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