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Update Workshop Village info wording #1871

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36 changes: 17 additions & 19 deletions templates/about/workshop-villages.md
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title: Workshop Villages
---
# Workshop Villages Information
As we did for the first time in 2022, this year we're again asking selected villages to run and host workshop tents in their village, rather than having separate venues for workshops on site. You are one of these villages, so here's some useful information.
As part of EMF's content programme, we invite selected villages to run and host workshops - in a dedicated tent in their village, rather than having separate tents for workshops. You are one of these villages, so here's some useful information.

Firstly, based on feedback from previous workshop host villages, we can confirm that being a workshop village has lots of good benefits, but also comes with a little responsibility. The free marquee and furniture is a good bonus, and it also means you can run your own internal village activities in it, and have somewhere to hang out and cook/eat together.
Being a workshop village has lots of benefits, but also comes with a little responsibility. You get a free marquee with AV and furniture for the whole event, which means you can run your own internal village activities in it, and have somewhere to hang out and cook/eat together. In return, we schedule workshops from the main programme in your village, which you host and support the running of.

Workshop villages are also able to run their own open workshops, or set up drop-in activities (related to their village theme, or otherwise) for people to come and participate in outside of scheduled sessions - and to host activities run by other villages. It also means EMF attendees generally are more likely to find out about you and come to visit your village, so you get to meet a lot more people and have great conversations.
Workshop villages are also able to run their own workshops, or set up drop-in activities (related to their village theme, or otherwise) for people to come and participate in outside of scheduled sessions - and to host activities run by other villages. It also means EMF attendees generally are more likely to find out about you and come to visit your village, so you get to meet a lot more people and have great conversations.

It does also mean that you need to leave someone from your village to keep an eye on things during parts of the day - you might find it's useful to come up with a simple rota for this, and make sure you have enough people prepared to do it, to ensure the responsibility doesn't all end up on one person or a small group.

## How being a Workshop Village works
You will be provided with a workshop tent, and some furniture/equipment: 10 tables and 30 chairs, and A/V in the form of a TV (or equivalent) and sound system. **Note**: you will not need to submit requests or pay for furniture, or a tent, through the usual system, as this is part of the Workshop village deal. Additional items, like straw bales, can be ordered through the usual system.

The Workshop tent will be a hexagonal pagoda covering 90m2 (about 6m on each side), and should be already erected when you arrive at EMF, in a location pre-marked on our map. We will also mark out an area near to the workshop tent to reserve for members of your village to camp - this will be roughly similar in area to the tent itself, but you can of course spread beyond this.
The Workshop tent will be a large square or hexagonal marquee, covering ~90m² (about 6m on each side), and should be already erected when you arrive at EMF, in a location pre-marked on our map. We will also mark out an area near to the workshop tent to reserve for members of your village to camp - this will be roughly similar in area to the tent itself, but you can of course spread beyond this.

In this tent, you will be able to:
In this tent, you will:

* host **workshops submitted by others as part of the CFP**, aligned with the theme of your village where possible
* run **your own workshops** (with a fairly broad definition of 'workshop')
* host **workshops submitted by others as part of the CFP** (by your own agreement), aligned with the theme of your village where possible

If you are a workshop village, we will require a minimum amount of activity to take place in your workshop tent - **at least three hours per day** (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) of workshops/activities organised and run internally by members of your village, and the capacity to host **at least another three hours** of other workshops (from our main CFP content, delivered by other EMF attendees) each day. In previous years, workshop tents have sat unused for a lot of the weekend, and we're keen to make sure they see a good amount of activity!
If you are a workshop village, we will require a minimum amount of activity to take place in your workshop tent - as well as hosting **three to five hours** of workshops (from our main CFP content, delivered by other EMF attendees) each day, we'd like to you organise **at least three hours per day** (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) of workshops/activities organised and run internally by members of your village. In previous years, workshop tents have sat unused for a lot of the weekend, and we're keen to make sure they see a good amount of activity!

It may be that some villages host much more than the minimum required, and workshops may range in length from half an hour to several hours, at any time of day. The definition of 'a workshop' admits some flexibility, and could include things like:

Expand All @@ -33,26 +33,24 @@ It may be that some villages host much more than the minimum required, and works

Villages that are not officially a workshop village may also put on their own content in this way, and some might find it useful to use the workshop village tents to do this - if you are contacted by other villages to host things, you're very welcome to include this in your own programme of activities, if it's something you're happy to host.

Your village will be responsible for making sure the tent is clean and tidy at the end of the event, and that any damage to hired items is reported to the EMF team.
Your village will be responsible for making sure the tent is clean and tidy at the end of the event, and that any damage to hired items is reported to the EMF team. Please don't attach things to the walls of the tent using gaffer tape - it won't come off cleanly. You can tie things to the tent bars, as long as everything is removed afterwards.

## Programming Activities in the Workshop Villages
Submissions for workshops run by other EMF attendees will be conducted as usual through the CFP, and will be subjected to a process of review and ranking to pick the final programme for the event. Once we've accepted some of the proposed workshops, we'll then attempt to assign them to appropriate workshop villages (where possible) to get a list of which workshops can happen where.

