Meta: I Ran a Secret Santa Three Times. This Is What I Learned.

[catwalksalone]

Panel Author: witchqueen

Before You Open For Business

• Prepare the website or LJ community:
  • Set your due dates in stone (include the time and timezone in the due date.)
  • Make the graphics and pick the colors (or bribe someone to do it for you.)
  • Write the FAQ (have clear and stringent consequences for defaulting; do not back down for death, disease, or dismemberment.)
• Create the sign up form:
  • Restrict the qualities by which you are going to match participants together: fandom, characters, pairings, and other datum suitable for manipulating with a spreadsheet.
  • Restrict the amount of things participants are allowed to reject. (Personally, I'm in favor of no opt-out at all. If you say you can write in that fandom, you should write any character in that fandom. If you say you can write that character, you better be happy writing the character paired with anyone or doing anything. If you say you can write happy, that better be anything from curtainfic to crackfic. Some people are not the draconian dictator I enjoy being.)
  • Restrict the amount of prompt participants are allowed to sign up with. They should not be giving story summaries and stage directions. Premise and situation, or possibly just a noun or a concept. If they want to run rampant with ideas, remind them that that's what the Dear Santa letter is for.

Once You Open For Business

• Advertise your Secret Santa in your fandom newsletter
• If you set up your secretsanta as an LJ community, make one of your interests secret santa, so people can find you.
• Ask for pinchhitters when people sign up to participate. Make it clear that you can sign up to be a pinchhitter without requesting a story. There are crazy wonderful people who dig that.
• If you are a procrastinator or one of those people who turns in stories to challenges at the last possible minute, do not request a story in your own challenge. If you do decide to request a story in your challenge, pick the request you want to write. If you randomly throw yourself in the pot, you can be stuck with some WTF request. You don't have time for WTF.
• As soon as you get your first sign up, start throwing your participants in a spreadsheet with their name and the characteristics by which you are going to match them.
• Keep in contact with your participants. Send them reminders that they have a story due, send them tips for working on their story, host 'Dear Santa' letters. Every time you contact your participants, include the due date.

Once Stories Are Due

• Do not give extensions for any reason. If it's late, send the request out to a pinch hitter right away, no matter what excuse they give you.
• Everyone who turned in a story on time must get a story. This is both because it's the right thing to do (you enticed them to participate in the challenge with the assurance that they would get a story), but also because people will stop participating in your challenge if they turn in a story and don't get one. They may stop participating in gift exchanges all together.
• Post late work if it is turned in before the posting date. No one is upset to get the story they were supposed to get and a pinch hit.

After the Stories Are Posted

• Thank your pinch hitters. A lot.
• Take notes on how things can go better next year.
• If you don't want to run the challenge again, let people know. Someone just may be crazy kind enough to take it off your hands.

Comments

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

"Some people are not the draconian dictator I enjoy being."

This winter my life was crazy, and I ended up only participating in two exchanges. One was yours. So, I wanted to say, you definetely make the trains run on time.