Site Announcements and Events (Summer Newsletter)

[Sean *]

Hello from Hammel's Staff! We have a number of announcements for things that have just happened, are happening now, and will happen soon on Hammel!

First, and perhaps most important, the Hammel staff wishes a sincere welcome to all of our new members, and a welcome back to our returning members! April and May have been quite kind to us in terms of membership and community, and we are grateful.

Next: Staff is going to do an archive of threads in the next few days. All threads that have not been posted in within the last month will be archived. If you have a thread that you wish to keep open, please PM Sean. As a reminder, if you want a thread reopened after it has been archived, simply PM any member of staff.

Also, some reminders on our rules:

• Posts are to be written in third person past tense. This looks like: “Sean walked into a room and said, “Hello.” As opposed to present tense, “Sean walks into a room and says, “Hello” or first person, “I walked into a room and said hello.” Please make sure to write your posts consistently for ease of reading/interacting.
  
• Signatures must be 500px or less wide. Otherwise they stretch the board and slow it down with resizing.
  
• Don't change font colors or size in your posts. We have people on the site who have trouble seeing different colors, and the default font colors and sizes were chosen so they would be easily readable. After all, you want people to be able to read what you write!
  
• Please remember to abide by the Proboards TOS. Hammel is a PG-13 site.

Coming this Summer: the long-anticipated floor plans for the Hammel dormitories! Soon, you will know precisely where and how your characters live.

In addition, if you have documentation that you would like to see, please post it in our Suggestions for Hammel Documentation thread.

If you have other IC or OOC questions about Hammel, the universe, playing rules, character creation, or anything else, our FAQ always takes new submissions.

If you have general site suggestions, please post in our suggestions thread.

We have an ongoing Hammel Timeline Project! Post significant dates to your characters so that they can be merged with everyone else. Also, learn about who else was around during significant moments so that you can plot more easily.

We also have a master birthday list! Post your character's birthday to be added to our calendar.

I am resurrecting a project from former super staff member Dryope. My staff signature will become a rotating banner for character and plot ads. It will be random, unless you request from me specifically.

In order to share the love, if there is someone you want to thank for any reason, we have a Thank You To...thread. We also have the Thread of Never Ending Praise for you to share threads that you are following, and Characters Say the Darndest Things thread for sharing IC quotes you enjoy.

The May OTM Nominations go up in four days.

The May Writing Challenge and May Graphics Challenge are still open for entries until the morning of May 28, 2014, Eastern Daylight Time. The May Writing Challenge is “Wheel of Time” and involves sending Hammel characters to any previous period of recorded time, anywhere on Earth, prior to 1999. The May Graphics Challenge is Flower Power, which is self-explanatory.

If you have suggestions for the monthly writing and graphics challenges, please post them in our suggestion thread.

We have many events and plots on the horizon!

The first half of our May/June Site Event: A Series of Unfortunate Events is underway. In May, an abnormally high pollen count has resulted in severe allergies. Two electrokinetics (Danielle Cooper and Everett Lilien for those playing our home game) had power slips, causing them to take down the power grid around Hammel. When the repair team tried to intervene, two probability manipulators (Kiara Lilien and an unnamed NPC) caused the rest of the grid to go down. Everyone in Pilot Ridge is living in darkness for four days IC. Characters who can glow are now the most popular and useful in all of Pilot Ridge.

Initial threads for May have already been assigned, but anyone can make a power outage thread, as long as they label it with “SUE” for Series of Unfortunate Events and link it to the main Event thread. May threads can be made until the June half of the Event starts, at which point no new threads can be made.

Signups are still open for the second half of our May/June Site Event! In June, changes in the weather due to various weather manipulators has contributed environmental factors to the Plague that will strike Pilot Ridge. If you sign up, your character *will* get sick. The illness is a mystery at present, but I can promise that it is not an STI nor is it MRSA. Signups are open until the beginning of June, when the next phase goes into effect. After signups close, the only way to get your character sick is to have a thread with a sick person, for them to catch it through communicable means. Players can make as many or as few SUE Plague threads as they desire.

All Event threads already made can be posted to until they are finished, even after the point at which no new threads may be made. This goes for both the May half and the June half.

We have a lot on the horizon this summer and early autumn.

