Looking ahead to Up All Night 2021 for the December solstice

[PerditaPickle]

In the past we've gotten a mention in (I think the Pagan Community Notes section of) The Wild Hunt, and that would seem squarely aimed at the right folks...though it's impossible to know how many new eyeballs we got as a result. Certainly I think that's worth continuing.

Also, it would be good to have "a hook"--something new and exciting we're doing with UAN this year, to give it a little extra push on people's agendas and so that pagan press who might talk it up in advance don't shrug it off as "oh, this again." For example, I would dearly love to have video contributions from Cauldronites around the world of how their solstice is going; a huge part of the fun of UAN is that collaborative feeling of sharing the moment across the globe. I've tried to add something like that a little bit more each year, and certainly with smart phones everywhere and the world's amazing connectivity, with things like Facebook Live, etc., this should be more doable now than ever. Any thoughts?

Finally, we should be sure to promote this among ourselves! In past years I've tried to keep a thread going periodically in the run-up to UAN, starting right after Halloween/Samhain/Dia de los Muertos...but maybe once the donation drive is done, we can shout that UAN is coming from our own rooftop, literally, in the form of a pinned banner at the top of our web pages just as we do for the donation drive.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've a notion that some of the things we discussed in this thread last year ended up falling by the wayside?  E.g. I'm not sure whether The Wild Hunt 'press release' was indeed taken care of last year by anyone?

I wonder if that's because we talked about these ideas but didn't actually delegate out specific tasks to specific people?  I'm as guilty as anyone, in fact especially so as I volunteered to publicise this but then didn't pitch in with any of the specific tasks, so this year I'm promising to rectify that.

Step 1, of course, is pinpointing when this will take place in 2021 so (sorry in advance for being a nag) @Altair, could you let me know the date you foresee this taking place this year?  I noted you usually look at this post-Halloween/Samhain/Dia de los Muertos but I'd like to be in a position to be ready to hit the ground running.

And @RandallS could you confirm whether the banner message (after this year's donation drive is wrapped up) is doable?

Who usually gets in touch with The Wild Hunt?  I'm happy to do so, but I'm certain there'll be someone who already has contacts so I might not be in the best position with that.

As for a 'hook' I'm afraid I'm not much of an ideas gal, but I feel we could do more of the video sharing which we did last year for sure - that was fun and we really only dipped our toes in last year.

So, again, sorry for being a nag, but there we are.  I am one.

[RandallS]

And @RandallS could you confirm whether the banner message (after this year's donation drive is wrapped up) is doable?

A banner message for Up All Night is doable anytime that makes sense. That is, we can have multiple banners if by some change the donation drive takes multiple months again.

[Altair]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've a notion that some of the things we discussed in this thread last year ended up falling by the wayside?  E.g. I'm not sure whether The Wild Hunt 'press release' was indeed taken care of last year by anyone?

I did submit one, though I don't think they picked it up last year; at least, I don't recall seeing it.

I wonder if that's because we talked about these ideas but didn't actually delegate out specific tasks to specific people?  I'm as guilty as anyone, in fact especially so as I volunteered to publicise this but then didn't pitch in with any of the specific tasks, so this year I'm promising to rectify that.

I think delegating tasks to specific people is a good idea

Step 1, of course, is pinpointing when this will take place in 2021 so (sorry in advance for being a nag) @Altair, could you let me know the date you foresee this taking place this year?

The moment of solstice will be at 10:58 AM Eastern (North America) time on Tuesday, December 21; so we could go with either the night straddling Mon., Dec. 20 - Tues., Dec. 21, or Tues., Dec. 21 - Wed., Dec. 22. It seems Monday night is a minute longer than Tuesday night, so starting UAN at sunset on Monday, Dec. 20, would be my recommendation.

Who usually gets in touch with The Wild Hunt?  I'm happy to do so, but I'm certain there'll be someone who already has contacts so I might not be in the best position with that.

