Final Days

I really enjoyed Club 4100 week, and I'm hoping we were able to draw some attention to our event! Both on Monday and Wednesday we raised $56, and I hope we had decent sales today too. It was neat to hear about our project in other classes, and try and get other students involved.

So Wednesday was the only day I was able to attend the Club 4100 free hour in the Breezeway, but I think it went well! We certainly had a fun time and spoke with a lot of students about what we're doing and why we're doing it. I wish Stasi and Corey (or who ever is able to go!) the same kind of luck at the Bull Roast tomorrow. I wish I could have had the day off from work, but with it being the day before Mother's Day, they wouldn't let me. Good luck guys! I can't wait to hear about it Tuesday.

This week I also updated the flyers, even thought I need to update them again since we have a new Colts player coming to our event! I will also update the Club 4100 blog with his information too. Today I spoke with Sandie Unitas who is making a special trip back from the beach just for our event! She was curious as to what our timing was going to be like, so I think she'll be arriving around 5 to the event, but I'll finalize that detail as well. This week I have also updated the Club 4100 with pictures from local community members, kind of like a reminder of who we're doing this for, as well as information about the Concerned Citizens for Better Brooklyn. I'm waiting on some finalizations from the history people to post some more history on there, as well as the Tom Matte interview. I'm not sure if the blog has been a huge success or not in relation to the project, but I do know it's been a great reference point to have for all of us. Like always, just let me know if anything should be changed or added!

Coming up this week, I'll be updating the Club 4100 blog probably daily. I'm also planning the radio bit for our even on Friday the 15th with 98Rock. If anyone is interested in joining, just let me know since I'll already be there. It will probably be around 7, but those are details I'll be finalizing on Monday since the 98Rock morning show has been in the Bahamas this past week.

Thanks to everyones hard work and dedication! I'm really excited to see how everything turns out. Let's hope for nice weather now!

26 days away!

As we get closer to the event, I think we're all realizing how much work still needs to be done. On the Advertising and Marketing front, I'm updating the flyers and the Club 4100 blog often, and our last Street Team will be this Sunday. I wish I could make it, but I have to work every Sunday (besides the 17th of course). Good luck to everyone going out Sunday!

In addition to updating the flyers with new information as it comes in, this week I've also made a couple of additions to the Club 4100 blog with adding some basics about the event. Our event is also now featured on Upcoming (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2490871/), which is awesome. I have also contacted Jennifer Donatelli from the Gazette in hopes of getting some extra coverage before and after the event. There are some flyers up at Bingo World which will hopefully bring in some more guests, and I'm waiting to hear back about how much of a discount we can get on the Bull Roast tickets on the 9th. I really want to go, so hopefully we can all work something out.

This past Monday was also our last official meeting with CCBB. It went great, as usual, and was another promising reminder as to why we're doing this whole thing. They had some helpful advice on how to reach more members of the community, are helping us advertise as much as possible, and we even sold some tickets!

This week should be a busy but exciting one. I'm attempting to wrap up a lot of my work for other classes so I can dedicate as much time as necessary and as possible for Club 4100.

The date is official (100%...again)

With the "controversy" over the changing of the event date finally settled, time to move on, once again, to bigger issues with our event and project!

Once we all discovered that we are not working with much for the event, we were all asked to try and contribute to helping get famous people to attend the event and sign autographs. In less than 10 minutes, I was able to find the phone numbers and address of Steve Bisciotti (owner of the Baltimore Ravens), Art Modell (minority owner), Ozzie Newsome (general manager), and countless others involved with the Baltimore Ravens. I have sent out letters to all of them, and hope to hear back from any or all of them soon! Of course, I'm not "counting" on hearing back from anyone, so I'm continuing to work hard in making this event a success on all levels.

On the Club 4100 blog, I added information about Vincent Pettway, who is our only "famous" sports personality so far. I also added contact information regarding t-shirt and ticket sales, so there is easier access to that information to anyone reading the blog. Finally, I added information about Katie Cuffari, friend to Katie Smallwood, who is graciously volunteering her time to help out with video documenting details of this project, as well as the day of the event.

I am also working with The Maryland Lottery in hopes that they can come out to our event. This is usually quite the draw for guests at events, as they have a variety of activities and prizes to give away without charging the guests any money.

