Fundraising offer for GREX from an Ann Arbor band

Mar 9 05:48 UTC 1997

I was approached recently with a fund rasing offer, which I then 
brought up before the Board at the regular Board Meeting.  The Board 
found no objection to the plan, but we agreed that aside from legal 
questions, which we agreed seemed unlikely to be a problem, this was 
an issue to be decided by the usership.

The text of the original offer follows:

 The band 'Poignant Plecostomus' (PP) is interested in performing a 
 benifit to support GREX because they think it's a valuable and 
 meaningful resource to the community of Ann Arbor.   They have many 
 friends who are on GREX and think the concept of a virtual community
 where people can meet and share ideas and many other things is 
 something that needs to be preserved and promoted to a more common
 awareness.

 The idea that has come from this is to arrange and schedule a benifit
 performance with some additional special guests to also perform.  This
 would require a few things in order to do this.

        1. Approval from the GREX Board and Staff

        2. A Venue

        3. A Date and Time

        4. A prepared plan and active participants

 Here's how I propose we address these areas.

 1. Approval from the GREX Board and Staff

 This is the area that I know you can address by presenting the idea at the
 Board Meeting next Wednesday so I'll move on.

 2. A Venue

 I've contacted a friend who has scheduled and booked several shows with
 both PP and several others that we're in regular contact with.  The idea
 here is to make arrangements to have their support by allowing us to use
 their space to hold the Benifit.  Of course scheduling issues are a factor
 here.  I'll keep you posted.  The idea presently held here is that this
 space would be donated to the cause.  The only condition being "leave it
 as you found it", in other words, orderly and undamaged.  Since I know
 this will not be a problem I'll move on.

 3. A Date and Time

 As mentioned above, the avaiablity of the space is a factor, as well 
 as the participant's schedules... I've learned that sometimes it's 
 best to be a bit flexable in the early planning of this kind of thing
 (yeah, I'm a seasoned pro with event planning and production, that's
 the hat I'll offer to wear! ;-).  Currently, with two PPlecostomus 
 members on holiday in Europe until early March it's not possible to
 secure their entire schedule.  I do know as of today that they are
 booked to perform on the 21st and 22nd of March, and I will be in
 Portland, Oregon from the 21st through the 30th of March.  With this
 in mind the conversation we shared moved into April and that's where
 my attention is directed at this time.

 4. A prepared plan and active participants

 The first three items are important, but to ensure success we'll have
 to keep the channels of communication active in developing the plan
 and coordinating the participants.  I know this will not be a problem
 and I think some of the early interest that this idea has gained is 
 an indicator of that.

 Feel free to contact me when you have time and we'll work through 
 more details and brainstorming.  I can be reached via email at 
 either this address or kharder@cyberspace.org (but you know this :-). 
 I can also be reached during the week in the evenings, usually after
 6pm at my home number: 327.9641 or by using my voicemail at 
 800.853.9918.   As I mentioned earlier, it's best to use the voicemail
 number if you don't reach me at home.  I don't check for messages 
 there and encourage folks to not leave messages for me there, the 
 voicemail works much better for this. 

 I look forward to hearing from you.  Take care and talk to you soon!

 Regards,

 Keith Harder             
 EMAIL: keith@msage.com
 VOICE: (313) 663-0444
 

 I've had very positive interest from individuals, some of whom
 represent local organizations, in supporting the proposed benifit.  Many
 of these individuals are "movers and shakers" in their own areas of
 interests.  As the plans develop I look forward to introducing some
 very interesting people to you and others who would like to see this event
 go over smoothly from the planning stages to the performance stages and
 on to the cleanup stages.

 Please let me know what you think and feel free to add any comments,
 issues, ideas, etc. as we move forward in the early planning.

 I know we talked about a few other areas, such as printing limited edition
 GREX
 shirts for the event, and I'm doing some leg work in that direction to see
 what materializes.  I think we're all going to be surprize at what can be
 accomplished when creative people put their heads together and get active
 behind a great idea for a good cause.

 Feel free to contact me when you have time and we'll work through more
 details and brainstorming.

response 2 of 40:

Mar 9 13:42 UTC 1997

I love the group's name.

What are the security issues?  If someone gets injured at this
concert, or so enthusiastic that police join in,  or some such
thing, is Grex in any way liable?

We need to remember we have *no* insurance.  Zippo.

response 4 of 40:

Mar 9 16:46 UTC 1997

   This sounds neat to me.  I'm all in favor of it.  My take on the
insurance is that it really does not matter.  Anything, anything at
all with Grex's name attached to it could result in Grex getting
sued if something "bad" happened, quite regardless if we're connected
with it in any way.

   The *real* risk we run, is in the running of Grex itself.  That
is far more risky, I think, than a concert held in our benefit.

   I'm very pleased to see that a group is willing to devote its
time and energy to help us out.  I certainly hope that this goes
ahead.

response 6 of 40:

Mar 9 17:52 UTC 1997

This item has been linked from Agora 93 to Intro 155.
Type "join intro" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of...
oh, forget it, I'm not going to rhyme "Poignant Plecostomus",
it's just topics of general interest.

response 8 of 40:

Mar 11 02:39 UTC 1997

No Grex funds will be spent on this.

response 10 of 40:

Mar 11 12:42 UTC 1997

   That sounds reasonable to me--we need "memorabilia".

response 12 of 40:

Mar 12 14:58 UTC 1997

(Which reminds me, I have a fragment of a demo "Grex Shop" page at
http://www.izzy.net/~janc/grexshop/grexshop.html.  I'll start some
discussion in coop.)

response 14 of 40:

Mar 28 02:51 UTC 1997

I have an update for you about the fundraiser:

There were so many artists interested in getting in on the act, that the
event has now expanded to two nights!

One night will be an all ages welcome, no smoking, no alcohol evening at the
Halfway Inn. The other will be an adults only, ID required event at the former
NAC, now known as the Java Hut.

Both events are backed up by another location whose name I can't remember.

Thanks to Keith Harder for all his work on this project!

response 16 of 40:

Mar 31 02:43 UTC 1997

Apparently we do.

response 18 of 40:

Apr 1 01:25 UTC 1997

Reality check folks. April is almost upon us, so an April date will not be
noted in the Ann Arbor Observer or the Current. The deadline for both is
around the 15th-20th of the month. So unless this gets moving in terms of
commitments from bands and venues, even May may not be realistic. Someone
needs to start finalizing those things before the PR can really start.

response 20 of 40:

Apr 2 12:43 UTC 1997

I don't know... This sounds almost too good to be true.  Don't expect to
make much, if any, money out of this.  Talk to some of their previous
clients.  Preferably ones they didn't supply you.

response 22 of 40:

Apr 11 05:47 UTC 1997

will there be a grex store booth and memberships available?

response 24 of 40:

Apr 27 08:15 UTC 1997

hullo?