Dewey's Read-a-Thon

Give me an R! Give me an E! Give me an A! Give me a D!

READ!!

That’s right, it’s time to dust off those pompoms, brush up on your cheers, and get ready to use an excessive amount of exclamation points!!

What does it mean to be a cheerleader?

Cheerleaders offer encouragement and support to the readers by leaving comments and cheers on the readers’ blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you’ve participated in the Read-A-Thon you know that cheerleaders are some of the most important and valued participants of the Read-A-Thon.

Even readers can be cheerleaders!

Anyone can sign up to be a cheerleader! There are some who act solely as cheerleaders during the event, but if you’re a reader you can also be a cheerleader. Many readers take an hour or two during the Read-A-Thon to focus on cheering. While the main focus of the Read-A-Thon is reading, it is the interaction with other participants that makes this event so special.

How much time do I need to devote?

You can devote as much as 12+ hours or as little as an hour to cheerleading. Time spent cheering can be consecutive or non-consecutive and we need cheerleaders of all hours during the Read-A-Thon. Cheering provides a nice break from reading or a way to participate if your schedule is too full the day of the Read-A-Thon to be a reader.

How will this cheer thing work?

There will be hundreds of readers to visit during the Read-A-Thon, but don’t worry—you won’t be responsible for visiting them all! A few days before the Read-A-Thon starts, you will be assigned to a cheerleading squad based on the hours you can cheer and your level of commitment. Each squad will be then be assigned a group of readers to visit during the event. Of course you’re welcome to visit more than just those readers!

Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah! Now what?

Sign up in the Google form below to volunteer as a cheerleader. We’ll be in touch! In the meantime, you can brush up on more information, tips, and tricks on the Readathon Cheerleading HQ website.

Questions?

Erin of Erin Reads and Trish of Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity are your fearless and overly enthusiastic cheer coaches. Please feel free to email us if you have any additional questions or concerns: readathoncheer {at} gmail {dot} com.

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One of the integral parts of the 24-Hour Read-A-Thon is the mini-challenges. Mini-challenges are hosted by individual bloggers and occur throughout the Read-A-Thon to give ‘thoners a bit of optional fun during their reading breaks. To host a mini-challenge, all you need is a blog, an idea, and the ability to post (or schedule a post) during the Read-A-Thon. To help you with the idea part of it, I’ve compiled a list, complete with links to each of the mini-challenges from past Read-A-Thons. There are some super-creative ideas to get you brainstorming. (And we definitely don’t mind repeats, if you want to host the same challenge again this time.)

If you’d like to host a mini-challenge in the October 2011 Read-A-Thon, please fill out the form below. Then we’ll get in touch with you to hammer out the details. Thanks!

(And join me in thanking Jessica for coordinating mini-challenges! She’s awesome, right?)

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It’s here! It’s here! Sign-ups are here! But sign-ups look a little different. Harumph.

We’ve decided to go the Google Form route this year because a lot of you have requested to be emailed a reminder. With the previous Mr. Linky set-up, we’ve been unable to do so. And the previous set-up was difficult for people without blogs or webpages. If you input your email address, you will receive a reminder email on October 17th, the Monday before the Read-A-Thon. Your email will NOT be saved for future use. Your name linked to your blog/webpage will be published again to aid cheerleaders and mini-challenges, so please be sure to use a name or pseudonym that we can publish on 24hourreadathon.com.

The Read-A-Thon starts at Noon GMT, Saturday, October 22nd.

And while online participation is a huge part of the Read-A-Thon experience, it is not required. So this year, we’ll be placing forms for those who do not blog/tweet/Facebook to be able to participate in some mini-challenges and breaks, per requests from the April ’11 Read-A-Thon. These will be experimental, so please bear with us during our trials!

If there are any bloggers that are able, we would love it if you could post an announcement that you’re reading in the ‘thon with a link to this sign-up post, and encourage your readers to participate. If you’re not comfortable doing that, please consider snagging one of our buttons and placing it somewhere on your blog, or create your own! If you’re not comfortable with that, we’re still cool, no worries. *wink*

Thanks everyone! We’re really looking forward to the October ’11 Read-A-Thon!

