blueprints

256 | toolkit: sandpaper, wallpaper, and paint
should experience your offer as a kind of pressure. Do offer maps, route
advice, or inside knowledge if you have it. If you don’t, someone else will.
Packets
Packets containing detailed information about the event schedule, locations,
and contact information relieve your poets of the need to wonder
and worry about where they have to be next and free them to attend to
what you’ve asked them to do. The contents of the packets will vary
depending on your event; see the checklist for more details. Poets should
receive event packets at first contact (at the airport, hotel, or registration
desk, as the case may be); e-mailing a schedule in advance is also a good
idea. If two or more poets are presenting together and have books, giving
them copies of one another’s books is a very nice courtesy, if you have the
money. Otherwise, copies of individual poems will do. It’s also a nice touch
to include copies of the series or event poster for the poets to take home.
Many of us remember the old days of AWP, when the conference was still
so small that the names of all the presenters could fit on a T-shirt. Each presenter
received a shirt in the registration packets; many of us still treasure
these, as battered as they may be by now. Finally, if poets need to return
receipts for anything, include a stamped envelope addressed to the person
responsible for reimbursement. The commonsense rule for packets and
schedules is to give as much information as you can, in as clear a format as
you can, about what visitors really need on a minute-by-minute basis
(phone numbers, reservation numbers, times, places) together at the top of
the schedule.
Transportation
If you’re transporting a poet to an event, whether from home, a hotel,
or a pre-event reception, arrive a few minutes (perhaps five) before the
scheduled pickup time. In the latter case, let the poet know five or ten minutes
before you need to depart. Because not all poets are precisely punctual,
allow plenty of time to get from the pickup site to the event. When the
poet is ready to go, ask if she has books, reading copies, exercises, speech—
whatever will be needed at the event. Even with clear schedules, people
who are nervous, perhaps far from home, and in a rush can be confused or
forgetful. On the way to the event, go over what the poet can expect. Will
there be a Q&A? Will she be expected to sign books after the event? When
will there be food?