Several important announcements were made during Caroline Collective Co-Founders Ned Dodington and Matthew Wettergreen’s brief-ish address to the crowd.

1. Matthew Wettergreen will be returning in August to run Caroline Collective full-time. We are sure this will allow Caroline Collective to become the professional, inspiring and productive work space that we all believe it can be.
2. There is one person at Caroline Collective that over the two years has contributed significant mind-share, constantly supported the space through outspoken promotion and holding fundraisers for the community. This person is already very much a part of our family and we love her very much. We have decided to invite Grace Rodriguez to be  a part owner in Caroline Collective.
3. Caroline Collective’s Creative Incubator, C2, is poised to launch. C2 Creative is a nonprofit organization that provides creative startups, groups, individuals and professionals with the education, guidance and resources needed for a successful launch. Check out what’s coming next at http://www.c2creative.cc/.
4. We will soon be launching a capital campaign to raise much needed funds for much needed improvements surrounding the building and grounds. By this we mean: a new HVAC unit, re-paving the back lot, an automated gate, video security system and a new and upgraded coworking space.

Thanks to Caroline Collective member Tom Paynter of Paynter Media, you can watch the whole speech.

One of the best comments of the night was “These announcements are on the order of It’s About F*cking Time!”

We’ve demonstrated that we can walk. This fall we run. Won’t you join us.

The Arts Marketing intern will work closely with Fresh Arts Coalition to aid with:

• Creating and implementing marketing plans for arts based events and campaigns
• Designing and implementing an arts-based social media strategy
• Designing and sending weekly email newsletters
• Attending arts events

The Branding and Public Relations intern will work closely with AYN Brand to aid with:

• Managing social media campaigns surrounding events and brands
• Identifying and targeting conferences, speaking opportunities, and request for proposals
• Maintaining a contact database
• Conceiving and designing events and brand marketing plans

The Video intern will work closely with Paynter Media to aid with:

• Editing, shooting and producing web video
• Designing and implementing a social media strategy employing web-based video
• Identifying and targeting individuals, bands and companies in need of web video content

Please submit resumes along with a cover letter to carolinecollective@gmail.com by Wednesday, July 28 at 6:00pm EST. Please include your area of interest, whether that is arts marketing, video or branding.

Bring your stuff to Caroline Collective on July 11 to…

• Swap it for stuff you really want/need
• Sell it for cash to keep or donate to a local charity
• Donate it directly to a deserving charity

The Furniture Bank of Houston (http://www.fb-houston.org) will be the beneficiary of any unswapped/unsold furniture. We’re seeking another local charity/charities to receive clothing and miscellaneous items – if you know of one that would appreciate gently used items, please contact @gracerodriguez.

BAKERS: Feel free to bring goodies to raise money for your favorite charity…even if it’s yourself!)

How it works:

1. Sign up to be a Swapper/Seller and/or Baker (Browser/Buyers can simply RSVP)
2. You’ll receive an email with detail on table space and set-up time
3. Hunt for & gather the treasures you no longer want
4. Bring them to Caroline Collective on July 11 – don’t forget to bring change for buyers!
5. Early morning: Sell!
6. Lunchtime: Swap! (&Sell;!)
7. Afternoon: Sell! Sell! SEll!
8. At the end of the day, all unswapped/unsold stuff (and cash!) can be donated directly to local charities (pick up times will be pre-arranged)

Any questions? Ask @gracerodriguez, @cosmopolitician, @favouritethings. Surprises are in store, so stay tuned!

Please take a moment to register via the Eventbrite page here: http://swaptweet.eventbrite.com/

See you on July 11…

Grace, Monica, Mandy

P.S. If the Swapper/Seller RSVPs reach the maximum limit of 13, RSVP as a Browser/Buyer and comment that you want to be added to the waitlist in case a spot opens up.

P.P.S. We’ll be showing the World Cup game (projected on the wall!), so don’t worry – you won’t miss a single moment! Remember, though, it’s BYOB…whatever your beverage of choice may be.

On Thursday, March 25, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness. Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.

This year’s beneficiary is Concern Worldwide, dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. All proceeds from Twestival will go directly to Concern Worldwide’s efforts to improve education and build schools around the world.

Twestival Houston is sponsored by Saint Arnold Brewery, Red Bull, Coffee Groundz, Beaver’s, BB’s Cajun Cafe, Tacos A Go Go, Yelapa Mexicana, Digital Memories Photobooth, Caroline Collective, Culture Pilot and ayn Brand.

NO COVER! Raffle tickets available for $1/each or 6 for $5. Attendees can also get a little silly with the Digital Memories Photobooth for $1 per photo – all donations go directly to Concern Worldwide. All online and offline friends welcome. There will also be chances to win fabulous nifties from Houston arts organizations and local businesses such as Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Children’s Museum Houston, Aurora Picture Show, Ani DiFranco Tickets and Swag courtesy of Vonwolffe Studios, Blackhorse Ranch Golf Cub Gift Cards courtesy of EatCypress, Art Car VIP Passes courtesy of The Orange Show, Blonde Salon Cut/Style & Product courtesy of Grace Goodson, original photos and art from Mark C Austin, Crystal Cooper, Tim Dorsey and Matt Manalo. Plus tons of gift certificates from area restaurants like Paulie’s, Franks Pizza, Sugarbaby’s, Te House of Tea, Mezzanine Lounge, and more!

