The SSiW 10th B'day Party 2019 - initial discussion and ideas

During my third bootcamp (I think) we attended a coral practice session where we saw a “new song” taking shape, they spent ages building all the harmonies between the different sections of the choir. This took time and they knew what they were doing, with a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs this would obviously take even more time. I could see it going one of two ways, singing a few songs and coming away happy or perfecting one song and coming away with a great feeling of achievement having taken part in the process of creating an amazing sounding coral piece. By the way, I won’t be there. :joy:

3 Likes

Now if we could commission a song for the occasion?

1 Like

Diolch for all your wonderful ideas. Greatly appreciated. I’m going to let this sit and simmer for a while before rushing in to anything. I’ve a very busy two weeks or so ahead of me, completing the chalet in time for Aran’s mum. I’ll be back soon. X

3 Likes

Surely there will always be a chaotic run up to something? It’s what kids are for :wink:

I get what you mean @aran we’d have to confirm black tie or not, or at least a show of hands who would be black tie.

I like the beer and wine tasting idea!! (too many exclamation marks…)

I like the singing, drama, yoga, and historical tour ideas too. I’ve never felt comfortable at book reading session. No idea why. However, I can see that that would be an easy to organise session, so I like that idea too. Dawnsio gwerin…Emma would pay to see me do this…

1 Like

I know the thing I always miss going on from SSIW events, steddfod, Tafywl, Hacio’r Iaith, and so on is that sense of community and language all mixed together where it’s just casual and normal to be in that ‘mode’.

A two day “SSIW Maes” of sorts would be just magical.

I LOVE this idea. I can think of so many. And so many people who are honest to goodness ‘celebs’ in their field but give their time to learners in so many ways.

Would work well - gives people a clue without having to constantly do that metnal protocol-negogiation-langauge-interface-handshake!

To avoid the "self rating " problem (people will almost certainly underate themselves and it might intiimidate people as someone else mentioned) how about having a scale instead

“Please just act as if I’m fluent and I’m deal with it if I miss something” <— “Talk slowly to me” --> “I can do Shwmae and that’s your lot”

In terms of event organisation - how would peopple feel about an “unconference” / barcamp format - so it becomes partly self-organising. I’m thinking of Hacio’r Iaith again - it also strongly strongly encourages contribution, taking part, and guests being also volunteers in the running etc which would both ease the workload and fit the the community driven feel of SSIW. So some stuff could be prescheduled and other stuff people could just chuck in things like “who wants to play some games” and find a ‘slot’.

I don’t mind helping with that side of it of there’s interest.

As regards costs and posh/unposh - how about splitting the ticketing so that the “maes” bit is £X and the Posh Do is £Y and some combined ticket is £(X+Y)-Z So if anyone’s really not a party animal they can just do the day activities and still get stuff out of it? For logistics this might be easier is the daytime and evening activities were physically in different venues rather than expecting the non evening-goers to clear off!

2 Likes

Spot on! Especially the split ticket idea. :bulb::smile:

I think that would put me off, at least.

I was just thinking about the badges and the colour coding.

How about the description being:

  • I love making mistakes / confident

  • I’m starting to embrace my mistakes / intermediate

  • I’m still really worried about mistakes please be kind! / beginner

  • I’ve not started learning yet / Friend of Cymraeg

What do you think? Make it less about “ability to speak” more about confidence.

6 Likes

I really like that. Very SSiW.

3 Likes

Gwych! :smile:

1 Like

Just thought of:

I’ve been speaking it for so long I don’t know what my mistakes are - mother tongue

3 Likes

For me, this skirts dangerously close to the impression I have that many native speakers have a complex about their language because they “don’t speak proper Welsh”, because their grammar and/or vocabulary isn’t identical to what’s taught at school.

I keep imagining a group of people who are either hyper-aware of “mistakes” they make (rather than calling them “language variation”, for example), or simply have a generalised uneasiness that something about what they say must be wrong even if they’re not sure which parts of their speech would get a “proper Welsh speaker” turning up their nose at them.

1 Like

This one was slightly tongue in cheek. I was banking on first-language speakers being confident enough to speak to a group of learners of various abilities. The name aiming at giving the less confident learner comfort that everyone makes mistakes.

2 Likes

This all sounds great. Love’ the mad tie plus jeans’ idea, too (especially for the ladies).

But just stop and consider for a moment - what a great achievement a tenth anniversary will be. It makes me wonder if I’ve missed a thread somewhere. I hope it will include ideas for celebrations world-wide for people in Washington, Melbourne, Europe all over the place. I’d favour crazy flash mobs springing up everywhere - instant choirs, folk dancing, group recitation from the Mabinogion, processions? My background is in charity photo opps and publicity, not corporate ‘dos’, so you’d have to judge if things are less applicable for SSIW.

So long as it’s fun, what the heck!

5 Likes

That’s a gigantically good idea! We will have to try and build a team of volunteers to get that to happen… :star: :star2: :dizzy:

2 Likes

Bore da bawb!

I have vowed to make a real effort to make the SSiW birthday party as memorable as possible and so really need to get organised. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone with real interest in being involved in this fabulous event, either just as an attendee or possibly as a volunteer as well, read this thread, give feedback and help be continue the discussion.

I don’t want this event to be solely based on my decisions and preferences. So I would really love to know what you think, though I know that we have no hope of pleasing everyone.

I’m also planning on putting a team together of people who would like in any way to be involved with the planning. It has the possibility of being a spectacular event, however formal or informal it is.

We need first to make a final decision on venue. Then need to discuss everything from food, dress, entertainment, ‘extra curricular’ activities and available accommodation etc, to the little things like table decorations, cake, and so on.

Once I have a team together, I may well arrange another way for us to communicate and do the detailed planning. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Are we thinking North or South Wales? West or East?

1 Like

I’m going with North this time Anthony, and aiming to secure a suitable venue in the Caernarfon area. Selfishly, it’s going to be much easier for me to be hands on with the venue.

It has good transport links and a wide variety of affordable accommodation choices. I also feel it lends itself naturally to extra weekend activities because of the tourist attractions and cultural richness. Plus we know a lot of people in this area, from people in the media to people involved in the arts, so I’m slightly richer in terms of resources.

Also, in the future, we would like to alternate the party between the North and the South. :wink:

4 Likes

That makes sense! I probably won’t be able to help loads for the complete mirror of all your reasons haha. I don’t know Caernarfon that well and I’m a hit far away to be able to be hands on. However, I would love to offer my services just in case there is someway I can help :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Diolch Anthony! I’ll keep you in mind… I also know that you have a very important wedding coming up… :wink:

2 Likes