of us who Smoke (Keep your butts off the playa) Altoids can?
• hand Sanitizer
• medications
• first Aid Kit
• antacid
• HYDRATE and MOISTURIZE (external)
• solar Shower Bag
• humidifier for your RV/Tent (helps you rest)
• lotion
• lip balm
• baby wipes
• evian mist (can based, neutralizes alkaline damage on body)

FOOD and WATER

• water ~ 1 gallon of water per day drinking and 3-5 gal for a quick shower
• cooking Stove
• more alcohol than you think you’ll need
• pot, pan, cooking utensils, condiments
• personal fork, spoon and knife (non-disposable)
• extra water equal or greater than alcohol brought. Dehydrating from the inside and the outside at the same time is ‘bad’.
• hydration backpack for long day trips.

SHELTER

• good Shelter
• shade structure for your Tent (a necessity)
• good bedding
• 2ft. rebar stakes to hold your home down
• one tennis ball for each stake to top-off
• ribbons, Mylar, etc. to flag tent ropes and guy lines
• rugs to put in front of your RV or Tent (careful of MOOP from ragged edges)
• camp Marker (Flag, Flasher, Distinctive marking, Towers are acceptable with proper guy lines)

PERSONAL ITEMS

• money for Ice and Coffee, on-the-spot Water and Pump Service
• sensible shoes, think closed toe. Sandels and flip flops are asking for playa-foot & playa-crack.
• warm Clothing for when the temperature reaches into the 40’s
• bikinis for when the temperature reaches into the 100’s 😉
• at least a couple towels
• an ALL WHITE outfit/costume for Wednesday’s Sacred Dance party
• If it’s important; bring TWO! Sunglasses, chapstick, hat, flashlight, etc.
• bandana – 1001 uses; hanky, dust mask, sweat band, belt pouch, fashion accessory
• TUTU for TUTU Tuesday (yes even the guys)
• contact lens supplies, bring extra
• extra eyeglasses
• watch, to keep track of time… making sure not to miss your shift
• toilet Paper, paper towels.
• digital Camera
• extra memory cards for extra pics

BIKES

• bicycle, check tire size and buy a spare tube or at least a patch kit
• bike lock (lock bikes at all times, even in camp to keep randoms from toolin off with it)
• bike light
• bike air pump

IMPORTANT MISC

• spare batteries
• sewing Kit and Safety Pins
• pee containers that will not leak!!
• spare set of KEYS for your car so your not fucked out there if you lose your keys
• trash Bags
• duct Tape
• zip-lock bags for your camera and other electronics
• rope
• pocket knife
• air duster – useful for cleaning off dusty things

You’re like a lifeguard, paying attention, and treating the dance area and camp like you would if you were hosting a party at your house, discouraging unsafe behavior. Supervision requires responsibility, which equals a certain level of sobriety. But having fun IS encouraged – after all, you are the host of the party and get a front row seat to the best show on the playa 🙂

Sign Up Now

Opulent Temple Hosting Shifts are for the most part CAMP MEMBERS ONLY. Hosting sign up is first come first served. While a HOSTING shift is required of our Working Camp Members only, it is viewed as VERY VERY cool for a Non-Working Supporting Member to still be involved with a Hosting Shift Commitment.

Some guidelines about HOSTING SIGN UP PROCESS:

• Be SURE you want the shift you sign up, for since later changes require manual processing
• Try not sign up for your friends unless absolutely necessary
• IF signing up for a group of friends, be sure to input each person’s full info (EMAIL) and ensure that hosting policies are well known. Consider yourself responsible to confirm/remind the shift time with them!
• Consider stepping up during prime time since it helps us keep the dance floor safe and allows more people coverage to respond to emergencies when they are most likely to happen. Stepping up for the prime time shifts is a good way to pitch a hand for the camp as it helps us maintain safety and keep the vibe positive at our dance floor
• Though you should obviously be prepared to be there your whole shift, based on conditions there are times when we cut you loose for an hour to come back and switch with someone else to take a break. The last shift of the night usually has some people cut loose early.
• Stand-by for upcoming limited roles to help out in the kitchen at Opulent Temple

HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN – an opportunity for leadership

If you are a RETURNING CAMP MEMBER and have had experience with a hosting shift at OT @ Burning Man before with interest in a temporary leadership role, please contact us if you would like to instead volunteer as a HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN which is a point person who patrols all the Hosting Shift stations and is the eyes and ears of all issues regarding vibe and safety.

