Ardgour House trip 2008

We've sent out the invites and heard back from almost all the people concerned, so it's time to post it publicly. Alphabetical by lj name:

ashfae
atreic
bluesbell
bluesbell's husband A, who has no lj
borusa
emperor
fluffymark
gnimmel
leonato
libellum
mirabehn
mirrorshard
mostlyacat
purplepiano
randomchris
romauld
kerrypolka
strongtrousers
taimatsu
the_alchemist
the_elyan

and splitting a half-week each
medieval_bunny / wildeabandon

In the event of someone dropping out, wildeabandon will be offered a full-week slot and we'll start asking for someone willing to do a half-week. After that we will move on to the Reserve list.

It was very, very difficult to narrow the list down to 22 people, and we're very sorry we could not invite more of you, or indeed all of you. =(

As an addendum, we decided we find the increasingly inaccurate name of this community silly, but didn't want to waste money on a rename token. Instead we've created the new community ardgour_trips and will begin moving things over there (this community will of course stay around, if only as a memorial of the other trips). If you are attending Ardgour 2010, we request that you join the new community. If you wish to keep abreast of Ardgour developments, either because you hope to be considered as a reserve if someone drops out or because you were on a previous trip or just because you find it interesting, you are also thoroughly welcome to join. =)

Finally, we have sent in a deposit to Iolair and booked the house for the week of April 10-17th. Those of you who've been invited, if you haven't already paid your deposit or contacted Nick, please do so.

If you've got any questions or concerns, please email me at ashfae at hutchingsmusic dot co dot uk (I've been generated spokesperson for the moment, as I'm the least busy of the four of us *sheepish gryn*).

We've been getting a lot of concern over the previous posts, and concerns over our trying to "start anew" rather than working with "the existing community". We've have been trying to find the right terminology for what we mean to say. randomchris has managed to put his finger on a lot of it, so I'll quote him:

Ardgour is currently a serving-an-existing-community model, but that entails sometimes adding partners or close friends of people already in that community, and the (extended) community includes an awful lot of people now! Essentially, if we invited everybody-who-has-ever-been-there-or-been-invited, we'd be massively oversubscribed, and it's been very difficult to prioritise people from within that list in past years.

So we've decided that something different was needed. The only reasonable alternative seemed to be "the four organising people choose to whom they want to give first refusal" - obviously people who they've happily spent a week on holiday with in the past, or would like to spend a week on holiday with and thus invited in the past, will be high up on their lists.

Inevitably somebody who's not going will be disappointed by that, no matter *how* we organize it. We should not, however, choose who is and isn't going based on how much they will be annoyed/disappointed if not invited.

There's also been concern over whether or not it's our intention to invite a whole lot of people not at all previously involved with Ardgour. The answer is, there may be one or two, not likely more. mirabehn has pointed a section of her journal here, which has caused a certain amount of worry; however, it wasn't a blanket invitation to a ton of people, more a way of pointing several people who did need to be notified in this direction. Nick and Chris and I have no intention of doing something similar, as there's no need.

We're trying to get the initial invite list together ASAP, so we can book a week and get a deposit down. Hopefully we'll have that list done by the end of the weekend. Inevitably it's going to be mostly people who've come in the past, because those are people all four of us know and are familiar with and agree on; the "community" aspect of it is still intact, for those who feared losing it. But the community has grown, as things do over time. We cannot invite everyone and please everyone, and some people are going to feel left out and abandoned, and some people who are invited will be annoyed if not everyone they want to come is invited, and all this is unavoidable, because it's just too big. For this we are sorry but there's really nothing to be done about it. All we can do is compromise amongst the four of us, and go from there.

Meanwhile we'd appreciate your trust and patience. Ardgour has been successfully done thrice before, so we're all rather experienced in organizing it. But it does require a phenomenal amount of work and attention.

When we say the guest list has been reset, this is a bit misleading. (or very misleading)

More to the point is this: there are two schools of thought regarding Ardgour invitations. First, that those who have gone before have more right to attend than those who haven't. Second, that those who haven't gone before have more right to attend than those who have.

