Ease in Arts Organizing?

How the InterPlay ethos of ease is rubbing off.

How did this happen?  In January, i attended a men's InterPlay retreat with two others from the Lancaster Friends Meeting.  I mentioned afterward the idea of hosting an InterPlay workshop at the Meeting, since nothing like it had yet been offered locally.  Now it's game week and i'm not stressed out.  Amazing.

Organizing events like arts workshops usually brings tedious details and challenges that bump against the ethos that the events aer supposed to engender.  It's like a pastor who serves the congregation on Sunday, but is depleted as a result.  InterPlay purports to promote "ease" in its artistic improvisational form as well as in its practitioners' lives.  Is it possible that organizing an InterPlay event has led to more "ease" in the organizing?  I can only hope.

Okay, so there are few details to tie up. Babysitters aren't confirmed.  Who will make the coffee 30 mnutes beforehand?  How will i get the check for the facilitators?  But unlike many events i've organized, it's happening, there's no doubt.  What went right?  Here is a checklist for me and anyone else seeking organizing advice again:

1. It all started with a conversation of three other invested friends. And telling the story of that conversation (and the work that inspired it), led to a wider conversation with more friends invested.  It wasn't about "a good idea" in my head only!
2. Several others wanted to help make the event a reality from the get-go, so they have pitched in at a few key points. That includes a committee who offered funding.  It wasn't all me, the organizer, doing everything.
3. People shared the event with their friends - not all the publicity came through me.  And multiple people announced it.  So we had 20 people sign up without much effort at all.
4. The event was subsidized by an organization with a vested interest in it - so it was inexpensive and accessible.  I don't think that needs to always be the case, but it helped for this entirely new form of art.
5. My attitude is one of ease.  Yes, as i reflect on this, the InterPlay ethos hasrubbed off on me as i've gone about organizing for it.  I am doing it because i love it, not because i'm obligated. And i've reminded myself multiple times.  If just 8 people showed up, that would be okay too.  But i do want to share it with many more.  And so i do.

Now as i go about my week and my comnig weeks, i seek to bring this ease into my other organizing, and my other work..  That is, i suppose, the work.  And really, as i think about, it's what i also love to do.

Organizing & Administration