Follow-up to Possibility of Online Live Discussions

Information on how I will proceed

Dear friends,

Three days ago I posed (here) the possibility of periodic online live discussions of topics relevant to “Play Makes Us Human.” I proposed that these might be held once a month, on a different topic each month, available only to paid subscribers and held on Zoom. I asked people to respond in the comments section if they thought they would join such meetings, time permitting. At this point 40 people have expressed interest.

So, I will go ahead with it. Here is my plan so far. The first meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time. There is, of course, no time that will work for everyone. The advantage of this time slot is it is not too early for people on the West Coast U.S. or too late for people in Europe. [My apologies to Australia and Asia.] Having decided to make it in the middle of the day (for us in the U.S.) means that Saturday is the best day, to accommodate people who work on weekdays.

Well before Feb. 22, I will post a substack letter to paid subscribers only, asking for suggestions of topic for our first meeting and explaining how to register. I may set a registration limit—of perhaps 50—to keep it small enough for at least some back and forth discussion. My experience is that approximately half of the people who register for an online presentation or discussion show up (unforeseen things happen), so setting the limit to 50 should result in about 25 to 30 attendees. — I am open, however, to the possibility of keeping the first meeting unlimited, just to see what happens, taking the chance that there may be too many for a lot of discussion.

I am thinking of various ways of organizing the meeting. One possibility would be to ask those who register and have questions related to the topic to submit them in advance, on a Google Doc that I can create and make available with a link. Then I could open the meeting by responding to those questions or some portion of them before asking for further questions or thoughts from attendees. Another possibility is I could open with a prepared talk on the topic, perhaps half an hour long, and then move to questions and discussion. I’m thinking of scheduling the meeting for an hour, with the possibility of going an extra half hour for anyone who would like to hang on that long.

Several people said they would love to attend such meetings but truly, because of financial straits, cannot afford the $50 for a yearly paid subscription. At least one person said they would be willing to sponsor someone who can’t pay. Substack makes it possible for anyone to give a gift subscription to anyone else. So here’s a thought. I could set up a Google Doc where people who truly desire attending the Zoom meetings but can’t afford to subscribe would provide their name, email, and reason for the request, and generous friends who can afford to could use that information to make one or more gifts. Does that seem like it would work?

I’m looking forward to February 22. It should be fun.

With respect and best wishes,

Peter