Sample Long Term Schedule

Week 1 & 2 (Sept. 18-Oct. 1)

1. Choose your crew—your friends Sarah, Jack, Anthony and Desiree decide to help you out.
2. Discuss where the event will be held. Make a list of four possible locations. Your school might be a good place to start.
3. Type up an event summary sheet to show teachers, parents and businesses if need be. Break this sheet into five categories: Who? What? When? Where? Why? You want people to know exactly what your poetry slam will include. What is the theme?
4. Find a faculty member who might be interested in acting as an adult helper. Show him/her your event summary sheet. It might be important to other adults that a teacher or parent is helping you with your project.
5. Schedule meetings with your principal and the managers of the locations you chose to discuss your event. Make sure you bring the event sheet with you.
6. Find a faculty member who might be interested in acting as an adult helper. Show him/her your event summary sheet. It might be important to other adults that a teacher or parent is helping you with your project.
7. Schedule meetings with your principal and the managers of the locations you chose to discuss your event. Make sure you bring the event sheet with you.

Week 3 & 4 (Oct.2 - 15)

1. 1) Woo woo! Your principal gave you permission to have your poetry slam in the school auditorium on October 28th.
2. You have five weeks to pull all the strings together for this event. Now is a good time to delegate responsibilities to all members of your team. Make a list of everything that needs to be done and discuss these things. Make a deadline for each task.
3. Sarah is in charge of all marketing for the event, creating colorful posters to post around school, making an announcement at school, asking permission to leave a stack of flyers in local businesses, and spreading the word through everyone you know. Sarah will also be in charge of recruiting people to read their poetry. She can do this by posting a sign up sheet in your school and other key places.
4. Jack will be in charge of recruiting judges for the event. He will contact any local poets he knows about, creative writing teachers, anyone who did you favors for the event, and should choose some college kid (who won’t be biased towards any participants). Jack should also write out a sheet on how the poets will be judged (your teacher or advisor can help with this).
5. Anthony will be in charge of decorations for the event. He will have to visit the auditorium and do some sketches of what different decorations would look like in it. If the theme of your poetry slam is secondhand smoke, the decorations should reflect that theme.
6. Desiree will be in charge devising a plan for the winners of the slam. She will be in charge of gathering prizes for the winners. Desiree should go around to local businesses with the event sheet and ask them if they would be able to donate a prize for one of the winners.
7. Be prepared…your team will be reporting back to you at every step so make sure you are making a list of who has done what.

Week 5 (Oct. 16-22)

1. Now, create a detailed schedule for the day of the event. Look below for a sample Poetry Slam Day Schedule.
2. Make sure posters for the slam are still up all around school. Make sure you have a bunch of people signed up to read at the slam. Some people might drop out at the last minute, so you need to have a lot on the original sign up sheet.
3. Send everyone participating in the event a reminder email or letter.

Week 6 (Last Week-Oct. 23-28)

1. Have someone else in your group read your Poetry Slam Day Schedule to make sure you didn’t forget anything. Using this schedule, photocopy programs that include the names of all the poets for the audience.
2. Collect short bios for all poets reading at your slam. Read these before each poet reads his/her poem on the day of the slam.
3. Have everyone in your group help Anthony execute his awesome decoration plans for the auditorium.
4. The day before the slam, make some brownies and cookies and mix some lemonade to sell as refreshments. All proceeds go to supporting your cause!
5. Prepare for an excellent time!

Sample Poetry Slam Day Schedule

5-5:30 pm- Gather team and go to the auditorium to finish up with decorations, set up the refreshments table and make sure the PA system is working.

6:30- Guests will begin to arrive. Choose someone from your group to stand at the door, greeting people as they come in and handing out programs for the slam. Make sure to tell all judges how they should score each contestant and give them scorecards.

7:00- By this time, most people have arrived and are seated. Grab the mic and introduce yourself, tell the audience what the slam is about and why it is important. Tell them about the prizes and who donated them.

Introduce each poet with name and a short bio:

7:10- Jason Stillman reads his poem, “Smoke Rings”

7:20- Serena Waterun reads her poem, “cancer stick”

7:40- Holin Jaskop reads his poem, “Nico-tine, Nico-time”

7:50- Juniper Willows reads her poem, “Exhaling”

8:00- Amarillo Rogers reads her poem, “Silent Smoke”

8:10- Simon Druknik reads his poem, “I want my lungs back”

8: 20- Judges get together (preferably in a separate room or hallway) to compare scorecards for all contestants. They choose three winners (or however many you want there to be).

8:40- Announce the winners and give them their prizes. Thank everyone who came and helped out with the event.

9:05- Time for a quick clean up session before you go home and collapse from being so tired.

Next Day- Write about your successful event and submit it to Do Something.