New Fundraising Idea - Calling all Budding Poets .......

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

As most of you will know, I recently put together a booklet of my poems to raise money for the HMSA. So far I have raised £355.00 and it is my ultimate aim to raise £500.00 .

I have had a plan brewing in my head for a while now for a second project and thought I would run it past you all.

There are a number of us on this site who write poetry, and I thought we could all collaborate a produce a booklet of poems written by members of the HMSA. I would be happy to project manage the booklet as I have a bit of experience from doing mine.

I would say we would need to limit the subject matter to HMS/EDS and how it effects us and those around us. What I thought was that if there were enough of us we could produce quite a nice little volume.

To give you all an idea - my 32 page booklet cost £140.00 to produce 125 copies - my parents kindly paid the set up costs for mine, but depending on how many of us are involved in the project we could split the costs so none of us are too much out of pocket.

If people are interested, I would need to give people a cut off date to send in any HMS/EDS related poems to me and then I can work out how much it would cost to produce the booklet and what each person's share of the set up costs would be (I would make this fair by making it proportionate to the amount of poems you contribute. I also think we should limit the amount each person submits - maybe 3/4 each - depending on what sort of response I get .....).

What I thought would be nice too is that each person who contributes writes a few words about themselves (and includes a photo if they feel brave enough ). I may even see if I can approach Dr H/Prof G to do a Foreword for the booklet .......

As you can see, my thoughts are all at the early stages at the moment, but before I get carried away with the idea, I thought I would see how many people would be interested.

I am pretty certain we could raise a fair bit of money, as already I have sold 70 of my booklets, so if each of us could sell 10-20 copies (which I would imagine would be quite achievable amongst family and friends), we should be able to raise quite a bit for the HMSA.

Please either PM me or respond to this post if you are interested in taking part in this project.

Take care all

Sue.

[Blaadyblah]

Hmm, interesting... I'll see what I can come up with in terms of poems.

[Kayzee]

Brilliant idea Sue

I'd like to have a go, but haven't written a poem since school

I'd love to try though, so I'll start practicing.

Kay x

[Sue New]

Ohh, I forgot to mention - when I got my Booklet done it was at a retail Printing Shop, but I have since found out one of the member's of my hubby's Bowls club does printing so I should be able to get a favourable quote from him

Kayzee and Blaadyblah - thanks for responding, I look forward to reading your poems .

I would like to point out that I don't want to make this an elitest thing, you don't have to be an accomplished poet to be included - as long as the poem is related in some way to HMS/EDS it will be included. I won't judge your poems, so please only submit those you are happy to be included.

Obviously, if I am inundated with submissions, I may have to limit the number that can be used for each person, but if this is the case, I will let you all know and each person can decide which of their poems they would prefer to be used.

I have never done anything like this before (other than my own presonal project) so I will be learning as I go along too.

If people can submit their poems in electronic format, I can copy and paste them into the main manuscript and format them so they are all in the same font - I can use the basic format of my booklet for this so it shouldn't be too difficult.

In regards to a deadline for any submissions, how about Friday 1st June 2007? This will give everyone a month to think about what they would like to submit.

You don't have to be in the UK to take part either, submissions will be welcome from anywhere in the world

Ohh, can you tell I am getting excited already?

Sue.

[mindsquatter]

I'll see what I can come up with - I've written poetry before , but none that was HMS specific.

*gets notebook and starts scribbling*
Michelle

[Rosie]

Hi Sue

Great idea! You are welcome to my one and only poem I have written in twenty something years - it's in the poem thread. It will probably take another 20 + years for another one to come along!



Rosie

[elliewelly]

I will contribute!

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

This is just a quick reminder to say that the initial deadline for submitting poems for inclusion in the poetry booklet is this Friday - 1st June. I have had a fairly limited response so far, so I would appreciate it if you would contact me by PM if you would like to take part. So far, I only have about 6 poems, which wouldn't be enough for a booklet I am afraid .

I know there are more poets out there on the boards, so please let me know if you want to take part

I will collate a list of those who have responded and how many poems we have next weekend, and then see if there is enoguh to take the project forward.

Looking through the poetry thread, there are a few of you who have written some great poems on HMS and related themes who have not yet responded. I wouldn't want to force anybody to take part if they didn't want to, but it would be lovely if you were all able to contribute.

Also, could those of you who responded previously to say they would like to contribute please let me know if they still wish to be included (if you have not done so already).

Take care all

Sue.

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

My initial deadline is officially up (although it isn't set in stone, so if anyone else would lile to contribute, please send me a PM).

I have not been very productive this weekend - had a bit of the EDS blues I'm afraid , so I have not been able to collate a list of how many poems/poets we have for the booklet.

At the moment, I am not sure if there is enough to make it a viable project, as there is quite a bit of initial outlay, and unfortunately, I can't afford to fund it myself .

Please bear with me folks, I need to get my act together and work out the logistics and then I will be back with an update.

Take care,

Sue.

[elliewelly]

I'm sorry Sue, I've been busy with my daughter and diploma preparation and have only just found this. I have written quite a few poems but none about HMS yet - I will have a go this week if it's not too late.

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

It seems that I have had a few late entrants for the poety booklet, so I have decided to postpone the deadline until July 1st. This is partly to give people more time to submit there poems, and partly because my life has been really hectic at the moment and I have not been able to get my "thinking cap" on to sort everything out. I will also be off work recovering from my hand op around this time, so hopefully this will give me something to do while I am off.

The more people who want to contribute, the cheaper it will be for everyone, as my plan was to work out a "per poem" cost to make it fair. Unfortunately, until I know the final figures of how many poems will go in the booklet, I cannot say how much this cost will be.

If the people who do want to take part could start thinking about the biographical info they would like to be used (I would suggest 250 words max) then this would be useful too.

Bye for now,

Sue.

[elliewelly]

Yes, I will do it. I have to play piano at church tomorrow, have kids' music exams to play for on 21st and when all that's out of the way I shall be able to concentrate on my poem and diploma (and work and Kate...)

Will be in touch soon!

[kit]

Is there still time to be in on this? Katie and I would like to join if that's ok.

[Sue New]

Hi Kit & Katie,

Yes, there is still time to get involved. there is no hard and fast deadline really. Basically, as soon as I think I have enough poems to fill a booklet, I will then look into how much it is likely to cost to print it and go from there.

I extended the deadline until July 1st as this will be when I next take a look and see if enough people have shown interest to make it a viable project.

I think so far I have got around 12 poems, and ideally I need about 25 to make it work.

Please send me your poems by PM if you want to take part. It dosn't matter what style of poetry it is - it can even be a bit of prose - as long as it is on the theme of HMS/EDS and how it effects you - it will be perfect for the booklet

Take care,

Sue.

[kit]

You have a pm, Sue.