Monday, October 3, 2011

Personal Project Parade (Update 1)



Bloomington COOPerates 
  
It's been an interesting couple of weeks for the BCOOP project.  Step 8 was quickly rendered impossible and there was no time to develop an adequate website; however, the project seems to have been well received by the coop and the collective communities.  I've been happy to help and give what promo I can.  It'll be a blast to get to meet some of these folks that I didn't know before and it seems there are two co-op conferences coming up, so there are like-minds to be networked.
 
As for things to do:

(1) Get out the emails that I owe.

(2) Get the website (or, at least, a well-linked blog) to go live this week, if nothing else than to have something for the first listserv email launches to reference.



(3) Conversations! Lot's of great people to meet, who might be interested in the project.


(4) Conference registration, lots of phone calls, and begin the campus-oriented leg of the journey.  Hopefully these will all be mutually reinforcing. 


(5) Infrastructural improvement. The absurd struggle to make a workable booth is described below; and, though I'm happy with how it turned-out, a priority next-step is upgrading to a printed banner; getting a friend in graphic design to help draft a logo (pro bono); actually remember to put the email address, phone number, and web address on the main signs and/or banner; and, if I can afford it, one of those five-point box-tents that a number of the other booths and vendors have.



Launching at the Farmer's Market was, well, a learning experience.






BCOOP at the Farmer's Market


Though you might think I'm squinting from the force of my grin -- maybe at the thought of finally turning a pile of paper, styrofoam, duct-tape, and tacks into a respectable info-booth -- it was much more likely that I was taking a 30 millisecond micro-nap.  Work and life have both, in the best of ways, had the volume turned-up in the last 10 days, so to do all the things I needed and wanted to do -- with undivided attention, personal investment, and quality -- my Zzz's, once again, had to be voted off the island.  







The raffle / listserv sign-up was less popular than I would've hoped; still, I think a good deal of that can be improved for next week and, further, I had a lot of great conversations with interesting people in the community, which was a success in itself.   I fully understand how people fall in love with this town. 


I was happy to see a number of people from BCL stop by, but I gotta give credit to Melanie for coming-in at just the right time and really getting the board-presentation off the ground.  Gotta represent my roommate, too: even though I'm pretty sure I woke him up -- scrambling at 7:45am to get the sign ready and keep everything in order -- his first reaction was to offer his time and help, which was perfectly timed and absolutely necessary.  And, of course, I gotta thank our resident photographer  : )






Reels on Wheels: 

Status: Cancelled   (no time; at least not this time)

Compost Collaborative:  
Still wandering through phase one.  After putting down a violent, fruit-fly insurrection, I realized that something had to change (that, and I felt the need to once again feel comfortable having company over).  Thankfully, I'm getting the verms this week, so things could change quickly and in my favor.  Until then, that box is sitting outside and that floor is getting mopped.  Can't spread a model 'til I know that it works (and how to work it).

 

Caveat: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html

2 comments:

  1. looks like a successful table!

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  2. I love the photo documentation! Change and lack of sleep go hand in hand. At least the weather appears to have cooperated.

    Are you doing more than one personal project?

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