As we ring in the new year and say farewell to 2013, it’s a great opportunity to celebrate the success of the 2013 Can’t Stop the Serenity season and thank those who have worked so hard to make it possible. Over $110,000 was raised for Equality Now and other charities by countless volunteers across the world, which brings to total raised since the begining of CSTS to over $900,000! This achievement could not have been realised without the tireless energy, enthusiasm and dedication of the volunteers on the Global Team and at each of the local events. On behalf of the Global Steering Committee (GSC), please accept our congratulations and our thanks.
The Global Team have given countless hours behind the scenes for over a year, and we would especially like to thank Dave Catoe, Stephanie Leisure, Liam Merrick, William Pace, Sheilah O’Connor, Phil Towle, and Julia Svaganovic (as well as their families for allowing them to give so much).
We would also like to thank each and every individual who helped pull together a CSTS event. Thank you to our event Captains for leading the charge and bringing it all together. Thank you to their support crew, for being a helping hand, a listening ear, a keen eye, a tireless promoter, a cheer leader and a hard worker. Without each of you, Can’t Stop the Serenity would simply not happen.
Thank you to our supporters and sponsors, for donating goods for giveaway and auction, for promoting locally and globally, for providing support and advice, and for sharing in our love of the Browncoat fandom and Can’t Stop the Serenity.
CSTS 2014 will be our 9th CSTS season and also marks Joss Whedon’s 50th Birthday! So please join us to celebrate!
As we get the ball rolling, we’d like to provide a few updates about what we can look forward to. Our search for a volunteer willing to take the helm at Global Event Coordinator (GEC) has not been successful, but we are still forging ahead. With no GEC in place right now, the responsibility for steering the ship will be taken on by the GSC. We are very pleased to announce that Stephanie, Sheilah, William, Phil and Julia will be staying on at a global level, as are all members of the GSC. Thankfully, past Global Teams have left a strong foundation to work with, our returning global volunteers are very experienced and many of the behind the scenes pre-season tasks are already underway, including securing licensing, art Contest and administration.
But this means that 2014 will see some changes from past years. Some things will remain unchanged (such as the Expression of Interest/Registration process and the rules around licensing, copyright, proportion of the proceeds to charities other than Equality Now). But some of the other things you may have come to expect may no longer be possible. These include a global introduction video, donated items for prizes from global sponsors, and globally produced merchandise – unless someone would like to volunteer to take charge of these. We will also be doing our best to ease the load on local event crews and global volunteers, and taking on board a lot of the feedback we’ve received.
We are confident that the 2014 CSTS season will be a success and we invite all of you to share the excitement with us. We look forward to seeing local events coming together and welcoming new teams into the fold. If you’d like to hold an event in 2014, we look forward to hearing from you and event registrations will be opening soon. And if you’d like to help out at a global level, we’d love to hear from you.
Bring on 2014!!
– Jen, Marg & Mandy
CSTS Global Steering Committee
