Event schedule changes

Sometimes when the tide is rising, you just gotta keep walking
(Picture: from sunflower on topit.me)

This month was a bit of scramble. The Creative Writing Group schedule was still waiting to be agreed with my venue, which meant that all of the writing events I run were in flux, because they’re all linked.

Over the past three or four years, I’ve had a big writing weekend once a month: the CWG on the Friday night followed by the Monthly Write-in the next day. It’s a tiring weekend, usually on the heels of a full week at work. But it was easy for people to remember and for us to coordinate, so it worked.

Over the past three or so years, we have also organised weekly or fortnightly drinks meet-ups, which are less writing-focussed and more about getting together to hang out, chat, and connect. But attendance to these dropped off over the last year, until only a few of us would turn up.

The drinkies meet-ups were held after work sometime in the middle of the week, which was again draining for me (anything that extends my working day has an impact on my fatigue). Between one thing and the next, eventually these meet-ups dribbled to a stop.

I have noticed a couple of trends related to these events and their timing:

The writing weekend increasingly wipes me out. The Sunday of that weekend is a write-off (pun intended), as I need to rest in order to be able to go to work the next week.
Some attendees have to choose which event on the writing weekend to go to, either due to home commitments or financial limitations.
People do want drinkies meet-ups but struggle to remember when it’s on.

This all led me to have a serious think about the schedule we had set up for ourselves, and how we might make it easier on ourselves. The solution seems simple: split up the events to spread the energy and monetary load, and get a regular cadence to make it easier for people to remember.

Now, this could be counter-productive, or at least make no difference at all. Spreading the events out could mean fewer opportunities to truly rest; there’s something to be said for getting costly things over and done with in one go. There’s also no guarantee the spread will help with the financial load for our attendees (I’m paid monthly, which is a difference cadence from most others I know, so I’m not in a good position to predict what this will mean for everyone).

But, on the other hand, it could make all the difference in the world. And there’s something about being organised in a clear, concise way that makes me happy (there are those OCD tendencies again).

After some consultation with my lovely co-ML (Municipal Liaison; event organiser for NaNoWriMo, but we don’t restrict ourselves to November), we decided to go with the new plan and see how it pans out.

Now, our monthly event plan looks something like this:

First Saturday: Monthly Write-in
Following Thursday: Drinkies!
Third Friday: Creative Writing Group
Following Thursday: Drinkies!

The respective pages have been updated. For those Brisbanites connected with us on our Facebook group, events have been set up for extra help with tracking and reminders.

I think we’re good to go. I’m excited to see how well it works, and I’m looking forward to a more even load. I might have fewer ‘free’ weekends, but I think it’ll work. And it means that I get to see my people more often, which is never a bad thing.

If any of you are in Brisbane, I hope you drop by and say hi!