2 Days to Go!

On Tuesday, I was thrilled to see the article in The Retriever Weekly highlighting our event. It might sound a little strange but it made the event a little bit more real. I sent out the link to a few list procs I belong to and I'm making phone calls this afternoon to push some ticket sales. After making announcements in Professor Bhalla's AMST200 class, a few people contacted me about buying tickets and I'm trying to catch-up with them. I want to sell tickets- I'm determined! Someone actually told me that all I do is talk about Club 4100. I hope you are all proud.

I was really excited to go on the radio show this morning but unfortunately it fell through. It would have been a great opprotunity but I think we've done a great job advertising. Between fliers, meetings, bull roasts, bake sales, newspaper articles...we seem to have it covered.

I found some coloring pages online for the kids! I have images of a football helmet, sports balls and some coloring pages of the Oriole Bird. I made about 100 copies total. Emily is picking up crayons during her shopping trip.

I'm sending the list of shifts out tonight and I'll print out some copies for Sunday. I also have down that Corey, Lauren, Emily, Hillman and Nick would be interested in "MC-ing" the event- or at least announcing some of the raffles.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be surreal. I can't wait to set up for the event and to street team (finally).

My new favorite quote: "With Sinatra on the juke box and Unitas on the wall, it's always 1958 at Club 4100." I like the idea of that there is a time and feeling associated with the Club. I think it sums up exactly what we what we are trying to do at the club- preserve the place, the feeling, the spirit.

See everyone tomorrow!

Club 4100 Week (the real one)

I think last week was amazing! I was so excited to see everyone dressed in their shirts, selling cupcakes in the breezeway and making announcements during class.

I am happy to report that a few people followed-up with me after my presentation. After making the announcement in Professor Bhalla's AMST200 (both sections), a friend of mine came up to let me know she wanted to buy some tickets. I'm going to keep in contact. I would have sold them to her then but she wanted to ask a few of her friends and didn't have any money.

Speaking of money, I was surprised to see so many UMBC students with money for cupcakes and brownies. I never thought I'd see someone shell out a dollar for a cupcake (especially because in my experience, someone will complain if you give them a free one that's not their favorite combination).

I don't know if it was the t-shirts, all the time spent at the tables or the shared nervousness of presenting the project to our fellow peers...but after last week, I really felt like I was part of a team.

I'll be blogging some more tomorrow after class with my final to-do list. I can't wait to hear about the Bull Roast and other weekend experiences! I'll be e-mailing the "volunteer list" aka, "what everyone's doing and at what time" list tonight- be on the look out.

I am so excited for Sunday!

Testing

Just testing my blog...Apparently there was a scheduled outrage.

Club 4100 Week!

Well, the forecasters are calling for less than fabulous weather this week which is terribly unfortunate since we were supposed to be outside. I checked with scheduling and Mainstreet is booked for the Bookstore Street Sale all week. We can always set-up under the breezeway so no stresses.

I will be working at the Club 4100 table on Friday. I didn't sign up to bring anything but I'm going to try to bake some cookies or cupcakes to sell.

Stasi and I are planning Street Teaming sometime this week- probably Friday. We need to get information from Natalie so we can hit the streets that weren't covered and follow up with people that were interested. I'm very excited!

On Tuesday, Stasi, Missy and myself will all be wearing our Club 4100 t-shirts and making an announcement during our AMST 388 class with Dr. Orser.

I went to the bank to pick up some quarters for laundry- I'm thinking I'll probably have to wash the event shirt a couple times this week.

I think it's kind of interesting that this is the week we chose being that Saturday was our original date.

On a side note: I can't wait to get together with Missy and Emily to work on Kids Committee stuff. Emily has able to get a hold of some awesome games/ toys/ equipment and even some give-aways with absolutely no cost to us! I am going to stop by Commonvision today to see if we can get some stickers printed (to hand out and place on the water bottles).

I'm sure I'll be posting as the week goes on...

