Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with group

I need help naming my blog.

seandq — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:50:49 -0800

I need help naming my blog. I'm doing something a bit new, a bit random. I'm basically a high school senior who is taking on some friends with me to create a group blog on everything - mainly sports, entertainment, news, politics, etc.

I originally thought of hosting this blog on my domain and then just outsourcing my friends' posts as guest posts. Then it struck me it might just be a good idea to put all of our work together on its own site.

Ideas I'm hovering towards involving the phrase "Vox Populi", "Hive Mind", or "Groupthink". However, finding an open domain with those in there is a very hard thing to do. I want to emphasis the collaboration aspect, and possibly to a lesser degree the fact we're teenagers, and soon we'll be college students.

Thanks in advance!

Wii group games?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:40:18 -0800

Buying a Wii game for my parents. They have the sports and resort games, I'd like it to be something that multiple people can play, ideally at a party, as that's when they use it the most. Great group Wii games?

The most fun way to hold a raffle

biwa-shu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:23:30 -0800

Are there more fun ways to give away a variety of prizes at a raffle than just draw names/numbers from a box? ie: gameshow-style, competitions, etc. We'll be having a raffle at an event with about 80 people. We'll have a variety of prizes worth anywhere from $5 to $50. What are some fun ways that we can choose the recipients, instead of just going "OK, next one ... OK, next one..."?

Group assignment advice

mattoxic — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:58:17 -0800

I've to hand in a group assignment tomorrow and the input from one of the members is crap- terrible writing, no references, no clue, nice guy. I want to remain friends but want to dramatically edit his work. How can I break it to him that his work needed treatment? I'm terrible at this sort of thing. btw, this thread doesn't really answer my question as we're handing in tomorrow. Also- he's old buddies with the other group member who I don't know very well.

Stop running and identify yourselves!

Acacia — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:18:54 -0800

Help me identify the 4 running dudes pictured on this button. I found this bag of buttons at a garage sale, and have had them banging around the house for about 15 years. A few friends have thought the image to be that of the Beatles, but I'm not so sure. I have no back story on the bag o' buttons to help solve the mystery. Can you identify what I assume is a rock band?

I can't believe I can't do this!

Pennyblack — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:15:42 -0800

What can some people do that other people can't do? What can some see that others can't? Think: Tongue rolling.
I'm looking for some simple, fun party tricks for showing neurological, psychological or physiological differences in people.
I know of a few for showing gender differences (bending chair lifting) and determining left or right brained (lining up a finger on a straight wall and alternating open eyes), but that's about it.
This is for a teen group, so no UR Gay (crazy, retarded...) pseudo psychological stuff. I just want to show that people have differences, and that is a FUN thing.

Get Outlook to tell me how many emails I get in a month.

furtive — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:53:06 -0800

Get Outlook to tell me how many emails I receive in a month. I've got three folders with archived messages, separated by year.

I'd like to know how many emails I got each month in those folders, without having to do it manually (I have about 3800 emails in each folder).

I'm using Outlook 2003 and am willing to export things if necessary.

Finding a new reflecting pool

gypseefire — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:45:25 -0800

Once upon a time I found myself in an amazing chat room where people actually discussed spirituality, politics, dreams, ologies etc...and did so in a respectful manner. This room was very engaging, challenging and inspiring and I am searching for a new discussion group or chat room that is similar in its dynamic. Any suggestions?

Where to host 90th birthday party for 30 people near Providence, RI?

boulder20something — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:18:38 -0800

Where to host 90th birthday party for 30 people near Providence, RI? Hosting a 90th birthday party for my grandmother during Columbus Day weekend. The family all leaves in SE Mass and Northern RI, so we'd like to have something in that area. I am looking for a venue that would hold 30 people comfortably, either brunch or dinner. Relatively inexpensive, thinking $25/pp not including booze. I am from Colorado so I am having a hard time finding a place without any knowledge of the area... Any thoughts/ideas?? Thanks so much!

Therapy without doctors

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:28:36 -0800

I can't do therapy. There must be other people who can't do therapy. What do these people do, when they get together, to fix their problems? What DIY, collaborative options are on the table, and how do I find them? I've had a really bad month to year -- graduate school has gone from bad to worse, and I can't get out of it. Suffice it to say, I am very, very sad. I've spent a lot of the last year alone, and am now am estranged from a lot of my friends. I've tried relocating temporarily to a new city, but I find myself getting increasingly desperate and related ramifications of total isolation. I have one friend who I talk to, and I feel like there's a limited tolerance for this kind of thing (there would be if I were the friend -- and he's been incredibly patient -- but it's got to be exhausting to listen to).

