How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
Idea Party Alert!!!
This weekend- 3 Philly PA Invitations:
When & Where:
2 PM & 5 PM Sat Sept 9th, 2023
at Black Turtle Coffee
2100 Chestnut Street
Center City Philly 19103
AND
1 PM Sun Sept 10th, 2023
at Kennedy Food Garden Deli
1901 JFK Blvd
Center City Philly 19103
(Free street parking on Sundays)
What:
Neighboring Community Idea Parties via the concepts of Barbara Sher’s YouTubed TEDx Talk “Isolation is the Dream-Killer”: https://youtu.be/H2rG4Dg6xyI .
All welcome- ages 8 to 88 and beyond!!!
For more info:
Please leave a voicemail message only at 215.618.1572 for Uda.
This weekend- 3 Philly PA Idea Party Invitations:
When & Where:
2 PM & 5 PM Sat Sept 9th, 2023
at Black Turtle Coffee
2100 Chestnut Street
Center City Philly 19103
AND
1 PM Sun Sept 10th, 2023
at Kennedy Food Garden Deli
1901 JFK Blvd
Center City Philly 19103
(Free street parking on Sundays)
What:
Neighboring Community Idea Parties via the concepts of Barbara Sher’s YouTubed TEDx Talk “Isolation is the Dream-Killer”: https://youtu.be/H2rG4Dg6xyI .
All welcome- ages 8 to 88 and beyond!!!
For more info:
Please leave a voicemail message only at 215.618.1572 for Uda.
Hi Everyone,
My longstanding Wish is to become a retreat leader and plan my first wellness retreat to Hawaii for people with fibromyalgia .
I travel there every 2 years and have been visiting since 2009.
Obstacle:
I have never done a retreat and am concerned about pricing to ensure my not for profit makes a profit to cover our costs for marketing and planning. Other obstacles the legal aspect of it such as dealing with what to do should someone get sick, or injured and how to handle cancellations and no shows, dealing with speakers.
Also, what would be the best minimum and maximum number of days for it? I have people from Canada willing to travel for 7 days.
Some in Illinois also like 7 days.
Due to distance and cost 5-7 days seems ok for the retreat and if they desire to stay longer after it ends they would be responsible for added hotel stays.
I have a travel agent I use frequently and she would handle booking of the hotel and the housing. That part is easy.
But, dealing with legal issues to protect myself and my non profit is a big concern for me. I have seen many people advertising enrolling in their retreat course to learn how to be a retreat leader and planner but not willing to pay them $4.000 for their course.
I know the perfect place for it in Hawaii. I have a couple people interested in the retreat.
As I type this right now it doesn’t seem so difficult after all. Perhaps I could ask an attorney to draw up a retreat contract with terms and conditions.
Hi Everyone,
I forgot to mention when I am there I am pain free and it’s a magical place.
The healing energy and being near the ocean calls my body down. Even when I return home the endorphins and healing energy is still there in my body.
Dear Necie,
I have never coordinated a whole bunch of speakers for an extended workshop, but my experience has been as a speaker who has been a presenter at retreat centers many times, running my own workshops via an affiliate organization–I was presenting their material, that I’d been trained to present. But, independently making my own arrangements.
As to the liability question, the people who presented for this organization were always instructed to use waiver forms for each participant, and workshop fees and signed waiver forms were collected before each workshop began. The wording of the waiver forms was already worked out by the sponsoring organization.
Pricing is based, to a great extent, on what your workshop retreat location wants to charge, and this varies enormously. These were in rustic settings. One retreat center allowed us to potluck the dinner on the Friday night before, and the rest of our meals, too. We just used their kitchen facilities and cleaned up after ourselves. Another retreat center had a staff that prepared meals for us, so that cost had to be factored into the price per attendee. They had a standard price they charged attendees, and I had my standard honorarium.
The duration of the workshop is not determined by the time it takes to travel there. It is solely determined by the content you and other speakers want to produce,. and how many presenters you will have. Getting there and back is outside of the workshop parameters, and is entirely the responsibility of those attending. They have to make their own arrangements to get there on time and back home on time. The timing of the workshop doesn’t vary to accommodate them.
