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S.O.M.E. Weekend Banners

Kevin & Tracy Paglia

(S.O.M.E. stands for "Southern Oregon Marriage Encounter")

It was odd being on our first Weekend back on September 15, 2001. You see, I am a second generation Marriage Encounteree. My parents were involved during the explosive 1980’s in Bakersfield, CA. Being the baby of the family, I was dragged to more greet-offs, sharing circles, and community picnics than I can remember. So, sitting there Friday and Saturday, I felt a little smug. I knew what was coming at the end of the Weekend, but didn’t share it with Tracy, my wife.

Just a little diversion for me through the Weekend was to listen to the presenting teams as they talked with each other. At one point, I heard one of them say something about the poor banners. They were the ones that had been used for some time. They were OLD. Maybe some of you still use these. I got the sense from hearing her talk about it with her husband that she was even a little embarrassed by the way they looked. I, as I tend to do, locked this little conversation away in the back of my mind with libraries of other useless information.

After the Weekend, when we were asked to be Team, my wife and I were excited. Our Deeper filled us with more excitement. And then we got the Challenge. Challenge to go back and challenge our teams to something. From the back of my mind, in that rarely opened repository of information came a conversation. I knew what the challenge was going to be, radical new banners. As I told Steve and Kathy, our mentor couple (and now family), “If I am going to be presenting Weekends, then I refuse to be embarrassed by the banners I am sitting next to” It was decided that one banner for every talk should be made.

It turns out that Tracy and Kathy are wonderful seamstresses. Together, the four of us started a nearly year long project of completely redoing the banners for our Encounter. We were a perfect group for it too. All four personalities styles were represented and in concert with each other. Ideas flowed, adaptations were made and the occasional mistake was covered over so no one but us would know it was there.

The Process:
We started with the “simple” banners. These were the ones taken right out of the workbook. Copies to transparencies and a borrowed overhead projector gave us patterns to cut out from rolls of paper. A warehouse of fabric provided us with 15 yards of background material that was thick enough to be durable and wrinkle resistant, but thin enough to be easily used and carried. The material width became the banners’ height.

A plethora of scrap fabrics from years of Kathy and Tracy sewing provided 98% of the banner’s materials. Fabric from left over bride’s maids’ gowns Tracy had sewn became important parts of banners. Leftovers from dresses, shirts and a few yards from the “it’s such beautiful material, I’ll use if for something” category were also used. But we wanted more than just a banner. We wanted images that would draw the couples into the Weekend. Fabrics were selected that gave the images dimension, depth and interest. Fabric paint was used to line the fabric images and create the words in three inch sizes for the talk titles and one inch sizes for the supplemental words.

But we were spoiled. These simple banners were whipped out in just a few sessions. Tracy and Kathy sewed feverishly. Steve diligently cut the images out of paper for them to have the templates for construction and I stood around making jokes and playing with the kids. (Did I mention I am a Catalyst?) From the simple banners, we went to the more complicated ones.

These more complicated banners were the talks where we didn’t like artwork as much and strived to create our own image for the talk from concepts in the talk. Various sketches, scribbles, and internet art were explored before the right one was decided upon. With an image to draw ideas from, like we did for the first few banners, we decided on images that reflected the theme of the talk. We looked at core components of the talks, what we wanted to communicate and kept them as simple as possible with a Catalyst giving ideas. Again, fabrics were chosen that gave interest to the images. Once the artwork was done on all the banners, we decided to color code the boarders for each set of talks. Red was chosen for first set, blue for second set and yellow for third set.

We did run into a few problems. Our toddler, Jason, thought the black fabric paint, just lined on the “Welcome Friends” banner, looked like finger paint and so we have a finger smudge from him that will be with us forever. A letter was placed on a banner backwards with the paint but a creative solution covered it right up. (Who knew an organizer had it in her?) One of the color-coded banners had the dowel slit sewn in on the bottom. (I kind of liked it that way.) And a rose without a stem or petals drawn, looked like the Blob had come back. But problems are fixable. Tracy and Kathy did a phenomenal job taking thoughts, words and, occasionally, hand gestures and turned them into art.

The first Weekend the banners were revealed, we felt satisfaction and pride in the new life they breathed into the room. They were energizing. Now, when we describe the room on Friday night, we don’t gloss over the old banners but point out the life the banners bring out. Over the Weekends since, we have seen couples stopping next to banners to explore them. I didn’t expect it, but the banners now feel like a part of the Southern Oregon Marriage Encounter Team.

At a Section 13 Board Meeting, we revealed the banners and have passed on the templates to another area for them to start on new banners as well.

(click on any picture for a larger version)

Click here for a printable version (PDF, 75KB)