Looking ahead to our first YPL event
Oct. 13th, 2011 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_sinistraFirst YPL event
As you all know, our first YPL event of the year will be on October 22nd, and we will welcome both our foreign guests with an orienteering scavenger hunt of the Hogwarts buildings and grounds that will test your navigation skills, charms, puzzle solving abilities, and more. There will be small prizes for the winning team on each path (there are four), and small tokens for everyone who makes a sincere attempt to complete the course.
I want to first thank Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Katrina Bundy for a proposal that has been most helpful in planning this event - well done, and good initiative!
Everyone else is welcome to sign up to participate, and should expect to form groups of 3-5 students, including our foreign guests in your groups. You might want to think now about how to arrange that.
For those who participate, all the puzzles and challenges of the course can be solved with magic no more complicated than our students learn at the end of 3rd year. However, in many cases, multiple solutions are possible, and any method that does not damage other students, property, or beings is permitted. CCF and YPL counsellors will be available if you have any concerns.
CCF members and YPL counsellors
You will be needed to help staff the various positions, and of course set up elements of the hunt in advance.
Please sign up on my office door for a prep shift (either Friday night, the 21st, or Saturday, the 22nd), and plan to be available from 2pm to 5pm for the actual event. (A special tea will follow for participants). I may also be adding one more addition to your Saturday morning (a pleasant one, if the scheduling works out) so plan your study time accordingly.
Other notes
Tuesday evening class: I will be in New London for last minute planning with the YPL committee on Tuesday afternoon, and it is likely the meeting will stretch into the evening. Therefore, I am cancelling Tuesday observing classes, but have asked a couple of my NEWT students to be available from full dark until curfew if you need to get caught up on any assignments.
I will also not be available for questions during that time, obviously, so if you have questions for assignments due Wednesday, ask them by Monday.
Poppy: I'd love a chance to consult with you about a few specific considerations. Are you free tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps Monday afternoon? If not, can we chat in private message here?
As you all know, our first YPL event of the year will be on October 22nd, and we will welcome both our foreign guests with an orienteering scavenger hunt of the Hogwarts buildings and grounds that will test your navigation skills, charms, puzzle solving abilities, and more. There will be small prizes for the winning team on each path (there are four), and small tokens for everyone who makes a sincere attempt to complete the course.
I want to first thank Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Katrina Bundy for a proposal that has been most helpful in planning this event - well done, and good initiative!
Everyone else is welcome to sign up to participate, and should expect to form groups of 3-5 students, including our foreign guests in your groups. You might want to think now about how to arrange that.
For those who participate, all the puzzles and challenges of the course can be solved with magic no more complicated than our students learn at the end of 3rd year. However, in many cases, multiple solutions are possible, and any method that does not damage other students, property, or beings is permitted. CCF and YPL counsellors will be available if you have any concerns.
CCF members and YPL counsellors
You will be needed to help staff the various positions, and of course set up elements of the hunt in advance.
Please sign up on my office door for a prep shift (either Friday night, the 21st, or Saturday, the 22nd), and plan to be available from 2pm to 5pm for the actual event. (A special tea will follow for participants). I may also be adding one more addition to your Saturday morning (a pleasant one, if the scheduling works out) so plan your study time accordingly.
Other notes
Tuesday evening class: I will be in New London for last minute planning with the YPL committee on Tuesday afternoon, and it is likely the meeting will stretch into the evening. Therefore, I am cancelling Tuesday observing classes, but have asked a couple of my NEWT students to be available from full dark until curfew if you need to get caught up on any assignments.
I will also not be available for questions during that time, obviously, so if you have questions for assignments due Wednesday, ask them by Monday.
Poppy: I'd love a chance to consult with you about a few specific considerations. Are you free tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps Monday afternoon? If not, can we chat in private message here?
Tags:
- astronomy: newts,
- astronomy: tower,
- friends: poppy,
- hogwarts: hufflepuff,
- people: bellatrix.lestrange,
- people: facinorous.stint,
- personal: books.music.arts,
- personal: career.witch.problems,
- personal: careful.conversations,
- personal: new.london,
- personal: private.message,
- raz,
- students: beauxbatons,
- students: durmstrang,
- students: other,
- students: weasley.ron,
- ypl: committee.meetings,
- ypl: general
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 12:58 am (UTC)What's going to be difficult about it? Anything I can do?
