boxofdelights (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boxofdelights) wrote2019-03-07 05:12 pm
boxofdelights) wrote2019-03-07 05:12 pm
Entry tags:
Help wanted
I need to write a letter for WisCon’s Communications to send out, to promote Kids’ Programs. I’ve got to ask for three things:
1. People to be on the Kids’ Programs team. This is the hard one, because basically I’m saying, This is too much work! It is too demanding, physically and emotionally, and takes up all the daytime hours, and leaves you too tired the rest of the time to enjoy any of the things you go to WisCon for, and the only reward you get is the feeling of having made WisCon a better place... that you are too tired to enjoy. Plus you get to be on ConCom, if you want. But if I can con three people into sharing the load with me, it’ll be great! We’d each be responsible for three timeslots and one quarter of the clean-up, which is a reasonable amount of work. And that reward doesn’t get smaller when you divide it up.
2. People to run one Kids’ Program activity. This is the fun part, which really is going to be great, and self-sustaining if I can just push hard enough to get it off the ground.
WisCon is full of people who have learned how to do a few cool things! Some of you would enjoy the opportunity to teach one of those things to an interested group of kids. Kids’ Programs can offer you an hour and fifteen minutes, a small group of kids (6-11 years old), an adult assistant, and whatever materials our small budget can cover. Sign up for Panel Programming, in the Kids’ Programs track, and send email to kidsprograms@wiscon.net with questions or a description of what you’d like to do.
3. People to assist at one Kids’ Program activity. In this role, you have to be flexible. You might be assisting with materials for a craft activity, or building Legos or jigsaw puzzles with the kids who don’t want to do the main activity, or firmly redirecting the energies of a kid who doesn’t want to do the main activity and is trying to have a swordfight in that space instead.
Mostly you just have to be there, because the rules say that there have to be at least two adults in the room, and the second adult cannot always be me, because that is not sustainable, because I am not willing to take a plane trip and rent a hotel room and give up most of the things I enjoy about WisCon in order to make Kids’ Programs work again.
I am well enough to write this but not well enough to write it without massive quantities of self-pity. Help?
1. People to be on the Kids’ Programs team. This is the hard one, because basically I’m saying, This is too much work! It is too demanding, physically and emotionally, and takes up all the daytime hours, and leaves you too tired the rest of the time to enjoy any of the things you go to WisCon for, and the only reward you get is the feeling of having made WisCon a better place... that you are too tired to enjoy. Plus you get to be on ConCom, if you want. But if I can con three people into sharing the load with me, it’ll be great! We’d each be responsible for three timeslots and one quarter of the clean-up, which is a reasonable amount of work. And that reward doesn’t get smaller when you divide it up.
2. People to run one Kids’ Program activity. This is the fun part, which really is going to be great, and self-sustaining if I can just push hard enough to get it off the ground.
WisCon is full of people who have learned how to do a few cool things! Some of you would enjoy the opportunity to teach one of those things to an interested group of kids. Kids’ Programs can offer you an hour and fifteen minutes, a small group of kids (6-11 years old), an adult assistant, and whatever materials our small budget can cover. Sign up for Panel Programming, in the Kids’ Programs track, and send email to kidsprograms@wiscon.net with questions or a description of what you’d like to do.
3. People to assist at one Kids’ Program activity. In this role, you have to be flexible. You might be assisting with materials for a craft activity, or building Legos or jigsaw puzzles with the kids who don’t want to do the main activity, or firmly redirecting the energies of a kid who doesn’t want to do the main activity and is trying to have a swordfight in that space instead.
Mostly you just have to be there, because the rules say that there have to be at least two adults in the room, and the second adult cannot always be me, because that is not sustainable, because I am not willing to take a plane trip and rent a hotel room and give up most of the things I enjoy about WisCon in order to make Kids’ Programs work again.
I am well enough to write this but not well enough to write it without massive quantities of self-pity. Help?
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I might want to word that opening sentence a bit more strongly, though, to say not just 'we need you to make this work without wearing anybody out' but just 'we need you to make this work'. Wearing people out is not really an option I'd want on the table (even if the people in question would quietly put it on the table again if they felt they really had to).
How about something like "The Kids' Program is a really important, valuable and fun part of WisCon, and we need people to make it happen. We'd like as many volunteers as possible so that everyone can share energy and enthusiasm and still have some left for everything else they want to do. However much time you have, and whether you have a great idea for something you'd like to share with other people or would prefer to help by organising or assisting someone else, we need to hear from you. We're especially looking for people who can do things like this:" + your list.
Hope this helps - just tossing it in in case it's useful as a starting point.
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