STANDARD HOSTING SHIFT

Hosting means you will report to a HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN who will assign a designated area that is your post to guard, usually for the purpose to ensure safety for all, for example:

MANDATORY PRE-PREP:

• attending the camp meeting on your hosting day to check in
• report for your shift ON TIME or early – report to your ‘Hosting Shift Captain’ next to the backstage gate (campside)
• Remaining generally sober enough to respond on your toes to any emergency, including reporting medical emergencies and speaking to emergency staff !!!

SHIFT DUTIES:

Arrivine on time or prior to the start of your designated shift, meet your HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN backstage at the gate closest to the camp entrance to receive your assigned station or task

Sticking to an assigned area to make sure:

• that the back stage entries are secure for camp members only
• that people aren’t laying their bikes in the middle of the dance area
• that people aren’t climbing our visual towers or fire poofers
• that people aren’t behaving unsafely on our star stage
• that random people aren’t trying to enter the O-pod (performers only)
• that no one is climbing the O-pod in anyway unless for camp maintenence
• that safety signs are lit up and not wind blown
• that things like cords and shit are secure so people aren’t tripping over them
• of course, picking up moop each morning (and inviting others to help)
• Opening shift: turn everything on
• Closing shift: turn everything off

TIPS ON CHOOSING A SHIFT:

• PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING > viewing these shifts as a privilege, rather than an obligation, will help make the volunteer experience much more meaningful for you – instead of aiming for the slot that seems ‘easy’ try and sign up for where we need you most
• we need the MOST help in the middle shift and towards end of week!!
• some people choose to host during their favorite OT DJs performing since you know you will want to be at Opulent Temple on that night and will not feel tied to the camp during a time when you would prefer to roam
• select a time where you can commit to maintain a level of sobriety to guard your post to re-act quickly to emergencies
• if important to you, coordinate amongst your friends to be hosting on the same night (requests will be accommodated only as they are possible)
• if caffeine is needed to keep energy level up, remember that hot coffee and espresso drinks are sold at center camp 24/7, when in doubt – ask your HOSTING SHIFT CAPTAIN

Each person must sign up them self and understand the guidelines. Quantity 1 slot PER email entry. If you MUST sign up for others, please check with them before committing anyone to a specific day and time AND input the email address and contact info of anyone you sign up for. Changes to sign-ups must be made manually so please choose carefully, thank you.

We are pleased to be working with the Dubgypsy Kitchen again this year who is offering a meal plan for a hearty and healthy brunch and dinner every day. Vegetarian options available. Info on the menu and payment options (you pay Dubgypsy Kitchen directly) are forthcoming. They deliver meals to OT. We’ve had great experience with them but understand they are an outside vendor. We will also have our usual simple kitchen set up for people to cook their own meals in our camp kitchen. You obviously bring your own food but can use our basic infrastructure (microwave, stove top, pans, etc).

Disclaimers

If you have special food allergies or questions about your situation please contact Chef Brian directly. Please know Dub Gypsy Kitchen is essentially a friend of the camp and we have a great track record, but this is not a meal plan provided by Opulent Temple. He is operating as a third-party vendor at the camp so your financial transactions are with him directly, and your expectations around your transaction are to be dealt with him directly. However, if an issue arrises, we would be happy to address it and facilitate resolution.

Let us know if you have other questions. We can say from experience, not worrying about meals at Burning Man is awesome. The down side is making sure you’re at the camp when meals are served, but certainly your friends can make a plate for you and stash for you in your cooler or RV fridge with proper communication with the kitchen staff.