Change in PSI Events Calendar

[bobdapoet]

Scott-

   For the record- I do not hate freedom....

[Steve]

Bob, The transcript of this discussion in the EC Forum included commentary by every member of the EC, most of whom ARE current SMs  or who have been recetly, who have to coordinate a local calendar. It also was spread over 4 pages of content and it started on January 11, ran through much additional commentary and discussion by the few of us at iWPS and is still running today in the EC forum. There were many back channel e-mails to and from those directly affected by this decision including the current hosts and at least some of those who are considering hosting in the near future. This has been a pretty nearly unanimously accepted and approved idea.

Second, as to your idea of different "Steve Marsh people" handling each event, we have actually been moving toward that model for more than two years already. It is true I will continue to be the main contact for accepting registrations, dealing with money and certiications and coordinating calendars, etc. But each event, beginning with Cross Training (Michael Salinger) and WOWPS (currently Deb Marsh) and adding the others as current hosting arrangements and obligations are met going forward, will have one person who is the project coordinator and will do much of what I have been doing for our three events (don't forget Cross Training Conference in June) so far. That is going to free up resources on my part to do a better job of the admin work for all events. (I don't point that out to say you are wrong. I bring it up to say you are right. Your proposed model is the right way to go. And we have been going that way incrementally for some time already.)

Third, I think we have enough events for now. Until we have more paid staff and more consistent infrastructure, four events is probably enough to service effectively. Adding WOWPS was the completion of a cycle in my mind. (I think there is still room in the calendar for some additional programming. But there are not the human resources currently to make them happen effectively. Better to not do them than to do them poorly at this time.)

So, four events, spread out roughly around the year with another major deadline in the longest "fallow" period.


Begin registration for WOWPS (6 weeks out) mostly 2nd Month
WOWPS in March (3rd month)
SlamMasters in April (4th month)
Registration for NPS final deadline, begin to assemble NPS lists, finalize Cross Training details May (5th month)
Cross Training Conference June (6th month)
The big NPS crush in July, (7th month)
NPS August (8th month)
Rest (Someday I'd love to figure out how to take a vacation in this time frame)
Finalize post NPS details, look at profits and loss, final host city reports, etc. September (9th month)
IWPS registration six weeks before event (mostly 10th month)
IWPS November (11th month)
Venue Certification crunch December and Christmas in the online store(12th month)
Rest (I might like to do a mini tour in January some day...doh! did anyone remember I got into this because I'm a poet??)

Start over.

I honestly believe this is a workable calendar. If there are burdens on the locals (and I'm not disputing there may be) I think they will work themselves out long before the impact of a March 2009 WOWPS or a November 2009 IWPS. And posting it up now was done because of EC's sensitivity to the fact that some organized SMs, like yourself, have plans in motion already for the future.

[bobdapoet]

Steve/Scott/Don-

  Obviously, having been in on the discussion as it occured within the EC, you have the knowledge as to the completeness of it's context and scope. It is not my intention to be difficult, or to be unreasonable. It is my intention to say, "hey, what's this all about, why can't it be done differently and why are we doing it this way?" I did not think it right to let such an important announcement just sink to the bottom of the forum list.

   At the end of the day, Steve, I know that you are the one that needs to sign off of this work regimen, and I won't lie to you, I'm not convinced that the calendar will fall as nicely as you've projected, but I will defer to you're judgement on that.

   I don't have any other specific comments, I'd like to hear what other slamasters think, even if it's a non issue for them, I think it would be a nice temperature gauge....

[simone]

Guys, I have to say that I am not entirely thrilled about the schedule change here. I think it makes sense to push the fall event to November and the winter one to March, but I feel that we've lost some balance in the calendar with the iWPS/WOWPS event switch.

I have really liked the symmetry of the two large slam events balancing each other out on either end of the annual schedule; now our two more established events run piggyback. This gives slammers a very short, intense national season, especially if those slammers happen to be men.

It also gives our brand new, never-been-run event a pretty cush spot in the off-season. It looks as though we are presuming the event will be an instant success.

On a local level, I think it definitely makes it tougher to send a representative to iWPS so soon after NPS... I suspect not only that fewer venues may now choose to send reps --which may not be not a bad thing-- but that those who do will probably send an established poet who attended NPS, rather than holding a separate slam to qualify. One thing I like about iWPS is that we see some different faces there, and I wonder if this will continue to happen with the new schedule.

Does anyone else have concerns about this, or am I the only one resistant to change?

[Steve]

Simone, that "lack of balance" you perceive is only perceptual. How big and successful will WOWPS be in three or five years? My guess, with it located in Women's History month, it stands every chance of outpacing iWPS very quickly. I'm not concerned about a "balance" issue.

