Meeting schedule
The meetings will be every nine weeks, based on this cycle:
- Contributions: 3 weeks
- Curation: 3 weeks
- Listening: 3 weeks
Meetings will take place at 9pm UK time on a Saturday via Zoom.
The quorum for the meetings is six (i.e. we will only move the date if more than four members can’t attend the scheduled date).
The proposed schedule is on the “Dates/Rota” tab of the VMC spreadsheet.
Process
At the end of each meeting, the next curator announces the next theme. They will then set up a Spotify playlist where people can add their contributions.
Contributions
Over the next 3 weeks, the nine ‘non-curating’ members will each add ten theme-related tracks each to the playlist (see guidelines below), resulting in a 90-song playlist.
(N.B. It works best if you have your own private work-in-progress playlist from which you upload your 10 chosen tracks when you’re ready. You can upload your tracks at any point during the 3 weeks. It is preferable that you don’t ‘tinker’ with your ten tracks once you have uploaded them to the playlist.)
Curation
- Over the following 3 weeks, the curator will select 5/10 of each contributor’s tracks, then add 5 of their own, resulting in a 50-song ‘final’ playlist.
- They should prepare a report for the meeting about their compilation process (i.e. why they included / didn’t include songs, plus any commentary on the sequencing) and their overall view of the songs selected.
- The curator may sequence the final list as they see fit.
- They will share this final playlist via the WhatsApp group.
- The curator should also remind members of deadlines, especially when there’s a week to go for contributions to be finalised.
Listening
- The group will have 3 weeks to digest the final 50-track playlist.
- You may wish to make notes, but it’s not obligatory!
Meeting agenda
- Greetings / personal news / recent gigs or releases
- Curator’s report on the playlist
- Everyone in turn to mention one favourite track from each of the other contributors
- Quiz (see below)
- Recommendations: music / books / films / TV
- Next curator – ideas for next theme
The Quiz
- The quizmaster for each meeting will be a member other than the curator (see the VMC spreadsheet).
- The suggested format is two (or three, if you prefer) rounds of ten questions: one on the theme; the other(s) general.
General guidelines
- When choosing a theme, it’s best to go for broader rather than narrower to allow different interpretations.
- Avoid repeating tracks that made a previous final playlist. A track that was only on a longlist and was left out during curation (a ‘Reject’) can be put forward again for another round.
- There’s no duration limit, but bear in mind that tracks much longer than 6 minutes are unlikely to make the final cut unless there’s a compelling reason for them.
- Variety re gender, era and genre is encouraged.
- The tone of the meetings should be generally positive: it’s fine to say that something wasn’t your cup of tea, but don’t slag something off mercilessly – it might be dear to someone’s heart!
- Quizzes usually work best if the questions aren’t too obscure (nobody seems much good at remembering lyrics either)
Best of the Year
From 2027 onwards (it’s too late to do it for 2026), the final meeting of the year will focus on a poll of everyone’s favourite selections from the previous 12 months (details to be arranged in due course), resulting in a Virtually Festive Top 30 countdown.
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