Oregon We have some issues that need attending.

I for one hate the fact how inactive we are, and how down everyone gets saying to let the OFF die. I do not want that to happen. I am tired of the negative attitudes to be honest perhaps that is why we are so inactive and hardly any posts. Perhaps that is why we can not get meetings together. With all due respect those attitudes need to stop if we want to revive the OFF. We are just knocked on our knees, and wounded a little. But that can't just stop the OFF.

Each and everyone of us must play a part in this fanforce. Each of us has ideas, thoughts, urges about star wars. We are a fan force for a reason. We need to work together as a team to keep this place alive. We individually are strong but together as a team as the Oregon Fan force we are invincible. This is your board just as it is mine. If you really want this board to go down, if you really don't feel your heart and soul into this, then speak now. Otherwise stand up stop thinking negative, recruit people, get the word out there, and let's set up a meeting.

Summer is coming, a lot of people will have free time, this is our chance to revive the OFF, to take charge, and bring in new members, friends, family, co-workers, anyone. If they have even a speck of love for star wars they too can come and make this place a great fan force.

Monday is Memorial day many places are closed, many businesses are closed. Let's get together and pay thanks to those how served the U.S. Those who gave us freedom to have this fanforce, those who gave us the freedom to have star wars created. This will be a great opportunity for all of us to see not only what we take for granted but to see the selfless sacrifice people make for us. To show us selfless-service, honor, duty, loyalty, respect, integrity, and personal courage.

I am not saying we don't have it, but WE (as is in all of us including myself) have not shown any towards this fan force. This is our chance to learn, and to put it forth in not only our fanforce but our daily lives. This is important to all of us and I have taken the liberty of find a ceremony for us to go to. It's in Portland and easy access to everyone. The location and information will be below. I hope all of us can join this memorial day. Even if you have plans with your family or something please bring your family with you. This is important for all of us to see regardless if you are part of this fan force or not.

I ask you to come, if not for the fan force then for yourself and for you to bring your family to see. I will be attending along with my family. I hope you come too.

Edit: If you do not attend please mail me to remain on the active member list, because after Monday it will be update and kept up with check ins once a month. This way it will help us stay active. Consider this our May meeting.

Information:

May 26 ? 10 a.m. ? Willamette National Cemetery will host their 58th Annual Memorial Day program. A joint military Color Guard will present honors and fire a rifle salute. More than 450 U.S. flags, donated by veterans? families, will be flown along the Avenue of Flags. Musical selections will be by: ?Messenger,? Bravo-Vancouver Chorale, Portland Police Highland Guard, and 234th Army Guard Band. Guest speaker: Lt. Gen. Charles H.
Jacoby Jr., Commander, 1st Corps, Fort Lewis, Wash. An Air National Guard flyover has been requested.
Contact: George Allen, 503-273-5250

 

and that means? Will you be attending?

 

You remind me of someone who used to be here.... ME! HA!
But anywho. Good luck with that.

I will of course attend if I happen to find a way to change my physical location on that specific day.

 

Oh jeeeze that's tomorrow.

 

Indeed, if you can't make it mail me.

 

Yeah... that isn't happening. For one, it was such short notice. Two, I will be working, so there is no way that I will be able to attend. Yeah, I do work on holidays when they fall on Monday thru Friday.

- Bill

 

The voice of the AML Strike demonstrates it's refusal to accept the system by not e-mailing today's planned absence.

 

Maybe "the OFF is gonna die" theme should be a monthly occurrence, 'cause it seems to get people to post a bit. Like this. And it would give people a chance to keep finding new ways try and motivate us SW fan Oregonians to do something. Or not. Either way, it provides good posting chances. Just one n00bs observation.

 

Constantly insisting that we be active or the group goes away is akin to crying wolf. It can only be done so many times before the members, like me, just simply tune it out.

Like I have said before, this is a group of fans, a fanforce. Which means people AREN'T required to post day in and day out. They post when it suits them, at their leisure. If the members wish to be lax, then so be it. That is just a reflection of who we are.

You can't bleed a turnip and you can't get more activity out of folks who have pretty productive lives, as it is.

If you want this group to be more active, then contribute more conversation. Personally, I don't have too much to say. I post when I find something worthwhile to talk about. I reply to threads more often than I post new ones. For the most part, I find some of the conversation topics to be boring, which is why I don't participate in the conversations.

You want more productivity? Find something more interesting to talk about that what is going on in your life today, or what's in your collection, Family Guy, politics, posts to the membership to be active or else, etc. No disrespect to those who post regularly in threads like OFF Survey or other threads with high post counts. Sometimes when a thread has gone to have too much banter in it, I tend to be done with it.

-Bill

 

Greetings.

Before we get too much freak out over all of this, I thought I would step in. I didn't think there would be any explosions over talking about making this FF more active but I guess 'Internetz is serious business.'

