Help Crochetville Win a $250,000 Grant!

[Amy]

We're up to 114 votes now! Just 136 left to go! (And 14 days to get there!)

[Je-Rel Drood]

I voted, but forgot to check what number I was!

 

An idea on which charity to use, if you're holding a contest, maybe the winner of the contest could name a charity, or have a rotating list of charities, maybe the Month of June Charity is the Red Cross, the Month of July Charity is the Cancer Society. Of course seeing as how this is a truly international community, we could look into either international charities, or alternate which countries the charities are from.

[stitcher123]

Just used my husbands FACEBOOK account and voted again.

 

#116....

 

JILLfromWI

[craftyone]

Excellent idea! All about giving back to our community! The trickiest part would be picking a charity that made everyone happy. We could even have 100% of the proceeds go to the charity.

So many members here give and crochet for various charities; it may be something a lot of people would enjoy participating in. Maybe, it could be split between several charities that we could vote on. I can't imagine having $250,000 to spend; I was daydreaming about what I could do for my business with that kind of money. I'd have the best selection of yarn and craft books in my neighborhood,would expand the store to be able to have classes, be able to have someone help me develop a website for my store, would be able to hire someone to help me in the store and maybe even take a few days off. Oh well, for me it's just a daydream- back to work:crocheting

[yarnjeannie]

If you have any upgrades in mind for the website, the grant would come in handy. I also like the idea of publishing a book of "Crochetville" projects and patterns. Ask the members for a suggestion for charities to benefit from the proceeds. Come up with a list of the top 12. Each month, the proceeds can go to a designated charity.

[HappyOldCro]

I absolutely LOVE the idea of having a Crochetville line of yarn. I'm sure that it would be absolutely sumptuous!

 

Is there a way to vote for those that don't have a facebook account?

 

I have facebook, usually only go in once a month to check on kids and grands all over the US. It is a private account, no one goes in who isn't on my family/good friends list, and I make sure I sign out when not there.

Why is having an account a problem for folks????:think

[HappyOldCro]

If you have any upgrades in mind for the website, the grant would come in handy. I also like the idea of publishing a book of "Crochetville" projects and patterns. Ask the members for a suggestion for charities to benefit from the proceeds. Come up with a list of the top 12. Each month, the proceeds can go to a designated charity.

 

Excellent idea! All about giving back to our community! The trickiest part would be picking a charity that made everyone happy. We could even have 100% of the proceeds go to the charity.

 

Now those are great ideas. :clap

I emailed all my peeps who are on FB and asked them to vote...Isn't there some kind of thing they do on FB where you send info (a status alert or challenge) I get all kinds of invites, how do folks do that????

 

As for the ville, something Amy and Donna might consider is some kind of alert or community messaging, where one notice might be made and then sent as a PM to all members, without having to redo it seperately for each one. Is that possible?

[DesertCrocheter]

I have facebook, usually only go in once a month to check on kids and grands all over the US. It is a private account, no one goes in who isn't on my family/good friends list, and I make sure I sign out when not there.

Why is having an account a problem for folks????:think

 

Well, personally speaking, I hear so many contradictory things about privacy settings and what really is private and not, what FB retains the right to 'own' (e.g. photos), etc. that it sounds confusing. Secondly, I am still in contact with my best friends from high school and while I don't really have connections with some cousins, my sister does. Thirdly, I'm not sure how long FB will be the way to communicate (remember MySpace, etc.?) and don't want to waste time uploading stuff there when in 5 years I may have to spend a whole lot of time migrating it all somewhere else. And fourthly, I already spend WAY too much time online with Crochetville, Ravelry, and the New York Times. It takes no longer to send me a photo via email or cell phone as it does to post it on FB.

 

I just don't have time spend on FB. I work two jobs, am heavily involved with 3 different charities, love to read and hike and crochet and knit, and basically just have too many things to do already. I'm actively trying to decrease my time online and increase my time in the real world and outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I don't understand why some people don't understand that FB is just not for everyone.

 

Clearly, I don't have a FB account to vote, but I did send this notice to my sisters, who do, and they're hopefully going to vote for Crochetville as they know how important it is to me. So good luck!!

 

Patty

[HappyOldCro]

I just don't have time spend on FB. I work two jobs, am heavily involved with 3 different charities, love to read and hike and crochet and knit, and basically just have too many things to do already. I'm actively trying to decrease my time online and increase my time in the real world and outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I don't understand why some people don't understand that FB is just not for everyone.

 

Clearly, I don't have a FB account to vote, but I did send this notice to my sisters, who do, and they're hopefully going to vote for Crochetville as they know how important it is to me. So good luck!!

 

Patty

 

Oh I wasn't complaining, . I was just curious, if it weren't for the family, I probably wouldn't do it either. I am not all that PC literate and thought that I missed something. Congratulations on your will power and thanks for explaining...

[Amy]

I have facebook, usually only go in once a month to check on kids and grands all over the US. It is a private account, no one goes in who isn't on my family/good friends list, and I make sure I sign out when not there.

Why is having an account a problem for folks????:think

 

Well, Facebook has a history of changing its Default privacy settings without notice, which upsets some people. Since I only put stuff on there that I don't care if the whole world sees, I don't worry about that.

 

Other people just don't want to bother setting up another account on another site.

 

We don't want anyone to feel pressured into creating a Facebook account just to vote for us, if you have reasons for not wanting to create one. On the other hand, if you've been meaning to create one but just haven't gotten around to it yet, now would be an excellent time to do so!