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:03 am (UTC)On the meeting - well, first, we've got to finalise all the clues and such. I've mostly got that settled, I just need everyone's approval. (Which is the tricky part, of course. Half of them hare off on all sorts of tangents that are not in fact necessary.)
The bit I'm not sure of is that new committee member: apparently he's quite influential at St. Mungo's (Healer Stint, if you know the name). So, how much I'm going to be able to nudge him in productive directions is an open question.
But at least knowing that going in will make things easier - and if you see me buried in the society rags and such between now and then, you may know I am swotting for conversational gambits to distract him and get him (and various of the others) back on topic.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:20 am (UTC)Oh, Faci Stint! I know him. Not overly well, but he was one of those from St. Mungos who was brought in after Carrow got one over on me. Did a good job, too, since I'm still alive and all. The headaches are still a bother now and again, but could definitely be worse. He seems a fairly amiable fellow - not the type to be a bent broomstick. I'd be surprised to hear if he was, leastways.
You can swot with the best of them, don't you worry.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:27 am (UTC)Knowing that he was good to you helps - and I suppose at least means that he won't be pressing me for an introduction to you, like Gimlet has.
At the same time, bringing anyone new into an existing committee's a bit tricky, and I wish we weren't having to do it on such short notice and with such tight timing. And there are times that being young and blonde are not the advantage some people think - it's sometimes dreadfully hard to be taken seriously.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:37 am (UTC)And no, I've already met Stint a few times, so you should be safe there. You could always tell Gimlet I'm still in stasis and' can't possibly be troubled. Though the best thing to do is probably to say "I'll certainly let him know you're interested" - that way it's not you who's snubbing him, it's me. And that's to be expected, of course, from we high society types.
(I told you that you'd be in for this. I take comfort in that fact that it would probably happen anyway, seeing as we work in the same castle.)
As for being taken seriously... just think of them as a bunch of unruly students. You've got no trouble there, after all. You'll do just brilliantly.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:42 am (UTC)On Gimlet: that's more or less what I've told him (And he started doing it last year, before any of the gossip at all, so it's definitely that we share a castle. But I'm sure he'll be worse this time, what with the world cup and all.)
On treating them like students - ah, but you forget I've got more tools at my disposal with students. You cannot take house points from departments (I wish: it'd make for far more exciting meetings), nor can you grade them down.
I can, if I wish to invoke powerful names, sometimes get agreement (Pointing out that Auror Lestrange proposed me for the position has been handy, I admit.) And there's a clause in our charter that says that if I - as the chair of the committee, and the only one independently vetted and appointed - feel that an appointed representative from a department is not acting in the best interest of the programme, I can request their removal and the appointment of someone who is better suited.
But really, that's the sort of thing you can only use in the more dire situation - anything else looks like being a doormat, which is anything but helpful.
(And most of them expect me to be a doormat. Why people forget that Hufflepuff's represented by a badger, and badgers are stubborn and have sharp pointy teeth, I have never understood.)
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 01:55 am (UTC)BellaAuror Lestrange and her demeanour, but since that would be something of an insurmountable task for anyone, maybe not.They know you have power, and there are subtle ways that you can let them know that you know you have power, too. Without using words or taking points or anything else. Wear your hair back to make the colour less noticeable, if it concerns you. Somber clothing choices. Speak slowly, with measured tones and pauses - it makes them keep listening. Keep your body relaxed, so they know you're not intimidated. Always, always make eye contact.
But you're good with people. You have good instincts. I think it will go better than you think.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:00 am (UTC)The rest: thank you for that. I've been reading more about that kind of thing over the summer, and you're quite right. But it's also reassuring to hear you think I'll be fine. I think it may just be a matter of finding my own style, and being able to hold it when pressed.
I just worry and dither a lot beforehand, and it generally works out anyway.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:03 am (UTC)It will work out. And you can tell me all about it when you're back.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:06 am (UTC)And yes. Looking forward to telling you about it will help a great deal. (I may actually use the journal during, so I remember to tell you the funny parts later. We'll see.)
And I really do like several of the committee members, which does help.
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:11 am (UTC)Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:12 am (UTC)(I like you too. And if I didn't have to go teach shortly, I'd show you. Tomorrow, between dinner and observing?)
Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:16 am (UTC)Re: Private message to Raz
Date: 2011-10-14 02:18 am (UTC)