www.whyville.net Jul 11, 2002 Weekly Issue


Solstice Safari: Searched

Users' Rating
Rate this article
 
FRONT PAGE
CREATIVE WRITING
SCIENCE
HOT TOPICS
POLITICS
HEALTH
PANDEMIC

Solstice Safari: Searched


Giggler01
Times Writer

Who puts a dancing chicken on TV? I guess this is my punishment having poor aim. Well, kind of. Long story. And not the long story we're going to discuss today! (Aren't you all glad?)

The Solstice Safari closes up in a couple of days. I've decided to get the low-down on what everyone thought of this year's Summer Solstice Safari.

The first person I talked to was Zoey100. Her team had placed number one in two out of the three team challenges. I also talked to JayR, who was the team leader of another group of people that did pretty well this year. I asked both of these guys what qualities made them leaders.

Zoey100:Well, the way I became team leader, I guess was being really active with our team, being one of the few people to come to the meetings and I supported everyone and people just liked me! LoL

JayR: I just started my own, didn't want to jump on another team with no one I knew, so I figured if I started one... people who knew me would join it, and they did... and no one protested me about being leader, although someone did try. *LoL*

Although the leaders play an important part in the Solstice Safari Teams, the people that make up the team are just as important! So I asked two more people to answer some interview questions.

Me: How did your teams decide on names?

JayR: Well, I posted one, a teammate posted one, and someone had a suggestion in the bulletin boards, so we agreed on Team Dragonz.

Zoey100: Our name was going to be Supa Safariars, but then someone said if you have any more suggestions to post them, and I thought of Worldwide Safariars, seeing as we had people from all over the world on the team. (Paris, Singapore, U.S.A., Canada) It just kind of fit.

Sonner: You just submit the name you want and hopefully other Whyvillians will like it too. Our team name is the Persistent Peregrinators!

Googles: Well, my team just randomly listed names under the Team Name posting by Kiki and we all added our 2 cents in. Whatever name was most popular was the name we went with.

Me: Our team had a slight problem during some of the challenges getting people motivated. There was a great improvement from the last safari. After Team Challenges one and three, the people who hadn't started got booted off. After the third challenge, no one could sign up on teams. I thought this was a great change! What did your teams do to get people motivated?

Zoey100: To motivate people was hard. We had to y-mail the people who weren't caught up and said y-mail us if you need help and 3 people got kicked off our team because they didn't want help and didn't do the safari. You have to give the people a goal: Mars.

Sonner: People on our team posted on the BBS and sent out Y-Mails to remind people to get started.

JayR: Everybody wants to win, right? That's all I wanted, to have a good team, winning isn't everything, but it's good to be in the running.

Googles: Mostly, we wrote posts to encourage them, but every once in awhile, if somebody was slacking, I (and maybe others, I'm not sure, really) sent them Y-Mails telling them how important it was for them to participate.

Overall, the advice that these citizens gave was the same basic idea: get on a team early and do the work (oh, and don't be rude). I have to agree 100%.

When I asked these guys what they wanted see as change, the overwhelming request was actually to be able to go to Mars. For those citizens who aren't aware, we need to take 50,000 oxygen canisters to the space station before we can attempt the trip to Mars. Get training! (Oh, and there was also a request that challenges be shorter, not 7-10 days long.)

I have to say I agree with these folks for the most part. I enjoyed the Safari, and I hope everyone else did, too. I know the people I interviewed said they'd go for it again (with a slight indication that they would want another salary raise, right Sonner?). I'll see all of you budding explorers in December!

Giggler01
Helpless victim of daytime television

 

 

  Back to front page


times@whyville.net
1478