Unfortunately I have not heard back from Baltimore Magazine after the second attempt at contacting them. At first, I had a great reply about being featuring in their community blog, but have not gotten a response past that. Still hoping, just not relying.

This week I also spoke with Heather over at the Baltimore Ravens to see if we could get a couple of the Cheerleaders out to the event; she is checking on the dates to see what she can do. We will also be advertising with St. John's Lutheran Church, which is also where the CCBB meetings are held. I spoke with the Ministry Director who is very interested in our project, is posting flyers within the church for us, and actually already bought a t-shirt to help promote the event!

It is speaking with people like Doris at the church, or Gail from CCBB, that reminds me on a daily basis as to how important this event is. For anyone that gets sidetracked over money, profits, how "cool" they want this event to look....just remember these people. Anyone who feels like being lazy, or not helping or volunteering their time and efforts with this project, should really remember who they're hurting, well beyond their grade for this class.

One month away!

We're all down to a month left until the event, and there is a lot of work that still needs to be done! Hopefully after we all have individual meetings with Dr.King, everyone is on the same page, and we're all working harder than ever.

I picked up the t-shirts Thursday morning, so they are all ready to go for the Street Team on Sunday! I will unfortunately not be able to attend because of work, but good luck to everyone going! I hope we have a great turnout, and learn a lot about what we can expect in the coming month, and for the day of the event. I also made inventory for the t-shirts so we might be using those, we'll see come Tuesday.

I've contacted Chad Unitas again to finalize details about the event. It's still difficult to really talk about what's going to be there since nothing is finalized besides the food, but I'm really stressing the importance of community and restoring Brooklyn to what is used to be as a tight-knit neighborhood.

I would really love to figure out more details about who is interested in attending the Polish Home Hall Event on May 9th. I had already taken off of work (since that was our original event date), so I will definitely be going. If we can finalize who will be able to go, we might be able to get a deal on advance group ticket sales. Depending on the total cost, we might be able to have some of it covered by our class grant budget, but we should really save as much of that as possible for our own event. I think attending the Bull Roast will be an awesome way to further market our own event and get in even more contact with the local community members.

The Club 4100 blog has also been updated! It now features their address with a link to a map of the area, and the great timeline of Brooklyn's history that Missy put together. Great work! I think this really helps as a reference point for those who visit the blog to really see what our event is about.

This week, I have also been in contact with local Brooklyn churches to advertise in their weekly bulletins. I should have final answers about when and where, if possible, by next week.

I definitely look forward to hearing all about the Street Team come Tuesday's class! Good luck everyone! Keep in mind, the next Concerned Citizens for Better Brooklyn meeting is at 7pm on April 27th.

We have t-shirts!

Well, technically we do; they're ordered, which is close enough. So a lot of our budget is gone, which just means we have to turn around, sell these shirts, and start making that money back! I think we can do it quickly. I have also updated the Club 4100 blog and the flyers, so we should have a fresh round of flyers in class on Tuesday, ready to be passed out!

I've still been in contact with Emily, the Visual Arts student, in regards to her flyers, but I haven't heard back from her yet. Not a big deal, since I had started on our flyers awhile ago at least as a backup so I didn't have to rely on anyone outside of the class. I will also be speaking with Ted Sophocleus, who is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and grew up in Linthicum and has a passion for Club 4100. We'll see what his ideas are!

On Monday, I had attended the CCBB meeting with Gerard, Emily, and Erin, and we all had a great time and learned a lot about what the community wants and needs. I'm working Gail from CCBB in efforts to advertise with local churches in the area in their bulletins and programs.

On a note about including a Bingo game into the event- just in case we don't end up with signings or things like that and decide to do a Bingo game, my dad has a couple of friends that used to work at Bingo World, which isn't far from Club 4100, and said they would love to volunteer their time for the event. They had some fun Bingo ideas, and used to love the Club "back in the good ol' days" (I feel like a lot of people have said this?!), and are all about helping the community.

What a week!

I think we have all had a rough week in class. There are a lot of opinions out there, which is a great thing, but we all need to work on communicating them in a more professional, mature way. The "drama" aside, it has certainly been a productive week!

Much thanks to everyone working their butts off on this project! Corey and Katie for going up to Club 4100 and trying to manage this food thing out; Stasi for trying to network the heck out of everyone she meets; and Hillman for going ahead with our Street Team idea, which I think has been one of the best ideas yet and will work heavily in our favor.