P.S. Below is a picture of Nick. When I did a google images search for "Club 4100" his picture/ blog appeared on page 2. Awesome!

"Kids Kommittee"

We need to get together an finalize the activities and how many volunteers we will need for each thing. There are a lot of ideas and some event can run themselves (like hula hooping) but some (like bobbing for apples) will need to be monitored extensively.

When can we get together? Thursday evening works best for me. Let me know. Post on my blog! I will be checking!

Collection of Thoughts

My thoughts are all over the place right now so I figured the best way to communicate what I was thinking (and feeling) would be in list format. Right now, I'm all about this project so if this post isn't enough for you, feel free to give me a call. We can talk eachother's ears off.


1. E-mail updates have been nice and I've been making great use of everyone's blog- everyone who is posting anyway.

2. Props to Emily- her updates have been extremely uplifting! I was happy to see the list of activities for kids. I was looking at a lot of that stuff but it would have been SO expensive to purchase. I had no idea that she had all of the supplies available to her and that we would be able to utilize it. We even have give-away water bottles.

3. I feel good knowing that I am working on Kids Activities (aka the Kids Kommittee), rather than just event planning. I like having that focus. I wish I would have had it earlier.

4. I read the announcement on blackboard about last Tuesday. I had no idea when blogs were "technically due" each week. That's probably why my blog grade it so low.

5. I am so upset that I'm unable to make the CCBB meetings because stories from those outings have been my favorite part of this class. Hearing about Betty Welley was awesome ( I can't wait to meet her) but that one about Patricia Willis and her husband just melted my heart. These are the people that we are doing this project for! I can't even tell you how exciting it is! I feel like reaching out to people like this will mean success for the project.

6. Speaking of success: I know that we can make this project successful without big name sports players or Oprah. We just need to make sure our efforts are in the right places. Simliar to the CCBB community association, I think churches and other organizations that have reached out to Melanie should be contacted. Maybe we can put something in their bulletions.

7. I want to go street teaming and I can't go on Sunday! If anyone wants to go another day, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to cover ground that isn't hit on May 3rd! Natalie- Do you have a list of streets that have been covered if I want to go on my own time?

8. Next week is Club 4100 week. Is it just me or did this semester fly by? We have less than a month until the event!

9. I am going to try to get some UMBC "stuff" donated for the raffles. Why didn't I think of that earlier?

10. I will be following up with the Legislative Representatives from District 31 (where the Club is located). I sent letters but I want to personally call their offices. I hope they are as receptive as the people in the community.

11. I know that I am using an obnoxious amount of exclamation points in this post. I'm excited- really excited!

12. If anyone needs help with what they are doing, please feel free to give me a call. I know everyone is busy with, well everything (tis the season) so if you are feeling stressed, want to vent or would like some help... let me know!

Club 4100 Week

I called Mrs. Harmon in the AMST office today. She said that she would take care of the scheduling for our Club 4100 Week. I told her to get space reserved for the following schedule:

Monday, May 4
Tuesday, May 6
Wednesday, May 8

I asked her to reserve the Commons Terrace on each day from 11am- 1 pm. If it's raining we can move to the breezeway.

I requested one table and two chairs.

We are not guaranteed a space but be thinking about if you are available. This is a total of six hours. I think we can all handle working one.

Tuesday, April 21

After leaving class today, I was pretty pumped. Aside from the fact that today felt more like a meeting that ever, I had a new t-shirt, a new committee for kid friendly activities, and a tickets in my hand. I was a little upset to hear about Tom Matte, since I knew he was a big sports selling point and was assured that he would be 95%. I know I wasn't the only one on the event planning committee that was feeling the same way. Regardless, I was excited and ready to move forward; there was so much to get done and our event was really coming together.