[Amy]

As for the ville, something Amy and Donna might consider is some kind of alert or community messaging, where one notice might be made and then sent as a PM to all members, without having to redo it seperately for each one. Is that possible?

 

We can't send out mass PMs, but we could do a mass email to people who have been active in the past X number of months AND who have agreed to accept administrator emails.

 

We'll give it another week or so to see if we can get the 250 votes without doing that. We might consider it later if necessary.

[Amy]

I know I started my Facebook account so I could keep an eye on my daigheter's when she created one as a young teen. Now I have family and personal friends on there. I created Crochtville's Facebook page so we could have a presence on there.

 

But I don't post much personal stuff on my personal page. I use it much more for business.

[Amy]

Oh, forgot to say that since this whole contest is to promote the use of social media by small business, unfortunately, the only way to vote is by logging in with a Facebook account.

 

Again, thanks to all who already have an account and have chosen to vote for us. Those without a Facebook account can just join us in spirit and well wishes that we get 250 votes and then actually receive one of the 12 grants!

[Amy]

Sorry there are so many posts from me in a row, but I just checked our vote count.

 

We are now at 152------just 98 to go! we're over 60% of the way in just two days!!!!

 

EDIT: Now we're at 163!

[LaceAngel]

I voted.........it worked for me. But then I'm logged in to my facebook account all the time.

[AshyN]

I have facebook, usually only go in once a month to check on kids and grands all over the US. It is a private account, no one goes in who isn't on my family/good friends list, and I make sure I sign out when not there.

Why is having an account a problem for folks????:think

 

I personally don't want an account because I'm of the younger generation I guess you would call it (I'm 21) And I don't want to listen to the drama I get enough of it at work I come home to enjoy myself not to read what everyone else is doing and my bf doesn't have one either. We both feel it helps are relationship out a lot bc a lot of younger couples are age fight over who is taking to who and why they posted that on their facebook blah I want nothing of it.

[Amy]

We are now at 171 votes. Just 79 left to go!!!!

 

Thanks to everyone who has voted so far.

 

Don't forget to keep those ideas coming for how we should spend the money to add more features to Crochetville. We could obviously afford all sorts of different software, so you don't have to limit your ideas to what can be done with forum software.

 

Dream big!

[Je-Rel Drood]

Building on the published book of crochetville patterns, you could have a calendar with 'glamour pics' of the projects along woth the patterns for each. Yoh could also start a line of Crochetville products such as Project tote bags or notebooks (for writing down project/pattern ideas), or other items with the crochetville logo on it, (screen printed or embroidered).

 

Another idea I just thought of is having Care Cards. These would be pre-printed laundry and storage instructions of different yarns that people could give out with their gifts.

 

Thinking big here, but maybe organize a Crochetville sponsored convention of our own? Like a huge Knitting circle where everyone gets together for a weekend to meet each other in person, trade ideas, show off each others projects and have fun. Ive done several of these for other hobbies ive been in and theyre a blast!

[DesertCrocheter]

I'm going to riff on Je-Rel's idea on how to spend some of the money, should we be lucky enough to win (knock on wood). A few years ago, when Crochetville tried to organize a conference or meeting, there simply wasn't enough interest. The economy was bad and people couldn't or dind't want to go to that kind of event.

 

But, what if Crochetville sponsored an event at Stitches East or Stitches West or some other really big fiber festival? That way we could piggy back on their widespread publicity, and perhaps attract more local crocheters to the event. I'm not sure kind of event would be in step with the image of Crochetville Amy and Donna want to project--just nibbles and drinks, an ice cream party, a tea (with coffee and pastries, of course), or what. But maybe with a party favor bag like I've read about at other similar events. I'm not sure if any manufacturers would be willing to donate hooks and notions or yarn, but if not enough for everyone attending, how about a raffle for a big bag or several smaller bags of goodies (a free raffle--every attending gets a ticket)?

[Amy]

I'm going to riff on Je-Rel's idea on how to spend some of the money, should we be lucky enough to win (knock on wood). A few years ago, when Crochetville tried to organize a conference or meeting, there simply wasn't enough interest. The economy was bad and people couldn't or dind't want to go to that kind of event.

 

But, what if Crochetville sponsored an event at Stitches East or Stitches West or some other really big fiber festival? That way we could piggy back on their widespread publicity, and perhaps attract more local crocheters to the event. I'm not sure kind of event would be in step with the image of Crochetville Amy and Donna want to project--just nibbles and drinks, an ice cream party, a tea (with coffee and pastries, of course), or what. But maybe with a party favor bag like I've read about at other similar events. I'm not sure if any manufacturers would be willing to donate hooks and notions or yarn, but if not enough for everyone attending, how about a raffle for a big bag or several smaller bags of goodies (a free raffle--every attending gets a ticket)?

 

Well, now that Crochetville will be at every Stitches event with a vendor booth in conjunction with Red Heart, that might just be a possibility! Especially as Benjamin of XRX is really anxious to bring a lot more crochet focus to the shows. Now that I'm developing friendships with some of the other crochet vendors at the Stitches events, I'm sure we could work some magic for some goodie bags.

[Amy]

178 votes----only 72 to go!

[marpan79]

I just saw this so just went to vote.....

 

I was number 180

[katyallen815]

wish i could vote, im not facebook, but told my friends to do it! good luck!

[Amy]

Thanks so much for the support, everyone, whether you're voting, asking others to vote, giving us ideas on how to spend the money, or just hoping that we win!

 

180 votes, 70 remaining! And we have until June 30 to get them all.

[Skoggy]

Voted. I'm not in the USA but I really want Crochetville to get this. Beautiful site full of beautiful people.