This Sunday I am teaching a class titled Play Party 101. It is designed for new people who are nervous about attending play parties and need a little bit of comfort up front before they go. We go through a lot of different things, like: rules, expectations, and responsibilities.
Of the things I touch on is why it's so important to follow the rules of an event.
It is really important to follow the rules of the event because it protects the venue.
A lot of times people will scoff at dungeon or party rules. What they don't understand is that those rules are cultivated with the event organizer and the host house.
If we want a venue to keep volunteering for our group we have to have people that going to follow the rules or the host house will not want you back.
Another thing I touch on is what to do if your event organizer is the problem.
Usually when you go to an event there are at least four people there at any given time that are helping to organize the event.
And can help you deal with the organizer if the organiser has been inappropriate.
One of the reasons that I cover this particular topic is because I read a study that FetLife had done in cooperation with NC SF. It stated that 20% of all consent violations were done by a community leader / organizer.
It gets to be really important to talk to people about what to do if organizers are inappropriate because there's a really good chance they're going to run into that.
One of the other things that I usually cover is how to control your space when you're in public play. Public play is a completely different animal than private play. A lot of times I will have people that come to me and ask how to in essence "do" play in public without becoming distracted.
In essence how do they deal with the crowds.
The other cool thing about this particular event is one; we do it once every other month and two; I get to pick to work with people that I have wanted to teach with for such a long time.
And it's a lot of fun.
I send them the run down in advance and the two of us basically play off each other no matter who it is. It is a great great experience for me.
It's also great to be able to meet some newbies and if our parties aren't really what they are looking for then I tell them to try these other groups. If they are not single, young, newbie females then I will send them pretty much anywhere. If they are looking for sex then I send them to another group. If they're looking for something other than what I can provide and I am very happy to tell them where else to go.
This class is not only my chance to give back to my community in a way that never happened for me. It is also how I reconnect with my roots.
Pay it forward!
