Champions,

We’ve come a long way, and we’ve gotten a lot of good ideas out there in terms of helping raise both awareness for our cause, and raising some coin for them too.

This last Round challenges you to take what you’re doing one step further.

The Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 an hour. Without actual volunteers doing work on behalf of charities, that great $20 donation you just raised goes to pay someone for a couple hours of their time instead of going into the fund the charity uses to do their good works. If you’ve got marketable skills, your time could end up being much more valuable to them than that $20. But sometimes, no matter how flush the charity is with immediate cash, they just need some people to move boxes or stuff envelopes. You can do that.

Task 1 : Commit Your Time – Commit to giving your charity some of your time in the next year. Even if you can only commit a couple hours of your time on one Saturday in November, commit to yourself that you will give them this time.

Task 2 : Contact Your Charity – If your charity (or a closely related charity) has a local office, this may be easier. Go visit them in person if possible, call if you can, email if there’s no other way to get in contact with them. Tell them you want to volunteer some time, and ask them what opportunities they have that you can help with. Even if your charity is geographically remote, they may have something you can do for them in your area, or on a computer.

Task 3 : Tell Your Story – This has been an exciting experience for me, and I hope it has been for you. Take some time to reflect on the experience, and then share your thoughts, good or bad, with me and / or the rest of the world. Wrap up the experience in a blog post, or shoot me a with your thoughts.

Commit Your Time, Contact Your Charity, Tell Your Story. Complete these three tasks, and you will have completed Round 5.

Drills

1 – Take This Short Survey to give me feedback about your experience playing I Am Your Champion so far (You need not have finished all 5 rounds to take the survey).

2 – Instead of committing to going in to volunteer for half a day later this year, commit to a regular volunteering gig – quarterly, monthly, or even weekly.

3 – Keep Playing The Game. There’s no reason you have to stop.

Questions, Comments, Stories below.

#iayc

Champions,

In Round 3, we all spent some time looking for ways to help each other out, by Throwing In or Throwing Down with our fellow Champions. It was great seeing fellow Champions joining together, exchanging support, and seizing hold of the idea that we are not Competitors – that we can help raise our collective efforts.

The first Task in Round 3 was to Determine Your Limits – we all have them. I’m sure if you’re playing, you’d love to be able to Thrown Down funds and Throw In effort without limit. But it’s just not practical. We can’t do it all. And there’s so much out there we’d like to support more directly.

Round 4 focuses on finding ways to drum up support for all of our causes by looking for ways that our Challenges can play off of each other. We may not be able to put forth unlimited effort or money, but I’m sure we can come up with some ideas that other people will find compelling. I have one right now that I will propose after the Drills, to demonstrate what I mean.

Task 1 : Identify Opportunities – If you completed the first Drill in Round 3, you’ll have a handy list of Champions and their Challenges. Look through the various Challenges and find places that two Challenges (including your own) could compliment each other in interesting ways.

Task 2 : Create A Link – Propose At Least 1 Supreme Challenge that take two or more challenges and combines them to make something new. If possible, propose the Supreme Challenge by commenting in the blog posts for the original Challenges.

Task 3 : Rally The Troops – You’ve just come up with a cool new thing that wasn’t there before. Show the opportunity to other people. Talk to your co-workers. You’ve probably been working your followers and friends pretty hard already for the past couple rounds. Reach out to new audiences, people you might not normally have considered. Discuss your Supreme Challenge with 3 New People. Even strangers on the street.

Identify Opportunities, Create A Link, Rally The Troops. Complete these three Tasks, and you will have completed Round 4.

Drills

1 – Comment below with 3 solid ideas that Champions can use for Rewards and Challenges, regardless of their situation. A few Champions are having difficulty coming up with a way to offer a Reward.

2 – Print up a flier to promote your Challenges, and post it on a public bulletin board. Post a picture of it.

3 – Propose two more Supreme Challenges.

My First Supreme Challenge

@twoscooters offered, among other things, 250 words of English to Esperanto Translation in exchange for a $20 donation to Autism Women’s Network.

