What I got from last weeks group discussion with Jason Reed

"feasibility study"

The following are my ideas from what we talked about last week with Jason Reed. I know we have already decided a few specifics, this is just what ideas I would like to contribute.

Title: Mapping Baybrook: Main Street Memories

Logo: Outline of Main Street (sort of like the NYC skyline)

Mission Statement: "To bring together the community of Baybrook by remembering the past, documenting the present and looking towards the future (with an attention on main street)"

Event Discription:
       1) Main Street "memories"- have old photos of main street next to current photos of each location, mapped out. Each current locale on main street will be invited to set up a booth at the Polish Home Hall to help the community know who works in the neighborhood/ on main street. Each booth will be set up in the same way with a photograph of a historic store front along side a current photo of the store. The rest of each booth will be left up to the discretion of the store owner. (All stores are welcome to bring sample food but we will not pay them for the samples. Another idea would be to make each booth space cost 5$ to increase revenue for the event since we cannot expect the store owners who have booths at the event to pay to get into the event).
       2) Artwork/ silent auction - UMBC art students' artwork will be on display and a silent auction of the artwork (if approved by artist) will be held with all proceeds going back to the community.
       3) Entertainment - invite the entertainers that live in the community and children at the schools to perform. Hopefully they will be willing to come for free, if not we need to decide how much they will be paid.
      4) Food - if enough food stores on main street bring samples, we can lower the amount of food we prepare to help save money on the event.
      5) Reflection - set up a table with "guest books" and a donation box so that the community members can not only tell us how we did for the event but also leave notes on what they would like to see changed in the neighborhood so that the AMST 422 in future semesters have something to start from instead of feeling like a chicken with its head cut off in the beginning of the semester. Another type of reflection book could be a memory book that would be turned into a link on the Mapping Baybrook website.
     6) Debut of Mapping Baybrook website - determine a specific time of day that the website is presented by a speaker to whoever is at the P.H.Hall in between entertainers.
     7) Raffle- invite main street shops to donate baskets of product to be raffled off at the event (ask other companies too even if they aren't on main street to increase the number of baskets). Raffle tickets will be an extra cost, but each person to buy a ticket to get into the event has an automatic ticket into the raffle. Extra tickets will be 2$(?).
    8) Arts and crafts table - ask kids/anyone to express with art what the community means to them, artwork will later be displayed in the community garden. It will be a small section of the event.

Committee Structure:
     - budget: Katie
    - secretary: Alex
     - PR/outreach: ensure that the event is well publicized.
    - Fundraising:
     -Entertainment: find entertainers within the community willing to perform
 I am willing to be in any and all committees as I like to work with people to get something done. I feel that I will do best working on publicizing the event, even though I am very shy when something needs to be done, when I need to reach out to people I am very good at speaking up.

Revenue Producing Products:
   * Tshirts- to be sold for 6$ more than the cost of production per shirt.
   * Buttons- to be sold for 2$ more than the cost of production per button
   * Bake sale- cookies, brownies, cupcakes, lemonade- cost to be determined.

Feasibility Statement:
     After discussing projects in class on the 19th, the main street idea seemed more feasible than an artwork idea since the event will be in December and it will be cold. Having a small children's corner/artwork area seems a plausible compromise since the kids may need to do something to keep themselves busy during the event. Asking main street shops to participate is a great way to bring more guests who are curious as to what stores are located on main street.

Mapping Baybrook: Puzzling Together a History

Title: Mapping Baybrook: Puzzling together a History

Logo: Pieces of a puzzle that say Bay and Brook on them, so they are part of a larger puzzle.

Mission Statement: “To bring together the community of Baybrook by remembering the past, documenting the present and looking towards the future”.

Event Description:  (What I would like to see at the event):
                1. Art area with crafts that kids can take home as well as puzzle pieces that members of the community are invited to decorate with what it means to them to be part of the Baybrook community. The puzzle pieces are welcome to be made by children of all ages (i.e. adults too).
                2. Music/entertainment performed by local bands/comedians that will perform for little to no money. Not only will this get their name out to the public but will be good practice for them. (Involve UMBC bands and comedians).