I had concerns with the forum and I addressed them to the Chapter Rep. It is standarn operating procedure. But I can step in and make them more clear. As I told Colt, the Oregon forums are pretty active, which is awesome. However, this is not just a social arena. FanForce is designed to actually meet people in person and function as a club. I was concerned with the lack of meets. To stay active at the site, there needs to be at least 4 meets a year. I didn't see activity for a long time here. That is when I brought my concerns to the Chapter Rep. If the FanForce stretches too far for meets to occur, members need to state a serious look at the make-up of the group and see if it needs and can be broken down. Maybe with a much smaller travel area meetings would be more realistic.

In your debating please keep both of those in mind.

 

OK, so you want more personal face time. I get that. Let me say this, there is a good bulk of the membership that are also costumers. We are 501st, Rebel Legion and another local group (Darkside Troopers). We do events all throughout the year. Some of them are even public events.

Those of us that do costume have often invited the other members to come out and join in the fun. Feel free to check any old posts to confirm that. I can't help the fact that other members are unable (or unwilling) to attend events. The last event were there was a general invite was the Portland Comic Book Show. The next one is likely to be either the Clone Wars movie premier (which will most likely be a costumed event) or the Light Vader's Saber event at the World Trade Center, here in Portland (another public costumed event).

And then there is the Starlight Parade this Saturday, May 31st. Cloud City Garrison is marching in the parade again this year. I am not sure how many spotters we have, but I would think we could always use a few more. Someone else in CCG could weigh in on this point, if they like. The point is, the invite has been put out. Already there are a few of us OFF members that are going to be there... something to consider.

OFF members are always welcome to come hang out with those of us who are costumers at public events. We have always encouraged that. You don't need a costume to share the love of Star Wars, nor do you need one to "belong" or fit in with the other costumers. If you are a Star Wars geek, like any of the rest of us, then you already fit in. There are times when we are doing public events when we could use more "spotters" (eyes and ears for masked costumers). We would welcome the assistance of fellow fans in looking out for us.

The fact is there are members of this "club" who do meet on a regular basis. So your required 4 meets a year, are actually being met, by a small percentage of the overall membership.

There, enough said.... for now.

- Bill

 

You are correct Bill, OFF members were present at the Portland Comic Book show in April, and we did discuss some things about the OFF (I can't remember what though), but we failed to mention what we talked about on the board for everyone else that didn't attend. Just because we didn't pass the info on to the theforce.net, doesn't mean a meeting didn't happen.

OFF Members attending the Portland Comic Book Show in April '08 as Darkside Troopers costumers:
Grumpydevil: Kyle as Commander Bacara
AramysStrael: Bill as Imperial Officer
TatooineForceRecon: Rob as TX (Shadow Stormtrooper)
Crashdown: Chris as Jedi (Qui-Gon)
Quick1966: Allan as Stormtrooper
jawafett: Eric as Han Solo

We tried to come up with a meeting in March (didn't happen), and there was a Feb. event in Albany that 1 guy put together. Did anyone show up for that?
OK, so we need to make up some missed meetings (4 meetings per 12 months), which we can and will, to keep up our FF status, and have an Elected CR, which we do. Requirements met.

What has been purposed this year is to become something the OFF hasn't ever been and that was to become part of a charity raising participants, which is a nobel cause, but something the OFF lacks is the proper foundations to execute such an endevoure at this time.
Joining up with the Local Star Wars costuming groups as OFF is another way to help participate as a group, and we can work on ways to bennifit all involved. These group do participate with charity events a lot so maybe we need to have some kind of contact with the costuming groups for OFF members who don't costume can have some kind of participation. Eh?

Next OFF '08 item purposed was a Fan Film made by OFF members. I am currently working on a script, 2nd Draft, along with storyboards, set designs, model designs, and many other aspects that goes along with the initial planning stage for preproduction, production, and post production. This is going to be a HUGE project, and these things are not just something you JUST jump into. Right now, it is MY idea, and I'm not ready to post information concerning about it on these boards yet.
If anyone else has an idea for a Fan Film, that is ready to go, by all means go for it. I'll help out where/when I can.

Daily lives, we all have it, and most of us put it before anything else including finding the time to post on the boards, and attending meetings.

Topics to make posts about: Anything Star Wars related. There's a ton of stuff coming up. We could just make general topics like: Star Wars Novels, Star Wars Comics, Toys or collecting in general, Costuming, Video Games, etc...The list goes on. The point is there is topics we could be discussing here.

The AML. We already had a list of such nature and it is the Survey. As long as it got updated, as we have birthdays/move/no longer post, it is good.

Now, I'll go back to my drawing board while I have the time.
2 credits said and points made. Consider them or don't.

 

We needn't have two sticky threads at the top. I was just sad the original was gone, but it doesn't need to stay up there.

 

That's cool and all, but please remember that Fan Force is NOT a costuming club. That's what the 501st and Rebel Legion are for. It's cool to do costuming events, but please remember that not everyone in fan force is into costuming, so don't alienate the non-costumers from events. Have fun, do what you guys want, but just make sure that it's something that everyone can enjoy.

