This is how I envision it working, though it would probably change/get modified as things went along:
1. At least a week before our monthly meeting, whoever was being crit would send the pages to me as an .rtf file.
2. I would in turn send it out to everyone participating.
3. Over the course of that week, everyone who was not the author would read the pages, prepare their thoughts and comments, and assemble in the chat room.
4. When we got together, we'd begin at some arbitrary point and go around the virtual room, offering our feedback to the author.
5. Because we're such a large group, we'd have to set a time limit to the meetings and probably wouldn't get through everyone. (This does not mean you should not come prepared; everyone who participates will be expected to have read the pages being critiqued and be prepared to offer feedback on them.)
5a. As for the time limit, I'd say 1.0 to 1.5 hours to go around the room plus an additional 30 minutes for the author to ask for clarification or their own questions if points they were wondering about were not addressed.
6. Those who had not given their feedback could later e-mail their comments to the author.
I say there's enough interest to make a go of this, so those of you who are interested, go ahead and start sending me your e-mail addresses at lori(at)royell(dot)org. I'll work on finding a good time for the majority of people. I can tell you I'm unavailable Tuesday or Thursday and would rather not do it on Saturday.
I already have one fellow mod who's volunteered to assist and he'd better believe I'm taking him up on that.
As already mentioned, we may end up having to split into smaller groups, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
