Response to blurb

First to Norah and Andrea -

Fantastic Job! Wow! - very impressive! - Please remember to "take care of yourselves!- I can't stress this enough - we need you there and around for a long time - there is no point in getting sick (or sicker) - Staying up all night, doing way to much for way too long - i know I have said it before, but I have seen the toll it takes on too many people and groups - it is far better to do less (and do it well) then to do so much that we are all burned out (think 3 apples??!!) - That's the last I will say about it, but I will be trying to take care of myself and have to opt out of somethings if its too much.

Now some edits/suggestions:

1)- I might play down the "only 10 get picked" and say more like "10 lucky tellers will have the opportunity" - focuses more on the positive, and that everyone has a chance, vs. people seeing it as limited to only 10 and thinking they probably won't get a chance, so why come (this sounds picky but wording is important on how people see/feel about something)

2)- Personally I would not say "$5 donation suggested" but go back to "$5 cover" - This is not to exclude people but does two things - one, shows that storytelling and what we are doing is worth paying for - not something that you could "donate to" - Two - we do the "suggested donation" thing at the drum circles we have, and I am the person who collects the money and pushes people to give ( it is not a donation - though it does go to support work in Guinea) - if I am not there people don't always give, some people bulk at the idea that we want them to pay for what they are recieving - so lets make it "$5 cover"

3)- "slam goers can decide to listen or sign up to be on a judging team" - can we make this say something like " all attendees (or whatever we call them) can participate through their listening ( stories only work if there are listeners) or can sign up to be part of a judging team " (The point I want to make is that this is something that everyone has an active role in - your are not coming to "see" a performance but more to be part of it - this separates it from theatre and gets people out of the TV mind set (ie - "I can be there and talk loudly with my friends while someone is telling - its no big deal" - I know we all know this, but as we probably all have experienced, most people don't get this - they are to used to movies, tv, etc. where things happen and they can tune in and out without anything changing.


4)- I am not sure what you mean by "real stories" - unless we are saying that these have to be true stories that have actually happened to you ( which I would find limiting) - I think it is confusing and needs to be clearer


I have one other point (sorry this is so long and might seem "not important" or "concret" enough to be talking about now, but there i believe that now is when we really need to think of this) - I know we have to move fast and get this ( and 100 other things done), but sometimes it feels that we are moving too fast - that there is no time to comment or suggest, just do, do , do and go with what someone else has already set up (not always, just sometimes) - I know Norah is comfortable with this, that her style and thats fine. I feel a bit less comfortable with it, because I want it to be a group thing - and because we want others to be involved (so it is not just the four of us( or Norah and Andrea) doing the bulk of the work.

From experience there are two ways to make this happen - we get people to volunteer for what we already set up ( give them very specific tasks that we need done) - this is useful but not sustainable and doesn't get people to "sign on" long term and or give them the opportunity to be part of something ( Norah has even said that "she will give this another "6 months" and if others aren't buying into it, she will go and do other stuff.

The other way for this to happen is to do less and get people in on the ground floor - people who want to create new things, who want to be a "mover & shaker", etc. - this is sustainable and sets massmouth up as a continuing entity, where we are a part of it or not - I believe that we all want that to be the case, but I don't think that we are making that happen (not sure how to make it happen either) but I think we need to look at this and discuss it.

(I will post this on the blog too - Yes??)