Hi All,

So it's been 7 months since the last AMAZING FAT GIRL FLEA!.  And the big question is: will there be another one?

As you know, the Fat Girl Flea is a phenomenal event.  Working on it and going to it are great fun.  But it also involved a lot of work (fun work, but work nonetheless):)  Here is the situation.  There have been many many amazing women working on the flea over the past 5 years.  But each year, there has been one person who ended up doing a very large portion of the work.  Four of those years that person was the amazing Deb Malkin, and the other year it was the wonderful Holly Hessinger.  Neither of those two lovely ladies will be available to work on the flea in the future.  So the real question is:  are there enough of us willing and able to do everything that needs to be done, and able to truly commit to doing that work?

Here is what I think we need to make it happen:  First, we need a small group of people as the coordinating committee (I am willing to be one of these people).  These people would need to meet periodically (sometimes in person and sometimes via phone or online chat) to make decisions, deal with new things as they arise, and check in on what each of them are doing.  Then, we need small groups of people, made up of members of the main committee along with others, to be responsible for the following things:

Clothing:  This is the thing I am most worried about.  We need a person or group of people to be responsible for everything related to picking up and storing the clothes.  This means getting a storage space, coordinating pick ups, doing tons of pickups, recieving clothes picked up by others into the storage space, etc.  Holly and Deb ended up doing most of this themselves and spent virtually every weekend and many weekdays doing pickups and deliveries to the storage space for about 5-6 weeks before the event.  Ideally pickups would be done by many people, but that takes a lot of coordination.

PR/Advertising: Here we need a group of people to modify and maintain the website, create cards/flyers, get the cards to people who will give them out, coordinate people to give out flyers at various places, put adds in publications, send out press releases, do internet advertising blitzes...  In addition, there are sometimes fashion shows or other events where we can show some stuff and advertise.  This group would need to coordinate those things when they come up.

General Coordinating:  Here we need someone or more than someone to contract with the space, coordinate the days events, coordinate food or anything else we might need, etc.  I am willing to do this.

Volunteer Coordinator:  This person would solicit volunteers for work to be done before and during the flea.  Then they would coordinate what jobs are needed, sign people up, and communicate with all the volunteers.  Robin Fradkin has done this amazingly well in the past.  I am hoping she may be able to do it again, but if not, she has lots of material to help the new person (volunteer lists, emails, old spreadsheets with what needed to be done...)

So lets hear from everyone!  Can we make this happen?  What are you willing and able to do to make the 6th Fat Girl Flea a reality?

I am looking forward to hearing from all of you, and hopefully to working with you on the next flea!

Love, Shira