marsden_online (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marsden_online) wrote2009-02-04 08:57 pm
marsden_online) wrote2009-02-04 08:57 pm
Entry tags:
A sapping of motivation
Back in September a national telethon was announced for June 2009, and I got my teeth into the idea of running some form of gameathon to support it.
Since then the official 'Big Night In' website has sat untouched like a big red and white pimple. Not even a peep from the mailing list it offers. Not it might just be me, but if I was making a big media announcement about an event I'd make sure there was a website with some content ready. Especially when you're going on record as intending "a completely revamped format that will make use of all available technology." [emphasis mine]
Nothing, months later (and that includes the custom google alerts I have set up) casts a pall of doubt over the organisers' understanding of that very technology and also means that whatever public momentum may have been gained from that announcement has undoubtedly been lost.
I emailed KidsCan directly last month to try and find out what was going on. It's difficult to infer much from the reassuringly worded email I received in response, but it suggested that the website was nearly ready and that I should expect something from the mailing list within the week. Not a peep.
It was actually possible to get the impression that they were surprised other people might want to get involved in running events for the telethon. To me, that community involvement is what makes a telethon work on this scale.
On the face of the evidence I'm forced to conclude that 'The Big Night In' is nothing more than someone's idea to use the 'iconic kiwi telethon' as a brand more or less for an event, without thought or care given to the social history that actually made the event so popular, and so effective. The listing and style of other events on the KidsCan website actually reinforces this.
Further, I suspect the organisers have discovered it to be a much larger task than it may have appeared when the idea was first floated, but we've all been on projects like that.
It is a bit rich of me to pontificate on this given that I only got to see 2 or 3 telethons (no TV prior to high school) and that beyond watching my involvement then only extended to being pressured to contribute a few more dollars to the bucket so it reached the value at which a housemaster would let the head prefect shave his beard off (and I recall the prefects getting a few seconds on TV one year when they took that bucket down to the local collection centre).
Getting back to the gameathon. One of the points of getting involved in a telethon in any capacity I think is that sense of being involved in something bigger and better than what you can do yourself. As I lose respect for the organisation behind this event so my enthusiasm for trying to create something to benefit it also wanes. It becomes 'just another good cause', not one I want to do more for than maybe throw them a few dollars at collection time.
I've been holding off 'opening' gameathon because it seems rude to have my website going before the official telethon site. But if it is to stand a chance of being an event
flagging motivation.
I'm on the cusp of giving away the idea as more effort than it's actually worth, regardless of how many other itches it would scratch, but I'd like other opinions. After all, if it goes ahead it becomes about everyone who chooses to get involved, not just me.
Since then the official 'Big Night In' website has sat untouched like a big red and white pimple. Not even a peep from the mailing list it offers. Not it might just be me, but if I was making a big media announcement about an event I'd make sure there was a website with some content ready. Especially when you're going on record as intending "a completely revamped format that will make use of all available technology." [emphasis mine]
Nothing, months later (and that includes the custom google alerts I have set up) casts a pall of doubt over the organisers' understanding of that very technology and also means that whatever public momentum may have been gained from that announcement has undoubtedly been lost.
I emailed KidsCan directly last month to try and find out what was going on. It's difficult to infer much from the reassuringly worded email I received in response, but it suggested that the website was nearly ready and that I should expect something from the mailing list within the week. Not a peep.
It was actually possible to get the impression that they were surprised other people might want to get involved in running events for the telethon. To me, that community involvement is what makes a telethon work on this scale.
On the face of the evidence I'm forced to conclude that 'The Big Night In' is nothing more than someone's idea to use the 'iconic kiwi telethon' as a brand more or less for an event, without thought or care given to the social history that actually made the event so popular, and so effective. The listing and style of other events on the KidsCan website actually reinforces this.
Further, I suspect the organisers have discovered it to be a much larger task than it may have appeared when the idea was first floated, but we've all been on projects like that.
It is a bit rich of me to pontificate on this given that I only got to see 2 or 3 telethons (no TV prior to high school) and that beyond watching my involvement then only extended to being pressured to contribute a few more dollars to the bucket so it reached the value at which a housemaster would let the head prefect shave his beard off (and I recall the prefects getting a few seconds on TV one year when they took that bucket down to the local collection centre).
Getting back to the gameathon. One of the points of getting involved in a telethon in any capacity I think is that sense of being involved in something bigger and better than what you can do yourself. As I lose respect for the organisation behind this event so my enthusiasm for trying to create something to benefit it also wanes. It becomes 'just another good cause', not one I want to do more for than maybe throw them a few dollars at collection time.
I've been holding off 'opening' gameathon because it seems rude to have my website going before the official telethon site. But if it is to stand a chance of being an event
- worthy of being called an event,
- raising a worthwhile amount of money,
- more than just 'games at my place' which I could (and will) do anyway
- frankly, meet my standards for something I'm trying to organise
flagging motivation.
I'm on the cusp of giving away the idea as more effort than it's actually worth, regardless of how many other itches it would scratch, but I'd like other opinions. After all, if it goes ahead it becomes about everyone who chooses to get involved, not just me.