Bluntly, both of these schools of thought will lead to fail and annoy/upset a lot of people, so we are trying to avoid them and focus on a nice mix of lovely people which will include a large number of people from both categories.

Comments on this post are blocked because frankly, none of the four of us want to spend time arguing over whether category one is more or less valid than category two. We'd rather get on with organizing lovely holiday as best we can.

Hello Ardgour-inclined types. =)

For those of you who had wondered, Ardgour 2010 IS being organized. This time it's going to be jointly done by myself, randomchris, mirabehn, and mostlyacat, in the hope that dividing the organization four-ways instead of two will lead to less stress and insanity. This may be foolish but it's worth an experiment. =)

We have come to the conclusion that the guest list must start anew as there are now many, many more people interested than can possibly be squeezed into the 22 places allotted. We are therefore not going to give precedence based on whether someone has or hasn't been able to attend in the past, as either would be pretty much impossible, to say nothing of trying to do both. There are simply too many people, in both categories.

That in mind, here are potential dates, along with the costs of the weeks in question:



It should be noted that preference is going to be given to the weeks of 27th March/4th April/11th April because these coincide with Glasgow University's Easter break, and it's possible randomchris will be unable to make any later times. (earlier weeks are already booked and unavailable, for the record)

Edit: Yep, we forgot about Easter Sunday. Will try hard to arrange for there not to be a conflict between Ardgour week and Holy Week.

And yep, the 4th and 11th dates are Sundays and wrong, should be Saturday the 3rd and 10th. Alas, can't fix poll once it's posted.

I made some small gif animations from the view at the top of the mountain behind Ardgour House and the house in the ring dyke in Ardnamurchan. At each of these places I took a series of shots looking round in a circle. There are probably much cleverer things that can be done with the photos but that would require cleverness.

( Cut to prevent dizziness...Collapse )

Hello lovely people!

Apropos of Sally's deflowering as a Rocky virgin (of which, oddly enough, I seem to remember less than expected... funny that, can't imagine why...) - would everyone still be up for a Rocky Readthrough next time we're all together?

I'm happy to organise. Obviously, by 'next time' I don't mean Bardcamp reunion, but I'm happy to create a Jeeves&Wooster-style event or wait for the next Ardgour-type meeting?

Could someone teach me how to make a poll so I can gauge reactions to this?
Or else just answer here!
*loves you all*

The post-Ardgour organizational thing!

Would just like to ask for thoughts on various practical aspects, to keep for notes for next time (and if we don't end up organizing it, we'll pass said notes on to whoever does, if desired). What could have been improved, particularly as regards chores and especially particularly as regards last day cleaning? Were there too many events, too few, or just about right? Too much alcohol, too little, about right? Did it all cost too much or was the budget reasonable? Etc, etc, any thoughts you have. I'm sure there will be differing opinions but a general idea would be excellent. (I will mention that Chris, being clever, has an inventory of all the food and drink and sundries that were purchased for/during the week and furthermore took an inventory of everything that was left over, to help limit gratuitous grocery buying next time) Feel free to email responses if you prefer; as always, I'm found at ashfae at sub-zero dot mit dot edu. =)

You are all so damn awesome. And the past week was also so damn awesome. Thank you all for being part of it!!!

If anyone has time to kill in Glasgow between getting in and catching the 3pm bus, may I suggest the following:

http://enjoy-taste-scotland.com/wh… - Tesco's Taste of Scotland show.

Free food, tea and coffee and stuff - what's not to like? It's in George Square, right outside Queen Street Station.

( revised booze listCollapse )

Does anyone want particular mixers, by the way? I'm planning to get some lemonade, Coke, and various juices, and we'll see what gets used up for mixers throughout the first few days and get more of it midweek, but if anyone drinks a lot of vodka and orange, say, that woudl be handy to know.

Princess Bride script emailed. Let me know if you didn't get it or there are horrible gaping flaws that I missed. =) (many thanks to the_elyan for his editorial assistance)