Hello,
There has been some talk about our chosen venue on Wednesday evenings. I am emailing to say it will be kept having all write-ins for Mono. The reasons for this are:
Mono is booking us tables so we always are able to sit somewhere together, other venues I have been in contact with (and trust me I spent a large part of October on the phone) are unwilling to do this
Mono is giving us this space for free. Other venues I have spoken to are wanting to charge for the space and then expecting us to order food and drinks on top. This can make for a costly event especially if you go to all the write-ins
Mono is giving us free internet access, electricity for us to plug our laptops in and have provided charger bars so we do not need to bring our own. Ok most venues have free internet access but how many will allow you to plug your laptop into their power supply for the entire night and then will supply the means to do it?
Mono is a central location which means most people are able to come and do not need to either venture outside the city centre or find their way to another location
I do understand about the noise but if you consider we are offering three official write-ins each week I do not think one night from these should be such a large deal. If you really find the noise offensive - considering also the write-ins start at 6pm and last all night and the music only starts at 8pm so thats a good 2 hours of writing time - you can always feel free to come on the Sunday or the Tuesday. Personally I cant write in silence so I find background noise beneficial plus it is jazz its not metal or dance music so really I would encourage you to try for yourself before making decisions.
At the end of the day we are all individuals and we can either come to write-ins or not. Obviously Sabrina and myself would love if people came but if time, distance, venue or anything else does not appeal you are free to meet individually or not participate at all.
We are encouraging unofficial write-ins and so long as they are not organised for Sundays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays we have absolutely no problem with advertising them.
Sabrina and myself are volunteers and are working really hard to ensure a positive Nano experience with a wide range of activities but we are all humans and as such are all different and what one person likes another will not so use your own choices and do what is right (or write) for you so you have a good November.
Thanks.
Sarah (Essbee)
----------
24,393 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 11 34
We are encouraging unofficial write-ins and so long as they are not organised for Sundays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays we have absolutely no problem with advertising them.
In the spirit of encouragement I think it would be an idea to allow people who don't like live music during their NaNoWriMo attempt to be able to meet somewhere else.
And, while I appreciate all the work that the ML's have put in, I think it would be a Bad Idea to stop those who want a Wednesday evening meeting from being able to have the encouragement that writing in numbers brings because they are not allowed to advertise an alternative write-in.
That would be unfair to them.
You have said that we should do what is right for us to have a good November.
If people don't like live music then it's their right to find a group where they can write without all the noise. But if they can't find a group on the forums because they aren't allowed to advertise something that conflicts with a official meet?
There's something seriously wrong with that.
And while I understand that meets can be organised during any of the other hours in the week, some people might have limited options as to what they can attend. Surely a more relaxed approach is the way forward?
-----------Alistair
"You know, my son, I wouldn't be Emperor of the Galaxy if I didn't have a few powers at my disposal. Imperial Battleship, halt the flow of time! "
www.desertofzin.org
41,756 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 11 51
i agree with alistair. your statement gives the impression that it is entirely unacceptable for anyone to arrange anything on wednesday, even if people have already determined that mono on a wednesday does not work for them. i can appreciate that it creates an awkward situation to have an alternate event the same night as your event, but your approach of disregarding anyone else's concerns is not very encouraging.
last year we encountered all sorts of problems from venue to venue. from live music, to poetry and spoken word. we left a number of venues in search of somewhere to work. but we kept a group going and were flexible in finding places that worked for us, and in the end we managed to make it through the month successfully. for those of us who went through that the group experience was crucial. a lot of that time was indeed spent in mono, in fact every year i've done nano has seen hours spent in mono, but sometimes it just isn't the right place and time.
----------red fever
when gretchen met sally
survivor
no surviv
220,067 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 11 57
We ARE trying to be encouraging to other people. As Essbee said before, we put in a lot of work looking for other locations but Mono was the only one that we could find that would hold the crowd that was forming for the Wednesday night meets without charging us for the space or the power supply, so in order to include everyone that was interested instead of having to cut people out due to space issues, that's where we decided to stay. It is not a matter of trying to exclude people who dislike jazz music but a matter of finding a venue where the entire group of people who are interested in coming can all meet together at the same time.
And I promise, we ARE trying to be helpful in setting up unofficial meets as well. We put up that thread in the forum to make it easier for people to find other meet information and gauge interest in days and times and (current issues with the calendar excepted) we are putting all of them up on regional calendar and planning on mentioning them in our weekly regional emaisl so that even people who aren't checking that thread will be notified of other writing opportunities. All that we ask in exchange is that everyone do their best to avoid scheduling events at the same time as other ones. This doesn't just include official events, either, it's to avoid conflict with everyone. Having multiple events at the same time (though on the same day at different times is fine) can lead to people feeling like they have to choose between events when they might want to go to as many as possible, or confusion as to which of the events is the one they wanted to go to and where. I'm sorry if this feels like a restriction but I swear that it isn't meant to be...we just want to keep things open so that anyone can go to whatever event they want to without conflict or confusion
That said, we do at least get two full hours of silent writing before the band starts up according to the restaurant. Maybe if people feel that two hours is not enough time, we can see about starting earlier on the Wednesday ones? I don't know what Essbee's schedule on Wednesdays looks like so it may not be an option but if it's possible, that might be the best way to give everyone who doesn't enjoy live music more time to write in a group setting while still leaving us to make use of the largest free space we could find for write-ins!
----------Glasgow ML 2009
Denver ML 2007-2008
2002 Lost
2003-2005 WINNERS!!!
2006 Changechildren-100K
2007 Embers of Espionage-121K
2008 How Not to Get the Girl of Your Dreams-165K
2009 Nightmares and Cityscapes-TBA