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Polytical.org
Oct. 22nd, 2010 07:33 pmOh my, I have not yet shared this with you lovely LJ people. (Unless you're on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
polyamory_uk)
So,opencon was A-freaking-mazing and you should totally be there next year. I had offered to help out in the earlier days (like, before I even knew who ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
werenerd was in the real world) but nothing had come of it/been requested so I spent as much time as I could on-desk as possible, especially at the start, showing arrivals to their accommodation. That the desk was located right in the middle of the venue so was usually surrounded by lovelies was an enormous perk.
There were a few structured activities, including a talk from Dr Deborah Anapol, but most of the weekend activities were run off a DIY Workshop schedule consisting of post-it notes and eagerness. There was also an excellent "Idea Pit" where people could suggest workshops without having to facilitate them. This worked really nicely and there was quite a range of workshops run over the weekend.
I ran 3 workshops because I wasfeeling crazy being helpful. One I devised myself, OpenStories, which was all about sharing favourite poly stories. That was really fun, even if one did get a little TMI, the others were very entertaining.
The second workshop I ran was Fun And Games, after the person who was originally planned to run it couldn't make it. This one went excellently, despite the low temperature outside. Psychiatrist was particularly fun withlivinglibertine assuming the role of House and nailing the diagnosis ("I am God") in one followed by lots of "Yes, Yes, No, *wibble wibble wibble*" in front of a very stumped Vicky. Excellent times.
The final workshop was probably the most affecting. Suggested originally by R and placed in the "Idea Pit", Poly Activism was something I immediately offered to run and placed it in the remaining slot I had in my day. We did a bit of gentle chatting, getting a feel for where everyone was and wanted to talk about before dividing the remaining time into two sections; Goals and Activism. We filled an A3 sheet with ideas for what we, as non-monogamous people, wanted from the rest of the world. Then we moved on to ways to achieve these goals. We had a ton of awesome ideas and I wrote down as many as I could. Then I took everyone's email address and promised a write-up of the notes.
I came out of that workshop incredibly energised. We had goals, we had ways of achieving those goals. It was an awesome feeling. As Opencon wrapped up there was a real buzz in the air, even the organisers commented on feeling eager to do it again. On a personal note, Opencon was exactly what I needed after the extremely heavy BiCon this year.
I had a couple of days off following Opencon so I found myself staying up late, culminating in actually getting the notes written up and sent out that night *proud*. The idea for a central website, full of activism and community articles to act as a UK centric hub kept floating around. Monday I was trying to come up with a name that would work well when the ever amazingtartful_dodger suggested Polytical.
The plan is to launch on 19th November, a day before Polyday so I can get the word out there. If you would be interested in writing an article, how-to guide, personal story, blog review, anything non-monogamy centric at all, please let me know.
So yes. Opencon was fabulous, I have a wonderful new project to work on, things are good.
polyamory_uk)So,
opencon was A-freaking-mazing and you should totally be there next year. I had offered to help out in the earlier days (like, before I even knew who werenerd was in the real world) but nothing had come of it/been requested so I spent as much time as I could on-desk as possible, especially at the start, showing arrivals to their accommodation. That the desk was located right in the middle of the venue so was usually surrounded by lovelies was an enormous perk.There were a few structured activities, including a talk from Dr Deborah Anapol, but most of the weekend activities were run off a DIY Workshop schedule consisting of post-it notes and eagerness. There was also an excellent "Idea Pit" where people could suggest workshops without having to facilitate them. This worked really nicely and there was quite a range of workshops run over the weekend.
I ran 3 workshops because I was
The second workshop I ran was Fun And Games, after the person who was originally planned to run it couldn't make it. This one went excellently, despite the low temperature outside. Psychiatrist was particularly fun with
livinglibertine assuming the role of House and nailing the diagnosis ("I am God") in one followed by lots of "Yes, Yes, No, *wibble wibble wibble*" in front of a very stumped Vicky. Excellent times.The final workshop was probably the most affecting. Suggested originally by R and placed in the "Idea Pit", Poly Activism was something I immediately offered to run and placed it in the remaining slot I had in my day. We did a bit of gentle chatting, getting a feel for where everyone was and wanted to talk about before dividing the remaining time into two sections; Goals and Activism. We filled an A3 sheet with ideas for what we, as non-monogamous people, wanted from the rest of the world. Then we moved on to ways to achieve these goals. We had a ton of awesome ideas and I wrote down as many as I could. Then I took everyone's email address and promised a write-up of the notes.
I came out of that workshop incredibly energised. We had goals, we had ways of achieving those goals. It was an awesome feeling. As Opencon wrapped up there was a real buzz in the air, even the organisers commented on feeling eager to do it again. On a personal note, Opencon was exactly what I needed after the extremely heavy BiCon this year.
I had a couple of days off following Opencon so I found myself staying up late, culminating in actually getting the notes written up and sent out that night *proud*. The idea for a central website, full of activism and community articles to act as a UK centric hub kept floating around. Monday I was trying to come up with a name that would work well when the ever amazing
tartful_dodger suggested Polytical.The plan is to launch on 19th November, a day before Polyday so I can get the word out there. If you would be interested in writing an article, how-to guide, personal story, blog review, anything non-monogamy centric at all, please let me know.
So yes. Opencon was fabulous, I have a wonderful new project to work on, things are good.
