Van Slam “Family” Meeting

Events, Van Slam

Unrelenting public pressure demands it! There was so much fun at the last meeting people want to repeat the experience! Threats of poetic nudity are forcing our hands! So……

The next Van Slam “Family” meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 18th at the Britannia Community Centre from 6:30-8:30 pm. It’s their meeting room in the main foyer/office space. Please come prepared. This will be the first Tuesday after Radar and Lisa’s return from WOWps. And a few weeks before Lisa is scheduled to participate at Slammasters.

One of the things up for discussion/vote is deciding who will take over running the Vancouver Poetry Slam as Local Slammaster. After 2 years of doing just that I am stepping down from the day to day duties. If you are interested in this fantastic volunteer position, please throw your hat into the ring for the vote. I am stepping down following the May Slam Finals. Your job begins with the Anarchy Slam on May 19th featuring Sweater Vest.

A full on job description will be put forward prior to the meeting so anyone interested will know what they are getting themselves into.

Primarily though it will mean the booking of features, running the slams on the “night of”, either as host or finding a host. It will mean keeping track of the slam results throughout the year, looking after the door receipts, the paying of features, promoting the slam, keeping PSI fees up to snuff, making sure all necessary poets are registered with PSI, organizing the WIN2 bouts, all slam playoffs and so on.

Fortunately most of these things are already up and running and the new person will not be taking over from scratch. They will simply be taking the wheel of an already in motion, fast moving machine. As an example most of the slams will already be booked for the duration of the summer, leaving the start of the 2008-2009 regular season in September for you to step in.

What I will still be doing is managing the Youth Slam, assisting with promotion, and I thought I would create and take on a new position, “In charge of special projects.” This would mean looking after a lot of the ancilliary things the slam has done in the past and expand on it. Things such as the UBC Slam, Word on the Street and so on.

Also up for discussion is whether or not we want to send 2 teams to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word this October in Calgary. The motion/idea put forward right now by most people is that there should be 2 teams going. 1 team from the traditional Cafe Deux Soleils slam and 1 team from the Main Street Slam. Preliminary and informal discussions have taken place but things should be formalized. The Main Street Slam would look after their own qualifying process. The Van Slam would assist with travel funds. This would mean more than likely mean covering most of those costs.

Sheri-D and the CFSW organizing crew seem to be leaning towards having 2 Vancouver teams. At the very least we should be ready for that option.

Poet contracts will be ready for perusal by all those poets qualified for the Van Slam playoffs. That is except for the Last Chance Slam winners. All other poets will know ahead of time and have a chance to decide whether they can meet the team requirements and obligations. FYI…the NPS slam tournament is in Madison, Wisconsin this August and as mentioned the CFSW is in Calgary in October.

We will also decide on whether we send an official rep to the Individual World Poetry Slam this October in Columbus, Ohio and whether we send two teams to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in November in Calgary.

We will also discuss having a Van Slam constitution/mandate to use an umbrella document we can use in making decisions in the future as we move forward as a group. If you have any thoughts about what ideas should be in such a document please pass them on to The Svelte Ms. Spelt ms_spelt@hotmail.com

as he is putting together a short presentation (10 minutes) as to why we should have such a thing and what he would like to see in it. If you are opposed to having such a document please come prepared with a counter argument.

The idea that we should have annual awards at the end of the regular season has recently been discussed by people who like to talk about such things. Whether you are for or against such a practive please come with an opinion one way or the other. And if you have an idea for a trophy please bring that along as well. I think we can hold a vote as to whether we think awarding trophies is a good idea. What those trophies will be can be for a different meeting. I think it’s too late to have any process in place to decide recipients for this year.

We will also be hearing a report from Lisa Slater and RadaR about their WOWPs experience.

Sean also would like to make a report on SPOCAN (the board that currently looks after the CFSW) and on Canada Council Grants.

If you have any other suggestions for agenda items please pass them along. But remember this is a 2 hour meeting MAX.

This meeting is open to anyone who thinks they should be there and who believes they have a vested interest in the Van Slam. Please feel free to forward to those who you think should be there. Thanks a lot and I hope to see you there.

Randy Jacobs/RC Weslowski

Vancouver Poetry Slam Co Slammaster.

604 215 9230 if you have any questions.