Also, if you’re available to volunteer, we’d love to have your help. Check out the volunteer sign-ups if you’re interested with helping out with Cohosting, Marketing, Prizes or Prize Angels, Mini-Challenges, or the ever-important Cheerleaders!

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The next Read-A-Thon starts on October 22nd! If you’re willing to volunteer to help-out with this Read-A-Thon, please read more about the committees you can volunteer for and fill out the form below! We’d be thrilled to have you on board as a volunteer!

Cohosting Committee: This is where you get to help us run the Read-A-Thon and keep it running like a great oiled machine. It combines elements of each of the committees, coordinating other committees, and posting during your shift on the actual day of the Read-A-Thon. This ends up being the catch-all committee where all of the questions, concerns, and problems get solved! It’s very fun and very rewarding.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 6-10
When Will You Volunteer? Before, During, & After the Read-A-Thon

Cheerleading Committee: This committee is in charge of rounding up cheerleaders, organizing them, and checking in on them during the Read-A-Thon. If you ask any Read-A-Thon participant, I’ll bet they can tell you how important cheerleaders are. As soon as you hit that point in your reading where you don’t think you can go any longer, a cheerleader comes by and leaves you a comment and makes you laugh, inspires you, or just brightens your day, pushing you through the next hour. Our Read-A-Thon cheerleaders totally rock and we need helpers to organize the troops and help make sure that everyone gets a dose of cheer during the ‘thon. This is not the sign-up to be a cheerleader, though signing up does not prevent you from being a cheerleader. This is more like being a team captain.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 8-10
When Will You Volunteer? Before & During the Read-A-Thon

Mini-Challenges Committee: This committee is in charge of scheduling the mini-challenges so that they make sense. They’re in charge of making sure we have a challenge for every hour, and in charge of making sure that each challenge participant knows when to post and that the cohost has the correct link to the challenge. They’re in charge of helping the mini-challenge hosts come up with great prizes, and in charge of creating the public schedule of mini-challenges so that you guys know when to take the break you need while reading. This is not the sign-up to host a mini-challenge, though signing up does not prevent you from hosting a mini-challenge.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 4-8
When Will You Volunteer? Before & During the Read-A-Thon

Prizes Committee: This committee is in charge of coordinating prizes with publishers, authors, bloggers, and readers. This entails organizing the prize list, and coordinating with cohosts to make sure that the prize list is updated and that each person who wins has an address after the event is over. The committee will then inform prize donors of who and where to send prizes.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 2-10
When Will You Volunteer? Before & After the Read-A-Thon

Marketing Committee: This group of folks will focus on getting the word out about the Read-A-Thon. We like to get the word out as widely as possible and need help doing it. We’d like for as many people across the globe to know about the Read-A-Thon so that they can mark it on their calendar and sign-up to participate. If you’re creative and outgoing, this might be the place for you! We’re also looking for someone to put together a press-kit and marketing materials like bookmarks and posters.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 1-12
When Will You Volunteer? Before the Read-A-Thon

Prize Angels Committee: This committee is in charge of finding angels to donate money for prize distribution to folks outside of the USA. Most prize donors are happy to ship to addresses in the US, and some even to Canada. But we here at Dewey’s Read-A-Thon think it’s important for this to be a global event, so we accept donations from Read-A-Thon-ers so that we can afford to send any prize to anyone who wins it. We always end up begging for money during the Read-A-Thon, so this year, we’d like to coordinate an effort before hand, and would like to make sure that we have enough money to send everyone all of their prizes. We’ve been lucky in the past and generous people have helped us get to where we needed to be, but since we’re trying to make this as global as possible, we’re going to need help this year! We will also need someone based in the US to receive the prizes and ship them internationally.
Approximate Hours You’ll Invest: 1-3
When Will You Volunteer? Before & During the Read-A-Thon

Putting on the Read-A-Thon is a lot of work, but we love doing it and love the camaraderie that we see between readers around the world during the event. If you would like to help out on any of the above committees, we’d be ecstatic to have you aboard as Read-A-Thon Staff. Just fill out the form below!

Reader sign-ups will start Monday!

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