But they’re not sitting on their laurels. This year promises to be better than ever.
There is a scavenger hunt on now, with the winner to be announced at the screening.

Jewel Staite dropped by to sign all sorts of items for the auction. She has even offered to record a ringtone for some successful bidder!
There is trivia bingo, and since it is Towel Day there will even be some Vorgon poetry! There’s an Evil Laugh contest, a screening of Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog and more!

And of course, Serenity itself. It all starts at 12:30 and details can be found here or here.

How do you enter? If you are on Twitter, just retweet an @CSTS or @EqualityNow tweet, then send us a tweet and tell us which calender you would like. Include the hashtag #signal

If you are on Facebook, share one of our posts or one of Equality Now’s and again, let us know you did it, and which calender you would like.

The contest will run from now till the end of Wed. May 1, Pacific Time.

Retweet and/or Share as often as you like.

The Tidewater Browncoats in Norfolk, Virginia have the first screening of the Season. They will be showing Dr. Horrible’s Sing a long Blog, Mikey Mason is doing not one but two sets and new this year is Comedian James Rodatus. There will be many funny videos and last and certainly not least, the movie itself. Serenity. Proceeds go to Equality Now and Samaritan House.
Costumes are encouraged and you can buy tickets at the door.

Up Canada way, the Alberta Browncoats are starting with an Affiliate event at Happy Harbour Comics in Edmonton. Watch Dr. Horrible and some great videos of the nerdy kind. Admission is by donation – be generous. The money goes to great charities; Equality Now and YESS. For details see the website.

Interested in having an event yourself? Registration is still open for August and September. Check out Host an Event just up there ^, for details!

Being part of Can’t Stop the Serenity – as an organizer, a sponsor or an attendee – means that you are helping to put a stop to violence and discrimination. By using your voice and opening your wallet, you are helping to change the world for the better. For each friend you tell about the work of Equality Now, you are adding a voice to the chorus for change. For every dollar that you spend on tickets, merchandise and donate, you are giving Equality Now the ability to make change happen.

It’s the people at Equality Now and their partners who do the really hard work, who help rebuild the lives of women and girls who have experienced horrific treatment at the hands of individuals and governments, and who fight to change the communities and laws to protect instead of injure. And by giving generously of your time, energy and money, you give them the power to do what they’ve been called to do.

But what exactly does Equality Now do? This month, we’d like to highlight one of the areas where Equality Now has been working for change.

Alma is a survivor of commercial sex exploitation, coerced into prostitution by the owner of a bar near a US military base in the Philippines. Alma’s story is the first in a series of Survivor Stories. Each month, a new story will be published at www.equalitynow.org/survivorstories amplifying survivor’s voices to expose coercion, trafficking and sexual abuse in Cambodia, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, the US, and the UK. The series highlights the work of anti-trafficking advocates around the world and offers online actions readers can take to support global efforts against the multi-billion-dollar trafficking industry. The Survivor Stories series aims to firmly establish the link between trafficking and how it fuels the large and diverse commercial sex industry. Equality Now and its partners are committed to reducing the demand for commercial sex by advancing policies that criminalize buyers of sex while decriminalizing those who are sold for sex and providing them with support services.

Do we have just the thing for you! Hold a Can’t Stop the Serenity Event! It’s BIG (or small), Splashy (or sedate). We will help you promote it and it will be the event to attend!

Think about it. You get to see Serenity if you choose to do a full screening, or with an Affiliate event, Dr Horrible and a whole slew of other videos we got permission to show this year. You are surrounded by fellow Browncoats and anyone else you choose to invite. (Maybe your great aunt Ethel needs a night out?) And you raise money for charity.
Win Win Win.

Intrigued? Check out the details just up there at Host an Event.

Note: If you want to hold an event in June or July, the deadline for getting a full registration in is March 31st.

With Equality Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, we are especially pleased to be able to donate in this banner year.

Thank you to all our sponsors, organizers, and participants, for contributing to this tremendous success!

We deeply appreciate your commitment and generosity in helping us to support the rights of women and girls worldwide.

We’ve made a couple of changes we think you will like. The event window now starts April 1st and goes until Sept. 30.
We hope that this will give colleges, universities and other schools a better chance to run either a full screening or an Affiliate while school is still in. Cities that have a good sized school in their area can consider if they will get students if they hold their event in one of the spring months.

There are 2 kinds of events.
Screenings show Serenity and may or may not have a variety of other things as well, such as raffles, auctions, contests and other multimedia (pending licensing arrangements). The majority of CSTS events are Screening events.

Affiliate This can be any kind of event that doesn’t feature a screening of Serenity, such as a BBQ, Dr Horrible screening, dance party, musical performance, trivia night etc. The options are only as limited as your imagination! We have a wide assortment of videos that we have been given the license to show, from the Guild to an episode from The Daly Show. If you can’t organize a Screening Event, an Affiliate Event may be the answer. The money raised goes to Charity just as the Screening events profits do. 75% goes to Equality Now and the other 25% can also go there or you may choose to designate it for other charities.

Want to know more? Check the details at the Host An Event tab above. This includes the all important deadlines.

If you are interested in running one of these but don’t have all the details set, fill in the short Expression of Interest Form.

If you have everything all set, then go straight to the Registration Form and fill that in. Either will let us know you are working on it and you will get access to all sorts of information and help.

Welcome to Can’t Stop The Serenity 2013. We are glad to have you onboard.

