John Leeke wrote:
> The schedule at IPTW with the drifting participants worked really 
> great for me. I did my lettercarving during the two time slots, then 
> hung on with those who wanted more. A few came and went to the carving 
> venue through out the days, with followup questions, or to do the 
> little "assignments" I gave out. The upside down UNschedule of IPTW 
> gives the flexibility needed for great works. 
John,

Yes, actually, come to think of it... from the first we got into taking 
on demonstrators that pretty much walked in the door... VA Lime Works we 
had been after Jimmie Price for several months to let us know if they 
would show up or not -- at that time I had no clue who they were -- and 
then they walked in the door on the day of the event... they brought w/ 
them John Lang and everyone went to town... they were the first, as I 
remember, to do a continuous non-stop demonstration for the full time of 
the gathering. Hayles & Howe we could not control them to start-stop 
whatever they were doing so we fit the schedule to give them a space and 
tell them to take care of it for themselves.

One of the problems we have had over the years is the freedom of the 
format and attendees or demonstrators thinking of the event as either a 
trade show (vendors) or a conference w/ expectation of a set topical 
agenda. I think of it more like walking onto a construction site and 
trying to understand where to fit in to be useful and learn  -- people 
used to walking into a construction site and making themselves useful 
fit into an IPTW real fast. The few times we have had Senators or 
Congresspeople in the middle of the event they have quite often shown up 
in work clothes and gotten their hands into the materials. The event 
also has a pretty strong connection to the local area... there are still 
initiatives and projects going on in places such as WV and NoLA in 
particular that came about from the IPTW being present.

When Rob Cagnetta did the small event in Rhode Island (we were working 
for a while on promoting small localized events) I was incredibly 
delighted to see/hear folks as demonstrators that I had never heard of 
before... we pull them out of the hills... and they were saying 
unscripted stuff about their lives and work that I have been hearing for 
years now at the IPTW events. When you get all these folks together and 
they start talking some amazing things do happen.

][<en

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