No more than 30 minutes after I published my last post on this subject I had over a dozen communications from people who are interested in this event. Wow. That’s a good sign.
With those communications have come questions and comments. Mostly people are wanting to know how it was done in the past and how it should go in the future. I can speak to the past as much as I remember, but all I can say about the future are just my opinions.
How this went in the past is there was one person who coordinated, but a committee (don’t let your eyes glaze over when I say that) came up with a theme and a framework for how the event would proceed in a given year. This seemed to work well. What was really helpful was various people brought various skill sets to the event and everyone working together was the key to success. The coordinator of the event kept track of that, so there was not duplication of effort or no efforts in a given area. All of that sounds like work, but I think it really is up to the committee to decide how elaborate or how free form an event can be and thereby how much coordination is needed.
Now my two cents.
As I said in the last post on this subject, I would love to see the spirit of community manifesting in this event. For me, this is the biggest consideration in being involved. In order to see that happening, it’s imperative that the many facets of the fandom be included. This was the aspiration in the past, and today, seems to be more warranted than ever. In order to achieve it, this means bloggers and guest bloggers who cover subjects from vanilla to blue should be part of the event. The truth is we have a diverse fan community. Why hide that? I say let the truth will out that we’re not all in lock step on who we are and what we like. This should not be a problem to embrace unless one group wants to eclipse the others. Surely we can rise above that kind of behavior.
One consideration with respect to making it an open community is possibly having a policy statement. I’m thinking something along the lines of “the community is open but discourages the promotion of self-harm.” A committee could come up with something much more thought out than this, but I hope any statement would remain broad enough to be inclusive and restrictive enough to head off some potentially explosive situations. Another consideration is providing a courtesy to readers possibly in the form of tagging posts so the reader knows if he/she is about to click on something he/she would rather not. There are ways to handle this so it’s clear, and a committee could easily hash this out as well.
But the first order of business is to merely find out how much interest there is, what time of year is best for most, and perhaps getting an idea of how long to run the event. Most important: when pondering these items and envisioning the event as you would like to see it, please remember we do not have to do this as it’s been done in the past. It can be changed, but if you want to keep it the same, that’s fine too. There is no law that says it has to be done this way or that. It’s really up to all of you to figure out how you want it.
In that interest, I have a poll here.
EDIT: Some Qs&As are here.
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RAFrenzy 
[…] Further Thoughts on a Richard Armitage Blogging Event in 2015 […]
I would love to be a part of a fan event. I had a blast with FanstRAvaganza in the past! I have no desire to be in charge, though. :) I liked how the last FstRA had the central website where readers could click on on the links to different posts, rather than having to link all the blogs individually on my own. That worked the first year when there were 7 of us participating,,, but by 2013, there were 33 or more.
Anyone interested in how the FanstRAvaganza originally came to be, check out the tale here: http://armitagefanblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-to-2nd-annual.html
[…] Check out Nat’s explanation on The Armitage Fan Blog , which she posted as a comment on Frenz’s recent post about the event. Here are the links to Frenz’s posts on RAFrenzy (1) and (2). […]
I’m so glad you want to do this! I think a central place to check is good. No question\.
[…] Further Thoughts on a Richard Armitage Blogging Event in 2015 […]
[…] Further Thoughts on a Richard Armitage Blogging Event in 2015 […]
Not sure how much I can contribute, but I enjoyed participating in the past, so count me in!
[…] Further Thoughts on a Richard Armitage Blogging Event in 2015 […]
I really like the idea of this online event, especially as it highlight the wonderful diversity and inclusiveness of our community. WELL-DONE, Frenz! I’ll be happy to step up to do whatever you think I can do best to contribute.
Great! I hope the organizers will agree to something that in some way highlights our individuality as fans. To me this just makes the fandom that much richer. I will have a post about my thoughts on the fandom coming up soon as I want to make it clear where I stand with respect to freedom of expression.
[…] those just stumbling on this, you can find more information here and […]