12/1 Meeting Recap

• Shirts are in! If you did not pick yours up tonight, we will have them at the Yule Ball. If you can't make it to the Yule Ball, come by Scottish Rite Dorm between 12-3 next Wednesday or Thursday and you can get them from me. If you legitimately can't make it to any of those times, message me and we'll work something out.
• The Quidditch House Cup is this Saturday from 11 AM-5 PM at the LBJ Fountain (NOT IM Fields!). We will be selling Yule Ball tickets and concessions from 2-5.
  
• The Yule Ball is just around the corner! If you haven't gotten your ticket yet, you can get them for $12 at the House Cup on Saturday or for $15 at the door. The Ball is from 9 PM-1 AM on Saturday in the SAC Ballroom. If you're bringing food, please message me and let me know what you're bringing and in what quantity (please do likewise if you're bringing food to the House Cup to sell at our concession stand.)
• Keep in mind that if you bring food, help us sell concessions, or help us decorate before the ball, you'll earn house points. We will be announcing the winner of our House Cup at the Yule Ball, so this is your last chance to get your house some points! *coughHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherincough*
• Lastly, I'm sorry to say I won't be here next semester, I'll be studying abroad in Scotland. I leave you in the very capable hands of your other Heads of Houses, Kirsten, Stephanie, and Katherine, and I look forward to seeing you guys again next fall (or hopefully at the Yule Ball!). Thanks so much for an awesome semester!
  

11/17 Meeting Recap

• Texas Quidditch and the HPA will be selling Yule Ball tickets on West Mall from 12-2 tomorrow. If you can't make it to the meetings, come get your ticket then! Tickets are $12, cash only please.
• The shirts are finally on their way! They will get here the last week of classes, hopefully in time for our meeting that Thursday. If they aren't, or if you can't make the meeting, we will have them available for pick up during the Yule Ball.
• Since that is our last meeting and we will hopefully have shirts to pass out, we are cancelling the December 1 BookPeople volunteer sessions. Apologies to all of you who signed up, but I will see about setting up another date during dead week when you guys can come help out. Currently all of our other slots are filled, but if you are interested in helping out, let me know and I'll put you on our back up list in case any of our volunteers can't make it.
• Unfortunately our Operation Christmas Child plans have fallen through. OCC asks for a $7 donation per box to help with shipping costs, and while that's completely understandable and it's a fantastic organization, we also don't want to make you guys pay for that. Instead we'll be participating in Brown Santa, an organization that helps feed the homeless both in Austin and across Texas. Please bring a few canned goods to our meeting on December 1 to help out with this! Caleb will be posting a list of the specific items they need the most.
• Quidditch match tomorrow! Matches start at 6 PM Come out and cheer on the Texas Quidditch teams, fresh from the Quidditch World Cup. We will be selling concessions, Yule Ball tickets, and other fun HP items, so bring some cash! All proceeds go directly to making the Yule Ball that much more awesome. If you don't have a ride, you can catch the 1M bus at 24th and Guadalupe at 5:18 and get off at 51st and Lamar. I will do my best to meet you guys at the bus stop, but I have a meeting right before the match and might not be able to make it to the stop in time. You can also catch the IF UT shuttle at 5:30 at 26th and San Jacinto.
  

11/10 Meeting Recap

• The HPA is revamping one of its old campaigns, and it's really easy to help out. "Not in Harry's Name" is a new effort to push for fair trade chocolate in Warner Bros. products (like their delicious but sadly unethical chocolate frogs). Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros., currently gets their chocolate from truly horrific places. Farm workers are paid what are called starvation wages (which often amount to roughly $2 a month). Children are effectively sold to work on different farms when they get old enough, and the overall conditions resemble modern day slavery. Way back in November 2010, this was the HPA's first Horcrux in their Deathly Hallows Campaign. Between then and now we've collected over 16,000 signatures (including HP actors Jason Isaacs and Evanna Lynch, among others) on a petition to Time Warner to try to get them to switch to fair trade chocolate. This led to some very brief talks between Warner Bros. and the HPA president Andrew Slack, which basically amounted to WB patting us on the head, saying "good for you for caring!" and then proceeding to ignore us at all costs. To try and fight back, the HPA is pushing that petition again, and we'd really love it if you'd take a minute to sign. You can read more about what's going on and sign the petition here.
  
