Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 13 – the final Alphaday of Season XI.
Let’s celebrate the great achievements of this season, starting with the wealth of outstanding writing that we have shared through the various channels of Alpha activities.
We’ll celebrate the fact that we’re together and enjoying our common interest in writing and all that that entails… which would roughly stretch it about as far as the proverbial piece of string.
For individual Alpha achievements we congratulate Suzanne on her title as Alpha Laureate of Season XI. The Alpha Cup is now in Suzanne’s proud and loving care for the duration of Season XII.
We’ll celebrate the end of another exciting Alpha Season and the many good moments immersed in our writerly activities.
Of course we thank the entire Alpha team for these pleasures; the many willing offers of help with running the tasks mean that dull moments don’t exist.
Thinking ahead we’ve already got next season’s team ready for action.
I won’t give you the full calendar for Season XII yet, but you can take note that:
Alphaday 1 will be on the 17th of Sept 2015.
Alphadays will follow every third Thursday and we’ll break up for the festive season on the 10th of Dec. 2015 and meet up again on the 7th of Jan. 2016 and keep going as usual till Alphaday 13 on the 26th May 2016.
A full calendar will be provided on Alphaday 1.
For next year’s Alpha team we’ve got the following people lined up to step into action to fill the following items on the agenda.
- The bulletin will be written by Christine.
- The Challenge brief (when ready)
- The Challenge entries (when ready)
- The Challenge results (when ready)
These three items on the agenda will be taken care of by the ten volunteers who have so far offered to set challenges. They will step into action according to our well-established pattern. I would like two more volunteers to come forward in case of ‘unforeseen circumstances’, please. You never know.
- The Log. Leslie has volunteered to edit the Log for Season XII and he’ll be in touch with a call for entries which I’m sure will receive a wealth of those news items which we find so useful and motivating to browse through.
- The Showcasing pieces. Suzanne has accepted to continue with this item on the agenda. She’ll be in touch to ask for your special pieces of writing which hopefully will provide feedback and discussions. We hope to get plenty of surprises. You could start looking for that special piece of work you’ll treat us to over the holidays.
- “Writers’ Reads.” Here’s a new slot on the Alpha Agenda where members mention books they’ve been reading. Morgen will edit this and send it out every Alphaday along with the other treats. She’ll be in touch about getting your input, and I’m sure this will prove a mouth-watering addition to the Alphaday goodie bag.
Behind the scenes and fulfilling essential functios for the perfect running of the Alpha Group we have:
Olaf, our Honorary President and Founder, who has accepted to continue as our PR officer as well as being in charge of recruiting new members when necessary.
Rosemary, our web mistress and general technical advisor and whiz kid in charge of the complicated stuff. She’s been a great asset to the group and we’ll no doubt continue to rely heavily on her Kind (my brilliant pun!) help.
The new Discussion Board for general chit-chat that’s outside the main Alpha business already works a treat. I expect it’ll prove an excellent way of keeping up with former members and off-the-record discussions.
Other matters:
Will we embark on a group writing activity in Season XII?
I’d like to finish the Alpha Decade Book project first.
It is finally coming together and some of us will work on it during the break.
Then we’ll consider a fun bit of group writing to be agreed upon when we’re ready.
The Fallow Period, i.e. the break between two seasons, gives you all a chance to switch off from the busy Alpha routine and relax! It doesn’t mean that we don’t communicate if we have something to say. It just means that things are on the quiet side.
But responses to this Alphaday Bulletin are very welcome before we all go into summerly hibernation, so please make this Alphaday a lively one!
And then enjoy the Fallow Period break.
And don’t worry: I promise to send out a reminder about a week before the beginning of Season XII.
Christine