When I'm really sad, I get really paranoid, and I just fail totally to be able to communicate. This is obviously a problem. I do have this friend -- but again, I feel like I lean on him a lot -- and it's all I can do, when I'm really upset, to even make that contact.

Obvious solution -- therapy! Right? Therapy fixes everything! Except that I really, really object to this, and can't imagine attempting to fix what's wrong with my life -- itself the product of a highly professionalized, goal-and-career-oriented trajectory -- by going in for an hour a day of treatment I can't afford, talking to a "qualified medical professional" for forty five minute, once a week. I don't think that these are a substitute for basic, warm, HUMAN contact (not professionalized contact), which is what I feel like I need right now --- leaving aside the entirely disingenuous "fee-for-service" structure of mental health care (and especially private psychiatric care) that is a given in engaging with the medical establishment in any capacity.

I know there are groups that do low-cost community therapy. The ones I've seen in New York (where I am) are all part of the state hospital system -- which again, I don't want to go anywhere near or touch. I've seen a few that look like they make sense to me, but they're mostly in San Francisco. The one thing that has worked for me is low-cost yoga and meditation type stuff -- I've been doing a little bit of this in Philadelphia (where I am right now) and it's been a tremendous (if transient) relief. If anyone has suggestions for places they know and trust, in this line (or in the group therapy line) in New York, I would really appreciate any guidance.

Thanks in advance for all your help...and I'm sorry, in advance, for so aggressively bashing CBT, which I know a lot of people use, and which probably works. All I mean to say is, it doesn't work for me, and I'd REALLY like advice on where else to go...

comics for snobs

sponge — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:20:07 -0800

Can you recommend any graphic novel / comic forums or groups that focus on more obscure, non Barnes and Noble titles? Or that are more focused on the art, illustration qualities.

Related: 1, 2.

Thanks!

Good place for a small group gathering for boisterous board game fun?

1024x768 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:16:13 -0800

Good place for a small group gathering for boisterous board game fun? I have a small group I get together with on the weekends to play board games. We've recently swelled in number to 7 people and we're outgrowing our current meeting place (one of the players apartments). We're looking for a place to play that's open on Saturdays (and hopefully Sundays) and can tolerate at least 7 very boisterous and loud people playing games for several hours every other weekend or so. Cost is a big issue, it should be free or very cheap (as in a couple bucks a person or less). There needs to be a large enough seating area that all the players can sit down at the same table, room for the board, any papers/miscellanea for each player, etc.

None of us are affiliated with any churches or community organizations that would have meeting space. We're thinking we'd be a bit loud for the meeting rooms at the local library. None of us are in college so we can't meet in any empty classroom.

What places exist for this sort of gathering? General suggestions are greatly appreciated. Bonus points for any specific place suggestions that are in or easily accessible from Chicago.

Facebook group vs. Facebook page

veggieboy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:31:50 -0800

Blog has a Facebook group . . . but I think maybe it wants a Facebook page. What is the real difference? Advantages/disadvantages? If I switch from group to page, I'm going to have to start from scratch, i.e. invite everyone all over again, right? As it stands, the Facebook group is envisioned mostly as a way for people who enjoy the blog to let other people know about it. (You see the blog mentioned on your friend's Facebook page somehow and decide to check it out. Success!)

There's not a lot of interaction regarding the blog that needs to take place on Facebook. Occasionally it might be used to let people know how they can support the blog, and for any blog milestones.

So what would be the best way to accomplish this? My impression is that Facebook has revamped pages to be more active than groups, which seem to just sort of sit there and not, say, appear in your feed ever. But please correct me if I'm wrong. And thank you.

Joining MP3 Files Together Based on Date in Filename?

WCityMike — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:08:55 -0800

I have a podcast that downloads as multiple segments over multiple days. Its format arrives as YYYYMMDD_showcode_segment.mp3; so, for example, one download might result in files as 20090323_goofa_01.mp3 through 20090323_goofa_21.mp3, and also within the same download 20090324_goofa_01.mp3 through 20090324_goofa_21.mp3. What I'm looking for is a Unix script (shell, perl, what have you) that would look at a directory and look at what dates are represented there, and let me join all of the segments together by day. I can use mpgtx -j to do the actual joining; I'm looking for the code that would let the script determine what dates are in the directory and then get each day's segments united into a single MP3 for that day's show.

