The Pre-GDG Jitters

It is the best of times, it is the stressed of times…

“A Tale of Two Cities”, as translated from the original Klingon

Six days.

We have six days between the time I write this and when our esteemed founder, Pat Rothfuss, dons his best Disco Elysium shirt, fires up his Twitch engines, and launches one of his famous marathon streams, spending twelve hours playing games, chatting with fans, and telling everyone why we’re having this #GeeksDoingGood fundraiser in 2021.

Today, it’s weird in the building, because people are here. Sydney and Scott are working in the Warehouse, preparing the shipping area for the mugs, t-shirts, books, games, and more that will need to be sent all over the world.

Mike’s gonna be coming in after he co-hosts today’s “Worldbuilders Weekly” from home, and if we’re lucky we might get a glimpse of his newborn son. When he’s not doing Dadly duties he’s been talking with manufacturers, wrangling prototypes, and digging into our Notion databases making sure all the items are copacetic with the Indiegogo.

(If you followed that link, it’s just a preview now…but it’s like seeing the front grill of a car peeking through a curtain. It’s shiny, but the real power and fun is going on under the hood right now).

The other co-host is Jamie, our Outreach coordinator, who has been both developing a couple of nifty new products (rhymes with “knoshy crépe“) and also upgrading our Twitch interface (with the help of a volunteer art team) to some truly delightful levels. She’s also coordinating the D&D games that are happening during the weekend of the fundraiser – all from the scenic Pacific Northwest where she lives.

When they’re done with the Twitch stream, Jenny3 will be moving the video over to our YouTube channel, and then getting back to editing the next podcast episode and managing various store projects she’s juggling.

Zay and Beth are heads-down in a secret bunker editing some photos and videos for the campaign, complementing the ones that our cosplaying friends have already created. David and our newest volunteer, Karl, are wrangling the words while Zoë, the graphic designer, turns them into images. Well, that is, after she finishes working as the moderator for the Twitch chat (somebody’s gotta keep you all in line…).

And then there’s me, I guess…writing a blog about everybody, watching the pieces that we’ve been working on for months fall into place. I’m going to be hosting 11ses again starting June 22nd at…wait for it…11am CDT on our twitch channel, and that does take some prep, but really, my job at this point is part bulldozer and part cheerleader – removing obstacles that might get in the team’s way as they put this all together, and then cheering them on as they do it.

That’s what’s humming just behind the curtain, and in six days, we’ll draw it back, and it’s going to be amazing.