 

We understand that. And nobody is trying to get those members who don't have costumes to get them. And nobody has ever alienated them as a result, not willingly, of course. We send out the invites. We welcome their presence. If they feel alienated, that is on them, not us. They are more than welcome at any of our public events, like I said, we do try to invite them to the events. The non-costuming members make the choice, for whatever their reasoning, make the choice to NOT show up. There is no alienation on our part. I'd love to see more of our OFF brothers and sisters at events. Also, I wouldn't have any objections to hanging out with these folks after the events.

You higher ups are pressuring us to maintain the status quo. For those of us that are costumers, we have repeatedly invited OFF folks to come out and join us for the fun... there has even been talk of having OFF get together after the costumers have completed their commitment to their respective events. We do what we can...

To date, there have been two OFF meetings that I am aware of. One was at Kyle's house back in January, I think. There were only three of us that showed up - The Grumpy one (obviously), Jilted Too and myself! The second was the Comic Book Show.

So, I guess that means we have two more to knock out to stay in FF status.

- Bill

 

I'm done waisting my credits.

 

Yes, I was there.

We should do another meeting.

If only our CR could find a time and place.

How hard is it really? You name a place, you name a time, people come or don't. Repeat the next month.

 

Please remain civil, ok?

 

Please bear with another "colored post." I just wanted to pop in here and clear up a few issues.

First, it is well with in Yvette's and Miana's rights to close some redundant threads. Yvette knew there were some problems brewing in here and she was doing her best to keep them contained and help you guys through them. That's her job here, she wants to see the chapters thrive and remain peaceful; she is the forum's moderator.

Next, FanForce does require a minimum of 3 meetings per year to remain a chapter. The theory behind that is since it takes 3 meetings to become official, 3 a year after that is not unreasonable, even if the chapter is spread across a large area. FanForce is for meeting in person, not just talking on forums. We are not a costuming club like other organizations, so just doing costume events isn't going to cut it. Even if people are allowed to show up not in costume, that misses the point of who/what we are. Not everyone is interested in attending costume events and acting as "spotters" or whatever. Some costume events are fine, but every meeting should not be one. We try to be welcoming to all aspects of Star Wars fandom, collecting, books, comics, gaming, costuming, and just hanging out.

For a meeting to count as an "official" FF meeting, it needs to be open to anyone in the club, should be announced with plenty of notice (several weeks if at all possible), and should be announced on these forums at very least and posted on the main page if possible (talk to your RSAs about that). That way people can find out about them and make plans accordingly. It's best if meeting dates, times, and locations are discussed by the chapter and agreed upon, but does not have to happen that way. Some chapters have predetermined days, locations, and times (ie 7 PM, third Friday of the month at location X). But for a chapter than spans a whole state, that's not as feasible.

If you have any questions about FF rules and workings please feel free to PM one of the RSAs or me at any time. There's also a list of the rules of FF here if you're interested. We're not trying to be unreasonable here, we really do want to see chapters succeed, but still uphold the spirit of FanForce. Sorry for the novel.

 

Lufta Shif checking in.

I know I do not say much, but I have been enjoying TF.N for eight years. Yes, I do not post in the OFF boards - maybe once in a great, great while - but I would be amiss if they went away as I do read them on a regular basis. They are my only connection to the non-costuming side of SW fandom in Oregon. (Yes, I am also a member of the Rebel Legion, but that is besides the point.)

I live in a remote - and I mean in the far outer regions of the outer rim - area of Oregon and simply cannot afford (in both time and money) to attend OFF F2F meetings that are more than an hour or two away. Trouble is, nothing is an hour or two away - except for trees and grassland. No interstate, no mall, no Costco, and the saddest of all: no Target with its SW exclusives!

Let me tell anyone who will listen that it is very lonely - in the fandom community sense - to be the only SW fan for miles. Reading (and yes, sometimes posting) on places like the OFF boards is the link that remote folks like me need to feel connected to fellow SW folks across my state.

Perhaps the powers that be can take into consideration how our state has a few population centers (think Portland and the I-5 corridor) surrounded by vast areas of remote, non-populated, rural areas that are six to nine (yes nine!!!) hours away by car!

Please do not cut off the OFF!

 

We are being civil. There isn't any malice in our words, we are just taking the kiddie gloves off and speaking in a language that everyone can understand.

My compadre is right, just how hard is for one person who is supposed to be the Chapter Representative to post a notification that he would like to have an event at X time, X place, on X date? Again, put it out there and those who can ( or want to come ) will. Those who don't.... well it was still an organized OFF meeting that keeps in compliance. This is just a simple point of fact, there isn't any ill-will in posting the message.

- Bill

 

So did miss what I was saying? The costumers of the group aren't asking the non-costumers to be spotters or help out with our events UNLESS THEY WANT TO. We have also suggested getting together AFTER our costuming events were concluded. Indeed, we have done that in the past. OFF members have coordinated to go to costuming events just for HANGING OUT purposes, as you have suggested. We have done this in the past, so I don't see why you are having a problem with it.

Most meetings aren't organized, they are hang out sessions. I think that still qualifies. I fail to see the need of the whipping of the dead horse here. This Chapter does what is required to be active. We may not be as organized as some other Chapters, but that in no way makes us less successful.

- Bill

 

Feeling ignored, Lufta Shif quietly leaves again...