Large Group Consensus-Building Methods

choragus — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:01:18 -0800

What types of large group (+50 members) consensus-building methods can prioritize information quickly? I'm working as a contractor to a US Government Agency. It is at a department level in one of the smaller Gov't agencies, so increasing profit is not a motive. Increasing departmental trust and collaboration is one of the primary drivers.

They conducted a culture assessment Q3 2008 indicating the leadership team needed to set a departmental vision and mission. That work is done. Their strategy was to have 8 teams of volunteers work for appox. one month on strategic approaches to implement the vision and mission.

The department is having a one-day outbrief meeting on from the teams who should be recommending 3-5 approaches to implement the four themes in their vision and mission. So, there could be anywhere from 24-40 items for consideration.

I'd like to have a consensus from the approx 50-80 members of the teams on which of the items should be taken up. They will have about 90 minutes for prioritizing by consensus.

Sticky dots methods are not receiving much traction, so far.

I would welcome some discussion here. And, I suspect that there are links to blogs you've stored away ready to throw out should a need arise. Pull them out and toss them in the soup for all to benefit.

DIY group therapy

serazin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:36:16 -0800

I think I'm looking for co-counseling, but without the co-counseling. I've done many, many years of therapy by myself and with various partners and I'm pretty much over it. However, I think I would get a lot out of having a small group of folks to share with who weren't necessarily my close friends or professionals either. Somewhere with a semi-formal structure that had some guidelines but without a formal mediator or counselor. Ideally with people who have some very basic background in therapeutic techniques.

I like some of what I've heard about co-counseling - the peer-to-peer, nonprofessional aspect mostly. But I feel very skeptical about the culture of co-counseling, the classes you're expected to spend money on, the ideology and (to me) goofy sounding jargon.

Anyhow, is there some organization I can join that's less formal that co-counseling? Are there groups like what I'm describing already around? Do you have suggestions for how I could find a few people to form such a group with?

I live in the SF Bay Area if that matters.

How can I balance the various needs of support group members?

cranberrymonger — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:41:24 -0800

I would like to learn to better facilitate a stress support group. I volunteer with a women's centre and I'm currently co-facilitating a support group (with 8-10 female participants) called "Stress to Strength". I've lead one group before on a semi-related topic. The facilitator is supposed to guide the discussion, enforce the rules that the group establishes, foster an accepting atmosphere, etc. The group's main purpose is to provide emotional/social support but we also try to bring some education into the mix (e.g. the value of meditation, stretching, nutrition, exercise)

I ran into a problem last week though, when one older (60+) woman started disclosing really specific information about her personal issues. For example, we were discussing "symptoms of stress" and then she launched into talking about how she's a compulsive hoarder, how she's fearful of losing her mind, how she's isolated, etc.

Often, if someone brings up a tough question, I might flip it around and ask the group. (If someone says they feel isolated, I would ask how others have formed friendships.) With this woman though, I can't flip every question to the group because we'd end up talking about her all night long.

I think she has a lot of really intense needs that a casual support group will not likely be able to meet. It seems like her questions and issues relate to really personal, deep-seated anxieties and fears and not the kind of daily stressors we plan to discuss - and we think will benefit the most number of people.

How do I balance her need for attention and support with the needs of the other participants? How can I nip her long stories in the bud and keep the group on-topic without making her feel judged or like she can't share her feelings? How (if this is a good idea at all) could I suggest that she may want to look into other support options to supplement the group?

How do I post many photos for a group to view?

rdauphin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:27:57 -0800

I'm taking lots of photos for my community theater group, and I want to post them online for cast members to view and download. What's the best way to do that? Before the show is over, I'll probably have 400 high resolution photos to post. I want to leave them up for 6 weeks, so I don't need a long-term storage solution, just a way to provide easy access to cast members.

I opened a Flickr account, but I would be way above their free account limits. I use Picasa for editing, and Picasaweb has similar limits. I thought about setting up an online group through Yahoo or Google, but I don't have email addresses for cast and crew. I'm not sure if those are ideal for pictures anyway.

Free is best, as I'm donating my time and talents to the group, but I would be willing to pay a small amount for this service. What would you suggest?

