1st Annual World-Wide "Play Footbag!" Day: Sept 4

[the_music_man]

If needed I'll set up the Page...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Wait, Ryan, I have an idea... I'm going to ask a specific person if he'll set it up...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Date of event is subject to change... Update tomorrow.

[habitat]

Everyone gather around and pat yourself on the back for doing something you already do, spread the "gospel" and not wear shirts.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

James, I'm not even going to reply directly to what you just said. All I'm going to say is that I hope those words you just said are delicious, because I'm going to make you eat them...

Update for "Play Footbag" Day...

I talked to Jay Boychuk about my idea and he liked it. I asked him if he would make the facebook advertisements for us, and he happily agreed. He also suggested that we do this on September 5th, 2011 (Labor Day... LOTS of people already outside)

Thanks to everyone who supported my idea from the get-go and to those who helped suggest ideas and provide links to useful print-outs... Looks like we're finally about to get this thing off of the ground, guys.

More to come soon...

[PoisonTaffy]

Labor Day is North american, this is a world wide day. Maybe it's possible to come up with a less localized date?

[jay7]

Seeing as there wont be an worldwide holiday, anywhere, it seems slightly weird to put forth the idea that we choose an arbitrary day, where no one reaps the benefits of a holiday. Labour day weekend, being Canadian and American, probably satisfies the largest amount of people here I can think of. Perhaps there is a war-related holiday which allows Europe to celebrate as a whole, that I am not aware of, but footbag on a day of memory/loss, versus, going outside and enjoying the weather.. *shrugs*. This also goes on the assumption that footbag is largest in N.A and Europe, and that if any market is satisfied by a good date, it should be either of those two markets.

I am going to assume that Sunday is likely a good day, because I'm sure Europe wouldn't enjoy having Monday be the day, because everyone is working. However, the amount of people out and about because Monday is a holiday is still quite large.

Not that I should have much say in the matter, I'm just a little boy who plays footbag. However today is the last day which I can effectively make this topic on facebook, since I leave for finland in a few hours, so I'm going to do what he asked me to do.

[PoisonTaffy]

I thought a day where a larger portion of the globe has a decent weather (i.e. not summer to not screw southern hemisphere), and there are more international days than others, like May first.

And I don't particularly enjoy hearing that my attempt at contribution is "slightly weird". Way to support a dialog here.

[jay7]

I thought a day where a larger portion of the globe has a decent weather (i.e. not summer to not screw southern hemisphere), and there are more international days than others, like May first.

And I don't particularly enjoy hearing that my attempt at contribution is "slightly weird". Way to support a dialog here.

You do raise a good point, that fastening a date which has the best weather globally is probably a good idea. There will be *no* perfect date obviously to do that, so an intermediate one could be chosen. I suppose I'm not the best person to choose dates, since I am biased by living in a country where anything outside of June->September is often unplayable. So I'll butt out of this. Without a date I can't do the facebook thing, and I don't have time to do it anymore as I have to leave.

I wasn't saying your suggestion was slightly weird. I was stating that picking any date that doesn't at least have a holiday somewhere would be,..No matter who suggested it. I've noticed that public footbag on a holiday is 100x more successful for getting people to stop by and take a look, versus, walking into you and not noticing you. Sorry I didn't convey that properly.

Here is what I had written on Facebook, up for review...

///////

Footbag enthusiast Nick Polini has pioneered what could be the largest scale footbag event of the year, which is appropriately named "World-Wide PLAY FOOTBAG Day."

So, here is the information you need to know.

When: Sunday, September 4th 2011.

Who: You, your friend who kicked with you in highschool, and anyone who knows about footbag.

Where: Out in the public. We need to have this event get as many eyes as we can, as many camera phones putting "insane hacky-skillz" on youtube, as simultaneously possible. For example, festivals are happening all around North America to celebrate Labour day, so grab your shorts, find a stage and get on it. Go to your nearest monument, statue, or famous tourist attraction. If you know of a good indoor festival for skateboarding, bmx, etc, go to the organizer, pronounce your elite footbag ambassador status and do a demo. There isn't a more perfect day than this one to show your love of the sport.