• We still need volunteers to help us out at BookPeople in a few weeks! If you can come wrap books on Tuesday, Nov. 29 from 8-10 or Thursday, Dec. 1 from 6-8 or 8-10, let us know. This is an awesome way to get us a bit of income for the Yule Ball and to start us off next semester, so come help out!
• During the first week of December, we will be participating in Operation Christmas Child. More details to come soon, but in the meantime please hang on to any shoeboxes you might have! We will be organizing a trip or two to the Dollar Store and the like, but if you want to go ahead and start getting things to send go for it. We don't want you guys spending a ton of money on this, so little things are more than welcome, if not expected. Just please avoid getting any food that can melt (since these packages will be shipped) and any toys or games that have to do with fighting or the military. Many of these packages will be sent to war-torn countries, and we don't want to encourage that in any way.
• The Quidditch World Cup is this weekend! UT's varsity team will be competing in four matches over the weekend. Unfortunately the only one that will be livestreamed starts at 8:40 AM on Sunday, and while I certainly encourage you to support your team, I wholeheartedly understand if you just check the score later. That being said, you should try to catch some of the other games if you can! They have games going literally all day, and they'll broadcast the final matches starting at 5 PM on Sunday. You can watch the livestream here.
• In other Quidditch news, we will be selling concessions at the match next week! The match will be on Friday the 18th from 6-9 at Whitaker Fields. We'll be making the concessions at next week's meeting. Sign up to bring ingredients here.
• Wrimos! Don't forget the HPA write-in tomorrow night at 7 at SRD. There will be Butterbeer!
  

11/3 Meeting Recap

• Thanks to everyone who helped out at Longhorn Halloween! I still have several unclaimed costume items, so please make sure you grab them at the next meeting. If you can't make the meetings, email me and we can set up a time for you to pick them up.
• If you signed up for a Yule Ball ticket last week and didn't pay for it last night, we unfortunately had to take your name off the list. That doesn't mean you can't get a ticket, it just means you don't have any tickets reserved right now. You can sign up again at the next meeting, but make sure you pay within a week to guarantee your spot. You can also buy tickets for friends, but we are restricting the ball to only UT students, so please keep that in mind.
• We've got another service project/fundraiser coming up in a few weeks! Every holiday season, BookPeople sets up a deal with local nonprofits: we gift-wrap customer's books, customers tip us $1-2, and we get to keep all tips. Less work for the BookPeople staff, and a nice bit of income for us. We currently need people who can work on Tuesday, Nov 29 from 8-10 PM; Thursday, Dec 1 from 6-8 PM and 8-10 PM, and Monday Dec 5 from 4-6 PM. If you want to work more than one shift, list the shifts you can work in order of preference and I'll let you know which ones we need you for. We're limiting the number of people to 3 per shift per BookPeople's guidelines, so the slots are being filled on a first come first serve basis and I can't guarantee you your top choice. You'll get 3 house points for every hour you work, and the money we earn will be used to make the Yule Ball even more awesome and to kickstart the projects we'll be working on next semester.
• The next Quidditch match is going to be the weekend of the 18th (specific date and time TBA) and we'll be selling concessions again! Sign-up sheet for bringing food is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArAqdbMi3tCTdF9SaFRIQTVwNE95MVpYQktwcE9hREE. If you want to make things on your own or have an idea for something we could sell, let me know!
• Finally, Wrimos! Don't forget about the Frenzied Novelists write-ins every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 at Bennu Coffee. Also, we'll be having an HP write-in (mostly meaning there will be butterbeer) this Friday, Nov 11, at 7 at SRD. More info here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=285368498160124. Also, author Maureen Johnson is now NaNoWriMo's official Agony Aunt! Every day this month she'll be answering a NaNo-related question on her tumblr. Check in every day to find out how the writing process is like chasing a wheel of cheese down a hill or how the 50,000 word goal isn't so much looming over you as staring wide-eyed at you, rather like a stuffed owl. Words of wisdom we can all live by. :)
• **UPDATE**: We realize that the UT-students-only restriction on the Yule Ball is a bit problematic for those of you with non-UT dates. With that in mind, we're amending that restriction: As long as there is one UT ID per couple, you're good. We don't want an influx of non-UT people, so please respect this rule (i.e. don't bring a group of non-UT friends and pair them up with your UT friends so they can get in), but we also don't want anyone to feel reluctant to come because they can't bring their SO/best friend/what-have-you. As usual, if you have any questions just let us know.
  

