Joy!

>

Enough folks have asked for the 'how do I run a Session' info that I have put it, and the corresponding Level Number System and Contact Info sheets, in the files section of the Yahoogroups.

I'm going to do my mass database updates (all the paper Contact Info forms I have), and the MOAS letters (to Kingdoms first, then EK MOASes) in January, and with other folks starting to run Sessions, we're just going to keep on growing!

Plans to change out the website are on indefinate hold, since the database on Yahoogroups works great, as does their file system. That said, anyone who wants to help me collect and organize handouts for the website itself is heartily invited to let me know! The one thing we do NOT have between the two systems is a facile threaded forum. Our web guru, Alexandr, has one on our proto-Joomla site, so there IS still motivation to make that happen at some point, but I'm feeling WAY less crunch about it now; unless we get someone on the project who WANTS to do the website (rather than Alexandr who is willing to help me do it), it will probably sit there until either a) our numbers/needs grow big enough that I have a pool of folks to beg for help, or b) we hit the 5 year mark, and my plans for online galleries demand it (if Yahoogroups doesn't have even better functionality by then though, I'll eat my coif!)

And, last but not least, can I just say how darned right spiffy it is read someones blog and see them mention that they are doing this cool thing they are really excited about, and how they are doing it for their A&S 50 Challenge??
Happy Albreda! :D

Read More......

Canterbury Report and Recovery

>

Well, Wrong Way reports that Canterbury went very well (she got her Kingdom level Service award too, Congrats!) - and that a bunch of folks came by the A&S 50 booth, and that most of them were already on-board with the Challenge. Hurray! She also said that lots of other folks were interested in attending, but too busy RUNNING the event to get to attend. She plans to hold A&S 50 Sessions at some of their local events this fall, to give everyone a chance to get involved. All in all, good things! Thank you, Teresa Wrong Way Giani!

As it turns out, it was a VERY good call for me not to attend the event - I got sicker, my husband was down for 24 hours, and both of my kids got it too. Then we had a massive 'pack away that stuff from Pennsic, we have a houseguest coming' cleanup, and then he came, and it was wonderful, but tiring! My house looks FAR nicer, but the website? Not so much. I'm still recovering from it all, but hope to pick up the pace considerably this weekend, including a conference call with our webguru, Alaxandr. My goal at this point is to have the site up for Oct 1. It probably won't have either the forums or the Contact List database or its front end up yet, but every journey begins with a single step. Did you know that walking is considered to be a form of controlled falling? Sounds about right!

Read More......

Progress!

>

Forward momentum is officially happening! I've been working on our new site, both structure and content, and even - gasp - got into the studio yesterday, and set my first ever 14th Cent sleeves! (It was on an undergown, and I doubt I'll get an actual dress done for Crossroads to Canterbury, ie next weekend, so I probably won't even get to wear it, but *still*! And heck - it counts as a new thing too!!!)

And did I mention yet that we have a Yahoogroup now? Hurray! Folks are finding it, and are *starting* to chat some, so I'm feeling a bit less like things are languishing now. Random emails about folks' progress on their Challenges keep coming in, too, which can only be a good sign! :)

Read More......

Joomla Blues

>

I have a book. I have a host (hurray, Alexandr!) I even have some templates, and I rudimentary understanding of how modules work.

What I do NOT have is the gist of how to enter our data into the CMS itself... I know I am missing something really basic here; maybe I need some chocolate first.

Read More......

Growing Pains

>

Well, we have an honest-to-God Web Guru helping get our new site up and running now, and he is even thinking of offering us FREE hosting - Joy! The downside? He says that transferring the domain name may take WEEKS.

Ok, ok, the forums are hardly *jumping*, but I better be able to figure out how to archive that data (namely those introductions!) so I can put it up, as is, on the new site. Meanwhile, this blog will be IT for the Challenge. Folks will be able to comment here (gasp), and I supposed I could put up a copy of the intro letter here for new folks who want to take a peak, but OY; talk about a long detour to a better highway!

Anyway, we have to figure out what we're doing first, so we're good for the meantime. I'll let you all know when things get rolling!

Read More......