Then there was an e-mail. I understand where Corey is coming from. I've tried to be understanding of his vision since the beginning. He was part of the original project team (during proposal development) and has not given up on that original idea. However, I do not believe that we should move the event. Regardless of the obvious (the fact that the proposed change would occur after the conclusion of classes and graduation), I do not feel as though it is fair to even suggest that we change the date. People have worked hard to invite community leaders, sports figures and other important people to the event. Advertisements have been printed. People have gone into the community, knocking on doors to tell people about the event. Tickets and t-shirts have been printed, date included. Because there is not a logistical problem, there is no reason to change the date. It would be foolish to change the date.

Agree with the e-mail Melanie sent out- it will make us look incompetent and we clearly are not. In addition, we will be throwing away effort and making our merchandise worthless. We should have known about the Tom Matte ahead of time but we will have other sports figures and everything else is in order. I'm sure we will be voting on Thursday but my vote is for no change.

For Last Week

Words cannot described how ready I am for this project to pick up speed. Between my individual meeting last week and the conclusion of Quadmania, I feel ready to bring my A-game.

Thursday was crazy trying to get the tickets printed in time for the Street Team on Sunday. If anyone knows Christopher Moss, give him a huge thank you. He works at Commonvision and personally printed and teared all of the tickets Thursday afternoon so we would have them. I'm assuming that everyone has seen them by now. I left off the logo so that we could fit all of our ticket prices and other information.

I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to Street Team with everyone on Sunday (I was at Quadmania for 56 hours between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, no lie!). Corey let me know today that we only sold three tickets. What happened? Were people not interested? Was it too much money? I know we can sell them to other people but how are we going to market to the community? I guess we'll be talking about that in class...

As far as attendees, I am inviting representatives from Legislative District 31 (where Club 4100 is located). I know Gerard invited Dutch and a few other federal reps so I'm working on local. I have the letter that I sent them. If anyone wants/ needs a copy, please let me know. With Political Science as original major, I find it completely necessary to have elected officials present at the event.

On a more exciting note: I'm waiting to hear back from face painters and balloon artists. I'm trying to find someone that will do it for free (or at least for cost). I have a friend that is willing to do so if she can get off work. More about that to come in this week's blog.

We'll be ordering raffle tickets and other supplies soon so we need to chat about all of that. If we're doing Bingo or other activities, we need to know ASAP.

That's all for now. Can't wait to see everyone tomorrow. I hope people don't feel defeated after only a small success on Sunday- we'll work it out!

Tickets!

I have finished the ticket design for our event! I will try to upload it as soon as possible. I'm having a little trouble.

I left off the ticket price after hearing about the class conversation on Thursday. Right now it only have the date, time, location and more information about the days activities.

I hoped to have them before street teaming on April 19 but that might not happen. We'll see...

Silver Linings and Such

It was a little too late to register our group as a student organization. We can only be considered for next semester.

The good news? Well, looking on the bright side...

1. There are Commonvision discounts for faculty members. There are not as great as those for student orgs but still a good deal.

2. We can probably still have a table at Quadmania.

Not a big deal but still disappointing.

On another note, I'm happy to see this project coming together. I'm looking forward to committee meeting tomorrow and I'm thrilled to start really pushing this thing. Everyone has put in a lot of hard work and it's really starting to show.

EXCITED!

I just saw the Club 4100 spotlight on myUMBC! I was just really excited...

Great job, Natalie!

Food

I did not want to call Club 4100 for two reasons:
1. I do not want to overwhelm the owner with so many contact people
2. I was not sure if someone else had already called

I think this has been a consistent theme this semester. We need to started properly delegating tasks and communicating more efficiently.

I did, however, look up the menu for the Club.

Appetizers range from $3.75- 10.95 per serving including everything from seafood to celery and olives. There is also something on the menu called "Poorman", I don't know what exactly that is but I'm pretty curious. Maybe it's the shrimp recipe I found on Google. I think it would also be good to provide salad for the guests.

Tomorrow, March 31, I think we should make sure that someone calls the Club and gets a feel for what kind of food they would like to serve for "free" and what kinds of deals they may be able to offer customers. We can't really make a decision without figuring out what they want. Then we can move from there.

