SWIL t-shirts happen in the spring semester. The most important thing to remember about t-shirt ordering is that it needs to be done sooner than you think it needs to be done. Lesley Tsina '96 says: ``and make sure someone really responsible and aggressive handles the T-shirts. Something ALWAYS goes wrong with the T-shirts, so do them WAY early so if they take longer to get done, you still have quite a few weeks to parade around in them. DO NOT PUT THIS OFF!''
The first year i did t-shirts, we ordered them from Amoco, and were not terribly impressed with the results, since they didn't do exactly what we asked with the designs, and didn't return our originals. In 1998, we got the shirts through MJT Creative Designs, whose phone (as of spring 1999) is: (610)-544-7157. They're run by a guy named Mike, who comes up to campus to meet with the shirt coordinator and drop off shirts, which conveniently allows you to turn over t-shirt ordering to someone without a car. Unfortunately, in spring 2001, Mike was replaced by his evil twin as part of a complex government coverup. Since then, MJT has been irresponsible and uncommunicative in handling of SWIL t-shirt orders. You are advised to shop around.
The t-shirt coordinator should set a deadline midway through spring semester, with help from the presidents to decide on a meeting at which to vote for shirts. If the shirt coordinator hasn't heard many proposals of designs by a few weeks before the deadline, the coordinator should start hounding known artists for designs, and known clever people for slogans. Design and slogan do not have to come from the same person. Slogans should be clever and catchy, and should, if possible, involve a really bad pun on ``SWIL''.
Voting for t-shirts has happened as follows the years i've seen it: all designs and potential slogans are shown at meeting and passed around. Nominations are made for combinations of designs and slogans (possibly front designs, back designs, and slogans, for two-sided shirts), and a vote is taken on all possible combinations, usually in two rounds. This is a kind of hectic and unpleasant way to do it, so if you can think of a better one, go for it. There's some price difference between front-only designs and front-and-back ones -- probably $1.00-$1.50 per shirt -- but not an unreasonable amount.
While waiting for the t-shirt vote to be taken, the coordinator should get in touch with potential t-shirt producers, and get approximate prices for single-sided and two-sided shirts, and an accurate list of colours. (We had trouble this year because our list of available colours was out-of-date, so several people ordered colours that weren't available.) Also, find out which colours will take black ink well, and whether the t-shirt place will substitute white ink on darker shirts. (MJT seems to do so.) In thinking about colours, it should be kept in mind that it is far more difficult for t-shirt printers to handle an order (in particular, to handle it correctly) when that order contains a large number of different shirt colours. Standardizing on two or three available colours for a given shirt might be a reasonable (if unpopular) decision.
After the shirt vote has been taken, the presidents should get a price estimate and list of available colours from the shirt company, and send this information out to the SWIL list as soon as possible. T-shirt orders should be taken by e-mail. The t-shirt design should be scanned in and placed on the SWIL web page by the webmeister so that alumni can order shirts (and the shirt order announcement should be sent to allswil, not just curswil). Make sure Barbara Need '82 is still on the list, since she collects SWIL shirts.
Shirts should be timed to arrive as early as they can, which will probably be a couple of weeks before the end of the year. The ideal time is probably by the third SWIL meeting before the end of the semester, since it's convenient if shirts can be passed out at a meeting, but trying to do shirts at the same time as movie nominations could lead to a long meeting, and every effort should be made to avoid handing out shirts at the same time as senior remembrances.
The t-shirt coordinator should use discretion to decide whether or not to buy extra shirts. Buying extra shirts increases the probability that the coordinator will lose money, but people who didn't order shirts in time often want to buy them. If extra shirts are not being ordered, this should be made clear in the e-mail. It's good policy not to give a shirt to anyone who hasn't paid for it, since money is harder to track down after shirt distribution than before.
A couple of notes to potential t-shirt designers: remember that you can sign your shirt design if you want to do so. Also, future historians will thank you if you put the current year somewhere on the shirt, though, of course, it isn't mandatory.
By: Chaos Golubitsky '00, Lesley Tsina '96 -- Last revised: 8 September 2001