@a1mrson offered, among other things, to cover the song of your choice and put it on youtube in exchange for a $10 donation to Reading Is Fundamental.

My Supreme Challenge is for @twoscooters to translate King Of The Road from English to Esperanto, and for @a1mrson to sing it and put it on youtube, in exchange for a $20 donation to Autism Women’s Network and a $10 donation to Reading is Fundamental.

Who WOULDN’T donation $30 for that?

Questions, Comments, Etc below.

#iayc

Edit : After some feedback and reflection, I’ve modified Task 2 and added Drill 3, to split up the creation of the 3 Supreme Tasks a bit.

As my Challenge for I Am Your Champion, I have created a Giving Page over at Donors Choose. I want to raise $500 for schools in need of math and science supplies.

If you collectively donate $500 to this giving page by 10/6/2011, I will take two of my Shambles scenarios (A Cabin In The Woods and The Putrescent Seven), rewrite them to be system-agnostic, and release them using the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows commercial reuse.

I feel strongly about the next generation performing well in Math and Science, and to the end that Donors Choose can put learning supplies in the hands of children, I want to support them.

Champions,

Some of you may fee like you are behind at this point. These rounds are coming fast and furious and that might seem a little overwhelming. I will announce the final round of I Am Your Champion on Friday, but anyone who completes all five rounds will get the pass I described earlier – even if it takes you a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months to wrap everything up! You don’t have to collect funds, or issue rewards, by Friday. I have tried to structure the tasks such that they can be completed in five days – most of them consist of committing to do things, not executing those things all this week.

With that in mind, let’s move on to the Round 3 Tasks.

We are Champions, not Competitors. We can more successfully serve our causes by remembering that simple fact. To that end, Round 3 focuses on Champions lending assistance to each other.

Task 1 : Determine Your Limits – If you are in a position to lend financial assistance to the cause of another Champion, determine how much assistance you can reasonably give. If you are not in a position to lend financial assistance, but can instead lend your time, determine how much time you can reasonably spend assisting other Champions.

Task 2 : Meet A Challenge – There are two ways you can Meet A Challenge of another Champion.

• Throw Down – When you Throw Down, you’re accepting a Challenge. You make or commit to make a donation to their Cause, according to the terms of their Challenge.
• Thrown In – If you cannot Throw Down, or if you want to do something a little different, then you can Throw In. When you Throw In, you offer your own reward in exchange for someone else accepting the challenge on your behalf. For example, if my challenge is “I will draw a Dungeon if you make a $20 dollar donation to Donors Choose,” you can Throw In by saying “If anyone accepts that challenge on my behalf, I will volunteer two hours at the Alameda Food Bank.” Throwing in is a powerful way for Champions join forces to help each other with multiple causes at the same time.

Task 3 : Go On Record – By going on record to the world that you’ve met the Challenge of another Champion, you send some potent messages. It tells your fellow Champions, as well as all of your collective supporters, that you understand that Champions are not Competitors. Going on record also tells people that you’re willing to play both sides of this game. You also help your fellow Champions get the word out about their own Challenge – something that will help them succeed.

Determine Your Limits, Meet A Challenge, Go On Record. Complete these three Tasks, and you will have completed Round 3.

Drills

1 – Compile your own list of Champions and their Challenges. You can roll it up in a blog post, or just keep it handy for your own reference.

2 – Submit your own ideas for a Drill that would be useful to other Champions.

Questions, Comments, etc below.

#iayc

(Apologies, this is a little late)

Welcome, Champions. And thank you for what you’re about to do. You’ve selected your cause, and you’ve joined the game. Let’s jump in to Round 2 tasks and see if we can’t make something happen.

When looking at traditional charity fundraiser activities, they generally follow a very specific structure : the charity holds a large event to gather together a bunch of people in one place to perform a certain task. Frequently, these are physical challenges – walk-a-thons, biking events, jumping rope, climbing stairs, but there are exceptions certainly (bake sales, telethons, Desert Bus). But their one unifying feature is they say “Come do this activity and help us raise funds.”

