UWOL - Discussion of rules and improvements

[Trond Saetre]

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

Is there a sticky thread here pointing to the UWOL forum and one on the forum pointing here?

I guess the other question I have is do we just want to utilize this forum for times when there is a challenge going on or is there things we can do with it to utilize it during other times or is the other UWOL forum the place we need to be when there's no challenge going?

I guess these questions were for Chris, but anyway...

I have not seen any sticky thread with reference to the two UWOL forums. But I wonder if it would be a good idea if I post in the "non challenge UWOL forum" as an heads up, when I post the signup threads.
Must admit I haven't been so very active in the non-challenge forum myself. Should probably do something about that.

[Owen Dawe]

I began following this forum during the early 2000's when it was called the XL Watchdog as I was making a 26 programme tv series on three xl1's and found this forum to be a wealth of information. I joined up in 2004. I have had only two entries in UWOL as a result of some prodding from Lorinda :) I did enjoy plus also gained from the experience.

I've just read this thread and think every post makes a valid point. People come and go such is the pattern of life. I wouldn't fret over, are the rules too tight, or are the critics and comments too hurtful? Personal circumstances take an unexpected turn of events, we feel our neck of the woods may have become boring to others, or we just become too darned busy trying to scratch out a living. In my case I was bankruped through a property scam on reaching retirement.

Anyway! Lack of interest and participation are not confined to UWOL. It's a general malady many groups, clubs and organisations face throughout the western world. TV stations face declining viewers. Large sports events draw a big crowd but at local level attendances are down. Clubs, churches, art and aid volunteers are just a few examples of declining interest or participation.

Where is everybody? Good question. Either working their guts out or at home trying to relax. You tube, Facebook, Twitter and texting. The keyboard and monitor have taken over. Never in the history of mankind have we chained to a object as we have the cellphone. That's about it. How do you beat it? Dunno mate.

These are challenging times.

I would like to have another crack at the next UWOL.

[Marj Atkins]

You make some valid observations Owen.

Seeing as this thread was started to kick around ideas . . here is just another idea.

Yesterday I went out to find some shots for the current (September) challenge and it struck me that everything I was filming was pretty similar in nature to the images I found for last year’s September
challenge.

This got me thinking that it may be a good idea to consider adding some variety and interest by shifting the initial starting month each year by one month so we do not always film in the same four months every year.

For my own interest I drew up a timetable to see if this would work.
(I started by moving the dates forward by one month but ran into trouble with a break of three months at the beginning of next year instead of two so I moved them backwards by one month and came up with the following calendar as an illustration.)


(Of course it would also mean that the annual DVC/UWOL Challenge would then have to become an optional extra each year.)

I would be interested to find out if others here have similar problems always filming in the same four months every year.

[Trond Saetre]

Just an update regarding Marj's thoughts in the post above mine about the months we are running UWOL challenge.

December might not be the most optimal month of having a challenge. Many people are busy with the holidays, so I am thinking about either going with Marj's suggestion of changing one month each year... or just have a challenge during the following months every year:
February, May, August, November.

(With the possibility of a "fun shoot" once in a while in between the official scheduled 4 challenges, like we have done a couple times in the past)

Any comments or thoughts are most welcome.

.............
I believe many of you (including possible newcomers) already are prepaired for this year's December challenge, so I will not change that one. Any changes will be announced well in advance, with effect from the first challenge of 2015.

December 2014:
Due to DVC challenge appear to be put on hold (at least it is very quiet over there), it is a possibility that there might not be a combined charity challenge.
UWOL will go as planned, with or without DVC, and I will get back to you later with info if there will be charity involved, or if it will be run as a regular UWOL challenge.
Waiting for Dylan (the master of DVC for those who didn't know) to answer my mail.

[Kevin Railsback]

I certainly like the idea of sliding the months around to get a bit of variety.
Course the way the weather is around here, a month here or there may not make a bit of difference.
We have freezing one night then 60 the next.

If we were say always locked into March, it's a crummy time here in Eastern Iowa. so sliding it to April would mean more spring things for me to film or dropping it to February would still be in the heart of winter.

I'm open to anything that'll give us more variety in the seasons.

[Mike Sims]

I think Marj’s idea about rotating the schedule is really good. Not only would it get us all out of a rut and give us new perspectives to explore, I think that in the long run it would do much to remove any seasonal biases based upon the player’s location. The down side is that it will be a little harder to remember when each Challenge begins and we may have to implement the kind of notification system discussed earlier in order to not lose players through forgetfulness.

[Paul Wood]

I will add my vote for Marj's idea - I think changing the month will allow a bit more variety, and I like Trond's suggestion of a ¨fun shoot¨in between every now and again.

A notification system should not be that hard to implement - I'm sure most of us use some sort of computer calendar so setting up notifications should be feasible.

Lets also not forget the ¨Around the World¨ idea that was floated - maybe we could look at fresh ideas to see if we can make some sort of halfway house, to get something going!

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Trond Saetre

I wonder if it would be a good idea if I post in the "non challenge UWOL forum" as an heads up, when I post the signup threads.

Sorry for the late reply, but that was a great idea, and it's now a "sticky" in that forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/under-wa...challenge.html

We can use that same thread to post future UWOL Challenge updates as well.

[Trond Saetre]

Thanks a bunch, Chris.
I would appreciate if you spread the word about the December challenge and future challenges in the DVInfo newsletters as well.

Everyone:
Beginning in 2015, UWOL Challenge will follow the rotation schedule Marj suggested.
First Challenge of 2015, will be February! Make a note in your calendars.
Thank you all for the inputs.

[Marj Atkins]

Just a couple of points:

Currently (2014) there are two months between challenges. In order to move the Challenge back by one month annually I had to drop one month between challenges once EVERY year.

In calendar #1, I dropped the month at the beginning of the year 2015 and it worked its way backwards in subsequent years. (See calendar #1 attached, which is just a better version of my original calendar.)(The grey blocks in the year represent the months that we don’t play.)

However, I was thinking that having two challenges close together (one month apart) always happening around the end of the year may be a problem for some as it is a busy time of the year! ?

Perhaps instead of dropping one month close to the end of the year, it would be better to drop the month after the first challenge of the year. (See calendar #2 attached.)

We can’t get rid of December altogether but it only appears when we start the calendar with January and as you will notice when we start in January we end up with five challenges. This means that everyone will still have an opportunity to do four challenges per year even if they miss the December challenge.

After this the last three years (2015-2017 on Calendar #2) (2016-2018 on Calendar #1) are simply repeated ad infinitum. By doing this we get to play in every month of the year but over a period of three years.

If we decide to go with calendar #2, which is strangely simpler, then we would still play March next year (not start in Feb as for calendar #1) before the cycle kicks in.

Opinions would be appreciated.

[Trond Saetre]

Point taken, Marj.

Final decision (and updated guidelines) will be announced no later than sign up for the December challenge is posted.
Until then, comments and thoughts are welcome.