What: Let the world know it is play footbag day. If you are able, bring a few freedom sandbags, stitch a few bags, print some flyers and make your presence known. Get some chalk, unleash your inner arts/crafts skills and draw advertisements for footbag if you can't get a banner. Get out to your spot, have your supplies and play footbag, teach footbag and promote how awesome it feels to be doing it. Teach a four year old a lap stall, and get that business-suit man who kicked in college to do an outside kick, and give his 13 year old -Could-be-Vasek- a footbag.

How:
Buy your sandbags here. http://www.freedomfootbags.com/
Get your promotional flyer here. http://www.freedomfootbags.com/wp-conte ... er2004.pdf
Get your smile here: http://lilyviewlands.edublogs.org/files ... 5e5uq9.jpg

Grab your shoes, get some water and get out the door. If you don't do anything remotely official for this, at least make sure one person who never would have seen footbag, does. Do it for Juho.

///

This was the picture I would have used for the event.



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1x-humMP3lQ/S ... otbag2.jpg

[sen]

Looks good Jay. I have no idea what to do about a date. When Labour day was suggested, I thought that was a great idea. I didn't really realize it was a localized holiday. Maybe I'll go search for an International Holiday listing. Anyone else have thoughts on the date to hold this?

[sen]

Jan 01 Global Family Day
Jan 04 World Braille Day
Jan 08 World Literary Day
Jan 11 International Thank-You Day
Jan 30 World Leprosy Day

Feb 12 Darwin Day
Feb 21 International Mother Language Day
Feb 22 World Thinking Day

Mar 01 International Day of the Seal
Mar 08 International Women’s Day
Mar 14 World Book Day
Mar 20 World Frog Day
Mar 21 World Down Syndrome Day
Mar 22 World Day for Water
Mar 23 World Meteorological Day
Mar 29 Earth Hour – 8pm Local Time

Apr 02 International Children’s Book Day
Apr 07 World Health Day
Apr 12 Yuri`s Night
Apr 13 International Special Librarian’s Day
Apr 21 International Creativity and Innovation Day
Apr 22 Earth Day
Apr 23 World Copyright Day
Apr 25 World Penguin Day

May 03 World Press Freedom Day
May 05 International Midwives Day
May 08 World Red Cross Day
May 10 World Lupus Day
May 12 International Nurses Day
May 13 IEEE Global Engineering Day
May 15 International Day of Families
May 18 International Museum Day
May 21 World Day for Cultural Diversity
May 22 International Day for Biological Diversity
May 23 World Turtle Day
May 24 World Schizophrenia Day
May 25 Towel Day
May 31 World No-Tobacco Day

Jun 08 World Ocean Day
Jun 14 World Blood Donor Day
Jun 16 International Day of the African Child
Jun 17 World Day to Combat Desertification & Drought
Jun 20 World Refugee Day
Jun 26 International Day Against Drug Abuse & Trafficking

Jul 11 World Population Day
Jul 16 World Snake Day

Aug 08 Universal & International Infinity Day
Aug 09 International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
Aug 10 International Biodiesel Day
Aug 12 International Youth Day
Aug 13 International Lefthanders Day
Aug 14 World Lizard Day
Aug 23 International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition

Sep 08 International Literacy Day
Sep 13 International Chocolate Day
Sep 15 Software Freedom Day
Sep 16 International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
Sep 19 Talk Like a Pirate Day
Sep 21 World Gratitude Day
Sep 22 World Car-Free Day
Sep 29 Inventors Day

Oct 01 International Music Day
Oct 02 World Farm Animals Day
Oct 03 World Temperance Day
Oct 04 World Animal Day
Oct 05 World Teacher’s Day
Oct 10 World Mental Health Day
Oct 16 World Food Day
Oct 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
Oct 24 United Nations Day
Oct 29 International Internet Day

Nov 08 World Town Planning Day
Nov 16 International Day for Tolerance
Nov 21 World Television Day
Nov 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Nov 30 International Computer Security Day

Dec 01 World AIDS Day
Dec 02 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
Dec 05 International Volunteers Day
Dec 07 International Civil Aviation Day
Dec 10 Human Rights Day

Most of these days don't have holidays associated with them, so no time off. So they don't really help all that much. I think it might be best to just choose an arbitrary weekend. Hopefully on any weekend there are more tourist about and people are less rushed as they are on a weekday. That might be enough. Although Jay's thinking of doing it on a holiday for at least some of the population isn't a bad idea either. Bottom line is for a worldwide, outdoor event, we can't please everyone.

