Organizers

Salt Lake City’s Free Skool organizers are the folx that maintain this WordPress site, manage and print the monthly calendar and provide assistance and guidance for teachers, students, and other organizers. There are many people that help organize and participate regularly but without a formal commitment.

This page mainly provides information and resources for current and potential organizers but is certainly also useful for teachers, students, and anyone else who want to know more about how SLC’s Free Skool works. We’re always open to new ideas that will make Free Skool more self-sustaining, transparent and easy to get involved with. Publicly sharing this type of organizational information is part of that effort.

How to Become an Organizer

Since we’ve re-established SLC Free Skool in 2019, we are looking for any and all organizers who can commit to at least two months of helping organize Free Skool! Contact either Lady (8018200838) or SoLo (5042952575) or contact us at slcalwayslearning@gmail.com.

Organizer Responsibilities

There are a minimum number of tasks that need to be done each month to keep Free Skool functioning. Of course, in addition to those basics, there are plenty of other things that could be done if time and energy allow! This first bullet point contains the basics. Remember, as the main or co-organizer/ bottom-liner you don’t personally need to do all of these things yourself but could also ask/find others who can to help lighten your load.

  • Back of calendar formatting – It’s more fun and a good skill sharing opportunity to format with others (though perhaps takes a bit more time and planning) but can also be done alone or remotely. See “Formatting the Calendar” below for more tips.
  • Calendar Release Potluck – Hosted by organizers every last Thursday of the month, typically at 7pm, often at Boing! (coordinate with a Boingster! and clean up after please) These places and times are subject to change but will be updated on this website on the digital calendar.
  • Distribute physical calendars – Give to other collectives or people involved in Free Skool to pass out to friends, or have at home for visitors. If you’re able, ask to post at coffee shops, libraries or other local businesses.
  • Update online calendars – Update Facebook, Instagram the WordPress with new calendars. (Facebook does not support PDF’s, see “Printing the Calendar below). Like all posts right away to help advertise.
  • Orient new organizers and teachers – Best done in person, will be easier in person and will make them feel welcome, involved and valued. Explain how Free Skool works with new volunteers, show them the websites, give them usernames and passwords to everything, see how they’d like to be involved. With teachers, give them advice on how to plan and teach classes, point them to resources or other teachers they could speak too and answer questions they may have. The “Teach” page has more info and suggestions.
  • Update WordPress (and other websites)
  • Find new artists – Sign-up list below for calendar artists.

If there’s time, energy and interest for more organizing tasks and projects, consider these:

  • Advertise SLC’s Free Skool to a larger population – Look into local publications, radio, and podcasts
  • Update archived class descriptions on “Archives” page
  • Research other Free Skools for ideas

Calendar (Front) Art Suggestions

As an organizer, it is useful to meet with the artist in person or speak on the phone to give them tips on making the calendar. There are little things that make a big difference in how easy it is to format. Though many may seem obvious, if it is their first time doing it, it can be easy to overlook things.

  • Use legal size paper 8.5″ x 14″ – there is some at Boing! in the infoshop/front room
  • Make calendar squares are large enough to write event titles in
  • Include “SLC Free Skool”, month and year
  • Start month dates on the first row of the calendar, make sure all dates fit
  • Page orientation and everything else is their choice
  • They can check out old calendars on this website or at Boing! for ideas (in a big white folder behind the free zines in the infoshop/front room)
  • Ask them to give it to organizers a day before printing is planned in case alternations need to be made
  • They don’t need to worry about scanning it, that will be done when organizers print it

Calendar Artist Queue/Signup:

  • May 2019: ???
  • June 2019: ???
  • July 2019: ???
  • August 2019: ???
  • September 2019: ???

Printing the Calendar

  • Save digital files as PDF’s and JPEG’s for compatibility with different websites
    • Facebook requires JPEG or GIF (not PDF)
  • The FedEx Kinko’s in 200 South and University Street has a good student discount- sometimes you have to show your student I.D. and sometimes you don’t.
    • They can save the files as PDF’s or JPEG’s if you have a thumb drive. They cannot e-mail them to you.
  • Try to put out a donation jar at the Calendar Release Potluck and other events to cover paper/printing costs of the calendar.

Formatting the Calendar

  • Formatting is usually done the last Sunday of the month a few hours before the Calendar Release Potluck. It’s nice to have a few people together physically in the same place so new people can learn how it works, but that isn’t always possible and can be done remotely or even the day or two leading up to Sunday. But many people don’t add their classes until the last 24 hours so keep that in mind.
  • Typically a total of 3 -4 hours and 2 – 4 people are needed to format it depending on how many events there are
  • The calendars are kept in the slcalwayslearning@gmail.com Drive folder. Copy an old calendar as a template and create a new document for the current month. It will be a google document that can be accessed by multiple people at the same time.
  • Include the current month’s organizer’s contact info.