For my Wrimos!

Or anyone who thinks they might want to do NaNoWriMo, here's the official (and rather idealized) way your month is going to go:

November 1: Join the round-the-clock writing @NaNoWordSprints. Hit 1,667 words for the first time. Rejoice. Then keep writing.

November 3: Check your on-site NaNoMail for a pep talk. All 2011 pep talks and most HQ announcements will be sent to your NaNoMail this month. (You can also set your notification preferences to receive an email when new NaNoMail is delivered to your inbox.)

November 4: If you're a donor, receive Founder and Executive Director (and marmot-whisperer) Chris Baty's first November Bonus Donor Pep Talk. If you're not a donor, contribute just $10 or more to get weekly November encouragement from Chris. From December 2011-September 2012, you'll also receive monthly revision pep talks from published Wrimos! Donate today!

November 5: Take full advantage of this first weekend. While your novel is young and your senses remain sharp, aim for a couple of 5,000-word days!

November 7: Participate in the first “Back Up Your Novel Day” of the month. Explore NaNoLand further and visit the Young Writers Program website.

November 8: Check out the first week of 30 Covers, 30 Days over on the OLL Blog. 30 designers are creating 30 book covers based on the plot synopses of Wrimos' NaNo-novels!

November 10: Watch Tavia's NaNoVideo Dares and incorporate your favorite one into the next scene of your novel.

November 11: Set a weekend goal to hit 22,000 before you go to bed on Sunday night.

November 12: Drop a bomb on your story. Not necessarily a literal bomb; it could be a plague, a rabid dog with a vendetta, or a miraculous rain shower of sparkly gift-granting silk worms. Mix it up!

November 13: Reward yourself for hitting 22,000 words. You eat novels for breakfast!

November 14: It's “Back Up Your Novel Again Day.” Back up that novel. Again!

November 15: Kick up your heels and do a jig for reaching the mid-point of the month. Check your regional lounge for a local Midway Party in a neighborhood near you.

November 16: It's Donation Day, a public-radio-style fundraiser. If you haven't already, make a small donation to keep our servers running and our free creative writing programs strong for another year.

November 18: Take a mini-break from your novel to celebrate Occult Day. Check your horoscope, make a potion, or even better, have your main character do both. (Also, congratulate yourself for skipping National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day on November 15.)

November 21: You guessed it! “Back Up Your Novel Yet Again Day” is upon us, and you must back up your novel. Yet again.

November 22: To commemorate ML Appreciation Day and recognize the valiant efforts of your Municipal Liaison, send your regional volunteer(s) a NaNoMail message, or post a thanks in your regional forum.

November 24: Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. HQ is closed until Monday, November 28.

November 25: Winning begins on NaNoWriMo.org. Go ahead and claim your Winner's shirt in the store! (With that magical talisman, you're sure to hit 50K by midnight on November 30!)

November 27: You can't believe there are only four days left to finish your novel. Then you remember that you have nothing to worry about! You're all caught up at 46,676 words. (And if you're not, take a break and re-read all of the pep talks from the month. Feeling rejuvenated, word-sprint your way to 45K and grab a big ol' treat for your efforts.)

November 28: Back up your novel even more, because, well, it's “Back Up Your Novel Even More Day”! (Can you tell we really care about backing up your masterpiece?)

November 29: Mark your calendar for your region's TGIO party. The end is near.