Committee Structure:
                1. Food/entertainment: contact people to perform at low cost, and ensure food that will be prepared is ready for the day of the event.
                2. Fundraising committee: work with the budget and decide what products to create and how to effectively sell them. (This includes bake sales and fundraising on campus).
                3. Public Relations committee: get word of the event out to the public to ensure attendance at the event will be a good amount.

Revenue Producing Products:
                *T-shirts to be sold at 5$ more than the cost to produce each.
                * Buttons to be sold at 2$ more than the cost to produce each individually.
                *Flyers (which will get the word of the event out to the public, to be brought to all fundraising events on and off campus)
                *Bake sale products: cookies, cupcakes, brownies, lemonade etc. Prices to be determined by the cost to produce, donations will be available also.

Budget: I am terrible with budgeting, so I prefer to leave this up to those who work well with money and are good at budgeting.

Schedule:                 1. Buy t-shirts and buttons ASAP to sell at every fundraising event on and off campus.
                2. Bake sales (weekly? Bi-weekly?) also starting ASAP to raise money, possible to work with the Noche Vida guy at the library to raise money.

Feasibility Statement: I believe this project is something that can be accomplished in one semester as it seems very basic but has the potential to help the community grow into something of a tighter knit group. Problems that could arise are people not feeling like the theme of “puzzling together a history” is appropriate for Baybrook, as well as people’s lack of creativity in the designing and decorating of puzzle pieces to be displayed throughout the community.

Research Project:

Libraries are some of the most important buildings within a community as they hold so much information and imagination to be used by the community. A library within a community can become a hub of personality, a place for youth to commune and feel safe as well as a place for adults to keep their childhood imagination afloat via fiction novels. I want to research the public library of Baybrook to discuss the aesthetically pleasing visual appearance as well as the level of involvement the library has with the community. I am a lover of libraries and have created a check list in my mind of the things a library must contain in order for it to be considered a good library. I will look at this library in two ways, first in my own personal judgment of the libraries aesthetic characteristics and second in relation to how it works within the community as a base of operation for study and leisure. 

Week Two

Listening to Linda Shopes on September 5th was definitely a positive experience in making me feel more comfortable with the Oral History project we will have later on in the semester. I have previously done an oral history for another class and felt that it was sub-par. Linda mentioned not interviewing a family member, which is exactly what I had done. I had been attempting to make my interview about a specific topic but had not prepared myself enough so the interview became too broad.
Linda's seven things to do pre-interview will come in handy when I am attempting to perform an interview this semester. (However I am considering just transcribing an old interview done by Dr. King because I have such a high anxiety level interviewing people).

All week I was trying to think of a good subtitle for our Bridging Baybrook title, but was unable to come up with anything that I felt was witty enough to be a subtitle. I still want to work with the children during the event, having the children draw a "puzzle piece" of themselves that would fit into a larger picture to be displayed somewhere in the neighborhood might be a neat idea. Something similar was done at my elementary school when I was there and it was nice to see our work on display.

Also, having some sort of bake sale at the event/ as fund raising before the event would be good. I definitely love to bake and would put in time to make as much brownies and/or cupcakes as possible.

Week One-- Cats and Kids.

Usually I am very good at articulating my thoughts but for the first time in a while I feel unprepared and overwhelmed. While I read, I don't think it sunk in very well. The reading on the "Meaning of 'Social Entrepreneurship'" caught my eye the most. Author Gregory Dees quotes Peter Drucker's definition of entrepreneurship as "the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits is as an opportunity". Upon reading his definition I immediately thought of a few people whom I know personally who have become what Drucker would consider an entrepreneur. While these people would not fit within the "standards" of social entrepreneurship as explained in the article, getting advice from them on how they got themselves off the ground would be a good idea.

As for the class project, like I am sure many other are, I am unsure as to how deep this project goes. In the past week I have worked with kids under the age of five and thought about activities that I could do with them to keep them entertained on December 1st at the event. These things include coloring/ arts and crafts type activities as well as physical activities like duck duck goose or other group games. This would make it easier for the adults to enjoy themselves, knowing they don't have to keep looking over their shoulder to make sure their son or daughter isn't doing something naughty.



Irrelevant tidbit of information:  I like cats and thought to myself this evening "I wonder how many rap songs there are about cats", and this is what I found so far to be most interesting. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1vkjOvD-zs