I usually reach out to them, but I don't have any special contacts or anything; I just submit our event as a news item through their regular channels. If someone has an "in", we should definitely exploit it. It's too early to reach out to them, however.

As for a 'hook' I'm afraid I'm not much of an ideas gal, but I feel we could do more of the video sharing which we did last year for sure - that was fun and we really only dipped our toes in last year.

I agree about more video sharing! We still have an "Up All Night" YouTube channel for the purpose (be sure to also check the Playlists tab, where there are even more videos). As for a hook...I'm open to suggestions. Last year I pitched it to The Wild Hunt as one of the few solstice traditions that was continuing unchanged by the COVID crisis; but since, as I mentioned, I don't recall seeing a mention last year, I guess that wasn't much of a hook!

So, again, sorry for being a nag, but there we are.  I am one.

STOP NAGGING MEEEEEEE!!!!!! 

[PerditaPickle]

I did submit one, though I don't think they picked it up last year; at least, I don't recall seeing it.

Ah my bad, that's a shame that they don't seem to have picked it up last year.  I'm assuming we'll try our luck again this year as it can't hurt to try.

I think delegating tasks to specific people is a good idea

Awesome, consider me a willing helper (and I'll try & be more organised this year so as not to let things slip off my radar).

The moment of solstice will be at 10:58 AM Eastern (North America) time on Tuesday, December 21; so we could go with either the night straddling Mon., Dec. 20 - Tues., Dec. 21, or Tues., Dec. 21 - Wed., Dec. 22. It seems Monday night is a minute longer than Tuesday night, so starting UAN at sunset on Monday, Dec. 20, would be my recommendation.

That's great, thanks - @SunflowerP do you just want to give final approval of the date as site host?

I will post an event on the New Order of Druids forum (I only just discovered they have a sub-forum for 'Celtic Events', but they do not appear to keep it restricted to just Celtic events).  I will do this after Mabon.

STOP NAGGING MEEEEEEE!!!!!! 

I make no promises!   

[SunflowerP]

That's great, thanks - @SunflowerP do you just want to give final approval of the date as site host?

Oh, sure! We've always just let Altair pick the date and go with it, but I suppose running it past me to make sure I don't know of some reason why it wouldn't work does no harm and might be helpful.

And thank you, Perdita, for making sure the ball starts rolling early enough that we can follow through on our ideas!

Also, for teaching me something new about how SMF works. I had no idea we could tag each other! I can think of twice just recently when I might well have used it had I known. For those who are wondering, the BBCode is [member=x]username[/member], where x is the member's user number, available on their profile page or just by mousing over their username in the post sidebar - the URLs for profile pages are by user number, not username. If there's a shortcut for doing this, Perdita, that you know about, please let us know!

I will note, though, that this should be used rarely, only when there is a really strong reason why the person needs to see the post (that they will consider a good reason, not just that the person doing it thinks is a good reason). Perdita, your use of it in this thread was exactly right; I got a notification in my email that let me know this year's edition of the 'Looking ahead to UAN' thread had been started and I'd been summoned to it. But neither I nor anyone else wants to be summoned constantly; if people abuse it, we will take this convenience away, either by disabling it (if we can) or by adding a rule (probably under the 'Don't be annoying' section of the rules, because overuse would be massively disruptive and bad for TC) forbidding it.

Sunflower

[PerditaPickle]

A banner message for Up All Night is doable anytime that makes sense. That is, we can have multiple banners if by some change the donation drive takes multiple months again.

So, when do we feel would be the right time for the banner message?

[Altair]

So, when do we feel would be the right time for the banner message?

Maybe right after Halloween/Samhain/Día de los Muertos?

[SunflowerP]

Maybe right after Halloween/Samhain/Día de los Muertos?

That was my thought too. Possibly at this point one that's more 'here's a reminder that we do this, and we're planning it now' with a link to this thread, and later (beginning of Dec?) one for 'Coming soon, to a Cauldron near you'.

The floor is open for suggestions on wording, feedback on my two-banner idea, alternate ideas, etc.

