Phone Calls and Budgets – Tuesday Morning Productivity Extravaganza

Tuesday felt like the first day back from the holidays should. We were tired, well Josh and I were tired, we were motivated and anxious to get to work, and we got a lot done. It was a very great way to start the new year!

We spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon planning for our upcoming project, Save the City, which will involve a number of community events over the coming months, and the details of which we’ll be announcing soon.

Basically, we’re hoping to start a larger conversation with the City of Windsor, trying to determine all the details that make this place what it is, while also imaging new ways to document it at this moment in time. It’s going to require the participation of as many people as we can get, and it’s going to be the start of something even bigger. Needless to say, we are excited!!!

Michelle was the most awake by my measure, and to be honest, it was after 10am by the time we got rolling, but the holidays shifted many a sleep pattern. Anyways, Michelle read over our agenda and got us all moving. First on the task list was critiquing the postcard design, which we need to get to the printers ASAP.

One of the original ideas for the postcard.

Rosina had to make a whole bunch of phone calls… braving other folks also just waking up from the holidays.

Cristina talked budget plans and helped to piece together the postcard design.

On a side note, Michelle returned my SYSTEMS book, you should definitely read it if you’re remotely interested in social / community arts practice.

Our agenda for the day. We’re attempting to use Google Wave to try to keep all this information in one place, rather than being passed between six email accounts. So far, it’s working ok, except for that brief period of time this morning when we couldn’t connect to the Internet. The cloud failed us.

Rough ideas for this postcard.

Yes, kind of terrible neon / acid wash jean colours and textures, but this kind of sketching moved us to our more finalized design that we quite like.

Everyone headed over to the other computer while I worked through the designs.

Josh, Michelle, and Rosina started sorting through the web and yellow pages to find the two billboard companies in town, Patterson and CBS.

Our notes from a previous evening’s work. I don’t think we’ve ever planned anything this large before, it’s fun, seriously.

Michelle on the phone with one of the billboard companies … I can’t remember which one now.

Making notes from the call, I guess a billboard rental is about $1000 / month.

In the other room, I’m still working on the postcard.

Josh crunching numbers.

Putting together the budget in a bit more detail with actual costs.

And comparing that with the budget notes from our grant proposal.

More phone calls, more notes, it’s awesome how much can get done in a few hours though.

Pulled out an older flyer for some visual reference.

Close to being right, some resizing needs to be done.

Rosina goes through the yellow pages, looking for some more phone numbers for print shops.

Some notes at the end of our meeting.

And more.

And thankfully this has been transferred to a digital format since it’s totally inevitable this will get lost in the shuffle somewhere.

And the basically finalized postcard, or at least the front. I’m sure we’ll continue to tweak over the next few days, but I also hope to have these in our hands by mid-next week … if all goes well. We’re likely meeting again on Friday to continue with planning for the first event taking place at the end of the month, details soon.

Broken City Lab: Save the City is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.