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.