The Eighteenth International Small Scale Steamup and Arts Festival
2010
WRAP-UP

Dear Live Steamer,

This was a smash ! The set up for the event took place in record setting , bone chilling weather ( It was 10 F on the Sunday morning when the volunteers met at the Dairy Queen ) Our set up team consisted of members of the Bayou Live Steamers and the Michigan Small Scale Live Steamers , augmented by our transportation engineer Mitch Mitchell from Arkansas. A few non affiliated guys showed up for the exercise - John Hickson, Will Davis, Peter Jobusch, and some others who shall remain nameless but did a Herculean job.The tracks were up and running by 1 PM ! In keeping with tradition, David Hamilton had been here for a week before we started . The expansion of our Steamup from the traditional three days to a full week was interesting to say the least. Our twenty four hour availability did not go to waste. Tom Myers and a few lively others were running at all hours , Will Lindley had a TV feed going from the beginning and there were over nine thousand hits during the week, some accompanied by comments as feed back. Will paid attention to the operation throughout the week and we’ve convinced him that he has to do it again next year. The ladies at the front desk were the glue that held it all together. Valerie Nichols acted as our chief of staff and her team made it look easy. The volunteers are listed in your program and we all owe them our gratitude for what at times must of been a headache.

Our 180 participants ran through a significant amount of consumables - such as :

120 gallons of distilled water
11 gallons of alcohol
80 large Primus cans of isobutane
23 small cans of isobutane
48 small cans of butane
Enough coal to really crud up the carpet
( the coal supplied by the users )
Rags to riches - $28 worth !

The hospitality suite was well used - king cake and coffee and tea just seemed to go on and on.. Our total blood sugar reading is off the charts and we all enjoyed getting the chance to take a break during the day.

Carol Homuth and his Flea Market was again a well travalled path from track to wallet. Carol tells us that $ 29,000 changed hands through the week- some of it mine.

The Clack Valves and Cornets Steam band concert preceded the Country Club brunch on Friday and from reports it was extra special. I can’t comment since I was part of the ensemble. Our Movie Night and our Shay-Up were fitting final events for a dynamite week. The take down and storage of our stuff was handled by the same guys who were the set up, this time Will Davis doin the truck driving. Carol Jobusch was ready at the onset and made a film record of the entire week, from the snaps of the set up crew , a formal group photo , G1MRA and 16mm portraits , .?and various significant other occasions through the week. She and Peter also recorded the band concert for posterity.

The virtually unanimous vote was to continue with the one week format for 2011. Jerry Reshew voted against this , but that was to be expected.

I took a week off , but now its time to go back and finish the paperwork !