A change is as good as a holiday

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Hey everyone!!

I'm a bit of a bookworm. I pretty much read anything from Stacy Gregg (I can't believe she lives in Auckland) to Nicholas Sparks. In the Chestnut Hill books and the Pony Club Rivals the girls attend boarding schools - and in some others I've read - the boarding schools are split up into different "houses". And I thought it would be cool for us to do this. We'd keep the ribbon theme going on, so there would be the Blue, Red, Yellow and White. The Staff dorms would be changed into the Brown Ribbon Apartments. As for the types of students to be in each house;

Blue Ribbon House values ambition, cunning, leadership and resourcefulness and most of all money.
Red Ribbon House values intelligence, creativity, learning, and wit.
Yellow Ribbon House values hard work, tolerance, loyalty, and fair play.
White Ribbon House values courage, bravery, loyalty, nerve and chivalry.

The students will go from living in dorms to living in a "house", the people that live in your building will become your family. There will also be a staff member (possibly two) to head each house, who will live in the house with the students. I'll iron out the fine points when I see if this is going to work. Another thing, should the girls and guys share "houses"? We could also run house competitions. Also, do we have house points, like in Harry Potter?

I was wondering what you guys all thought about this. Also, do we just continue on from where we are or do we start all over again as though we've all just joined (since there's a new plot and all). Also, if you have ideas, please, please, please feel free to share them!!! This place is yours as much as it is Rissa's and mine. BRRA can't work without all of your input - and look how we have flourished over the past couple of months!!

[lemons]

I like the idea of houses, just I don't think we should have co-ed dorms. Do you get what I'm staying there? Even in Harry Potter, they kept the guys and girls separate. So, I think it would be fine also long as there where sub-boards. You may already be planing to do this... I came in a little late in the game. So...

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Okay, let me think of how to explain this. The guys and gals will be separated, it's not like they will be sharing rooms. Girls will be on one floor, boys on another.

Here's a rough copy of what I have so far as far as house layouts go:
House Layout (for red, white and yellow):
On the first floor is the common room. This has a plasma tv, DVD player, games centre (let’s just make it a Wii), a student fridge (no alcohol, no exceptions) and a small kitchenette, there is a part of the common room that has been set up as a study area which also has two computers with wireless internet access. Down the hall from the common room is the apartment for the Head of House, the apartment consists of; a bedroom, a bathroom, an open-plan living/dining/ kitchen and a study. The first floor also has a sick room where students who are unwell or need monitoring can stay in comfort. The common room will also be used for House meetings should your HoH choose to hold them.

The second (girls) and third (boys) floors have 20 double bedrooms. Each room has two of the following: bed, chest of drawers, stand alone wardrobe, desk, chair, bookshelf, bedside table. Each room also has a bathroom and is set up with a phone. The rooms are big enough for two students to be able to live in them in comfort without always getting in each other’s way.

Differences in the Blue House:
The second (girls have the 2nd and 3rd floors) through to fifth (boys have 4th and 5th) floors have 20 Single bedrooms. Each room has a: bed, chest of drawers, stand alone wardrobe, desk, chair, bookshelf, bedside table. Each room also has its own bathroom and is set up with a phone. The rooms are spacious enough for the students to live in comfort with enough room for all of their things.

Hope that clears things up, and yes, every floor will have a sub-board. I plan to make the changes either this weekend or next. I'll let you know when it's happening as I'll ask you not to use the dorms during that time. The "House" boards will also have an assingment page that will tell you everything you need to know about that House: Head of House, room assignments, who's on what team and stuff.

One last thing. Do we want a House Point system??

Okay, I lied, this is the last thing. Those of you who haven't, can you please PM me what what House(s) you would like your characters to be placed in, just so I can have the room assignments set up before we get going. Also, if you have a staff member who is keen on being Head of House, please PM me that as well and Rissa and I will sort that out too.

Thanks

[sepia]

That all sounds good! I'm not sure if a House Point system thing will work unless we have relatively even numbers of people in each house, as lots of people being on one house could seriously skew the results.

Also, would new characters being made be assigned a house by the person that approves their application, or would they choose the house for their character?

And - final point - are all teachers in houses, or just the ones that head the house?

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

So far, with what I have from the people who have already given me their picked Houses, the students per House are pretty even.

New members will get to pick which House they want to be in when they fill in their app.

The HoH (now Heads of House) are the only teachers (one male, one female so I'll need to play around with the house layout again) who will be in the Houses. The other staff members will live in the staff apartments (which I have already renamed to the Brown Ribbon Apartments).

[kels]

I think that there should maybe be a sub-forum for all the housing for a bulletin board for important dates for each house. It wouldn't be like the main bulletin board with ads and stuff, but mostly for the HoHs, ad for students to leave notes for other students and the HoHs

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

The HoHs can use the common room board for that kind of thing.