Seattle Foundation Supports Individual Artists - Please READ

[Karen Lane]

I'm no good with 'official' looking or sounding press releases so:

I just received word that the Seattle Foundation has awarded TPS a $15,000 grant for General Operating. The intended General Op use of the award is for IMPROVED member services which includes a re-design of this site. This award is not about TPS. This award is an intentional statement on the part of the Seattle Foundation that they value and recognize the critical role that individual artists play in building strong communities.

I would LOVE for everyone to do two things:

1. Send a note of thanks, identifying yourself as a TPS Member, to Ceil Erickson: c.erickson@seattlefoundation.org

2. Participate in formal and informal surveys or conversations about how to make this site more intuitive as well as serve a broader spectrum of individual artist.

Sincerely,
Karen

[Louise Penberthy]

Congratulations!  That's excellent news.

My suggestion -- revise the menu structure.  Get users of the site to indicate what they want the information architecture to be.

[Zachariah Robinson]

Thank you Louise.  Any other feedback on the site would be fantastic.

Zach

[Louise Penberthy]

Also work on the layout of the pages.  Some of them are so cluttered, it's hard to find the relevant info.

Revise the colors -- the white menu labels on light-blue boxes are hard to read.

[Heidi Heimarck]

Karen;
There's a plethora of info on the www, but it might be possible to sort through some of it ---- and it would be very cool if TPS truly was a central location for us.

What am I talking about?  (Nice opening, Heidi).  LOL.

Answer:  the Support & Business Link - on the left side of the home page.  I'd love to see it expand with many more links to various additional local and national resources.  Also, would love to see a list of local contact info for AEA, Dramatists' Guild (regional rep), and other local reps for other unions/organizations.

Right now, you post things in the message boards, and that's useful and noticeable, but it seems that the links don't get moved to a central location of opportunities, so we have to sometimes sort through messages to find the one that we should have bookmarked 2 weeks ago.  Oh me!  Am I lazy?  Maybe they do get added or moved somewhere, but I just don't know.  So, navigating that, the opps and news, is not intuitive.

p.s. I nominate TPS (oh no!  Karen says!)  to organize/coordinate/manage (or find someone else to do it) funding for TPS artists in emergency.  It would be nice to know that once in a while a regional artist could apply for $250 - $1000 to help pay rent and buy food or fix their car because... they are in a state of medical crisis or financially strapped.  I'd donate $50 a year to that kind of thing.  Get 40 people to do that every year, and there's $2,000 that can go to people for personal emergency needs.

[Heidi Heimarck]

Adding to the above.

You get $2,000 from TPS members and a yearly donation of $10,000 from one of the richy-rich corporations in this community.  OH PLEASE!  Microsoft, WAMU, they can all afford it.  Maybe a couple thousand from the City or County or some individual to help defray admin costs.

That's... say $15,000/year to begin.  $3,000 for admin, $12,000 to dispense. 

That's $1,000/month that can be distributed.  And... the applications are simple and straightforward, initially screened by TPS for legitimacy.

Then a monthly drawing results in 4 awards of $250/each - to TPS members only.  No big publicity, the funds are granted in an "anonymous" fashion.  No announcements, "So and So got $250 cause he/she is broke."  No.  Just, "Here ya go, hope this helps".

You, or some organization you think would be appropriate, do this and the money grows and the number of people who can be helped grows, and it's a good thing.

Of course, it's rife for corruption and mismanagement, lol, but I'm just the idea person.   

[Louise Penberthy]

Wow, Heidi, I think that's a fantastic idea.

[Darla Cardwell]

Being a new TPS member, I am just so happy this site exists!   With that being said, it would be helpful if the audition listing were pre-sorted for non-union VS. Union.  It would make the browsing easier depending on what type of gig a person is looking for.

thanks!

darla

[Kate Kraay]

Thanks as usual for all the herculean legwork Karen.   My 2 cents regards Seattle Performs:  sometimes it is a little hard to find what show you are looking for right away.  I think that if all the shows were listed, newspaper style, and people were able to click on the listing to get all the info, it might be a little more straightforward.  With both the Stranger and The Weekly not doing full listings, it might help to have Seattle Performs be as much of a no-brainer as possible.

[Joseph E Boling]

The site I use over here in Indiana has a feature on each thread labeled "view first unread." When you come back to the site after a day or two and there is a 40-post-long thread, it takes you right to where you left off reading it, so you don't heve to scroll through it trying to find the first new post.

[Karen Lane]

Hey Joe,
I sometimes use the links at the top of the page in the blue box that says "User Info". Mine shows:

Hey, Karen Zeller Lane, you have 24 messages, 0 are new.
Total time logged in: 14 days, 46 minutes.
Show unread posts since last visit.
Show new replies to your posts.
July 16, 2007, 01:10:15 PM

The bolded lines are links that take me right to new posts in all threads or specifically shows me responses to threads I have posted in.

Yes, you have to be logged in to see those I believe. Do those serve your purpose?
Karen

[Joseph E Boling]

No - that brings me the whole thread, not to the specific post in that thread that is the first unread post. I still have to scroll down through the whole thread, trying to decide where I had stopped reading and where the new stuff is.

[Karen Lane]

Joe - not that I think you can't poke a hole in this too  but try this:

I found this in a 'tips and tricks' post of Scott's from 2005!
Reading new (unread) posts:
After you've logged in, you will probably see a link in the 'user info' box at the top of the page which says "Show unread posts since last visit." When you click on that link, it will give you a list of all the threads that have had new posts added to them since the last time you logged in to the boards. Problem is, if you click on the link for a topic thread, it takes you to the top of the page, but not necessarily to the latest post in the thread. However, if you click the 'new' button,  then that takes you directly to the post that was posted while you were gone.

Karen

[Joseph E Boling]

I'm not trying to poke holes, Karen - and your new trick seems to work perfectly. Thank you.

[Karen Lane]

Joe,
'Poking holes' is a badge of honor, not an insult. Glad that trick works!
Karen