I need a free, web-based calendar/scheduling thingie for my volunteer group.

micawber — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:19:58 -0800

I need a very simple group web-based calendar for a volunteer organization I am part of. It also has to be FREE. [Before you ask Google Calendar does not work because we cannot mandate that people have a Google account. Let's just leave it at that. We can't do it.] The idea is that the pastors will list all of the volunteer events on a calendar, and then everyone who wants to volunteer could put their names and what time they're showing up on that day. I'm thinking of a calendar where you could click and add your name or initials on the dates you can work. It would be great if I could create user accounts/profiles for each person, but it's not mandatory - but it does have to have some kind of basic password protection so the entire world can't come in and see what's going on. I'm not much worried about someone overwriting or erasing someone else (at least not now) so the account thing isn't mandatory. (Yes, it would be great if we were big enough for a volunteer coordinator and all of that, but we're not, I'm trying to solve this with technology for now. If you could graciously confine your answers to technology-based ones that would be awesome.) Thanks.

Cooking for hungry, hurried students

scission — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:33:23 -0800

What should I make for breakfast? I'm giving away the food to students who are on their way out of the dorm, heading to class. Easy to eat and easy to cook are both appreciated! This is a social event at college, for recruitment / rush but hopefully unintrusive about that.

-I have access to one kitchen, but there are others nearby if necessary (only for prep work)
-The space is small-ish and I'm told that the oven burns things easily; maybe it's hotter than it claims?
-No specific restriction on ingredients except that I have to buy it at an average supermarket and prefer cheaper things

The only thing that comes to mind for me is pancakes, but since we are having multiple breakfast events throughout the next month, I want more ideas to break up the tedium. Bonus points if you can offer advice on what works well in a hectic setting like this.

How to "select all" drawing objects in Word?

roxie110 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:46:13 -0800

Is it possible to "select all" drawing objects at one time in Word 2000 (in order to move them together) rather than holding down the SHIFT key and selecting them individually? I need to add titles to the axes of a graph that's a picture embedded in a Word document. Right now, the margins of the picture don't allow room for this. I can adjust the bottom margin of the picture but when I try to adjust the left margin, the graph just moves to the left, so I can't make room for the axis title that way.

The solution I've come up with, since I can't seem to enlarge the canvas of the picture (does anyone know how?), is to move all the elements of the graph to the left. Currently, I have to select each element using the SHIFT key, then move them together, which is time-consuming (there are TONS of little "pieces") and can lead to errors. I'd love to be able to select all elements at once and move them at once. I thought "Group" might work, but you still have to select individually. Help!

(PS--If more recent versions of Word provide a solution, I'd love to hear it.)

Books/resources on running community groups

symphonik — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:03:46 -0800

I fail at Amazon. Help me find a book on running a small community group. My sister has just started up an LGBT group in her large but very conservative town. I am trying to find her a really good book on how to run a small community group, like how to run effective meetings, host community events, run outreach/advertising/fundraising programs, etc.

Many (most) of the books that come up seem to refer to either intra-corporation groups ("task forces" and such) or small Christian ministries (whose goals, you can imagine, are probably orthogonal to the goals of her group).

Can anyone recommend some great books and resources on starting and running local community groups?

Communicating with a group via text and email?

zingzangzung — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:42:39 -0800

Communicating with a group via text and email? How can a group of 7 communicate via text and email. 3 are email only, 4 are text only, the idea is any member can send a single text or email which is delivered to all 7 as an email or text as appropriate. Does this exist? Alternate suggestions welcome. To make it more complex, everyone has different email and phone services (and won't/can't change), and most are not techie enough to send an email from their phone. UK based if relevant.

Help Me Find A Book On Why Groups Can Be Bad

defben — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:37:09 -0800

Everyone knows the positive effects of working in groups, but I read about this book that talked about the negative effects of working in groups. I don't remember the title, I don't remember the author. Does anyone have an idea on what this book would be?

Do any nation societies for Art & Technology exist in the US?

Black_Umbrella — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:10:25 -0800

Are there any large (national) Art & Technology societies in the US? I am having a hard time digging up information about Art & Technology societies in the US. Most that I find are localized with a school or program, none that have national appeal.

Ultimately, I am looking to buy mailing lists or place advertisements with these specialized organizations. I am hoping to find something like the American Philosophical Association (APA) or Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). But so far I have had zero luck.

Can anyone help?