Hi Abner
You don’t necessarily need strict rules, just some degree of organisation so people know where they stand
How about this as a way of handling the situation, split the evening up into a number of slots and write up who’s playing in which slot on a blackboard. So you end up with something like this
Slot 1 John – Guitar + Voice Paul – Bass and voice George – Guitar Abner – Harp
Slot 2 Fred – Guitar Barney – Harp Wilma – Bass Bambam – drums
Etc.
That way if someone’s waiting to play they can see roughly when they’ll get their turn and if someone tries to hog the stage the person running things can say “You have to stop now so that we’ve got time for these other players”
Somebody needs to be in control of the list and stop the musicians when the slot is over. As long as that person treats everyone fairly then the list can just be a guide: a slot can be extended a bit or an extra player can be slipped in; if the night overruns and you run out of time for the last slot then you can promise the players guaranteed earlier slots the next time round; if you get inundated with players then you could up the number and reduce the duration of the slots; etc.
With any open mic a lot depends on the people running it, they need to get the right balance between controlling the running order of the evening so everyone is treated fairly and being flexible enough to bend the rules to keep things relaxed.
Patrick _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now