[Noisebridge-discuss] Block Party Oct 17th -- technically feasible but hilariously unlikely

[Naomi Most]

Re: Block party event idea I presented last week, i.e. Operation "Present
this Nifty Opportunity for City Sponsonered Block Party to Noisebridge for
which Pirate Cat Radio Already Did a Lot of Legwork"

see also: http://www.thebigrumble.org/

This still *technically* feasible, but without much support after last
week's meeting I'm inclined to think it would take more social investment
that I personally have and more time and effort that others are apparently
available to provide, in order to make it a Win.  It'd have to be a
consensus item; it's not "ready to go"; and frankly, I have bigger fish to
fry.

A break-even, problem-minimal party has to be approached with full focus and
attention; a half-assed organizational effort would be at best a waste of
everyone's time, and at worst a total financial and community disaster.
Given the ridiculous amount of work needed to make it happen, the only way
it could work is if a handful of really committed and focused and interested
people with the time and energy were going to take ownership of it.  If a
group formed to take this over, I'm still willing to do my part -- transfer
the permit to Noisebridge, etc (which would have to be done this Thursday)
-- but speaking realistically, the block party really *shouldn't* happen.

As much as I would love to single-handedly demolish all of the required
party tasks (see below) and present this party as a lovely gift-wrapped
package to Noisebridge tomorrow for consensus, I'm just one person.  My
intent was to bring a cool opportunity to the attention of the group and to
volunteer myself as a coordinator if I perceived sufficient interest.  I
made assumptions about Noisebridge's interest in fundraising and community
outreach that suggested to me that it wouldn't be much of a stretch to get
the point of it across and start organizing in the four weeks there were
available, but I discovered quite a few elements to the contrary.

That's fine; learning is fun.  As it was a last-minute "hey, can we use
this???" sort of thing I'm not tremendously surprised.


But anyway, I did say it was still technically feasible.  The following
ridiculousness would have to be accomplished to make it happen, the majority
of the important stuff happening in the next 5 days.

Week by week (starting with 0, this week):

0. choose a block and get neighborhood approval -- i.e. canvass the
neighbors, tell them what you're doing, and get them to sign off on it
(literally).
0.1 tell me (Naomi) what block you convinced, so we can change the
specification on the permit
0.2 reserve metal barricades to keep cars out, trash cans, 1-2
port-a-potties (city grant covers some of these expenses)
0.3 make relationships with local vendors and artisans to get their support
-- work out deals
0.5 call the city and tell them you've changed the location
1. attend the public hearing on Monday of next week to confirm the party
1.5 choose party graphics, design flyers and postcards and Facebook event
pages and stuff like that
1.7 print promo materials, start pushing them around.
2. get flyers everywhere, send event reminders by email, promotional stuff
[hand-waving]
2.5 assign roles for party management, make sure people are volunteered to
help
3. have party October 17th (followed by cleanup, etc)

Like I said... still on the table... *checks watch*... just not likely...
and barring extraordinary efforts, not a good idea.

Cheers,
Naomi


-- 
"All we are is dust in the wind, dude.
Dust... Wind... Dude."  --Ted

Naomi Theora Most
naomi at nthmost.com
+1-415-728-7490

skype: nthmost

http://twitter.com/nthmost
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