You develop your own policies to handle cancellations and no shows. If the workshop was expensive, I had attendees make a deposit and then pay the remainder by a certain date. If they were a cancellation after a certain date, or if they were a no show, they wouldn’t get their deposit back. This gave them the incentive to be responsible and show up. In all the years that I’ve done this, I’ve never had a no show. That’s the way I’ve handled that situation. But you set the timing, and stick to it. You never survey the audience on this, to see what they’d like. You are in charge. Your timing, your price, deposit, if any, and cancellation and no show policies are clearly announced in the initial publicity that you send out to potential attendees and any additional publicity you send to them prior to the workshop. They make their own travel arrangements. You do not need to be providing them a travel agent. That’s their responsibility.
You’ll have to consider how many speakers you’re going to have, and how long each day will be, and for how many days will the workshop go, based on the content produced and presented. You’ll have to consider what you’re going to have to pay for those speakers. Typically, a speaker has an honorarium and they will want all costs that they incur to be covered by you, including their airfare, their ground transportation, their meals, and their lodgings, so that these things are not having to be paid for by them. A presenter is there to get paid, not to have to pay in order to speak. Airfare may be negotiable, but this is a sticky wicket. Better to be prepared to pay it for them.
To set the price and arrive at a fair price for yourself, you must find out the cost of whatever your venue charges, which will usually be some standard, though some places will provide certain group rates. And then you tack on whatever you will need to cover your costs plus whatever profit you want to make, and this figure, divided by the number of attendees, is what you charge. You will have a set minimum and maximum number of attendees figured out. Those numbers don’t change. There will be a certain number of “slots” to fill with attendees. And it’s up to you to publicize, furiously, for several times in advance of the date, to fill them. Get started well in advance, like up to 6 months in advance, or more. Many speakers will book their calendars up to two years in advance, and a year in advance is typical. They’d be working on their 2024 calendars now. So, if you want to pull this off, you have to be planning Well In Advance, and contacting people. A good professional presenter will provide you with a speaker’s proposal, or contract, of their own. It ‘ll contain a synopsis of the content of their presentation, a short bio that you can use when you do your publicity, possibly a head shot, and their non-negotiable honorarium, as a minimum. There may well be other elements to it as well. So You need to determine the length of the workshop, how many speakers you want, get them booked well in advance, and get the whole thing set up and ready to go, including how many slots there are for attendees. Then, you are ready to start publicizing to attendees. Travel arrangements are on them. Staying on after is entirely on them, and something they’d have to book for themselves with the venue in advance of the workshop, and not something you’d have to concern yourself with or handle in any way. You’ll have enough to do, trust me, to just organize the workshop. Typically, a person has a helper to help them with registration and publicity. I had a publicist working with me to help publicize the events that I did, and I worked out a deal with her that we’d share a percentage of the profits. So, it would behoove her to publicize like crazy.
Basically, the venue has to be paid, the speakers have to be paid, and the publicist has to be paid. So do any helpers who may be helping you with registration. That’s how I’ve done things. I hope this helps to straighten out a few things. I believe that you are trying, at this point, to involve yourself with some aspects of doing this which aren’t your responsibility. The most difficult part of all this is getting a suitable-sized audience. It takes expertise in the business of doing publicity. It’s possible to make money at this–I have–and it’s also possible to lose your shirt. I wish you luck, and I hope that these things have helped. But then, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. The speakers and honorarium that I am very clear on
I should not have added concerns about speakers I was typing to quickly.
When I worked in pharma I funded numerous medical events and honoraria we covered certain things which is why I am using local or surrounding speakers.
Regarding the air fare some retreat planners I had observed wanted to do the booking for that.
But, attendees I will leave up to them to figure out.
But, after reading your comments will leave that up to the participants.
I appreciate all the information you shared and provided.
You are correct I am focusing on things I don’t need to.
Great advice about the helper as I have someone helping me with that.
All my speakers will come from the island I have selected.
I have to plans to fly in a speaker and it’s more affordable to use a speaker on the island knowledgeable about fibromyalgia.