Meanwhile, you can be planning your own content, and putting together a schedule of when you're planning to do things. You should bear in mind that you'll want to leave chunks of time in your plan to fit the CFP content in - some workshops may work better as a daytime activity, but others might prefer an evening slot. We'll aim to put together around 9 hours of CFP workshop content for each village across the whole weekend, but if you're happy to fit in more we can be flexible and accept more submissions.
We'll aim to put together 3-5 hours of CFP workshop content for each village per day. We will plan to schedule the CFP content between 10am and 6pm, unless we hear specifically otherwise from you (for example, if you have an activity you need to run at a specific time for logistical reasons), and you should aim to plan yours outside of that (or in between other sessions, once you have the timetable from us, which will be closer to the event). We recommend you leave at least 30 minutes (and preferably more) between activities, to give you time to tidy up and particularly for workshop providers to come in ahead and set up.

We'll contact you to ask for a rough outline of your plans ahead of the event, and also send you the list of workshops/providers assigned to your village. Once you have a list of events and descriptions, we can feed all this info into the scheduling system, which will then take into account the timings CFP workshop providers have given for their availability, and will schedule in CFP content around your own sessions. Popular workshops may be scheduled for multiple repeats, and we will aim to schedule any repeated sessions in the same tent.

We will then pass on the timetable info to you, so you can assign people from your village to informally steward each of the workshops.

CFP workshops will be run via an online sign-up system, so people can sign up ahead of time. The full details of how this will work are currently being hashed out, and info will be circulated as soon as it's available. We may also send EMF volunteers to assist you with checking in workshop attendees.

The list of attendees will be made available to you before the workshop, but some people may wish to join a small queue in case of any no-shows, and we'll provide signage for you to set up a queue outside. Some workshop providers will have a hard cap on how many people you can let in (due to materials etc) and others may be more flexible, and happy for you to let in more. The main limit on capacity may be furniture, so make sure the chairs and tables are available and ready ahead of each workshop.
Once we have it finalised, we'll send you the list of workshops/providers assigned to your village. Popular workshops may be scheduled for multiple repeats, and we will aim to schedule any repeated sessions in the same tent. You can then assign people from your village to informally steward each of the workshops (be around in the tent when it's happening, help the workshop leader set up, fix any problems that come up), and work out when your activities will be.

Ahead of each session, you'll need to make sure the space is ready and tidy, help the speaker to set up their tech and any materials/equipment for the session, and if you like you can provide a short introductory chat about your village for anyone attending the workshops. We recommend having a few people from your village to share the responsibilities of making sure the space is ready and starting the workshops, so that no-one is left in charge for the whole weekend. We will be providing vouchers for free volunteer food for anyone who helps oversee the running of workshops in your space.

Outside of the times when there are scheduled activities taking place in your village, you can use it to run your own internal social activities. On occasion people have found the workshop tents a nice place to hang out between scheduled sessions and use the tables/chairs; if you would prefer to close up the workshop tent to outside guests, you can direct people to use the lounge for this.
Workshops are usually our most popular form of content at EMF, so workshops sessions will likely fill up. Attendees joining CFP workshops will sign up via an online system, so people can register for workshop tickets ahead of time (operated via a lottery, and notified of which they have a ticket for). Info about how this all works will be circulated as soon as it's confirmed for this year - we will send EMF volunteers to assist you with checking in workshop attendees, and you may need to manage a limited size queue outside the tent to take any spaces from no-shows.

Outside of the times when there are scheduled activities taking place in your village, you can use it to run your own internal social activities. On occasion, EMF attendees have found the workshop tents a nice place to hang out between scheduled sessions and use the tables/chairs, and you're welcome to let people do this if you want; if you would prefer to close up the workshop tent to outside guests, you can direct people to use the lounge for this.

## Publicising Village Activities
We'd love for EMF attendees to find out about all the activities taking place in the villages, and we hope that locating our official workshop tents in the villages will encourage people to find out where they are and join in.
We'd love for EMF attendees to find out about all the activities taking place in the villages, and we hope that locating our official workshop tents in the villages will encourage people to find out where they are and join in. Anything you submit to us for scheduling purposes can be added to the programme for people to find, and for this purpose we'll ask you for a title and short blurb for each activity/event. Whoever registers your village on the EMF website will be able to add events to the schedule, listing your village as the venue.

For your own content, we won't be able to include this in the workshop ticketing system, so you'll need to work out your own solution - most workshop villages go with 'first-come first-served', or place paper sign-up sheets outside the tent each day.

Anything you submit to us for scheduling purposes can be added to the programme for people to find, and for this purpose we'll ask you for a title and short blurb for each activity/event. We're still pinning down how this will work, but it will potentially involve putting together an iCal feed of non-CFP activities in your village, which will be listed in a 'Village activities' section.
If you have any other questions about being a workshop village, you can contact the Village people on villages@emfcamp.org.
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