I Am Your Champion turns this statement around. Instead, you will say “I will perform this activity, if you give my charity a donation.”

What kind of activity? It’s entirely up to you. But let me throw out some examples.

“I will run a custom encounter for your gaming group, if you give $20 donation to my charity.”

“I will draw a dungeon map and release it Creative Commons, if you give my charity $100.”

“I will record an acoustic version of King Of The Road, and put it up for everyone to hear, if you give my charity $50.”

“I will knit a scarf and donate it to my local homeless shelter, in exchange for a $30 donation to my charity.”

“I will pass out fliers promoting your event, in exchange for a $10 donation to my charity.”

“I will go volunteer at your charity for 4 hours, in exchange for a $40 donation to my charity.”

By taking this approach to fundraising, Champions can put their best talents to work for their charities. Champions are not bound by the constraints put on them in large events, and nor are they bound by financial or time constraints. Champions can set their own boundaries and limits, and work toward them.

Task 1 : Set Your Goal – Spend some time thinking about how much money you would like help raise for your charity. Don’t limit yourself or get caught up in feelings of “Too Little” or “Too Much”

Task 2 – Design A Reward – Determine what you are going to offer the world in exchange for their donation to your cause. It could be one thing, it could be twenty things. The important thing is, it should be something new. Don’t offer copies of work you have already done. This is an opportunity for an act of creation. Take advantage of that. Size the reward or rewards appropriate to your goal.

Task 3 – Issue A Challenge – Once you have a goal, and a reward, it’s time to step out on the field and issue your challenge to the crowd. You are the Champion of your cause, and you have something to offer the world should someone choose to support your cause. Let people know what you’re doing, via blog post, personal conversations, fliers or skywriting. Make your cause, terms and reward clear, and dare people to take you up on it.

Set Your Goal, Design A Reward, Issue A Challenge. Complete these three tasks, and you will have completed Round 2.

Drills

1 – Find other Champions who are having trouble designing a reward. Offer your creative assistance.

2 – Find a symbol to represent you as Champion.

3 – As other Champions issue their Challenges, help them spread the word.

Questions, comments and Challenges below.

#iayc

I Am Your Champion is a game that will challenge your existing ideas regarding charitable fundraising. I sincerely believe that if you complete all five rounds of this game, you will look at working with charities, and your ability to assist your favorite charities, in a whole new light.

We will play the game in five rounds. Each round will begin at 10:00 AM, starting today and going through Friday. Each round will consist of three Tasks you must complete to proceed to the next round, as well as additional Drills that are optional, but will have an effect I will describe in a moment. And you can join the game at any time – if you’re reading this Friday morning, you can still complete all five rounds (but you might need to hustle).

Any player who completes all five rounds will receive a special pass from me. Only people who finish this version of the game will get this pass. In addition to being a unique and interesting item in and of itself, this pass will entitle the bearer to certain benefits to be disclosed after the game has been completed. Each one will be unique, and if you complete some of those Drills I mentioned earlier, your pass will reflect that.

I’ll be using the hashtag #iayc to post my own updates related to I Am Your Champion – feel free to do the same.

Ready to begin?

Prelude

In I Am Your Champion you are taking on the role of a Champion for the charitable cause of your choice. You pick something that has meaning to you, and for this week you’re going to rally to that cause. You’ll be rewarded along the way, and if you see this to the end, you’ll be rewarded doubly.

Round One

In the first round, your tasks are pretty simple:

Task One : Choose Your Cause – This is a Thinking task, and a very personal thing. You need to decide what cause you’re going to rally around – whose Champion will you be? It can be a big, well known organization (EFF, ASPCA, Red Cross, etc), or a small local affair we won’t recognize (a local food bank, inner city program, or even a family in a rough patch). The important thing is, it’s a work of charity.

