Hello everyone,

General:
First of all, I want to thank everyone for the concern for my son. I am pleased to say that he has recovered from his bout of malaria, and has been recuperating with us. He is just going back to work. I think the real problem was caused by having to supervise the runway works at night in pouring rain while the malaria was developing, so he had a chill at the same time.

Regular Challenges:

Points from the Past:
I am giving an up-to-date tally of points so far gained from the past challenges. I have delayed this because I had wanted to gather everyone's assessments together before allocating points. It may seem a laborious business, but having had no little experience in assessing undergraduate progress exams, I think this may be fairer. At each challenge it is the intention to give 3 points to the best overall rated entry - i.e. the one with the most "best" assessment ratings. Then the next three or four would gain 2 points each, depending on whether there was a "natural or obvious" gap. By that I mean that it would be unfair to separate an entry which gained say 2 "bests" and 3 runners-up from another which gained 2 "bests" and 2 runners-up. In those cases they'd both get 2 points.

I am also re-instituting the * system, which is awarded to those entries just below the cut-off line. The * will come in useful if, and only if, there is no clear overall winner at the end of the season. There is such a good standard throughout the membership that this will also ensure that it is unlikely to be a clear winner until the last challenge.

So the points awarded so far are:

Challenge 1 - Catherine 3 pts, Zena*, Chris* and Clare 2 pts, and 1 pt for Margie* and Christine* and all other entries

Challenge 2 - Christine 3 pts, 2pts for Sally*, Margie and Geoff, and 1pt for Chris*, Zena* and John* and all other entries

Challenge 3 - Zena 3 pts, Christine*, Margaret*, Clare and Geoff 2pts each, and 1 pt for Margie*, Chris* and all other entries.

Challenge 4 - Clare 3 pts, 2pts for Sally*, Di, Chris, and 1 pt for Ann*, Zena* and all other entries

Christmas Quiz - I received 5 complete solutions, but David's was the first by a very long way, so he'll get a * (that'll please him) as well as 1 pt, and Christine, Sally, Sue and Zena also get 1 pt. Please correct me if I've missed anyone out: I don't think I have.

So after 4 rounds and the Christmas Challenge, the leading scores are:

	Points	Stars
Zena	8	3
Christine	8	2
Clare	8	0
Chris	6	3
Sally	6	2
Geoff	6	1

and several with 5 points.

Challenge 5:
John has been collating all the assessments, and he will let us know the outcome shortly. If you haven't sent him your assessments, please do so as quickly as possible.

Challenge 6:
I should now have received all those entries which I'm going to get, but I'll wait until this evening before closing the entries. I'll be sending them out for your judging tomorrow.

See the Challenges page for details of Challenge 7, and the results of previous challenges.

Group Novel:
Click here for more details of the group novel, and of another idea from Chris for a group writing project.

Discussion:
We seem to have been short on discussions, but I have had three suggestions. So I'll take the first of the three.

How much writing should we be prepared to do without payment?

Clearly we all do some, and once it is known you can write, then you'll get asked to do more. I write a column for the village newsletter every month, and I write a performance sketch each your for the village social. But I'm not young like you lot, and I'm not looking for payment (though I'd never refuse it). I do a few more occasional things like reports and occasional descriptions.

Make your comments by email, putting FREE WRITING in the subject box.

Best wishes to you all

- Olaf