A few updates on my end from the week:
- Flyers have been updated, and the most recent ones have also been sent to Dr.King, so if anyone needs copies, let her know! I update the flyers as soon as I get new information to add to them, so keep the updates coming guys!
- I spoke with Tom Jones, who is the VP over at Thunder Creek apparel, and they have been nothing but nice, thoughtful, and timely in their efforts to help us with this project. Monday, I should be receiving a new estimate which will include the cost of colored t-shirts, what white t-shirts with 4 different colored inks would cost, as well as what our discount would be with featuring the Thunder Creek logo or name on the front under our logo. Since they are a Baltimore based company, I'm hoping to head up to their headquarters to check out their production facilities and hopefully get some demo's out of our shirts.
- I have contacted WJZ about getting added to their community events calendar; I'm not sure if I'll get an email back, or simply be added to the calendar, so check it out and let me know if it makes it up there! Sometimes those things take awhile; updating the community events calendar was one of my duties at my previous internship and the emails would get backed up forever.
- I spoke with Jess Blumberg who is Associate Editor over at Baltimore Magazine. Unfortunately, they are already done putting together their May issue of the magazine; while this is bad news, I think it just proves how quickly we all need to keep moving with this thing, because the earlier we get the word out there the better! On the bright side, I will be talking with Senior Editor Evan Serpick, who writes a community-based blog for the magazine, and Jess said that our event is the perfect thing for the blog. She also said "This project sounds really neat and a lot of us here at the magazine have a particular fondness for Club 4100," which is very promising for at least a greater turnout for the event. Hopefully some Club 4100 coverage for maybe the June or July issue as well!
- I shot an email over to Dave Burgess who is the Program and Marketing Director with 105.7 in Baltimore, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. Sending an email or making phone calls never hurt, and take no time at all.
- I'm also in contact with Mike Klingaman, a sports reporter from The Baltimore Sun, in talks about getting an article and/or coverage about the Club and our event. We've gone back and forth with a few emails, which is great when people get back to you and sound excited about what we're doing and want to be a part of it!
- I'm working with the 98Rock morning show crew about coming out to the event. Unfortunately, Mickey is in a wedding that day and will probably not be able to make it. He did say he'll be double-checking the times of everything, in hopes that he can come out and support us either near the beginning or the end of the event. We'll see!

I also went to Club 4100 the other night with a friend, just to check the place out. I didn't mention that I'm part of this project, just so I would be treated as a regular customer. While they are very friendly and personable, I have a few concerns. It started off rough, as my friend and I were served beers that were room temperature, at best. Then when we ordered Old Bay wings (which are featured on their menu), Meena came out slightly confused about how to cook them. I later ordered a diet coke, which was beyond flat. I order shrimp scampi from the menu, which had a description of being in a "garlic lemon butter sauce" and sounded delicious. However, when it was served, it came out not only sans the garlic lemon butter sauce, but was topped with tomato paste of some sort, which is clearly not even close to the description in the menu. This concerns me, since I've been trying to promote this event and the Club as much as possible, but now I'm a little hesitant. I want to ensure that if we're bringing the people that we are, that they get what they deserve for their money and time spent. I'm not sure how to approach them about this, or if we should. Definitely something to talk about in class.

Unitas Family

I spoke with Chad Unitas again, and it is so great to hear the passion within his voice about our project with Club 4100; it's exactly what I was hoping for. Aside from speaking with the Unitas family, I have attempted to get in contact with as many reporters as possible. Some have been more successful than others, as expected. From The Baltimore Sun, I have tried to contact via email or phone calls TEN reporters or editors! As of today, only one has gotten back to me to refer a fellow reporter who would be very interested in the project, so we'll see if he's able to get back to me after he's back from sick leave. I also spoke with the Baltimore Blast to see about getting player or cheerleader appearances at our event, and have updated both versions of the flyers and sent them out to the class. On the Club 4100 blog, I added links to Baltimore Grassroots Media and the Baltimore Fun Guide, which is the events calendar for The Baltimore Sun. I also put in a request from The Baltimore Fun Guide to add us to their events calendar, as well as a request from Baltimore Grassroots Media for event coverage for our event.

That's all for this week! I look forward to contacting (and hopefully getting more replies back from) as many people as possible, and furthering details with our event so our team can continue to market and advertise as much as possible.