Polyday Report & Thanks
Polyday happened on Saturday. After months of planning, plotting, communicating and organising, I still feel like I ought to be crossing my fingers as I speak about it, but it's over for this year, and it went well!
The Day:
The day itself started with a bit of a flurry, as the venue was in use until we were due to actually start, so we were delayed a little bit getting into the main hall. Everyone was wonderfully patient with that though, and we had a really good turn out right at the start, so thanks to everyone attending for being really good-natured (and for laughing at the joke in my opening speech!).
The Desk:
The desk was manned by a wonderful set of volunteers, and we had *just* enough people - we had recruited more, a few called in sick and others were delayed by transport being out, but the ones we had pulled together fantastically - you guys were great!
Workshops:
Every report I've heard for the workshops I wasn't directly involved with has been really positive, and my own went really well. As a side effect, I think I've finally cured my dislike of public speaking - once you've sat in front of a room packed with people and talked about kinky sex, it doesn't seem like there's much more to be scared of!
Cabaret:
The cabaret also went well, and to be honest rather better than expected - having had our initial headline act drop out due to external issues, another key act drop out close to the date due to illness, and one of our performers ill actually on the night, it came perilously close to not happening at all! I'm very grateful to our final group of performers, (some of whom were drafted in on very short notice) for having pulled through admirably. I also suspect I will be dining out for some years on the tale of Gilly, the professional pianist who we found playing in the cupboard as we set up for the show, and agreed to play for us on the spot!
We did have a couple of negative comments about the content of some of the songs - having recruited some more alternative acts, one does run the risk of offending the odd couple of people. However those people I have heard from were each bothered by a *different* song, which seems perhaps the mark of a good, if slightly edgy show.
I will be posting further about a complaints procedure for this and future Polydays, as I have realised following the cabaret that this has been something missing up til now.
Survey:
I promised in the Future of Poly workshop that I would put up a survey on the Polyday to find out more about who we had at Polyday - where our attendees are coming from, how they heard of the event, and so on. If you have suggestions for this, please feel free to make comments below, or to email info@polyday.org.uk. Work will be starting on this in the next week or so, with the aim of getting it up before everyone has forgotten about it.
Thanks:
Thanks again to everyone who helped to organise the day, particularly Meg and Erich, who I could not have managed without, and Alex who took charge of the kitchen and *all* of the cleaning, so that by the end of the night there was very little for the rest of us to do. You were all amazing.
Thanks also to my team of desk and venue minions, most especially, for not minding being referred to as minions (it's one of my favourite words!).
Also thanks to everyone who has come up to me, or sent me messages of appreciation for running Polyday and the cabaret. There were times, especially in the last few weeks, when I've asked myself 'why the hell am I doing this?' and you guys remind me of the answer.
Processing:
I'm still processing, and recovering, so I'm not making any promises, but I *might* be willing to do it again, though I suspect I'd also be very happy also to step back and just be a minion myself if someone convincingly said 'please let me take charge'.
As is my way, for every role I take on I tend to write the manual on the way out, so I'll be attempting to write some sort of 'book of wisdom' based on the experiences of myself and previous teams at some point. If anyone is interested in leading, or joining next year's Polyday organising team, please let me know so I can point you at it once it exists.
We have the sign in sheets, and will be counting up the attendance numbers when we have recovered a bit more.
I think that's everything covered, except to declare myself SAMOTURE - which I will explain in a future journal.
.
Wishing you all a happy poly year (for those who want it, at least),
Maxine.
x
The Day:
The day itself started with a bit of a flurry, as the venue was in use until we were due to actually start, so we were delayed a little bit getting into the main hall. Everyone was wonderfully patient with that though, and we had a really good turn out right at the start, so thanks to everyone attending for being really good-natured (and for laughing at the joke in my opening speech!).
The Desk:
The desk was manned by a wonderful set of volunteers, and we had *just* enough people - we had recruited more, a few called in sick and others were delayed by transport being out, but the ones we had pulled together fantastically - you guys were great!
Workshops:
Every report I've heard for the workshops I wasn't directly involved with has been really positive, and my own went really well. As a side effect, I think I've finally cured my dislike of public speaking - once you've sat in front of a room packed with people and talked about kinky sex, it doesn't seem like there's much more to be scared of!
Cabaret:
The cabaret also went well, and to be honest rather better than expected - having had our initial headline act drop out due to external issues, another key act drop out close to the date due to illness, and one of our performers ill actually on the night, it came perilously close to not happening at all! I'm very grateful to our final group of performers, (some of whom were drafted in on very short notice) for having pulled through admirably. I also suspect I will be dining out for some years on the tale of Gilly, the professional pianist who we found playing in the cupboard as we set up for the show, and agreed to play for us on the spot!
We did have a couple of negative comments about the content of some of the songs - having recruited some more alternative acts, one does run the risk of offending the odd couple of people. However those people I have heard from were each bothered by a *different* song, which seems perhaps the mark of a good, if slightly edgy show.
I will be posting further about a complaints procedure for this and future Polydays, as I have realised following the cabaret that this has been something missing up til now.
Survey:
I promised in the Future of Poly workshop that I would put up a survey on the Polyday to find out more about who we had at Polyday - where our attendees are coming from, how they heard of the event, and so on. If you have suggestions for this, please feel free to make comments below, or to email info@polyday.org.uk. Work will be starting on this in the next week or so, with the aim of getting it up before everyone has forgotten about it.
Thanks:
Thanks again to everyone who helped to organise the day, particularly Meg and Erich, who I could not have managed without, and Alex who took charge of the kitchen and *all* of the cleaning, so that by the end of the night there was very little for the rest of us to do. You were all amazing.
Thanks also to my team of desk and venue minions, most especially, for not minding being referred to as minions (it's one of my favourite words!).
Also thanks to everyone who has come up to me, or sent me messages of appreciation for running Polyday and the cabaret. There were times, especially in the last few weeks, when I've asked myself 'why the hell am I doing this?' and you guys remind me of the answer.
Processing:
I'm still processing, and recovering, so I'm not making any promises, but I *might* be willing to do it again, though I suspect I'd also be very happy also to step back and just be a minion myself if someone convincingly said 'please let me take charge'.
As is my way, for every role I take on I tend to write the manual on the way out, so I'll be attempting to write some sort of 'book of wisdom' based on the experiences of myself and previous teams at some point. If anyone is interested in leading, or joining next year's Polyday organising team, please let me know so I can point you at it once it exists.
We have the sign in sheets, and will be counting up the attendance numbers when we have recovered a bit more.
I think that's everything covered, except to declare myself SAMOTURE - which I will explain in a future journal.
.
Wishing you all a happy poly year (for those who want it, at least),
Maxine.
x