June:

-There will be a Student Activities Council meeting IC at the beginning of June to determine what the next fundraiser will be IC. All members of the Student Activities Council are welcome and expected to be there. If you want your character to join the Council, please post in the Club signup thread. Last year we had a carwash. We might have another carwash, but that will be hashed out IC, followed by staff approval.

-The LGBT Youth Center will have its annual prom, open to any student who identifies as LGBTQ. Entrance to the prom is free, and the theme will be Disney/Pixar. Food will be served, but it is a dry event; no alcohol, no nicotine inside the building, and no illegal drugs. This thread is sign-up free and will go up in mid-June.

-If your character came to Hammel as part of the exchange program, and you wish for them to become permanent students at Hammel, PM Sean to make arrangements.

-Hammel Graduation takes place on Friday, June 20, 2014. The Headmistress will give the commencement address, and all students are invited; graduating senior attendance is mandatory. Faculty are invited; family members are invited. Please no streaking or fires.

Signups for graduation are open until the graduation thread is posted. Qualifications to graduate are included in the thread. If you meet other qualifications but still require power training, you can graduate but must continue to attend power training sessions. User group changes will occur after graduation. If you have a character who is retiring due to graduation, you can post with them until the end of August in order to wrap up threads and character development.

-Hammel is on summer break for a month, from the weekend after graduation until the penultimate week of July. Students do not have to go home but they are allowed to do so if they or their family so desire. Dormitories will be open during this time for anyone not returning home.

-Dormitory arrangements will be scrambled after students graduate. Staff will do everything we can to keep current roommates together, but various rooms will find themselves merged for the sake of making sure people have active roommates.

July:

-The July/August Event is already planned. It is a surprise. (Long-term players know that it is not a surprise.)

-Summer break ends with Doctor Sean Neville’s Annual Sexual Education Seminar (aka “The Talk”). Attendance is mandatory for all rising seniors and is open to all students 13+. The Talk is not open to anyone outside of current Hammel students and chaperoning Hammel faculty. If you are interested in having your character chaperone, PM Sean Neville’s account. The request for questions will open in early/mid-July. Questions can be anonymous or they can be from named student characters, or occasionally from embarrassed and curious faculty. This is typically a lot of fun and completely ridiculous, so keep your eyes peeled.

August:

-At the beginning of August, Pilot Ridge will have its fourth-annual Community Field Day. There will be carnival rides, fair food, craft booths and demonstrates, games, and contests, including but not limited to: pie baking and eating, table setting, bouncy ball contest, and a dunk booth. Nominate someone to be in the dunk booth! (Spoiler alert: It will not be Sean.) If you want your character to have a booth or run a game, there will be a signup sheet in July.

-At the end of August, the Hammel faculty and students will go on their annual Retreat. This is a five-day-long trip to rural New Hampshire, for a change of pace. It is open to all students without disciplinary holds and to faculty. There will be an information post in August.

September:

-There will be an art show/art auction fundraiser in September, led by Devon Wentsworth and the Hammel Art Club. Throughout the summer, there will be smaller threads leading up to the main event, including a workshop on how to have your art appraised. Splatt will post sign ups and information, and if you have questions, PM Splatt. There will also be a bake sale component run by the Culinary Club, so contact Sydnee for those details.


We also have a number of group threads, event threads, and member-run ideas in progress or on the horizon:

-As part of the power outage Event, there is a Ghost Stories open thread in the Hammel dormitories. If you want your character to participate in storytelling, please contact Ophelia. This thread has begun but is still open to new participants as listeners and as storytellers. You are not required to have a ghost story prepared to have your character join the thread.

-Everett Lilien wants to hold a cook-off for Hammel students. There is an interest thread posted, but there is no set date for when this will occur. If you are interested in your character participating in the cook-off, either as an entrant or as a judge, please post in the signup/interest thread and/or contact Sydnee.

-The Hammel Book Club has been resurrected and will be led by Zachary Bishop, Salem Hirsch, and possibly Oliver Barnes. A signup thread will be posted in June. Meeting place TBD, meeting times are the second Saturday of each month at 3:00p.m. IC. Players need not have read the book in anticipation. For further information, contact Ophelia or wait for the signup thread.

-Sydnee has a truly ambitious project for this summer. She wants to design, organize, and execute an IC murder mystery party. All IC details are TBD. However, this could be a lot of fun if we pull together and make it work. If you have any ideas or interest in helping IC or OOC, please post in the thread and/or contact Sydnee.

