Many of us look forward to the Worm Show at each meeting. However, Curtis and I have found that it has become too much for us to manage in its current form. We do not think that ending the shows is the answer, so we turn to the community for ideas.
For example, a ‘Worm Video Show’ might work. Multiple community contributions could be shown, and prizes would be awarded for the top three, similar to the Art Show, or even as a part of a merged Art/Worm Show. We would be happy to manage getting the videos together and to play hosts. Success depends strongly on getting contributions in a timely manner. If we found ourselves with only a few videos totaling less than 15 minutes in the days leading up to a meeting, we would not have much of a show, and it would really be too late to do much about it, unless we wanted to replay some older videos to fill time. Our experience with this suggests we could get between 10-30 minutes of contributions. Would prizes motivate people enough to contribute more?
An alternative model is that a particular lab (or group of labs/PIs) takes on the role of putting together a worm show at a particular meeting. This would spread the workload around from meeting to meeting. In this arrangement, fresh ideas would emerge, and a show of some length would be much more likely to occur. However, it requires the right kind of adventurous PI(s) and lab(s) to do the work. This model does not rule out community contributions, so perhaps a hybrid model could work.
What does the community think? Please post your ideas here.
Both you and Curtis have done a phenomenal job with the Worm Show. We really appreciate the time the two of you have invested all these years!
I think the hybrid idea would work well, where a different group of labs/PIs take on the role of putting on the show each meeting. I like the idea of community contributions and incentives to submit.
I am bleeped off. REALLY bleeped off. I expected to see you two up there with canes and walkers 32 years from now, saying “Get off my lawn!” in between “get off my lawn” jokes.
I think it will work, and I’ve already got a video planned. Now I just need t get the video editing skillz…
What about hard deadline? People actually respond to those. Maybe a week or two after abstracts are due? That would peg it to the meeting schedule and still give you at least a month before the show.
A joke in itself: apparently it is vulgar, in the Worm Community Forum at least, to use the past tense of the colloquial version of “to urinate” (or British present tense of “inebriated”) to denote anger. Who knew? George Carlin would be thrilled.
For what it’s worth, I think it would be a shame to lose Statler and Waldorf from the Worm meeting.
How about an approach similar to that adopted in sheltered housing for the worm show; the tenants (here insert S & W) maintain a degree of independence and meaning to their lives (hosting the show) while a team of writers/contributers take over the day to day care?
Just a note on David’s last point: ‘****** off’ is really more being annoyed, irritated or disappointed than angry’. In any case, you could get around the Milwaukee censorship and use ‘ich habe die Schnauze voll’ instead?