They have many and have been working on this project for a while.
You post is a great roadmap!
Mahalo
Dear Necie,
I’m glad this was somewhat helpful.
@maryann
Extremely helpful!!
Necie,
Even with waiver forms, you may want purchase liability insurance. You can buy liability insurance just for your event at a reasonable rate. The liability insurance should cover any damage to the facility as well as well as any issues that may arise, or be perceived to arise directly or indirectly from the workshop. Otherwise, think of the disclaimer language for retreats, books, courses.
When I was licensed as Louise Hay, Heal your Life Teacher it was impressed upon us the importance of liability insurance.
Story: A woman attended a workshop, had a breakthrough that brought up some “issues”. After the workshop, her children sued – nutshell, no details. For me, that incident shown the light of how important Liability insurance can be.
On the other hand, the hotel where guests are staying should have liability insurance for any “slip and falls” etc. Participants could be encouraged to purchase travel/ trip insurance and check their current insurance policies to see in they can use their regular health insurance in case of an emergency.
@MaryAnn seems to have covered everything in her response. Awesome!!!
Hello there is a dream that is almost coming true. Living the Andalusian life in Spain.. My first vacation since years Sooo happy. Only for two weeks
Unexpected BIG obstacle my cats, can NOT find a person or pension to take care of my two cats.
My house is in renovation so not suitable for a stayover for a catsitter.
Guess I have to cancel my trip..
Due to work obligations and school holidays no option to delay and reschedule
So now or never..
My plane will depart within a couple of days. I guess cats can not stay alone so I have to cancel my dream
Dear Sara,
I hope you have not already cancelled your trip. How much do you want your dream? A lot! I can tell.
A friend of mine did house sitting and plant sitting and pet sitting for decades. Every kind and variation of it that you can think of. And sometimes, she took care of cats when their people were gone, but for whatever reasons, she couldn’t stay with the cats. So the arrangement was that she went over to their house, made sure the cats had enough food, the right food, and that the water was adequate and also clean. And she kept their litter box cleaned out, and re-supplied with litter when the time was right. She also greeted the cats if they weren’t hiding from her, and if they wanted some cuddles, they got some cuddles too. And then she’d leave and come back later. Maybe she’d go over twice a day. And the cats survived! They did fine!
This worked, and is workable. Don’t Cancel Your Dream! Get a pet sitter, and lay out the plan to them, and go for it! Don’t Cancel Your Life!
I agree with Mary Ann! I am sure you can get someone to look after them! Best of luck!
Definitely you can leave cats alone and have someone come by to feed them and change kitty litter. and of course love them up 🙂 There are also Cat Kennels that will take them in for extended visits that you can check into.
Thank you, that’s what I thought but I have asked everyone I know, to just refresh the water and check the food.. friends, family, neighbours, no one was available, called every kennel/pension I could think of, all full no place left.. so really don’t know what to do.
I meant cats can not stay alone without someone checking in on them
Dear Sara,
I hope your plane hasn’t flown already. There are regestries of house sitters. And they are well qualified and experienced.
I am sure they can be found by googling them. This is do-able. Heck, if by the remote chance that you live in my region, I’D do it! I live in Tacoma, Washington, 30 miles south of Seattle. I am reachable via lebergm83@gmail.com.
How long are you going for? Perhaps again reach out to all and anyone you have asked and say how much you are struggling. Be upfront and ask for what you need and say you may have to cancel your trip which you are sad about. Rather than have one person suggest that you create a rota of where different people can and can’t help. Is there a cat flap or high window you can leave open and maybe a shed or somewhere for outside food so that worse case if there is a day no one is around they have food and shelter? Create a group we use WhatsApp for everything in the UK but there’s probably soemthing similar and everyone can communicate on there. Buy a coded lockbox for your keys and share the code there. Trust me it’s doable. For a year I ahd no childcare on a Saturday when I was working and just rotaed a different person every week. Stressful coordinating but very possible! And maybe you can’t pay people but you can owe favours. Maybe people have kids or Gardens you can offer to help with or take them a meal to say thanks when you’re back.
