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HowToParticipate

Page history last edited by maymay 12 years, 3 months ago Saved with comment


Getting Involved

 

KinkForAll is a participant-driven event. It relies on large groups of loosely organized people to work together in a coordinated, highly communicative fashion. This keeps costs low and value high.

 

This page discusses some of the ways you can get involved. Feel free to do as much or as little as you can or want, but please remember TheRulesOfKinkForAll:

 

Attendees must give a talk or a presentation, help with one, or otherwise contribute in some way to support the event.

 

Getting started before the event

 

To get started, create a wiki account, add your name to registration page of the event(s) you hope to attend, if they already exist (for help, see HowToSignUpStepByStep). Next, join the KinkForAll Mailing List and introduce yourself. (Learn more about GettingStartedStepByStep.)

 

You may choose to follow us on Twitter (and Identi.ca), subscribe to our FriendFeed, become a fan of our Facebook page, or join our FetLife group as well. There are also numerous other KinkForAll groups around the Web, including a Flickr and Vimeo group. A simple Google search for "KinkForAll" should reveal even more places you can join up. :)

 

Also, here are notes on using this wiki.

 

What are some ways I can help?

 

Everything that happens to make a KinkForAll happen is a result of people participating with their own time and resources. These activities range widely and include, but are not limited to:

 

  • bringing food,
  • leading sessions,
  • publicizing and advocating the event to friends,
  • donating money,
  • bringing needed items to the event itself,
  • handling logistics before the event,
  • putting up signage,
  • taking photographs or recording audio or video,
  • volunteering themselves as timekeepers (learn more about timekeeping),
  • and the list goes on…

 

Look for a Needs list beneath the sign up table of the event you are interested in helping out with to get some ideas of what items are needed the most. (A list of upcoming events is on the FrontPage.)

 

Regardless of whether or not an item is listed on the needs list, you are encouraged to bring whatever you think will be helpful for yourself or others. It helps if you let people know what you are planning to bring ahead of time. To do this, list what you are bringing on the Inventory page for your event. (For example, KinkForAllNewYorkCityInventory or KinkForAllBostonInventory.) Listing your equipment publicly helps other people determine what may be missing and what they, themselves, can also bring.

 

How do I go about leading a session?

KinkForAll New York City 2 Schedule Grid

 

When you arrive at a KinkForAll event, there will be a large poster board or other signage called a ScheduleGrid. This grid begins empty and lists all the time slots per session location (shown right). Nearby, there will also be a pile of sticky/post-it notes and pens or markers.

 

To lead a session, write your session topic and your name or pseudonym on a post-it note and then stick it into a free session slot on the schedule grid.

 

Be courteous; do not pull other people's session topics off the grid if there are no more available session slots. Also, remember TheRulesOfKinkForAll, briefly paraphrased here:

 

  • You have 20 minutes for your session. This includes everything from start to finish. A timekeeper will provide you with one warning as you approach the end of your session slot when there are 3 minutes remaining.
  • At busy events, give only one presentation, and use only a single 20 minute slot.
  • Do not ask others to reserve a slot for you. Arriving early increases the likelihood that you will get a slot on the schedule grid.
  • Promoting specific companies, products, or organizations is discouraged. You can certainly mention such things, but remember that KinkForAll events are a non-commercial, non-promotional space.

 

What can I present?

 

  • First off, you can present. You do not need to be an expert on your topic; this is your opportunity to share with others, even and perhaps especially if you have never led a session like it before!
  • You are welcome to present on any topic with any relation to sexuality or gender. Your topic does not need to be directly related, but you should find some way to connect the dots to the theme of KinkForAll events: sexuality, gender, sexual freedom, and sexual diversity.
  • Feel free to be challenging, controversial, spontaneous, and authentic. You do not need to come specifically well-prepared (although you are, of course, welcome to prepare in advance if you want to), and you are encouraged to discuss your passions passionately.
  • Different formats are encouraged. You could make your session a short lecture, a poetry reading, a facilitated discussion, a multi-media presentation, or sharing an experience.
  • Keep it simple; don't try to get too elaborate because the time limit simply does not accommodate an extended demonstration of complex technique.

 

Help! I still can't come up with something!

 

Don't worry! Remember that leading a session or making a presentation are not required of you, simply encouraged. There are plenty of other ways to help, each of which counts as participating!

 

If you do want to give a presentation but are still having trouble coming up with something, then you might find the HowToGiveGreatKinkForAllPresentations page useful.

 

Other ways to show your support

 

 

Comments (3)

maymay said

at 11:34 am on May 15, 2009

This is a great page, and is useful to have as part of the global scale. However, right now it is way too DC-specific, so I am going to genericize the text.

maymay said

at 1:01 pm on May 15, 2009

I've removed the locale-specific details (information about specific events need to be named with the event in the prefix of the name; i.e., "HowToParticipate" is about how to participate in general, whereas a page name that sounds like "KinkForAllWashingtonDCHowToParticipate" would be how to participate in the DC event specifically.

The next step that needs to happen on this page is to refine the goal of the page; i.e., participation is great, so let's provide even more documentation around other things we are doing, such as the mailing list, such as the Google Docs financials spreadsheets and how to make them, and so forth.

We may also begin to look into how we can chunk off portions of the OrganizeALocalKinkForAll page and integrate them here or something here with that page.

Chris! said

at 4:26 pm on May 15, 2009

Sounds good to me! We can easily customize it for each location...

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