-Hammel will put on a play courtesy of the Drama Club. Times TBD and play TBD. An information and interest thread will be posted. For further information, or to offer ideas, please contact Sky.

-The Pilot Ridge Register is the newspaper of record in Pilot Ridge. They interview locals for interest columns. Interviews are posted in the Pilot Ridge Register sub-board in the Communications Board. If you would like one of your characters interviewed, please contact Stefan Spencer (Played by Abi) or Ides Alevi (Played by Raven). We are also always looking for more journalists.

If you have an event that you would like to see, please post it in our suggestion thread.

For the purposes of IC plotting:

The following Hammel Student Clubs and Sports Teams have no faculty advisor:
-Basketball
-Football
-Swimming
-Track
-Astronomy Club
-Band
-Cheerleaders
-Chess Club
-Choir
-Cinema Club
-Gay-Straight Alliance
-Newspaper

If you have any interest in having your Hammel staff member serve as a faculty advisor, please post in the signup thread. Additionally, if you want to make a new club, follow directions in the signup thread.

If you play a student or faculty advisor and you want to hold a club meeting thread, you require no approval to post it. If you want a club activity such as a fundraiser, please contact Sean for OOC planning.

Hammel needs staff in the following areas:
-Main Office Receptionist (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Side Effects Specialist (Must Be Powered, Contact Sean)
-Recruiters (Must Be Powered)
-Staff Attorney (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Dorm Monitors (Must Be Powered)
-Science Teachers (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, etc.)(Powered or Non-Powered)
-History Teachers (Global History, U.S. History, etc.) (Powered or Non-Powered)
-English Teachers (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Math Teachers (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Language Teachers (French, Spanish, German, etc.) (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Business Teacher (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Economics Teacher (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Communications Teacher (Powered or Non-Powered)
-Head of Research (Must Be Powered, Contact Sean)
-Researchers (Must be Powered)
-Library Assistants (Should be Powered)
-Security Guards (Must Be Powered)

Several players have inquired into available job opportunities for students. We now have a signup list/index for local businesses and job opportunities. Please take a look if you play a student who needs pocket money or work experience, and then contact the appropriate player. If you are a player of a business owner, or if you play a character who works at a business that you OOC created and thus control the NPC owner, and you want to hire students, please post in the signup thread so that students have more opportunities.

Hammel needs a new game advertisement! There will be a design contest in June. Everyone and anyone are encouraged to participate. The winner will be decided by an OOC poll, and the chosen will become our new site ad.

If you play a trainer, remember to look at the list of students in need of trainers for plotting purposes. If you are a student in need of a trainer, be sure to post in the Student/Trainer Matching thread A reminder that staff does not assign trainers to students, so all plotting involves the consent and participation of student players and trainer players.

The PUSE site plot is still ongoing, and we need affiliated characters. Check out our Wanted List for characters, if you would like a character in PUSE, or if you would like a character who is politically-involved and against PUSE. For new members, PUSE is People United for Safety and Equality; it is an anti-meta hate group and community action group situated in Pilot Ridge. PUSE also has a Youth Group that is recruiting. If you have questions, PM Sean or Dryope. If you have questions about specific IC PUSE plans, contact Izy, who plays Joe Honnick, the PUSE President. There is also a PUSE open thread right now.

If you are thinking of a new character but do not know where to begin, check out our Wanted Characters! Also, look at our Play Bys We'd Like to See thread, our Powers We’d Like to See thread, and our Jobs We’d Like to See thread.

We have a bunch of new sub-boards! These include: The Pilot Ridge Library, Town Hall, Firehouse, Police Headquarters, The Golden Globe Cinema, Flea Market/Farmer’s Market, The Bernstein and Tremblay Law Office, and Yasmine Hawthorne’s Office. If you would like a sub-board added, post in the Buildings/Locations We Would Like to See thread or post in the Housing Application if it is your character’s home or business.

We will be resurrecting the Hammel TWITTER and TUMBLR blogs in the near future. When those return, we will take submissions from everyone.

Thanks to everyone for making Hammel the wonderful game that it is. Let us have a fantastic summer of plotting, writing, events, and absurdity.

-Sean and the Hammel Staff

[Sean *]

The thread/board archival is finished. Please PM me or Sha on our staff accounts, or me over Chatango, to have a thread reopened.