Sister Region – the challenge is on

Something new this year, we’ve taken on a “sister region” – Peoria, IL will be the Gainesville, FL nemesis and buddy through the wild ride of NaNo WriMo.

We are working with the ML of that region to set up write-ins that overlap in time. Then we will engage in the time-honored tradition of Word Wars – the region who has the highest word count per person at the event will win.

We are also cooking up a buddy/enemy program, where you will be able to have a NaNo Buddy/Enemy from our sister region – someone you can challenge to private word wars, who you can turn to for encouragement, or to whom you can complain when you have a bad day. The nature of the pair will be up to you and your buddy/enemy- but we hope that by matching up writers we can foster a bit more of that writing spirit in our two regions.

If there is anything else you’d like to see come of this pairing with brave and foolish Peoria, let us know. Otherwise, I’m sure we Gainesvillian’s can show them what-for come November.

-Christy

NaNo WriMo Gators

In the works – it looks like we may have a UF student organization this year. We’ve been able to find a faculty advisor and students who are interested in making this a club. A draft of the constitution has been written, and the forms are going to be submitted this week to see if NaNo WriMo Gators will become an official organization.

This will be a year-round group for writers, encouraging writers to set and meet goals, including, but not limited to, completion of NaNo WriMo in November.

If you are a UF student, (or even an interested community member) and you’d like to join NaNo WriMo Gators, keep your eyes here. We’ll let you know when the club is official, and when the first meeting will be.

Events page added

We’ve added an “Events” page – a link  can be found at the top of the page. As we firm up events for November, we will add them to this page, as well as to the calendar in our Regional Lounge on the NaNo WriMo website.

If you have any suggestions for events this year, or comments on how to improve events in the future, you can drop us a line here in the comments field.

-Christy

One Less Car challenge

For those of you who are NaNo WriMo participants, and are UF Students, Staff or Faculty, we have created a group for the One Less Car Challenge. Starting October 17th, the challenge is to find alternate means for your commute to campus other than a single occupancy vehicle for that day, then as often as possible for the Fall semester. You can meet the challenge by carpooling, riding a bike, taking the bus (free with your gator1 card), etc.

There are events on Oct. 16th and 17th for participants of the challenge, and you can sign up for the Gainesville/UF NaNo WriMo team and help see how we are doing as a group. Alison is listed as our team leader for this event.

**If you sign up for this challenge before Sept. 16th, and list Gainesville/UF NaNo WriMo as your team, you will receive a t-shirt in October as part of our team. Sign up continues after that date, but the free t-shirts don’t.**

For more information see the website at  http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/onelesscar/

Or you can see the instructions on how to sign up at this powerpoint:
http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/documents/OneLessCar_Instructions.ppt

Let’s make this a worthwhile event, and maybe even carry over to November, carpooling or finding other transportation to write-ins and events, and make a little dent in making a more sustainable city.