The July 13th DA meeting was hosted by Andrew Slack and Karen Bernstein. Our hosts took questions and discussion ideas from the USTREAM chat, spotlighting the Harry Potter Alliance’s What Would Dumbledore Do? campaign.

Ideas and events discussed during the meeting included:

-  Looking back at Harry and Dumbledore from Order of the Phoenix, and looking forward to the film adaptation
-  A summary the What Would Dumbledore Do? Movie Challenge
-  How to avoid spoiling the story when discussing the WWDD campaign
-  Twitter Takeover! Tweet-and-Retweeting before and after the movie. For details, click on “Twitter Challenge” at whatwoulddumbledoredo.org
-  The HPA in the media: Mashable and Canada.com among those discussing the HPA and WWDD
-  What we can blog, vlog, tweet, and post to show our loyalty to Dumbledore’s spirit
-  Where to share all your awesome WWDD pictures and experiences? Go to thehpalliance.ning.com
-  How we can follow Albus Dumbledore and other visionaries who have used love to defeat injustice
-  Chat evaluations of Andrew’s caffeine intake
-  Snogging stories with Andrew and Karen, inspired by the upcoming Harry-and-Ginny on-screen lip-lock

Our live DA meeting on July 12 was hosted by Andrew Slack and Karen Bernstein and included discussions with and questions from the USTREAM audience. This meeting’s excitement focused on the Harry Potter Alliance’s current project: What Would Dumbledore Do? The many ideas and events discussed included: -What is the Harry Potter Alliance’s current, unprecedented, world-wide campaign that combines literature and activism? It’s called What Would Dumbledore Do? (WWDD), and it comes in three parts: Movie Challenge, Twitter Challenge, and the Doctrine. -Who will be wearing nametags this week? -Tips for approaching people safely and with respect -Recording and sharing your WWDD experiences -The 36-hour Epic Try: A Twitter Takeover! Visit whatwoulddumbledoredo.org and click on “Twitter Challenge” to get all the details and start Retweeting. -How to find or start a local HPA chapter? Go to the HPA mainpage and click on “Chapters” -Adding “HP the Musical” to the to-do list -How to send show ideas to Oprah, Ellen, and the Today Show -What’s the goal of WWDD? -How the Harry Potter Alliance and What Would Dumbledore Do? campaign is working as a connection to all social justice issues around the world Questions on Tweeting, Retweeting, contacting Oprah, Ellen, and the Today Show? Send these and other general inquiries to dumbledore@thehpalliance.org

That Late Night Slack with Andrew Slack

In Andrew’s experimental Ustream segment, he and Dean O’Carroll discuss What Would Dumbledore Do?. Dean also performs a dramatic reading of Fred Rhymes with Dead: a very short play by Dean O'Carroll and Andrew reads an excerpt from a book that he’s working on that’s connected to What Would Dumbledore do?

In this Live DA Meeting Andrew, Karen and Hope talk about ways to get involved in the What Would Dumbledore Do? campaign and are joined by a special guest!

- Dean O’Carroll, playwright and Dumbledore fan, joins the call and does a dramatic reading of one of his short plays he posted in the Common Room. You can also find his work at sallycotter.blogspot.com.

- We discuss several ideas on how to get the entire fandom involved including:

The Dumbledore Hashtag Challenge! We’re starting our own Twitter revolution to get #Dumbledore into the top trending topics (without unseating the important trending topics of Iran and the Iranian election). So post about what Dumbledore has taught you, or about anything at all. Just include #dumbledore with your tweets!
Movie Premier Challenge! The Harry Potter fandom will have the chance to be in the media’s spotlight come mid-July, so it’s the perfect time to take the WWDD? project public! Check the HPA’s website for WWDD nametags (or purchase regular nametags, or make your own!) and have people write the lessons Dumbledore has taught them.

-Don’t forget that non-“hard core” Harry Potter fans like to get involved and talk about Harry Potter too, so don’t be afraid to talk to them!

-We talk about Twitter and how new media has helped get coverage of the election (and post-election protests) in Iran.

-Andrew debuts his Dumbledore filk and receives much applause from the other callers and the chat.

-We discuss issues of loyalty and power and what it really means when we say we’ll fight for Dumbledore.

-When you blog about your lessons from Dumbledore, don’t worry about using fancy language, just speak from your heart!

-Blogging isn’t the only option: you can also write songs, plays, make a video, etc. Don’t be afraid to get creative!

-Andrew declares us all “pregnant with a passion for a new world.” Riotous laughter ensues.

-Have questions about What Would Dumbledore Do? E-mail Dumbledore@thehpalliance.org