Feedback on the kick-off?

Thanks for the suggestion. A book exchange sounds like fun; but this year since the national organization is doing a NaNo bookdrive, I think it might detract from that.

The picture story game *is* a *lot* of fun, but it takes a while to get through and it's one of those games that everyone has to be there at the beginning for (to be fair, the snowball game is imperfect in being similarly constrained that way). Also, there's not a lot of conversation during the game, which limits its usefulness in getting people to know each other.

Ironically, our kick-off parties used to have more of that focus in years past when we would do plot twist games (each person writes down a quick three line summary of their novel and the genre of their novel; cards are passed to the left and each person contributes a plot twist to the card). I personally enjoyed that exercise a lot (and received some interesting plot twist ideas) but apparently others wanted to do less with writing and stories and more with just fun and games. I guess the pendulum swings over time.

Some regions have huge (half page or larger) nametags with facts about each individual's novel on them. We might try that at the TGIO or at next year's kick-off (and incorporate it into some kind of game).

Katherine mentioned Books-in-Common; we might play that as well at the TGIO (it might also reflect PersiaRose's suggestion in helping us learn what each of us likes to read).

--Tim

Does anyone have an idea for an initial ice-breaker that meets the following criteria:
- can be quickly summarized on a sheet of paper, or conveyed from one person to the next (MLs are usually busy greeting people and setting up stuff and can't ease each person into the activity like we'd like)
- people can join in without feeling that they're intruding (since people don't all arrive at once)
- people have something to do (like write or find something)
- people who do know each other have a chance to chat (since one of the joys of groups like this is seeing familiar faces and catching up. Their chatting doesn't disrupt the game, just means they may not win. :) )
- it can last 20-40 minutes, yet someone who arrives for 5 minutes still gets something out of it

Last year we did: find a book that you've read in common with each person here, no duplicates. (So you can't write down 'War and Peace' more than once.) There was a competition to see who had the largest number, so people arriving later got pounced on--nice way for them not to feel left out (if overwhelming.)

I'd like something so awesome that anyone who arrives after 12 feels like they missed something important. Ideas?

This just came to me randomly.

It would be kinda fun to have a book exchange. Perhaps like for every book you bring you are able to pick one. Or if that wouldn't work a small fee that would be donated to Nanowrimo. Not sure how plausible this is.

Fabulous to see the faces behind the names on NaperWriMo Forum.

Wondering if starting with Picture Story game (I know, it's hard to eat while doing it, though. Maybe eat then game) would be useful. There is nothing that broke the ice more than that game. And maybe have a random round robin/musical chairs type deal so that after each round of the game the tables get intentionally mixed up so people meet others in the room.

The only other thing I can imagine, Tim and Katherine and Dave, would be to have some activity that involves our Nano stories. Some sort of story “reveal” in the form of a guessing game/pictionary/20 questions thing (I'm thinking out loud here) where the goal of the small table is to guess the Nano story of someone at the table based on hints or clues. The overriding goal would be to, again, facilitate getting to know one another, but also to get to know the very basics of the story each plans to write. Then we'd have a face, a Nano moniker, a real name *and a story* to build familiarity with a NaperWriMo'er. Facilitates sending “kick in the pants” emails to that person when their word count peters out mid-month.

November 7 email cooldoc to s@xophonehairy: “Hey, Harry, I remember at the Kick Off when you told us your story was about a guy who shoots himself in a rocket to the moon only to find that it's made of cheese. Well, I'm getting hungry over here! Did the rocket run out of fuel, or is it just your word count that failed to launch?” :-)

Just thoughts. Thanks again for a rousing afternoon. -- Steve

I had to leave early due to a scheduling conflict that didn't actually exist until close to 2 o'clock (which may work itself into my novel!) but I had a great time nonetheless! I am very sorry I missed the games - especially the picture/sentence game - that was mucho funo last time! Did you know that the good folks at Cranium have marketed a board game based on it??

Had a blast - as usual!

We did have a lot of fun! =)
I'm looking forward to the TGIO.
The food was great, I am still full. And I had so much fun with the Writing/Picture game, and everyone was so friendly.

I wish I knew the usernames of the others who were sitting at my table, so I could add them...but oh well.

I enjoyed the event. We had a lot of fun. My daughter and I are first timers at this and enjoyed meeting the people in the area involved in this wonderful event. We enjoyed the Writing/Picture game. I laughed so hard I cried off all my makeup. I know that we had plenty to eat. The food was wonderful, as was the company.