Getting Stuck In

>

I've been home from War and the Pity Party/Post-Revel for about 20 hours now, and I've spent my day alternately working on web design issues and playing Civ 4 when I got frustrated with the former. Unpacking? Yeah, right.

I've gotten SIX people who have said that they'd help with website/database stuff, but I have to know what to ask them to help WITH, so I'm learning and diagramming, and panicing some more. I need nested pages, a new hosting service that I can't afford, forms and database to go with them for contact info entry, and, if possible, better forums (the ones we have are ok, just not great.)

I have a STACK of contact info data to enter, and I just really don't want to have to do it twice, plus my main web guru is really only available to help for the next 10 days, so I'm hopeful that we can get something accomplished in that time, and I can enter it all once on the NEW site, and be done with it. Content for that new site, including guidelines for running sessions, will be coming shortly thereafter, the guidelines by the end of the month for sure, even if I have to put them up on the old site, or even here, if the transition takes more than a couple of days.

Read More......

Pre-pennsic lull (thank the gods)

>

It is a really good thing that the pre-pennsic activity lull is almost as well understood as Scadian time, or I'd be doomed. This is my last week teaching summer school, we have family coming in from out of town (to stay and catch an early flight), and, of course, the inevitable last minute sewing and packing for Pennsic.

As a result, the Challenge is taking a back seat for a week. I've got about a dozen folks to put on the contact list, and a Challenge to do list almost as long as my Pennsic sewing list, but it is just going to have to wait for late August.

Things on my Challenge to-do list include:
*FAQ
*Press release (so folks can stop copying the site's ENTIRE front page!)
*contact list update
*figure out/beg someone to help with getting contact info in a form system
*work on Laurel list (some day!)
*mass email folks from previous sessions about publishing their contact info
*write up details on how to run A&S 50 sesssions so others can start doing so
*work up organizational structure for the whole project
*remember, whenever I get too bogged down in the administration of it, that this Challenge is supposed to be fun, and go and do some of my own art to prove it...

Read More......

I need a team!

>

I'm thinking about how best to organize folks for the continueing development of the Challenge, and I'm working with a team model. One team for each Kingdom, an Admin team, and a team comprised of some of the heavy hitters of each of the others for Inter-Kingdom events and our big capstone exhibitions.

I'm also thinking about a timeline, with benchmark goals along the way, both to keep folks motivated, and to keep us all on track. I'm thinking that some big shindigs for "5 'til 50" would be a close enough goal that we could really start working on stuff now, rather than putting off the ideas of 'bigtime' for another five years or so, and would be ending just in time for us to start gearing up for 2015.

I'm staggered that I am already feeling such a heavy need for an administrative team. I just don't know enough about web based data entry and community software applications to solve some issues I see on the horizon: I can't keep inputting everyone's contact info in by hand (we need a form), we may need to move to a different forum provider (since I think this one could get chaotic fast), and I'm even a bit frustrated with my current CMS (I can't seem to nest pages; they either exist and are listed on the front page, or they can't exist, and even then they have numberstring URLs). I just don't know this stuff, and, quite frankly, don't have time to learn it - the backlog by the time I did would kill me, and probably the project. Momentum is everything, and right now the site is getting over 100 hits a day - I daren't do anything but keep on going for now, hoping for help. I'm going to post a note in the tech issues forum asking for assistants, and we'll see where that lands us.

I'm also forseeing needing help just keeping up with everything; even if a task is something that I DO know how to do, that doesn't mean that I have TIME - uploading pdfs, answering questions (I'm working on an FAQ, which should help enormously), keeping track of session records, moderating our online community, etc. I just can't do everything myself, and these are all opportunities for others to get more involved anyway, so why not let them?

Fortunately, I think that folks will be pretty understanding when I vanish for 2 weeks later this month - Pennsic is upon us, and I've gotten nothing done for it! I have expanded my tapestry class to 2 hours, and need to finish collecting my materials for that (including finishing my new loom, darn it!), I still have some warmer tunics and lighter pants to sew for my girls (and I dream of doing a period-cut dress for myself so I'm not teaching in t-tunics again!), and packing? Yeah, right. To top it off, I'm giving my final exam the day we are supposed to be leaving for the 13 hour drive, so... this should be interesting!

Coming home to my inbox afterward is looking like it is going to be even moreso!

Read More......