Task Two : Decide To Play – This task is an Act of decision making. Commit to playing the game in whatever form feels right to you. Maybe it’s entirely internal, maybe you actually say to yourself “Ok. I’m in.” The expression of the act isn’t important, what matters is the act of confirming to yourself that you’re playing – that you are, for this week, a Champion for your cause.

Task Three : Announce Yourself – To make your first move as a Champion, announce yourself. Tell someone you’re playing I Am Your Champion. Then explain to them what that means, and tell them what your cause is. If you comment below, it will be easier for us all to keep track of each other, but you don’t have to comment here to play the game. You can post it on Facebook, Twitter, your own blog, or you can just tell people like your parents, coworkers, classmates, fellow barflies, or strangers on the street. Champions charge into the fray. They don’t hide at the back. You’re about to do something great, for a good cause. You can be proud of that. And you may get some of your friends involved along the way.

Choose Your Cause, Decide To Play, Announce Yourself. Complete these three tasks, and you will have completed Round One.

Drills

1 – Join the conversation on Twitter

2 – Write a dedicated blog post announcing yourself as a Champion.

3 – Directly invite 5 people to become Champions.

Any questions? Want to Announce Yourself? Sound off below!

I’m breaking format on this kickoff post because this week is something special.

This week, I want us all to play a game.  The game is open to anyone who wants to participate, but I am especially keen to have playtesters who play or design games – your feedback will be unique.  We will be playing it on our blogs, on Twitter, on the phone, on the streets, and anywhere else the players take the game.

The game will be played in five turns. The first turn begins on Monday morning at 10:00 AM, PST.  At that time I will post a description of the game and the rules for the first turn right here on this blog.

This game is something of an experiment for me, the first run of what I hope will become a much bigger version of the game.  It should be fun and rewarding, but some of that will rest on you all as players. 

Any player who completes all five rounds will receive a special pass from me.  Only people who finish this version of the game will get this pass.  In addition to being a unique and interesting item in and of itself, this pass will entitle the bearer to certain benefits to be disclosed after the game.

Interested? Curious? Speculating?

Then I will see you tomorrow morning at 10:00

#iayc

I spent the week trying to find time to go through the stuff I want to get done for 52 Weeks of Done. That was the only thing on my plate this week.

It took a little doing to actually find time to go through the list, things being what they are, but I did get through it last night. All open tasks I have to complete this year now have been prioritized, with estimates and schedules. This was a really useful exercise for me already, and I haven’t even gone through the list to do the fun part of the sorting.

First thing I learned is that I’m trying to do too much. Yeah yeah, we all knew that. But when you actually go through the list and do this kind of estimating with it, you get a really good view of just how much you’re trying to do. And how you really can’t do it all.

Second, I assigned multiple criteria that basically correspond to “How important is it to me?”, “How much time will it take to do?”, “How quickly do I need it to be done?”, and “Do I think it goes at the top of the list or the bottom of the list?” When I correlated on these criteria, this mass of tasks that I want to get done this year coalesced into a very clear image of what is really important to me this year.

I knew this exercise was going to be useful to help me get organized, but I didn’t expect such a clear picture for the year to form like it did. It’s kind of exciting. And I highly recommend you try this if you haven’t done something like this before.

I am trying to collect some data for a project I am exploring. To make the data collection process, I have put together a short survey. Six questions, multiple choice. It would take you less than a minute to complete.

If you are a game designer or someone who plays games, please take a moment to fill out this survey. This survey is only for game playing or game designing folk, please.

“But why should I?” you ask cynically.

Well, you’d be helping me figure out if the project has legs. And the project is for a good cause. And also because you might WIN SOMETHING.

If you provide your email with your survey response, you will be entered in a random drawing for one of two prizes, either $25 worth of Evil Hat PDFs (special thanks to Fred Hicks for that) or a $25 Moleskine Gift Pack courtesy of yours truly.

Winners will be notified by email, and all participants will be emailed with a follow-up survey. The email address won’t be used in any other way.

I’m keeping the survey open for only a few days, or until I get 100 responses, whichever comes first. Don’t hesitate, do it now. And please spread the word.