I'm a noob. I've participated several times and nominated once. I haven't had the pleasure of winning the vote. I think it's a neat idea and this feels more like a community to me than reddit or disco.

As someone who has benefited but not really contributed yet, I don't think I have a lot of sway.

Thinking of similar situations, if we were at the bar and buying rounds, I owe y'all a couple of rounds at least.

I'm up for whatever (pause or reconfigure later) -- just don't break up the band. :)

As a newcomer to this community (and wetshaving as a whole) I have basically no idea what the BVWSC is all about. Up until today I thought it was only for people living in or near Buena Vista. Is there some post or wiki where I can learn more about what this is?

I liked the idea of BVWSC very much and assumed that participation would grow as redditors, and others, observed the activity and would want to participate. As that happened, I also thought we would have to move away from one person providing all of the smushes. I know that we all have done this multiple times, and with such a small group, it really isn't an imposition to create and distribute smushes, but it would be if there were 20 people or more participating each month.

For a while, I've thought that maybe we could submit soap ideas, vote, then choose the most popular entry that we could distribute on as local a basis as possible. For example, if I owned Tundra Artica, I would be happy to send out smushes to the US recipients. Unfortunately, while I have a sizeable investment in SV products, I don't own TA. (80th is terrific, btw.)

I like trying the soaps along with others in this group and, let's face it, the name BVWSC is cool. I hope we find a way to keep this going.

A couple ideas:

1. Pause BVWSC for now and resume with the same format when shipping is less fucky, and only meet quarterly.
2. We all vote on a tub and split it amongst participants for use on meeting days.
3. Something else?

I do really enjoy the event. It’s been a great way to try new soaps and bases, and it feels like a low stakes event that makes this place feel a bit more like a community.

Interest has been down though, for sure.

Speaking for myself - I was starting to get burned out on the BVWSC which is surprising because it was only once a month. With the added global challenges I agree that maybe it's time to put a pause on it.