I think we have to keep in mind that breathless is mailing from Canada so it is understandable if hers arrives after today since she had to mail out on the 29th.

Thanks for keeping us posted, Gemme!

Nycfem is quite right, of course it is understandable that breathless's project will take a little longer to arrive.

At this time, I would like to ask for some consensus on the "tardy rule". My understanding was that "a week late" refers to someone mailing out their projects 7 days after the due date - not ensuring that the wrangler receives packages within 7 days of the due date. My reasoning: (1) Since projects mailed on the due date would take several days to reach the wrangler, a package that arrives 7 days after the due date is not really a week late, it's less than a week late. (2) If a person is mailing from a different country than the wrangler, they would not be able to take advantage of the "tardy rule", because the only way they could get it to the wrangler within a week of the due date would be international FedEx, which I believe would be cost prohibitive for most people and unfair.

I believe that the wording of the rule should be clarified. I also understand that it is very annoying and disappointing to receive projects a long time after the due date; I have been annoyed by others in the past, and of course I was late on this recent project (and again, I do apologize for any annoyance you all may have experienced). I believe that fairness would call for allowing a tardy person a full week to mail out their project, and that the postmark should be within 7 days of the due date. However, I was not around for the original discussion, and I may have misunderstood the rule since I wasn't privy to the conversation. Whatever the rule is, I would appreciate the group's clarification. It won't affect whether or not I participate (unless, maybe, the wrangler is in a different country - I would have to carefully consider that); I just want to be clear before signing up for any more projects.

Here is the rule (as a reminder):

"For 2016, the rule is if one of us is more than a week late or drops out of a project for whatever reason, that person is welcome to continue posting but is not allowed to sign up for a group project again until January 1st, 2017. No exceptions. This rule applies to participants and to wranglers. This rule must be posted at the bottom of all new projects that are being wrangled so that members can thoughtfully consider whether we wish to commit to a new project. And for the purposes of clarification, if someone drops out before the deadline to sign up has been closed then they are not excluded from future projects because they are still following the rules."

Thanks for your time and attention.

Hi, GeorgiaMa'am, glad you brought this up. Here's how I would clarify it:

""For 2016, the rule is if one of our projects is received by the wrangler more than a week late or drops out of a project for whatever reason, that person is welcome to continue posting but is not allowed to sign up for a group project again until January 1st, 2017. No exceptions. This rule applies to participants and to wranglers. This rule must be posted at the bottom of all new projects that are being wrangled so that members can thoughtfully consider whether we wish to commit to a new project. And for the purposes of clarification, if someone drops out before the deadline to sign up has been closed then they are not excluded from future projects because they are still following the rules."

However, I do not feel this rule applies to Breathless for this current project since Breathless was given the specific instruction to mail on the 29th, and she followed that rule. It would not be fair to ask her to pay more than what traditional mailing costs since she followed the rule.

I personally don't think it's a good idea to say that it has to have a postmark within a week of the due date because then that means someone's project could hold up a mailing out of projects over a week, which seems excessive to me. Also I'd be worried that someone might say, "I mailed it" and we'd have no way of knowing if that were even true. If something must be RECEIVED by a certain date then we know projects will definitely be mailed out within a week of their due date (Again, this project was a special situation because of Gemme's special Leap Year rule.).

In the future, without the special circumstance of the current project, people from other countries can simply plan to mail out by whatever date is needed for the project to arrive on time.

If the majority are okay with it, let's change the paragraph to include the clarified paragraph at the end of every project (the one I started this post with but with the bolded part included).

Thank you for bringing up the need for clarification. It is definitely necessary for future projects.

And off the sake of good grammar, here we go:

"For 2016, the rule is if one of our projects is received by the wrangler more than a week late, or one of us drops out of a project for whatever reason, that person is welcome to continue posting but is not allowed to sign up for a group project again until January 1st, 2017. No exceptions. This rule applies to participants and to wranglers. This rule must be posted at the bottom of all new projects that are being wrangled so that members can thoughtfully consider whether we wish to commit to a new project. And for the purposes of clarification, if someone drops out before the deadline to sign up has been closed then they are not excluded from future projects because they are still following the rules."

Thanks nycfem. I see how it could be read either way. Can I suggest the following? My change is in blue:

"For 2016, the rule is if one of our projects is received by the wrangler more than 7 days after the due date or drops out of a project for whatever reason, . . ."

Or, we could define that "due date" means "due to the wrangler", not "due to be mailed", which is where I was getting confused.

-Georgia

One more thing I would like to ask you all about:

For those of you who applied something wet (paint, glue, etc.) to your ATCs, how did you get your cards to lie flat? I did the best I could, but mine are definitely warped.

-Georgia

GeorgiaMa'am, great call there. I added your clarification below:

"For 2016, the rule is if one of our projects is received by the wrangler more than seven days after the due date, or one of us drops out of a project for whatever reason, that person is welcome to continue posting but is not allowed to sign up for a group project again until January 1st, 2017. No exceptions. This rule applies to participants and to wranglers. This rule must be posted at the bottom of all new projects that are being wrangled so that members can thoughtfully consider whether we wish to commit to a new project. And for the purposes of clarification, if someone drops out before the deadline to sign up has been closed then they are not excluded from future projects because they are still following the rules."

You want to get good, sturdy watercolor paper if you are going to be applying anything wet to your cards. Card stock is not meant to absorb moisture, or other kinds of paper. Getting watercolor paper and cutting your cards from there should help.

I think it would probably work best if someone from outside the US wants to participate in the project and you think you would not be able to get your project in on time when looking at the expected due date for the project to be received, then speak up before the sign up closes and tell us what date would be safe to say the project must be received by before they get mailed out. Then that date would apply to everyone so that we all know, "This project must be received by May 1st (with seven days late arrival flexibility), no matter where it's coming from." If we don't go with an arrival date as the due date then we are stuck with waiting indefinitely if a project is not received when a person says that they mailed it out. We want to be able to rely on knowing the project will be received within a week of whatever due date has been originally agreed upon. (Noting, as always, Gemme's project is different because of the special Leap Year thing).

Thanks for the update, Gemme! Can't wait to see how these turned out!!!

Gemme, just to let you know I received the card with the $5 in it back because i forgot to put a stamp on it! I just stamped it and it will go out again Monday. Sorry about that.