Further, even if it is now harder to send a rep to iWPS, I'm not conviced that is a horrible thing either. To the extent that this event grows more slowly, I'm in favor. Remember, when we conceived iWPS (way way back in 2004) it was supposed to be capped at 60 poets. We have run 72 for two years already and there are grumblings about adding more than that.

Let's let this calendar run for a couple of years and see what happens. If we need to make adjustments after we see what impacts we have, we can make them then.

[simone]

Your point about the size of iWPS is well taken. I hope that WOWPS will increase to all the size you hope for.

So are we definitely looking at a long-term event here in WOWPS? I guess I had some kind of inkling (possibly based on absolutely nothing) that it would be sort of a year-by-year growth thing, possibly morphing into another kind of slam in the future, assuming that it achieves what we want it to achieve. Am I looking at this the wrong way?

[Steve]

I had never perceived WOWPS to be anything other than an annual event. I cant speak for anyone else, but this is exactly the first time I have seen anyone say anything like that. YOu know, if the women burn down the host hotel or something we might want to rethink it, but my guess is this will be the loviest of the love fests. I certainly intend to approach it that way.

[simone]

Hee. I certainly don't expect it to burn the hotel down. Er, not in a literal sense.

I guess I was sort of imagining that the event was designed to bring more women to the slam and more of their voices to the stage... And that once that had been achieved, we might change the focus of the event.

I agree that this issue was not addressed at the SlamMasters' meeting in this way; what I do recall is that one of the arguments for the slam was that we needed it to up the amount of women who participate. Are we not imagining a time when we don't need WOWPS to bring women to the stage?

[Steve]

I think that is only one aspect of what this program will do. I think it will also bring some women BACK to slam who have slipped away. There is this tendency by all, but especially by women, to participate when they are young, then to drift away. No matter what I attribute that to I'm likely to get myself branded, but generally I think we could quantify that men have a longer attachment to PSI than women. I hope WOWPS creates a special and lasting method of helping to maintain longer relationships between women poets and PSI audiences.

[simone]

It's gonna be a kickass show, Steve. I'm still a little tweaked about the schedule change, but I guess I'm just a republican at heart.

<ducks>

[MattMason]

Simone, I'm with you about being a bit miffed on the schedule change.

I think the idea of WOW is a great one and a needed one and has a kickass acronym.

But, and my reasons are purely selfish, I admit, this makes my job more difficult... I put in a lot of work getting my team to Nationals and look forward to some low-key time right afterward.

Now I don't have that time.  Yes, I can blow off iWPS, but it's become a big thing on the Omaha scene, people look forward to it almost as much as our slam team finals.  The 2-month qualifying slams are big and our December finals has been huge all 3 years... so doing it this way, we've had 2 guaranteed nights (iWPS and slam team finals) of double the normal crowds.

And it's also helped us as we've been committed to doing everything we can to pay our team's way to NPS and individual's way to iWPS... problem is, the bank is empty after NPS but we've had 5 monthly slams to build up enough for our iWPS rep to travel in February under the normal calendar.

So, well, the schedule change may work on some levels (which I don't quite see but maybe will be apparent in a few years) but don't appear to hold much promise for me or the scene I'm here representing.

Matt

[Steve]

Matt, are the same concerns lodged this year against WOWPS? Because it is in October? I think, from your standpoint, iWPS in November is better than WOWPS in October, yes?

[simone]

I agree that any event in November is better than any event in October. But I'm not sure that's the concern at hand.

However, the event my venue has established sending a rep to in November and a brand new event we don't know if we'll send a rep to in March... That I like less.

I think it's a good way to get more venues to rep at WOWPS. I think it's not a good way to enable scenes to send teams to NPS and rep at iWPS.

[Steve]

Simone, I know you are saying fewer reps is bad. And I would say that in a pure world too. But having venues that will be excluded from NPS for the first time, may well increase the pressure on the other events. The other events are evn more restricted. Only 60 certified venues can get in to iWPS and this year not more than 42 veneus will get their reps into iWPS. We want to grow those opportunities too and a managed calendar and managed growth will permit us to do so.

I want to make sure that everyone has access to and the ability to participate. So we spread the events around the annual calendar so that if a venue can't play in one season, they can play in another. As each of these events grows, I'm sure we will reach a point in the not too distant future where a venue's rep will be given an advantage if the venue didn't participate in a different event.

Those kinds of actions will permit us to continue to manage the growth of all the events. And spreading them out around the calendar will also permit us to manage growth. If a venue can't afford (either money or time) to play in the NPS pool AND the iWPS pool AND the WOWPS pool, that's not all bad right now. It leaves us in a stronger management and growth posture.

In a perfect world I'd love for all poets to play in all pools, but that's not a realistic expectation, nor should it be our goal.

[simone]

This line of thinking makes a great deal of sense to me.

Thank you for clarifying, Steve.