I'm Betty; one of your two Municipal Liaisons for the Manitoba (Winnipeg) Region, along with Heather (heartweaver). This is my 7th year participating in NaNo, hopefully my 7th win, and it's also my 6th year as a Municipal Liaison. We've never posted anything like this before, but the region is getting bigger every year.
NaNoWriMo takes place on two levels --
1) online, through the regions and general forums, and
2) local events.
A few notes on the online forums and regional lounges:
1. Regional Participation. If you're reading this post, you've found the Manitoba regional lounge. You may even be affiliated with Manitoba and receive periodic ML Messages from Heather and I. But if your profile does not show Canada::Manitoba as your home region, your word count won't be tallied along with the Manitoba region. During November, it’s fun to compare word counts and see how our region stacks up against all the regions in the world. For these stats to approach reasonable accuracy, we need YOU to affiliate with Manitoba and set Manitoba as your Home region.
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* To affiliate: Click My NaNoWriMo, and then click My Regions (on the left of the screen). On the Regions tab, locate Canada :: Manitoba (just search for Manitoba), and click Join. Then, click the Join button on the next page.
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* To set Manitoba as your home: Visit the Home Region tab, select Manitoba, and then click the Set Home Region button.
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* Even if you belong to ONLY one region (Manitoba), you must still select that region and click the Set Home Region button.
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2. All-Ages Posts. All regional lounges and many general forums (those marked with a sun icon in the topic list) are rated all-ages. Content in an all-ages forum should be on topic and not contain any strong language or sexual themes. In addition, be nice, no name-calling or picking fights. You're free to disagree with a stated opinion, but don't denegrate the poster. Remember, we're here to support each other.
If you are under the age of thirteen, check out the Young Writers program on the site. If you are between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, you may participate without parental consent forms, however, if your parental unit wishes to meet us and talk to us ouside an event to make sure we are not complete sociopaths, please have them e-mail us at winnipeg.nano(at)gmail.com to arrange a meeting. Similarly, if you are married or otherwise partnered and your spousal unit wishes to ensure we are not building a harem, have them contact us. It may seem silly to some of you, but especially in the case of some of our younger participants, it's important that parents feel safe sending their kids off with the weirdo.
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3. Do not double post. If you post a message and it doesn't show up, do not post again. The website has a 15-minute cache and it may take up to 15 minutes for your post to appear. If your post is still missing after 20 minutes, contact an ML (in the regional forums) or Moderator (in the general forums) for guidance.
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4. Signatures - Signatures appear intermittently. If you added a signature to your profile, please do not also type your signature, this will only result in duplicating your signature within the post under the conditions that signatures do appear. For an explanation of how and when signatures appear and disappear, see: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3000040.
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5. Remember that this is a fun event that welcomes everyone, regardless of experience. Please be respectful and encouraging to veteran and newbie writers alike. We're here to support each other in our own personal writing goals!
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While it's not required to take part in any of the local events or participate in the online forums -- all you really HAVE to do is sign up, start writing after midnight November 1st and verify your wordcount online before 11:59pm November 30th -- you're more likely to successfully complete NaNoWriMo if you take part in both the online and local communities. It's certainly more fun that way -- now your challenge is to find the balance that works for you.
An important word of caution; sometimes adult topic matter will come up on the forums or at write-ins (sex, use of addictive substances, death, alcohol use etc.). If someone says or does something that offends you, come and talk to myself or Heather and we'll deal with it, but I am assuming that we're all grown ups here, or at least (in my case) can pass for one when needed.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Heather and I through the ML Contact form: http://www.nanowrimo.org/mlcontact
or contact me (bpunkert), or Heather (Heartweaver) using the private mail system on this website.
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Participant / Winner: 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08 ...09
Winnipeg, MB Municipal Liaison: 04, 05, 06*, 07*, 08*, 09*
* with help
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Reach the Winnipeg co-MLs at
http://www.nanowrimo.org/mlcontact