Come on out for a drink and some fabulous food from our sponsors, listen to some great local bands, play some games provided by Extra Life Houston, and support a a great cause!

Twestival Houston 2010 Details :

• WHEN: March 25, 2010 : 5:30pm-11:00pm
• WHERE: Caroline Collective : 4820 Caroline, Houston 77004 | www.carolinecollective.cc | @carolineco

Music – Main Stage :

• 6:00pm – Insert Name Here | @INHpunk | myspace.com/inhpunk
• 7:00pm – Wayside Drive | @WaysideDrive | www.waysidedrive.com
• 8:00pm – The Last Place You Look | @LastPlaceULook | myspace.com/thelastplaceyoulook
• 9:00pm – Winter Wallace | @WinterWallaceis | www.winterwallace.com

Music – Gallery :

• 10:00pm – Prairie Cadets | @PrairieCadets | www.prairiecadets.com
• 10:30pm – Gretchen Schmaltz | @SchmaltzWaltz

Games :

• 5:30p-10:30p – Extra Life Houston | @extralifehou

Photos :

• 5:30p-11p – Digital Memories Photobooths | @DMPhotobooths | www.DigitalMemoriesPhotobooths.com
• Photographer : Steven David | @thestevendavid | www.stevendavid.com

Twestival Sponsors & Donors :

• Design : AYN Brand | @aynbrand | www.AYNbrand.com
• Interactive Visualizations : Culture Pilot | @culturepilot | www.CulturePilot.com
• Community Sponsor : Aptekar Productions | @K_A_Productions

About Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide was founded in 1968 to meet the needs of people living in extreme poverty, for whom every day is a fight for survival. Concern is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of poverty. Their mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives – improvements they can sustain without ongoing support. Concern meets the needs of these people in a caring and personalized manner, respecting their human and cultural dignity. They are committed to reaching the most vulnerable, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Please follow @concern on Twitter to get a glimpse of their staff tweeting from around the world; including their efforts on the ground in Haiti.

The program allows for members of coworking spaces in one city 3 days worth of access at Caroline Collective (or any other participating coworking space) whenever they are in Houston. This program strengthens the collaborative nature of coworking by allowing different spaces throughout the United States and the rest of the world to work together to spread the joys of coworking. By creating a network of spaces, participating spaces work to strengthen the core of coworking by allowing any and all members access if they are in town.

The program works very simply: if you are in Houston and are a member of a coworking space in your hometown, you simply come in to Caroline Collective, tell Matthew or David your name and your home base, and you’ll be able to work from Caroline Collective for three full days for free. After the third day you will be required to pay the regular $10 daily fee, but this allows the visiting coworker the opportunity to experience coworking in a different city and with a different twist than they are used to. Since so many coworkers are traveling business (most people who travel a lot don’t want a permanent office…. hence coworking), we expect this will create a big upswing in activity here at Caroline Collective, especially considering that Houston is such a central point in so many industries in the business world. We are incredibly excited to make sure that all business travelers who use coworking to be able to use this program at Caroline Collective and any other coworking spaces that participate.

For a list of other participating coworking spaces, check the Coworking Visa page.

For a list of coworking spaces in Texas, check the Coworking Visa Texas page.

Feel free to join us at Caroline Collective and bring any other craft that you’re working on and hang out with us if you already have something planned for your sweetheart, or prefer to keep your heart close to your chest. Kids welcome!

Bring a craft. Share a craft. Learn a craft. Make a craft.

Thanks to Katie Mahoney for the great idea to hold this special Craft Night.

WHAT: Craft Night for Valentine’s Day 2010

WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline, Houston TX

WHEN: February 8th, 2009, 7-10pm

WHY: Bring a craft. Share a craft. Learn a craft. Make a craft.

About Craft Night

Craft Night was, in its 2008 inception, an after work hours event to come and share your craft project with other crafty people in Houston. Later, it evolved into crafters teaching a specific skill or a non-profit visiting Caroline, providing food and drink and enlisting the help of the community for one of their own projects.

Beverages are encouraged (we have a refridgerator), ipods loaded with music are always welcome and your attendance is requested.

Our lapsed weekly series, Craft Night, was (we felt) a great place for creative types to meet, work on their projects, and/or teach craft to others. We’ve seen scrapbooking, drawings, knitting, a duct tape fashion model and even Caroline Collective co-founder Ned Dodington’s soon-to-be-installed-at-Lawndale¬†hanging grass spheres.¬†In some special cases Craft Night’s have helped other organizations on large projects, for example, ¬†Fresh Arts CD wall, Spacetaker‘s painted light globes and The Orange Show‘s sugar skull decorating workshop.

