Geoff did an admirable job of putting together Fiction Writeology and there were curry wraps and everything. The problem we seem to be having with Slackademics is that more often than not, about 70-80% of the people who “confirm” attendance don’t show up. We were supposed to have 9-10 people tonight and it was just me, Jay and Geoff. I felt bad that Geoff dutifully printed up so many copies of the handouts.
However he had an interesting idea – take $5 as an admission fee. People seem to take things more seriously if they’ve put money – even a small amount – down for something. We could even give them a full refund IF THEY SHOW UP. Or just spend it on food for the night. I don’t know if that will work but it seems worth a try.
An admission fee is a great idea. $5 is small enough that anyone can scrape it together, but large enough that people won’t want to just throw it away.
Also, why not reward your teachers with a few bucks? Or use the money to buy snacks, materials, rent a kung fu dojo… it’ll just increase the quality of the Slack.
I think the money could be used to reimburse facilitator copy costs and time etc. If people know they will have some nominal reimburement for thier work they may be more likely to volunteer their skills for a workshop.
Many places, including community centres, have the nominal charge as a way of ensuring attendance. It is a pretty common tactic. The problem is – how do you get people to pay ahead of time? Would it be a paypal account of some kind?
Paypal is a great idea. I think there’s one right over there————–^