August 2018 Bulletin
Entry posted by abhorsen. in bulletin
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Welcome to the HPFT bulletin, where you can find all of our major monthly announcements and information about ongoing events - including the house cup finale!
If you're new, first and foremost: welcome to HPFT! It's awesome to have you with us. 
HPFanficTalk is a forum/archive - the forum is Harry Potter-themed (including a year-long house cup), but we talk about other fandoms, too, and the archive is multi-fandom/OF. 
We have a strong culture of support for other writers and feedback here, including a story help section, challenges, and reviewing events, so if you're a writer, you've come to the right place. 
A quick rundown to help you get started here on the forums: please post in the 'Welcome to HPFT' topic +here to say that you've read over the rules and understand them. You can specify your house in that post or in our sorting ceremony +here - once you do, we'll sort you into the right group so you can see a common room that only people in your house are allowed to see. You're welcome to post in your common room and/or in our introductions forum +here to introduce yourself if you'd like, and you may also find our +FAQs helpful.
Enjoy your stay!
We're sorry to announce that @forever_dreaming will be stepping down from her position as Ravenclaw prefect. Shreya has been one of our most active prefects, and we've so appreciated all the work she's put in behind-the-scenes. Thank you for everything, Shreya! 
In addition, @abhorsen. will be stepping back from part-time professor duties.
That said, we're very happy to officially welcome @ShadowRose and @Sleepingbagonthesofa to the prefect team! Taylor and Deni have already jumped right in to help with some super special planning 
, and we're sure that they'll be wonderful assets to both Gryffindor house and the site as a whole.
During the first week of every month, we open up applications for all staff/prefect positions. There's no post count/join date limit, and you can apply for as many positions as you like - it's all one application. We hold onto applications for three months before you need to apply again. A detailed rundown on how HPFT staffing works can be found +here, and you can find the application +here.
We know that a lot of our members are having a lot of fun with the house cup finale - we won't be bumping anyone until after the finale has been completed, so don't worry that you'll have to miss out on the rest of the event if you apply now. 
If you applied in June or July, you don't need to apply again unless you'd like to apply for additional positions or change your answers - we'll still consider you this month.
The House Cup Finale is currently underway!! Houses have been tasked with writing their very own Newspapers for various Eras of the Harry Potter universe. Hufflepuff is doing the Founders Era, Ravenclaw has First War, Slytherin has Between the Wars, and Gryffindor is covering the Second Wizarding War. In the first two weeks, the Houses search both the forums and the archives to find their main articles and prompts for various letters to the editor topics. They were also tasked with writing several obits, creating puzzles and games, and making various graphics to advertise and display within their papers as well. 
But the excitement has only just begun!! Coming up in the next two weeks, houses will be putting the final touches on their Newspapers. And what paper would be complete without a proper live witness profile/interview? How well do you think you know your Staff Team? Get ready! Your information may be put to the test as we head into week #3. Then in Week #4, Staff have prepared a special game called QuodPot for your enjoyment. Stay tuned for more details as the House Cup Finale continues to unfold!!
In addition, the 'Consent Issues' advisories on the archive will be updated to include sexual harassment as well as sexual assault. You can check out +the archive site guidelines or +the consent issues tutorial (M) for more details.
Our first Head Student has been helping to take the lead in Ravenclaw’s House Cup efforts recently. She has been helping in both of the Scavenger Hunts, and even made the beautiful Augurey Signature that you’ve been seeing all around the Forums. She has also been active in other areas, including hosting her very own challenge, participating in a few other writing challenges, and starting up a graphics request topic in the new Graphics Talk area!! Please join us in congratulating...
Our next Head Student has also been taking charge in Gryffindor’s House Cup efforts as well. She has been a great leader in the Scavenger Hunt search efforts, and has helped her team brainstorm several ideas for their Newspaper. In addition to all of the House Cup excitement, she also participated in JulNo, and was a very supportive writing buddy in our PenPal program; leaving several reviews for her JulNo partner and going above and beyond to be an encouragement all month long while still working on her own writing goal. Please join us in congratulating...