In closing: If anyone has already contacted them, please let me know. And when we get ideas during our meetings, we need to make sure someone is assigned to the task and has enough information to do it.

Just slightly frustrated...mostly helpless.

Orioles FanFest

The Orioles FanFest on Saturday, April 4.

"The club will host an open workout and activities designed to celebrate the start of the 2009 season. Events planned for the day include autograph and question and answer sessions with current and former players and coaches, fan forums and interactive activities for families and children. "

Maybe we can look into having some advertisements there.

That date is quickly approaching but it would be a great place to get the word out.

Updates!

I have been awful about updating this blog. With event date changes and so many people working on this project, I feel like I have been a little lost in the process. This has been particularly frustrating to me because I feel like project planning is where a lot of my skills excel. I feel like every time I attempt to create an "action plan", I look on blackboard and someone else has done it/ is planning on doing it.

I feel like my role is the Event Planning committee has been making sure that all "bases" have been covered- especially logistics. I believe that people have really be a roll with all of the goals that they have set for themselves and we are definitely making progress.

The past week I have attempted to track down some people that might be helpful to our project. I have written a letter (subject to change) in which people are invited to participate in the event and our class's goals are clearly articulated. Last Friday, I visited Camden Yards and spoke with some of the representatives in community outreach. I spoke with them about our project and the influence that sports (in this case, Orioles baseball) has had on the Baltimore community. I believe that they are interested in maintaining contact with me and conducting further conversation. I would like to speak with Corey Johns about his contacts from the Orioles franchise so that were can maintain a clear relationship with them as a whole- not just with individuals involved.

As a Baltimore native, I have also attempted to track down people for oral history. I'm still working on that. I have completed the IRB training and plan on helping Katie Smallwood and the history committee conduct interviews or do whatever else is needed. I hope that I can be the connection between the History Committee and the Event Committee.

I am very much ready to get back to our regular meetings on Tuesday.

Proposed Project Description

The plan of our project is to draw people to Club 4100. We envision a community event where former Baltimore Colts, as well as other Baltimore sports figures, will makes appearances and sign autographs. The event will incorporate the history of Club 4100, local sports, and the Brooklyn community. Our main goal is to celebrate Club 4100 as a community hub and a site of local history. By holding this event, we hope to renew a sense of place in Brooklyn- offering a space to gather, reflect, and make new memories.

We Like Sports- Just Some Thoughts

"We like sports and we don't care who knows, From the pre-game jokes, to the rap-up show"
- Lonely Island

If you walk into my mother's living room, you would be greeted with ridiculous amounts of Ravens memorabilia. Posters hang on the walls, purple throw pillows sit on the couch, and player bobble heads have replaced our family pictures on the entertainment center. There was something about having a football team again (after the Colts up and left Baltimore) that intoxicated my mother and the rest of Baltimore. It was almost as if a football team would be able to revive some sense of community, some sense of place that supposedly disappeared with the Colts.

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get excited every time I see someone in a Ravens jersey. I feel the need to honk the horn or yell "Go Ravens" in the middle of the grocery store. Sports have become a way to relate to one another, to build communities, and help us develop a sense of place.

This concept has become so universal and can be applied to not only international and national sports leagues but college, high school and even little leagues.

Even here at UMBC, we see the importance, desire and need for sports teams and team pride. Students continue to ask for a football team. Student leaders spend much time and energy to get students to attend sporting events. When our men's basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament, we saw a completely different kind of spirit as students and faculty alike took a pride in our school as a whole.

I consider myself a sports fan for several reasons. I enjoy watching sports. I particularly enjoy rooting for my "home teams"- even if I don't expect them to win. But I especially appreciate the beauty of bringing people together to celebrate friendly competition.

These are just some thoughts. For our AMST 356 class project, I think it will be important to further explore- and understand- the importance of sports in our culture and how "team spirit" can provide a sense of place for an area.