Sunflower

[SunflowerP]

The floor is open for suggestions on wording, feedback on my two-banner idea, alternate ideas, etc.

Also for other promotional ideas.

I liked the idea of business-card-sized cards that could be placed in people's local witchy/pagan/new age shops and spaces; we'll need a new design for those if we do that (because it doesn't seem right to keep using Eric's design after he decamped from TC).

And, here's a thought: as well as getting an item into The Wild Hunt's 'Community Notes' immediately before UAN, what about maybe submitting a guest article to them that's about our UAN tradition?

Sunflower

[PerditaPickle]

Possibly at this point one that's more 'here's a reminder that we do this, and we're planning it now' with a link to this thread, and later (beginning of Dec?) one for 'Coming soon, to a Cauldron near you'.

Similarly, I created a thread for the event on NOD earlier, and then later (again, December probably) I'll put some sort of update, somewhere (I'm still waiting for formal permission to publicise the event more widely on their forums, but they were fine with it last year so I'm expecting it to be fine again this year).

[Altair]

Also for other promotional ideas.

I liked the idea of business-card-sized cards that could be placed in people's local witchy/pagan/new age shops and spaces; we'll need a new design for those if we do that (because it doesn't seem right to keep using Eric's design after he decamped from TC).

And, here's a thought: as well as getting an item into The Wild Hunt's 'Community Notes' immediately before UAN, what about maybe submitting a guest article to them that's about our UAN tradition?

Sunflower

The Cauldron is virtually my only point of contact for other pagans, so I lean on you guys to come up with other online venues where we might be able to get some publicity for UAN.

IF I can find the time--and that's a big if, esp. right now--I'd be willing to pen a possible guest article.

[Morag]

Also for other promotional ideas.

I liked the idea of business-card-sized cards that could be placed in people's local witchy/pagan/new age shops and spaces; we'll need a new design for those if we do that (because it doesn't seem right to keep using Eric's design after he decamped from TC).

I whipped something up.

I have a pro or business or whatever it's called account with Canva for my publishing stuff, so I can definitely design something without going over my energy stores.

And, here's a thought: as well as getting an item into The Wild Hunt's 'Community Notes' immediately before UAN, what about maybe submitting a guest article to them that's about our UAN tradition?

Sunflower

Guest articles about the tradition is a great idea. Also we could do personal blog posts about it, if so called.

I can contact the ATC about an article in their publication, Panegyria, as well, and talk to the ATC in general about it to promote it.

[SunflowerP]

I whipped something up.

I like that. We'll probably want to insert a bit more info (i.e., date), but having a template that doesn't have the date, so that it can be used every year - with the relevant date added each year - is, I think, the best plan.

Hmm, if you can make it fit (slight shrinkage of the font should do it), ISTM that quite a bit of additional info could be conveyed just by adding the word 'virtual' - so, 'A virtual celebration of....' Or 'online', which is less old-school but perhaps more familiar to more people. (I'm old-school, so I prefer 'virtual', but.) It'd give people a much stronger hook for 'why is this something that might interest me?'

ETA: I'm reminded that I thought (last year when Eric set up a whole separate web page for UAN) that, while a dedicated UAN page was a good idea, it really ought to be within the ecauldron.com site. I'mma talk to Randall about that.

Sunflower

[SunflowerP]

IF I can find the time--and that's a big if, esp. right now--I'd be willing to pen a possible guest article.

I'm glad you're willing; I was hoping that'd be the case, since I think you're the best person to do it. But as you note, your time is always at a premium, so I wasn't expecting it.

Collaboration is a possibility, too, though I'm not sure that'd help with time constraints; IME collaboration generally takes longer than solo composition. One collaborative approach that could be useful in context of your tight schedule, though, is for you to do a first draft, to whatever level of completeness you have time for, then post it in this thread so that I and/or other folks can finish it.

Sunflower

[PerditaPickle]

I whipped something up.

Ooo pretty!