Two Differences

With the first TFS, the planning process was substantial. We didn't know what, exactly, we were getting ourselves in to, what it would cost, or if the farm could accomodate that many people.

This year, we've been a bit more laid back. All the necessary infrastructure is in place, promotion is taking care of itself by word of mouth, and having done it once before, we have a much better sense of what is involved.

As a result, our focus to date has been almost entirely on inviting folks to give sessions. So far, we've got some good ones, despite the fact that a lot of people seem to be away in August, as is their wont.

The other thing is that we're lowering the price to be closer to cost, and making an effort to be more accomodating of folks who don't have the cash to attend, so that the event better reflects the f-word in the title.

By most accounts, it sounds like this Free School is going to be well-attended.

This, despite our intentional limitation of promotion to word-of-mouth and word-of-email. We've focused mostly on rounding out the sessions to maintain a degree of diversity. (One thing we've been lamenting is the reticence of session leaders to tackle 'harder' 'academic' stuff, from a more theoretical tack.)

Welcome, at any rate, to the nascent TFS weblog. Make yourselves at home in the comments section.

Intros

In 2005, the Free School was, shall we say, not as well-documented as we would have liked. To make the process more smooth this year, we've set up a weblog. This year's Free School will also feature wireless internet on-site, so that should make things a little more dynamic as well.

For more information about the Tatamagouche Summer Free School, visit freeschool.fairtrademedia.com, where you can get a sense of what the first Tata Free School was like, or catch a sneak preview of this year's.