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 How many people does it take to build ....
 
imgOfflinencram01
26 posts
www.ssjpitt.org/school/index.html
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Joined
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How many people does it take to build ....
Posted: 31 Dec 07 10:16 PM
a playground? Seriously, at what number do we start getting in each others way? How many is too little?
imgOfflineThomas Carroll School
55 posts
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Joined
11/8/2006

Re: How many people does it take to build ....
Posted: 03 Jan 08 2:55 PM

Well- it depends on a few things.... how big the structure your building is, how many side projects you want to do, are you having a kids team or food team to help with kid projects or manage the food/drinks for the day. We built two structures (one was large that was for 75 kids and the small one was for about 50 kids) we had 200 people. We had a kid team with 15 people, safety team with10 people, logistics with 8 people, food with 15 people, 4 runners, a cement team of 6 people, side project of a landscaping team 15 people, another side project team of 20 people to do map of the USA and other painting projects, the rest broke out into teams between our 2 structures. The kaboom tool kit has a formular to figure it out and your playground rep maybe able to suggest a number that is right for you. Also fiigure about 10% may not show up. Many just want to be there to experience the day and help out for a short time and some stay all day. Our rep would have been happy with 125-150 but this was good so all the side projects we wanted  got done. Good luck.

imgOfflinecjmpathfinder
15 posts
kaboom.org
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Re: How many people does it take to build ....
Posted: 18 Jan 08 4:11 PM Modified By cjmpathfinder  on 1/18/2008 4:11:45 PM)
Thomas Carroll School makes some good points.  In particular, I'd like to highlight that our Toolkit is now available for free on our website, so check that out!  It can help you determine how many volunteers you need as well as assist with planning just about every other aspect of a community-built playground, through every stage of the process.  I have heard of playgrounds built with as few as 30 people and at KaBOOM!, we've had builds with over 600 people, all with a task to complete.  That really is the key; you want your build to be a fun, enjoyable experience for everyone and that means not having so much work for too few volunteers that they feel overwhelmed, but also not having too little work to where people are just standing around and can't participate.  Some other factors to consider are whether or not you are doing everything by hand, what type of surfacing you are using, and whether you plan to complete your build in one day.  Mixing concrete and moving engineered wood fiber are labor intensive tasks and can easily double the number of volunteers you need for a project.  On the other hand, not having heavy machinery on site can lead to a safer, more satisfying build for all involved.  Installing rubber tiles or doing poured rubber is going to require a different skill set and different amount of work than moving gravel, sand, wood fiber, or other loose material.  And though at KaBOOM! we do all our builds in one day (with 1 day of prep--using a small group of volunteers--and 1 buffer day before Build Day), it may be more feasible to complete your project over a weekend, a holiday break, or a series of days.  Good luck, and remember to share your experience on our forums.  Check out our other threads too to see how others are recruiting volunteers.
imgOfflinebcwubi
11 posts
Joined
7/12/2007



Re: How many people does it take to build ....
Posted: 31 Jan 08 5:03 PM

As a project manager with KaBOOM!, I'll say that our builds typically involve 150-250 people.  But this number includes, in addition to just putting together the playground pieces, many enhancement projects such as picnic tables, benches, moving wood fiber for the surfacing, mixing concrete by hand, etc.  So, as someone previously responded, it depends on a lot of things.  How many playground components/pieces are there?  Do you want the build to be over just one day or a week?  How skilled are your volunteers?  What type of surfacing are you using and are volunteers installing (ie. rubber) or moving (ie wood fiber) this surfacing or will it be done by a contractor?  Are you doing any enhancement projects as well? 

Talking just putting together playground pieces, I would say 50 is a good number assumming your playground is a fair size - (perhaps 15-20 active play components).  For KaBOOM! led builds, we'll make 4-5 groups/teams.  For example, take a look at the instructions for each piece and separate them into 5 relatively even groups (A,B,C,D, and E).  In other words, you may take things like a slide and swings that will each take a long time and put them in DIFFERENT groups.  Keep doing this until you have 5 even groups with some more elaborate components and some simpler ones in each group - perhaps about 4 pieces in each group.  Then, divide up your 50 people into 5 teams of 10 (A,B,C,D, and E).  Team A would of course put together the all the Group A components and so on.  You could always take a look at your components, separate them into groups and then use that to help you figure out how many people would be a good number.  As a general rule, about 10 people would be a good number for each group of components (again, roughly 4 pieces).

Again, of course there are many factors, but hopefully this provides you with some guidance!!! 

imgOfflinemunsonelicia
3 posts
Joined
4/7/2008



Re: How many people does it take to build ....
Posted: 16 Jun 08 4:21 PM
We had a fairly small playground to build, but even if it had been larger, we found a smaller number to be better for us.  The type of equipment and the volunteers and organization play a huge part in determining adequate resources.  We are a small community, so we carefully chose our volunteers, which for the most part were construction guys. So, we had experience in reading plans, and installing.  We prepared in the weeks ahead to ensure all tool required was accounted for.  All footings were dug, parts were unwrapped and placed accordingly.  We were told to have at least 20 people and to expect a 10-12 hour day.  We had maybe 10 people and were done in 6 hours.  So, it all depends on the management and skill of your resources as well.
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