A guy had an idea and others bought into it, nurtured it and
now here we are. I don’t know the names of all the plank owners, the
organizers of the first events, but one day I will and if I ever meet
you I’ll certainly buy the first round.

We’ve been asking around for ways to make things better and we’ve received some good ideas.
First, the registration process is being streamlined.
Second,we’re going to open up the event window to include April and May. Our hope is to
attract events at college towns and on campuses while the kids are still
in town. This might work, it might not. If it brings in a little money
then that’s money for a good cause and it’s all to the good.

There is a caveat: the merch and the donation packs might not be ready.

We can however supply lots of additional content in the forms of funny dvds and
Browncoat music. Adam Warrock, Mikey Mason and Marc Gunn have all
donated music and the Signal has made several anthologies available that
we can burn to cd.

Break.com, TheDalyShow, Nathan Town and Mikey Mason have granted permission
to use some very funny stuff. We’ve burned that
to dvd and will deliver it fresh to your door. Felicia Day is letting us
screen The Guild episodes so snag the dvds and have at it.

Third, we’re exploring how to make this year’s artwork available to Cafe Press, Zazzle or
whoever gives us the best deal in order to make the merch available to
folks who couldn’t make an event or the shows that didn’t make a bulk
order. Watch the forums and feel free to give input.

We here at CSTS Globular Command realize that we’re geeks helping
other geeks watch geekery. To that end we have two jobs.
One, provide
assistance and content to help you run a successful event.
The other is
to make sure that the people who give you money can be confident that
the funds are going to do some good. Use transparent accounting and
please respect copyrights.

You have two jobs, too. One, raise funds for our worthy causes.
Two, have as much fun as possible doing it. Be bold, be creative.
Sometimes events can get a bit stale doing the same thing year after
year. Feel free to spend a little money on entertainment. You might send
in a bit less but you might keep a good thing going a few years more.
If
you are fried, if you have a gripe or a problem or if you have some
ideas feel free to call me at 757-636-0536. Write me at
dave.catoe@cantstoptheserenity.com , we can skype as well.

Be active on the forums. Remember that we’re nerds cut from the same cloth or else we
wouldn’t be here. Stay Shiny,

Dave

Dave hails from Norfolk, Virginia, is a member of the Tidewater Browncoats and has been the lead organiser of CSTS Norfolk since 2010. He’s found a great mother/daughter team to take over the running of the local event, and is keen to put his energy into the global role. As a retired air traffic controller, he’s got a real handle on managing the stresses that may come with the job, and as an ex-marine he’s more than up for the challenge. And of course, he loves Firefly, Serenity and Equality Now! He first discovered Firefly in 2005 after catching “Our Mrs Reynolds” on the SciFi channel – he ran straight out and bought the box set that same evening!

In his application, Dave shared why he wanted to take on this challenging role: “Why do I want to do it? Because I’ve come to love the CSTS campaign and you needed somebody to step up and do the job. I had intended one day to volunteer at some level at Global, I’ve run 3 decent events and now that I’m retired I have the time to do my bit for the cause.” In addition to running his local CSTS event and taking charge of the Tidewater Browncoats, Dave has also organized several food drives through his local Browncoat group in conjunction with Shindigs, organised a concert with Marian Call in conjunction with a local comic book shop, and has just finished putting together a concert with Mikey Mason. And somehow he still finds time to be an avid sailor and amateur blacksmith!

Tanya Morris, of the Charlotte Browncoats and a former Global Team member, was fortunate to be Dave’s mentor in his first year as a local organiser. She says “I met Dave as his CSTS mentor during his first year as a local organizer in Norfolk, VA in 2010. At the time, he was armed with enthusiasm and ambition. He had a clear vision of his goals for the Norfolk event. And he worked tirelessly for months to make his first event a success. He learned about grass-roots promotion and how to source his local volunteers. And his first event turned a profit! Since then, Dave and I have stayed in touch. He remains a very determined leader for his Tidewater Browncoats, attends nearby conventions to promote CSTS, has befriended local business owners and members of other sci-fi fandoms, and is constantly brainstorming ways to improve. This past summer, I finally had a chance to attend the Norfolk CSTS event and it was the most fun I’ve had at any of the charity events I’ve attended. It was especially nice to be able to see Dave in action. Advance planning by Dave prevents a lot of last-minute emergencies, and he recruited a number of volunteers so he didn’t end up having to do every job. He is a no-nonsense leader, but took the time to compliment and reward all of his volunteers. He recognizes other people’s strengths and uses their talents to benefit the team. Further, Dave is exceedingly interested in the success of CSTS as a whole. He pays close attention to the events in other parts of the world. I think Dave would be an excellent Global Event Coordinator who will work well with the support team and push CSTS forward through another successful year.”

Already things are starting to take shape for 2013! Our art contest has come to an end and we’re very excited to announce that the winner is Steve Jeyes!

Well known Whedon actors welcome the fans to the screening, and thank them for attending. Didn’t get a chance to go to a screening this year? No worries! We have now put the video up on our YouTube channel for all to see. Sean Maher, Tahmoh Penikett, Amy Acker, Jane Espensen, and artist Jason Palmer guest star.

The video also includes the piece “When We Speak, written by Joss Whedon and performed at the 20th Anniversary Fundraiser for Equality Now.

The global team would like to offer our special thanks to all those who contributed to the video, and to Liam Merrick for pulling it all together.

Check out our YouTube Channel for more videos, including past Global Intros and content from Equality Now on their 20th Anniversary. ]]> http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/2012/12/01/watch-the-2012-csts-intro-video/feed/ 0