Congratulations and thank you again, both of you! Please PM @abhorsen. with which of your stories you'd like us to feature next month!
For this month’s Order of Merlin, the Prefects have chosen one of our fabulous Muggle Liaisons! For HPFT, our Muggle Liaisons are our social media warriors. They work hard at running our Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, and anything else to help get the name out about our community, and this Liaison in particular has always been a rockstar.
Please join me in congratulating…
Paula has been around since the site’s conception, and she’s been a Staffer for the last year, joining the ranks as Muggle Liaisons in April 2017. You know her for being approachable and kind, and she’s always one of the first people to send a welcome message to our new members or spread around the love. For this month in particular, we’d like to recognize Paula for not just everything she’s done for the site on social media, but for also jumping in and helping the amazing team of validators to tackle the monster queue. She took on the challenge and did an incredible job of approving an impressive number of stories while still managing to find the time to leave reviews, be an amazing cheerleader, a talented graphic artist, and even writing her own stories.
This community certainly wouldn’t be the same without Paula, so please join me in congratulating her in this well-deserved award, and thank her for everything that she does! 
August's story of the month is...
ministry memorandums (from the mysteries) (M) by @esmeraude
An incomplete collection of letters and Ministry memorandums sent to and from the Office of Unspeakable Relations on October 5th, 1998.
[or] In which bureaucracy goes very, very wrong.
Every month, HPFT runs Fic Night, where a staff member reads a nominated fic from one of our members. You can check out @TidalDragon reading red luck (M) by @just.a.willow.tree for July's Fic Night +here if you haven't seen it yet!
This month, we're featuring: the winners of our monthly sitewide competitions, three stories from this year's F.R.O.G.S. top three, five winners of previous house yearly awards, and two staff picks. Thank you so much to the members of our staff/prefect team who chose this month's two staff picks: @abhorsen. (A Place Not Far From Here) and @Rumpelstiltskin (limitless). Click through for links; please keep in mind that some may be rated M.
Congratulations, @abhorsen., @beyond the rain, @Chemical_Pixie, @Deeds, @dirigibleplums, @esmeraude, @just.a.willow.tree, @nott theodore, @poppunkpadfoot, @StarFeather, @toomanycurls, and @victoria_anne!
August 1 - The Vocational Challenge by @sapphicsunrise
August 10 - The Anything But Harry Challenge by @scooterbug8515
August 10 - The Snazzy Words Challenge by @val
August 11 - The Marauders Prank Challenge by @poppunkpadfoot
August 15 - A Poetical Mood Challenge by @Rumpelstiltskin
August 15 - The Filch in Love Challenge by @Deeds
August 17 - The Cultural Diversity Challenge by @Unwritten Curse
August 25 - The Narrative OF Challenge by @Theia
August 30 - The #Squad Challenge by @forever_dreaming
August 30 - The Supernatural Sport Challenge by @Downbelow
September 6 - The Ocean's 8 Heist Challenge by @just.a.willow.tree
October 1 - The Musical Muse Challenge by @dirigibleplums
October 31 - The Challenge Yourself Challenge by @Slytherinchica08
And finally, we want to wish a very happy birthday to all of HPFT's August babies. Feel free to stop by their profiles/APs/writing journals on their special day!
2 - @800 words of heaven; @dirigibleplums
4 - @MalfoysAngel; @Rumpelstiltskin
6 - @MileyMalfoy
9 - @BLONDEbehaviour
10 - @galaxies
13 - @PaulaTheProkaryote
15 - @caomoyl
18 - @Hobbit
21 - @Magi Silverwolf; @sunshinedaisieswindmills
23 - @sapphicsunrise
24 - @wildest dreams
26 - @forever_dreaming; @WalkingDredd
29 - @LilyEvans33; @ohmymerlin
31 - @ScarletEye158
Head students and the house cup section of site news written by @RoxiMalfoy, Order of Merlin by @dreamgazer220, birthdays compiled by @Ineke. Rest of the bulletin write-up and all graphics by @abhorsen.. Please rehost and credit if you'd like to keep your awards!