Design Variance

There is an entire book of rules floats must abid by in order to participate in the parade.  The rules cover height, width, safety issues, decoration materials, float drivers, float riders, mechanics and animation, just to name a few.

As always, there are exceptions to the rules.  Exceptions are granted by the Design Variance (DV) Committee.  We've asked for a substantial design variance this year and have already gone before the committee.  As the DV committee put it, our request is quite a deviation from traditional floats and, therefore, they referred the issue to the Executive Committe of the Pasadena Tournament (which is the body that oversees all aspects of the parade).

So, e-mails went out last night with the question:  In the event that our request is denied by the Exec. Committee, do we go forward with our first choice design and make changes or do we go to our second choice.

These e-mails always result in phone calls between myself, Brian (my husband), and our good friend, Dustin.  Dustin is head of construction (sometimes by official title, sometimes not - our Association has bylaws which govern how long any one person can serve in a particular Board position.  Doesn't change what we all do; just what our "official" capacity is.)

We discussed ways to "cheat" to create the same effect we're after with the design variance.  It was quickly decided that those possibilities are far beyond our decorating capabilities.  Hey, we're a volunteer organization, after all and there are some things the professionals can accomplish that we just cannot.

We discussed the pros and cons of design #2.  We discussed past floats, and compared and contrasted those to this year's design possibilities.  We discussed lots of other things.  Its nearly impossible to make a quick float-related decision. 

Finally, we came to the opinion that going to design #2 in the case that our design variance request is not approved, is the way to go.  We should hear from the Exec. Committee towards the end of the month.