DAY 0! Finding people, staying focused, and momentum. - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.

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We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm​. You made it all happen.

There are other changes as well.

Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:

We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.

It's time to move on and move forward.

PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.

But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.

So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.

And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.

That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!

If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.

So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!

Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!

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(This is Main Street by Angie, who is working on art goals here on the blog!)


This has been a personal project to blog every day for a school year on goals and dreams. My hope was that I could find a group of people to work with me.

I was lucky enough to find a small, but sincere group of inspirational people to keep me company. We've been using Walt Disney's philosophies or creations as inspiration.

I am no longer blogging daily, but I am notified if comments are posted, and I'll be happy to keep the discussion going!

Click_Here_To_See_Projects_In_Progress

Click_Here_To_See_Finished_Goals_Or_Projects

Post_goal_updates_here



Two_Alices_fall_down_a_rabbit_hole_and_land_on_the ir_feet_in_WondORLANDO!

art by A.Daley






Please join us and introduce yourself here.
Rating: 2 votes, 5.00 average.

DAY 0! Finding people, staying focused, and momentum.

Posted 05-12-2010 at 01:39 PM by Sandra Bostwick
Updated 05-28-2010 at 03:33 PM by Sandra Bostwick


This kind of thinking is so typical of Walt Disney and is most likely one of the keys to his success.

I just moved the blog every day goal to the place where finished goals are posted. at_this_link.

FINISHED! WOW! (Finally!)

This blog project was different from usual writing or journaling projects because I was trying to involve other people AND there was a daily committment, no matter what!

The fact that anyone participated was the credit of the PassPorter site, which attracts so many people. We gather in various places online and in real-time. The photo below is a small, but sincere group of PassPorters who met in The Magic Kingdom just a few weeks ago.



You should have seen how we managed to find each other from locations all over the parks before the lights went off for the fireworks! We tracked locations on cell phones until we managed to end up in The Rose Garden. Recognizing each other from photos in signatures or book bios, a stranger rushing past became an online "friend" to be called over. There was also the "I'm in a white T-shirt with an orange shirt over that and I'm waving my arms." method of locating someone. It was all very interesting.

How do you find people, anyway?

There are so many ways to attract a group and motivate people to come together.

Finding people who want to participate in a long term blog was just as interesting, especially when the blog was SO hard to find. (Sorry, I was not able to fix the remoteness of The Blog Zone Link during this project.)

So, the first big challenge was finding people in this strange place we call cyber-space. This was important because mu goal for this blog was interactive writing.

The next big challenge was keeping myself and the group of people focused over a LONG period of time on a topic that set out to be optimistic and inspiring. I suppose that, when you aren't paying attention, it is easy to miss those "BLAH" days. When I sat myself down to write in the midst of blah, tired, or cranky, I gained some insights into the less sparkly me.

In hindsight, perhaps readers would have felt more comfortable posting their "blah day" feelings here in comments instead of private messages if I'd been more honest with my own "blah"ness. Who knows?

I also learned that moving forward, even if self-doubts, exhaustion, or a headache drags at my feet is key to finishing what I've started with the same quality that I envisioned at the start. This is the focus and momentum that, I believe, I've strengthened during this project.

Well, this was, in a way, writing, but it is not the books that I dream of one day having on book shelves.

What has interfered with writing those books?

1: The concern that I won't find the people who are interested enough to read it.
2: The ability to stay focused on what, essentially must be a long-term project with the possibility of very little reward other than the fact that I've finished/
3: Keeping up the momentum when the first two issues are on my mind.

If this blog is any indication, I think I should find about 10 people to read my book , but I also know that I will be happy if those 10 people got something out of it. (I know, people, I'm not planning on quitting my day job!)

So, this will be my next project...to finish a book the RIGHT way.

Oh, yes, and to exercise more, and to finish my trip report and to decorate the rest of my house and to get my gardens looking nice and to finish a few articles and maybe start a doctoral degree and........

sigh........

here we go again!

Thanks for spending this past year with me!
0 Pixie Dust
Posted in Walt's Wave
Views 42303 Comments 14 Email Blog Entry
Total Comments 14

Comments

  1. Old
    GoofEme's Avatar

    Thanks

    AWwwwww, Thanks for everything Sandy!
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-12-2010 at 11:38 PM by GoofEme GoofEme is offline
  2. Old
    TNTWheels's Avatar
    I'm glad to help out Sandy, well we were able to pull our own group together at WDW thanks to Jeff and his family. I totally miss it. But with in three years Jeff and I will be planing a DL get together. We'll let people know if they like to Join us at DL when we plan it. Or any one comes to DL when they re open CA AD again let me know.
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-13-2010 at 03:55 AM by TNTWheels TNTWheels is offline
  3. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    I love that way PassPorter meets bring people together.

    It really is interesting that it all starts with a website! (Well, actually it all started with a mouse and a whole bunch of steps to a website!)
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-13-2010 at 07:57 AM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
  4. Old
    daddyof2princessess's Avatar
    It rocked! Following the blog was an enjoyable experience to say the least. You know you can certainly count on me to read your book!
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-13-2010 at 07:58 AM by daddyof2princessess daddyof2princessess is offline
  5. Old
    orionchika's Avatar
    It was a true pleasure.... Can't wait to find your book to enjoy...
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-13-2010 at 10:25 AM by orionchika orionchika is offline
  6. Old
    Christine43's Avatar
    Sandy, this was a wonderful thing and I thank you from my heart; you're a good person.
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-13-2010 at 01:30 PM by Christine43 Christine43 is offline
  7. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    Thanks, guys!
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-14-2010 at 08:48 AM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
  8. Old
    TNTWheels's Avatar
    But But you can't Stop Now this is one part of my day to still be at Disney with Disney friends, even though we are not at the parks.
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-14-2010 at 03:32 PM by TNTWheels TNTWheels is offline
  9. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    I'm still here! See?
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-14-2010 at 05:30 PM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
  10. Old
    A.Daley's Avatar
    Even though I could not be there... this time!... I am continuing my goal, part of which is to finish my confectionary painting as a continuation of Main Street. So here is an update posting of my progress...
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-16-2010 at 02:38 PM by A.Daley A.Daley is offline
  11. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    I LOVE IT! I have the puzzle pieces up on my office wall, and it is so exciting to see more of it!

    That was the last thing I saw as I left the Magic Kingdom, and the bright twinkling lights and music are still in my head!
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 05-16-2010 at 05:47 PM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
  12. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    Where is the rest of the painting?
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 06-02-2010 at 04:34 PM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
  13. Old
    TNTWheels's Avatar
    oh how I miss WDW
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 06-03-2010 at 03:23 AM by TNTWheels TNTWheels is offline
  14. Old
    Sandra Bostwick's Avatar
    Me too, Todd!
    0 Pixie Dust
    Posted 06-03-2010 at 08:29 AM by Sandra Bostwick Sandra Bostwick is offline
 







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