November 30: Write, write, write until you hit 50,000. Upload your novel and get whisked to the Winner Goodies page. Print your Winner's Certificate, and do a happy dance.

December 1: Give that hamster a treat. He's been a champ.

Aaaaand here's the slightly more realistic version:



See you guys Monday night!

10/27 Meeting Recap

-Longhorn Halloween is THIS SUNDAY at the Frank Erwin Center from 2-5. If you couldn't make it to the meeting last night and have any costumes or books you want to bring, you can stop by our booth between 1:15-1:45, or post on Facebook and we'll see if someone can meet you today or tomorrow. Also, if you have any HP-themed decorations we could borrow for our booth, bring those too!
-We'll be making a trip to Half Price Books tomorrow to get books for Longhorn Halloween. If you want to come, meet at the Barbara Jordan statue at 12. If you have any books you want to trade in, bring those with you.
-Thanks to everyone who signed up for a Yule Ball ticket! If you paid last night, you are awesome, and we'll have an actual ticket for you soon. If you didn't pay, remember to bring your money next week!
-Film Committee is showing Deathly Hallows Part 2 next Thursday at 8, which means we're switching up next week's meeting a bit. We'll be meeting at 6:30 in BUR 136 for a quick update on what's going on, then we'll head down to South Mall early to get good seats. Bring a blanket and something to eat/share!
-Wrimos! We will be having a midnight kick-off with UT's Frenzied Novelists on Halloween. Meet at the Wendy's in the Union at 11:45. For those more inclined to sleep, they will be having an official kick-off the next day at 7 in PAR 101. Every Tuesday and Thursday after that, anyone who wants to can meet at Bennu Coffee (MLK & Poquito, east of 35) at 7 for a write-in.
-You can still sign up to help at the SEC Harry Potter Fest! See Cheyenne's post here: http://keepaustinwizard.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween.html

Hufflepuff/ Slytherin Tshirt problems

Hello HPAers!

As you all know, the officers listened to you when you said you wanted four separate House tshirts. However, a problem has arisen regarding payment.

If you are in Hufflepuff or Slytherin, and have not paid for your shirt, you are keeping everyone else from getting their shirt. The tshirt cost for these two Houses has risen above $12 because people who said they wanted a shirt have not paid, which means we don't have enough money to order the four different designs.

So, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, if you said you wanted a shirt. get your money in! Otherwise, we will start hounding you individually.

Yule Ball Updates!

Hey guys! So the Yule Ball is slowly but surely coming together and we've got a couple of big announcements.

1) We will be starting our ticket pre-sale for HPA and Quidditch members this week! Here's how it works: At the meeting on Thursday, we'll be taking down names of everyone who wants a ticket. If you can pay for your ticket right there ($12 each), that's perfect. If you don't have the money with you, we'll hold your ticket for one week. Pay for it at the next meeting and you're good to go. If you don't have the money then, we'll have to take your name off the list. Note: This does NOT mean you can't buy a ticket; it just means we can't hold your spot. Due to limited space in the ballroom, we have to cap the number of tickets, and while I seriously doubt we're going to be selling out any time soon we also don't want to have some tickets on hold indefinitely and turn down people who want to go. For those who can't make the meetings, we'll be selling tickets on West Mall with Quidditch in the afternoons starting next week.

2) To help keep down costs and make this ball even more awesome, we will be having a dessert potluck! The Union catering service unfortunately does not offer any wizard delicacies, so we have to make due on our own. Those who feel so inclined are more than welcome to bring a batch of chocolate wands or peppermint toads (or Muggle treats too!). We'll have a sign up sheet at the meeting where you can put down what you think you'll want to make. Obviously with a month to go you can change your mind, just please let us know! We want to make sure we don't end up with twenty batches of butterbeer cookies. :)

If you have any questions, post in comments or send us an email. See you all on Thursday!

Halloween

Attention witches and wizards!!