With this holiday season approaching we feel it would only be appropriate to give you something to celebrate, right. away. A little head start on that tree trimming, light hanging, gift knitting and decoration making. A bit of quality time with an expert who can show you the components of a truly awful Christmas sweater. Some group therapy forming lumps of clay into the shape of small forest creatures to use as gopher bait.

Wait. What!?!

Yes, that’s right, Christmas sweaters. Matthew Wettergreen, who wears a hand-selected ludicrous Christmas sweater every. day. of. December. to raise money for charity will be on hand to help you design the worst sweater possible for your office Christmas party or family gathering. A short presentation may or may not be involved.

OH! You meant the gopher bait. Aha. We see.

Well, this year’s Fresh Arts and Glasstire fundraiser is entitled “Be The Ball” after everyone’s favorite golf film, Caddyshack (don’t look at me like that, Happy Gilmore doesn’t have Bill Murray). This yearly event continues to be one of Houston’s finest and raises money for Houston’s art scene. It’s sure to be a night of bad golf clothes, Rodney Dangerfield shtick and inevitably, someone showing up as The Gopher. Fresh Arts needs a little bit of help shaping some clay into the form of squirrels and other small rodents to be used as centerpieces at the event. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what we’re talking about. If not, see figure 1.

We do not expect that shaping the animals will take very long and we really just love to see all the crafty people being creative. So bring your craft projects over to Caroline Collective on December 1st starting at 7pm and if you feel like it, make a squirrel, if not just know that we love to see you.

WHAT: Holiday Craft Night at Caroline Collective
WHEN: Tuesday, December 1st, 2009, 7pm – 11pm
WHY: Learn the art of the bad Christmas sweater / form clay into forest creatures / work on craft projects

Band Managers
Also, if you are a band manager, this session is for you as well. Bandize gives you the ability to manage multiple bands from the same account. (See http://bandize.com/multi for more.) Assign tasks to the band members. Give them a place to log gas, meals, and expenses in real time while they are on the road. Print out tour books and day sheets based on the tour information that you are already managing, right from within Bandize!

WHAT: Bandcamp: BANDIZE – “It’s like Basecamp for bands!” (http://bandize.com)
WHO: Ajit D’Sa, Co-founder of Bandize WHEN: 8/16/09 2-4pm
WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston TX
HOW MUCH: $5 a person / $8 per band

Regular BandCamp sessions are (usually) held on the First Sunday of every month at Caroline Collective sometime between the hours of 1pm and 5pm. Please mark your calendar accordingly for future events where we’ll all educate specific skills to musical artists such as, online/offline promotion, tour booking, financials, and recording. Please speak about this event to your colleagues, band members and other interested members of the Houston Music Community.

The fact remains: Overplaying your local audience is not the way to improve your performance skills or increase your income. It IS however a good way to exhaust your audience and decrease your popularity. Bands who are looking to improve their performance skills and expand their audience reach should be playing regularly outside of their local community. Playing in different markets in your surrounding geographical area will expose new audiences to their music and can create an additional revenue stream.

While most bands acknowledge the importance of playing outside their town there seems to be a lack of the practical knowledge on exactly how to secure shows in a region where they have no contacts. Until those contacts are secured and cultured, one tried and true manner of securing a show is contacting venues or other bands. This month we’ll tackle the first method in a way that will not just teach bands how to do it but show them.

Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY will be a workshop where bands will work together to contact venues to book gigs in cities within a four hour drive of Houston.

Here’s how Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY will work: We’ll start with a brief overview talk about how to contact a venue about a show, what information to include, what to say, persistence vs. annoyance, and tips to keep in mind. A whiteboard will be gridded out with a list of Houston’s major surrounding cities and dates that bands will select from. Bands will then be given a form email to fill out that helps to describe their sound, their accolades and what they’re asking for. Then bands will be given a printout of venues that match their city for them to email. They will then contact all the relevant venues in that date range and ask for show availability to secure themselves a show. Later in the week, using the to-do list for contacting venues, they’ll follow up via email or contact the venues by phone to further contact between the venue/venue booker and the artist.

WHAT: Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY

WHEN: July 12, 2009, 2-4pm

WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline, Houston TX 77004

WHY: Book your band to play in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and more

HOW MUCH: Bandcamp sessions are now $5/person, $8/band

Things bands will need:

a tentative list of dates that you are available to play

a laptop (notify us if you don’t have one)

a press kit (not a dealbreaker, can be constructed at the workshop)

Bands will be given:

A mad-libs style form email to tailor to their band

A printout of venues for the city that corresponds to their block on the grid

A to-do list for contacting venues to get a show at that venue.

–

Regular BandCamp sessions are (mostly) held on the First Sunday of every month at Caroline Collective sometime between the hours of 1pm and 5pm. Please mark your calendar accordingly for future events where we’ll all educate specific skills to musical artists such as, online/offline promotion, tour booking, financials, and recording. Please speak about this event to your colleagues, band members and other interested members of the Houston Music Community.