To you, the inaugural members of Clearwater Village, I offer a thank you and a huge welcome hug! @Chantelle Morrison @Marina Varahidis @Devorah Medwin @Nancy Valentine @Mei Lynn Buglino @Natalie Hurdley @Helen McGregor @Kath Cheng Help me welcome you and each other! I was reminded just last week that the first online community I built was back in 1997! It was centred on Irish Dance, and in particular the show Lord of the Dance, created by Michael Flatley. The website for the show had a 'Visitor's Book', and many fans posted there about seeing the show, and slowly a community built up as people responded to others' posts. Soon, a few of us who were 'tech savvy', started building websites, and I would host a regular 'Storyteller Room' chat in ICQ (we didn't have anything like we have today!) I also hosted a regular SCDS - a synchronised CD session. One of our members loved creating midis and he made us all a CD of a live show's soundtrack. We would all get together in the 'Storyteller Room' and there would be a countdown, and on 'Go' we all started our CD at the same time and then typed into the chatroom our comments as we all listened to the show together. Amazing friendships were formed, a lot of the members in the US were able to meet up at performances of T2 (a second troupe that started touring through the US), and it was a great community. So in 1998 when Michael Flatley announced he would retire from the lead role in the show and his final performance in Lord of the Dance would be back where it all started in Dublin, the idea of a 'Gathering' started. Such was the popularity of the idea that more than 60 of us, friends from all over the world, descended on Dublin in late June 1998 to meet face-to-face for the first time! So many stories and connections came from that!

One of the fun things in Skool are the GIFs! This is for you if you're a Skool newbie, and we were all that at one stage! Whether you are posting or leavng a comment on a post, you can add a GIF. Take a look down the bottom there, you'll see GIF somewhere around and click on it. A little window that looks just like my first pic down there will pop up. It has a search box at the top and you can have some fun typing in whatever you'd like to find, be it 'hello' or 'welcome' or 'running' or 'on fire' or 'whatever' if you want. To select it simply click on the one you like with your mouse, or tap on the screen if you're on your phone. Just a heads-up, sometimes on my phone it can be a bit awkward and take two goes to select, but it's worth giving it a go! Go on, go try it out. You can post one or a few (I can't remember the maximum)! I've seen whole threads that have evolved simply with GIFs being used to communicate, and it can be fun and interesting to follow along or participate. Give it a try - see what you can find and post them here. I love the laughing ones, and this young fella has me grinning every time I see him and his gorgeous belly laugh!