So I know Halloween is a wizard's favorite holiday and the lovely Student Event Center is catering to us magical folk by reminding us of our true home; Hogwarts! On October 31st (it's a Monday, so.....) the SAC will be transfiguring into HOGWARTS! We're talking triwizard tournament mazes, butterbeer, wizards roaming the halls, the whole shebang! But these muggles can't handle this by themselves and the Student Event Center could really use our help with everything. It's an all day event, from 10am-7pm, so if you would like to help out whenever you can, please put your name on this cool muggle contraption called a google spreadsheet I just learned how to make. The events happening on Halloween are already all planned out, so depending on when you're free, you will be assigned to a certain job.

Here's the sheet if you would like to sign up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al6sS-_yhLG5dGJEbE93RWJzY05KNEd0Q1QxNlA5Vnc#gid=0

Thanks guys! :)

UPDATE: Here's a list of the events happening on Halloween according to time, so depending on when you sign up, here's an idea of what you will be doing:

11AM - 7PM: Honeydukes Sweet Shop at the SAC Ticket Booth

11AM, 1PM, 3PM, 5:30, 6:30: Harry Potter Trivia in Room 1.118

12:30, 2:15, 6:30PM: Defense against the Dark Arts Class in Room 2.120

1PM, 4PM, 7PM: Horcrux Scavenger Hunt in the SAC Auditorium

4PM-8PM: Photobooth and temporary Dark Mark tattoos in Room 1.106

5PM-7PM: Tri-Wizard Maze in the Black Box Theater (Room 2.304)

6PM-8PM: Potions Class in the Legislative Assembly Room (2.302)

7PM-8PM: Costume contest and Yule Ball in the SAC Ballroom

10/20 Meeting Recap

• Longhorn Halloween is next Sunday, October 30, from 2-5. Currently all our slots for working the booth are filled, but if you're interested let me know and we'll notify you if someone has to drop. That being said, we do need wizardly clothes (robes, scarves, ties, hats, wands, etc.) for the relay race and books (preschool through middle grade) for prizes. If you have anything that would work, let us know. You can bring books and clothes to next week's meeting or to the booth by 1:30 the day of (if you're doing the latter, please let us know ahead of time). I should note that you WILL get the clothes back, we just need to borrow them for a few hours. We're also looking to make a trip to Half Price Books before Longhorn Halloween to get some cheap kids' books. More details to come, but if you want to come along let us know what days work best for you.
• NaNoWriMo is almost upon us! For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is a time for the truly masochistic to face down sleepless nights, failing grades, and imminent doom as we try to crank out a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. If you're doing NaNo this year (or if you want to give it a try), the UT Frenzied Writers group is hosting a plotting party this coming Tuesday from 7-10 in Parlin 101. They'll also be having periodic write-ins throughout the month. If you guys are interested, I'd love to host an HPA write-in as well, so if you feel like downing some butterbeer and trying to get out your daily 1667 words, let me know!
• Two weeks from today (Nov 3), Film Committee is screening Deathly Hallows Part 2 outdoors on the South Mall! We'll be meeting at 6:30 that evening to go over some quick updates, then we'll head down to the South Mall early to get good seats and have a picnic dinner. The movie starts at 8, so if you can't make the picnic you can join us later!
  

Shirt Money

This is the LAST WEEK we will be accepting money for shirts! If you ordered a shirt but haven't paid yet, bring $12 cash to the meeting tomorrow or email me to set up a time with one of the officers!

Quidditch Concessions

Okay, here's the current list of what we'll need for concessions for next week's Quidditch match. This list will probably change as we finalize exactly what we'll be selling, so keep checking. If there are major changes, I'll post an updated version. Please sign up for something! You don't need to be able to come to the Quidditch game to sign up.

Keep Austin Wizard has a new home!

Hey guys! Welcome to Keep Austin Wizard's new site. The format of the Facebook group is just too frustrating to deal with, for you guys and us, so we won't be using it as much anymore. We will be keeping it up for quick announcements or random fun stuff, so feel free to keep posting there, but for major announcements, meetings recaps, event planning and the like, we wanted a site where the posts stay in the same order and when all else fails there's an archive. The Facebook group should update when a new post goes up here, but I'd follow the blog directly just in case (considering the reason we're moving is because Facebook posts tend to get lost). Anywho, if you have any questions let us know!