[Outsider]

Sweet! I never knew about "Towel Day." Thanks, sen.

As for what day to have Footbag Day on, yeah, I agree with anybody who may have already pointed out that it should be when the weather would at least be PRESUMED to be nice enough to go outside and play.

Without having looked into it yet, I expect that the vast majority of people live NORTH of the equator, so, Aussies and Kiwis, we love ya, but... tough luck.

I suggest Sept. 20. Its the day after "Talk Like A Pirate Day". TLAP Day probably wouldn't mind if we piggy-backed on their day, but it might be tougher to explain footbag to people if we had to talk like a pirate while doing it.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Pretty stoked that World Schizophrenia Day takes place on my birthday! Hey cool, that's on my birthday too. Yeah, you just think it's cool cuz I think it's cool. Shut up. You shut up, you have no say in this.

Anyway... Jay, what you wrote looks great. I wouldn't change a thing (except for the date). Thanks for putting your time into that. So the date dilemma continues, I guess. I sort of have a Utilitarianism view on it. Whatever date would expose footbag to the largest number of people is what I'd choose. I liked Jon's idea too. Sept. 20th works for me. Weather should be nice.

More input guys! We need to choose a date for this.

[Jeremy]

Sweet! I never knew about "Towel Day." Thanks, sen.

That surprises me. Towel Day is to celebrate the life of Douglas Adams. You're supposed to bring a towel around with you.

As for what day to have Footbag Day on, yeah, I agree with anybody who may have already pointed out that it should be when the weather would at least be PRESUMED to be nice enough to go outside and play.

Without having looked into it yet, I expect that the vast majority of people live NORTH of the equator, so, Aussies and Kiwis, we love ya, but... tough luck.

I suggest Sept. 20. Its the day after "Talk Like A Pirate Day". TLAP Day probably wouldn't mind if we piggy-backed on their day, but it might be tougher to explain footbag to people if we had to talk like a pirate while doing it.

I wouldn't worry too much about Australia and New Zealand. The weather down is temperament, and we play outside all year round. We just had our national championships in Australia 2 weeks ago.


I'd be a little concerned about using a set holiday for this event. I think a weekend would be a better choice, especially if you're talking about real holidays and not that list just posted (almost all of which are not holidays anywhere). If you chose a day like Remembrance Day, which I presume is an international holiday although perhaps called different things in different places (11th of the 11th), I'd feel awkward participating. I think avoid war related holidays at the very least. Something like the first Saturday or Sunday of a particular month would be a much better choice in my opinion.

[RipWalker]

A holiday is just like any other day around the world, save for the fact that it's special in one or more countries. If we pick a date that falls on a US holiday or a holiday in another country, it doesn't matter as long as none of the marketing that you do involves that holiday's name. It's just as much work to try and find a day that's special everywhere as it is to try and find a day that's special nowhere.

So, if it's Labor Day, for example, just say that it's on September 5th worldwide. You don't have to say, "Play footbag around the world on Labor Day!" It's just another day so refer to it as such, especially when attempting to organize something across countries.

I agree that picking a day where lots of people will already be outside at events, picnics, etc. makes sense. If we do that, the name of the holiday can simply be used internally to determine that date and then just the day used from there on out.

Blah blah, my two pence.

[WyrmFyre]

Bump.....

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for bumping this, Ian, but I don't think we can really get started until Jay makes that facebook post

[sen]

If Jay put out what he would put on the page, couldn't anyone make the page? Like, couldn't say, Nick, just copy and past it up?

[Zeb Jackson]

Everyone gather around and pat yourself on the back for doing something you already do, spread the "gospel" and not wear shirts.

lol james do you even play anymore?

[Drew]

If Jay put out what he would put on the page, couldn't anyone make the page? Like, couldn't say, Nick, just copy and past it up?

Yes.

1. Someone pick a date (arbitrary !?)
2. Input Jay's recommended text
3. Invite all
4. Profit