We've been collecting new members and my wonderful administrators are plugging away keeping things on track; everything seems to be in hand!

However, I'm aware that we need to do some serious fundraising if the prizes are going to be particularly exciting this year. I've been doing some sporadic reviewing and donating all the gift points I get from that straight into the group's kitty but we'll need more than that to really up the balance. It's not my strong point so I'm going to go and read some back issues of fundraising newsletters and see what ideas I can pick up.
 

Well I'm back from being on a canal boat (and being at work - I've worked 14 hours in the last two days which is ridiculous since I'm contracted to work 12 a week!) and I've trawled through the emails. We've had some new members and the username list looks great. So that's all good news!

Less great news, but not really too terrible, is that I still haven't sorted out access to the hosting pages for people who haven't got space for their novels. This is mostly because I can't remember my passwords, and ironically the password for the password page is wrong. So I'm waiting for my trusty father to sort that out for me (he's my technical go-to guy). Once I've got the password it'll be all systems go and I'm thinking that maybe this year I can make better use of that page.

And I just had an idea! I remember from last year that it was possible to get little NaNoWriMo word counters for this site; if that is happening again this year, then it would be really useful to have a page where everyone's counter is linked and then there would be no need to go off-site to check where everyone is up to. I'll look into it and report back!
 

Today is the deadline for sending off all my university paperwork, so in between getting all the NaNoWriMists stuff sorted I'm hoping I've done everything! There's a big pile of paper here on my desk and I don't even dare look at it in case I find something I haven't done. I'm sure it's all sorted, though.

I'm having slight difficulty updating the hosting page, because I've changed computers since last year and all my web page editing software is on my old computer. I'm currently trying to transfer all the relevant files across and download any software that won't be copied but it isn't going too well right now! I think I'm going to have to log into my admin account on my laptop and download the programmes, then copy everything across manually and so on. It could be a big job.
 

Well, it seems that making spidey is studying the Advertising Officer was an unexpectedly brilliant move, with eight new members since she took over and almost all of those citing her as the reason they found out about the group.

I've also received some great banners from Josh M. Cregger which I will be plugging in the Fundraising Forum and using in my signature, but right now I have to sleep. I didn't want them to go unnoticed though!

Also it's great to see that some members have been affiliating their reviews. We're currently at #43 on the group reviewing scoreboard, which isn't bad considering it's only been a couple of days. Get reviewing, guys!
 

We already have three administrators taking on some of the roles which is fantastic! Knowing I can count on them to publicise the group and keep track of word counts during NaNoWriMo means I don't have to worry so much about not being totally on top of things, if it comes to that in the next two months.

But at the moment I have lots of time, so I'm dedicating my energy to some warm-up exercises to get everyone going. These will be to do with character and plot development, and also a time test to see how many words we can write in ten minutes. Look out for emails and forum posts soon! (And that reminds me: remember to use "The NaNoWriMists Writing Forum"  to inspire yourself and each other.)
 

Today an email prompted me to create "The NaNoWriMists Admin Application" , which will hopefully allow the group to expand and grow even when I'm not able to run it any more. If you are interested I'd love to hear from you!

I'm a little worried that perhaps no one will apply. Although I can manage to keep up with all the responsibilities, it would be a huge help if I knew someone else was able to take on at least one element. I feel very guilty when I can't do something by the deadline I set myself, or if something gets missed entirely. So I guess I'm waiting with bated breath here!
 

Today I've been updating things and adding things to bring the group up to date and into 2009. If you notice anything that still refers to 2008 (other than, obviously, things in the 2008 folder) then please let me know, I've probably missed them.

"The NaNoWriMists Prize List 2009"  is tentatively open for viewing, although I haven't set any gift point values yet. There's still a lot of fundraising to be done; that's probably next on the agenda. You'll notice, if you took part in a previous year, that there are fewer prizes and no sections, but also that the overall Highest Word Count prize is back. This is to try and cut down on the amount of paperwork I have to do, because at the moment I have no idea how much time I'll have to keep track of that kind of thing.

On that note, I'm considering getting rid of the weekly word count bonuses. I'm hesitant to do so because I think they are a good motivator, but it takes a ridiculously long time to check word counts for everyone. There are currently 125 members, and if I have to check their NaNoWriMo profile five times (and that's assuming I can actually find it and it's been updated!) then it takes a very long time. If you have any ideas about how to make this process more efficient, please let me know!

Update: I've been working on "The NaNoWriMists Fundraising Forum"  and there are now several signature images! If you'd like to make some images for us, just email over a link.