Yes, I know, it's aaaaages away and we haven't even done this year's events yet!

But, in light of recent discussions and in the interest of continuing to enable CSTS to be a strong, robust event that everyone can have full confidence in, I thought that it might be good to start a kind of "catalogue of ideas" for global organization and coordiniation while things are fresh in our minds.

A few of the things I'd like to see in 2009 (and going forward) are:

- How To Guide for local organisers (new and old), updated annually and released a minimum of 8 months ahead of events, so that everyone can clearly see what they need to do.

Threads around the verse with ideas/suggestions/discussions:

http://whedonesque.com/comments/16787
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=19&t=34153

- How To Guide for global organisers, updated annually and released in the lead up to calls for nominations for the Global Team, so that everyone can see what the job entails, what procedures and policies must be followed, etc.

- Some policies that event organisers need to agree to - ie. if you want to advertise as CSTS, then your event needs to conform to certain things. This could include policies/procedures for making donation to EN, agreement to maintain financial records and retain them for a set period of time (whether this is retained locally or by global), the window for holding events etc. The policies should be available a minimum of 8 months ahead of events, and be easily available (eg. on the website, accessible to the public).

- Merchandise order forms (rather than email requests or forum posts) - this could make it easier for global to keep track of things, and make it easier for organisers as they'd have a record of their order to match with an invoice, and then match with a receipt.

These are just my thoughts, and it is entirely possible that they wouldn't work in practice. But I figured it was worth having the discussion.

So I guess the purpose of the thread is essentially to brainstorm, to discuss and/or park ideas so they can continue to be discussed once we've completed 2008.

Now that I've made it successfully through the fire and have had a wonderful first event, I have some thoughts on things I think would be beneficial.

#1: The guide is a great start. I am hoping we will be able to add to it or at least make suggestions for it. As a newbie to this festiveness, I've picked up some things which might be givens to people who have done it before, but for new people sometimes it's those little things which make all the difference in how successful your event can be.

#2: I think for those who have had a mentor, that the mentors should be able to get a special certificate of merit from global CSTS (yes those mentored should be able to thank their wise ones themselves and trust me I am doing so) but to participate in their own events and then give aid to someone new so that they can pull of a successful event, is just above and beyond. I was going to advocate an award for the best mentor, but it dawned on me that if people were even half as lucky as I was with Tanya, then they'd all think theirs was the best so it might cause problems. This was it's simple, a certificate is shiny, lets someone know that not only their mentoree thinks they are wonderful but the whole organization is acknowledging that.

#3: If we are looking for more cities to participate, perhaps there should be a twofold thing in place. A: There could be a committee of folk, looking to new cities early on (like say start in a month or so to give people some downtime) who would try to contact people there to help get them on board. The earlier the better. Yes I found out about it and came in 2 months and made it work, but how much more would I have been able to do, if I'd of heard about it earlier? B: Make up a list of people NOW (ask for volunteers) who would be willing to mentor someone. So the minute we find someone in a new city to go with it, they can be assigned a mentor.

#4: I would like to propose a kind of fund or agreement if you will, to give support to newbies. It would not be mandatory, it would be VOLUNTARY, but once a newbie is set and ready to go, pledges of an item, a couple bucks whatever could come from people willing to donate and see a new cause get ahead. So people who have people who knit Jayne hats can donate a hat, someone can donate even $1.00 for supplies, someone could donate paper for printing on or a print cartridge. A button or two if you have the extras on hand. The list is endless. You know to a new person, anything and everything is helpful and gives a little glow to your efforts (to anyone actually) and makes the impossible seem mighty possible early on. Without the Charlotte Browncoats (one of their members donated $100.00 to our cause) donation I would have been very scared and might have backed out. I know we all want to look shiny, but most of this is helping others spread the love and look shiny too.

That's it for now, these are just some ideas I was thinking on. I'll probably have more...

P.S. TANYA you are the most awesome MENTOR ever! WHOOOOOOOOT!

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CSTS 2009 Global Organizer

I would like to suggest that we open up the logo design to other artists next year. In 2007 we all got to vote on our favorite design from a pool of five (I think).
And I know of at least one Browncoat here that would like to take a shot at it.
Plus if the majority gets to pick the design, then the majority of folks will be happy with what they get.

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www.austinbrowncoats.com - visit, laugh, love, frolic.

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Alex
Styrofoam Guy