Your regular attendance, serious attitude, and class participation will be vital in making a workshop class succeed.  Therefore, I would recommend that you only miss class if you are ill or have an emergency.  Irregular attendance will seriously affect your group's ability to work effectively.  It will also affect your grade, as I will be evaluating your participation.

If you miss more than 2 classes, I will give a grade of "0" for your participation/attendance grade.  This amounts to a loss of a full letter grade for the course.  If you miss more than 3 classes you will fail the course.

Basically, you have 2 or 3 absences to use at your discretion.  An absence is an absence; there are no "excused" or "unexcused" absences.  Therefore, I would again recommend that you save these absences for the times you really need them, such as illness.  If you have an unusual or particularly difficult situation, be sure to talk with me so that we can make arrangements.  It is always best to try to contact me ahead of time, if possible, in cases of emergency.