Sara,
Look at local homesteaders in your area. They often have plenty of animals to care for that a few more won’t be a burden and if you offer some pay for their trouble or perhaps even more valuable to help them with something when you return. Or how about contacting a local homeschool group. Teens may want to care for animals for experience and a small income or a homeschool family may be willing to “foster” for the 2 weeks so they can determine if they would want a pet long term. You just need to get a bit creative at this point.
My name is Dorothy Vee and I’ve been a fan of Barbara Sher for MANY years. I am now retired and able to choose the life I love. Being a scanner has made that quite difficult to do.But I am leaning towards becoming a polyglot. I was an English as a 2nd Language teacher, and now I am free to explore the languages I love: Arabic, German, Italian, French, and Advanced Spanish.I know and speak heritage Spanish, but I wish I was at an academic level – reading, writing, speaking, even comprehending what I hear.
Anyway, my obstacle is I want to learn them all simultaneously, but I know to really master one it has to be rigorous for just that one. I don’t know how to set my objectives so that I feel I’m on the road to being a polyglot. So far I know only Spanish and English, and I’m a beginner level at the other four. I ultimately want to master all of them. I am now 65, so I’m in a bit of a rush here!
Dear Dorothy,
If I were doing it, here’s what I would do: Sign up for an immersion Spanish class through a college or university. Since Italian is a closely related language, I probably would also sign up for a different language too, like French or German, so that I would not get the two confused while bringing the Spanish up to speed and learning Italian. So, two languages at once. I had two years of immersion French in the university when I was working on my B.A., and before I was through with it, I was dreaming in French, and could definitely read it, write it, speak it, and was comprehending what I heard. Those are the requirements of such a class. Beyond that, I was getting so that I could just do things in French without having to translate. And I was dreaming in French before I was through. So, my recommendation is to study two dissimilar languages for two years at the university level. You will have gained proficiency. Then, sign up for Italian and the other dissimilar language that you didn’t sign up for at first, at the university level, for another 2 years. In 4 years’ time, you’ll be proficient in 4 languages. And then you sign up for Arabic–I don’t know where or how you’ll find courses in Arabic, but you’ll need to do immersion again, for another 2 years until you attain proficiency in it. You’ll already have the others, and the Arabic will be the “icing on the cake.” This is what I would do. Yes, it’ll take time, but heck, time will pass anyway, and you might as well attain your dream. Don’t settle for a cheap shot, like learning a little Berlitz. Go for the gold standard, and get 4 years of university-level language study under your belt. I would start with the Spanish, and a dissimilar language, either French or German, because you already know some Spanish, so this part of the work would be easier. Then, into the Italian and the other dissimilar language.
Good luck with all this, and bonne chance!
Thank you, Mary Ann. Everything you recommended makes sense. I have ADHD and was always afraid I wouldn’t get to things, and I haven’t. But I think I can give myself permission to master 2 languages at a time. I’ve been using daily Duolingo for 2 years taking turns with each language and I’m really getting a sense of them, Italian, German, and French. Arabic really requires learning the script, and I have, but I haven’t learned to recognize words yet. That one is almost like learning Math! So many symbols to memorize and combine! But thank you so kindly for your advice, I’ve been making myself crazy about how to proceed and feel loyal to all my languages. I’ll work out a new plan.
Hi Dorothy,
I love your dream. I have always wanted to learn more languages and improve the ones that I already know but I never thought that I could actually accomplish that … I always thought it was too far fetched.
I was just wondering whether you would be interested in creating a plan, checking out the different options, swapping ideas, brainstorming with me and maybe become accountability buddies? If yes, send me a message on almazarchetypes@gmail.com
Take care,
Almaz
Dorothy,
Are you aware of italki.com? It’s a site where you can practice speaking any language with a native speaker. It really gets you up to speed quickly. You can pay for a tutor, but if you dig around the site, there are people who just want to practice for free. (You can also sign up to teach English yourself, for free or for a small fee per hour.)
It’s a great way to become fluent in almost any language.
Best of luck!
Bless you, my ! That’s a great website. I’m shy to speak in another language, but it’s what I need most! Thank you
Dorothy