Marin Maven » Administrivia

Moonlighting Maven

marinmaven — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:51:12 +0000

Maven is now moonlighting over at SF Gate in their “In Marin” section of local blogs. I am joining Pam Gould, over at More Marin to provide a larger public news from Marin. It just went live now! eek. Getting busier, my life is.

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Hold On, It Will Be A Bumpy Ride…

marinmaven — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:18:39 +0000

This weekend we will be doing some work on this blog and website, trying to gussy it up for when Maven starts blogging for the SF Gate’s “In Marin” page along with Pam at More Marin. We will be upgrading the Wordpress up to the latest and that means we will be changing the theme as well to take advantage of its groovy features. This means things will almost certainly go awry – not because we wish it to, but because the universe commands it. In order to get fancy-dancy, one must pay the bitter price of seeing various error messages. Be patient.This happened before, and we survived stronger and better…

Would you like to contribute to Marin Maven and blog about Marin here? All you need to do is email me or call me at 415-203-6965. What we need are people willing to write about living in Marin, Marin events and Politics, and post pictures of Marin. In return, you will get featured in the About page with a pic and a bio as a contributor. Plus, you get to share whatever we get in revenue. Now it is shells and shiny objects, with this SF Gate thing happening real currency in change.

Join our Culture Maven, Geneva Anderson in being part of this craziness and take advantage of the exposure. Perhaps, you will find fame and great from this modest of launch pads and Maven can say she knew you when.

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Distracted by Shiny Objects

marinmaven — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:49:36 +0000

Maven apologizes for the lapse. It seems that my weakness for shiny objects is at work as I am waiting the arrival of my Blue Object of Desire© along with many others. Maven’s huge, honking 17″ Dell went down in a scary endless loop of blue screen of death with a suspected video card/screen burnout. It was sad. Like they say crisis often offers opportunity. It really tragi-comic carrying that 17″ out to cafe’s and events to blog. The battery life was brutally short, so I had to keep the thing plugged in all the time which kinda defeated the purpose of being portable. I am convince that this Blue Object of Desire will make me more productive, hip, and ultimately happy. Things do that for me.

Also, all the kids are doing it and having a price tag in the mid-300’s appeals to the future hobo in me…spend less dough and travel light. I will be able to blog whilst huddling up to the warmth in the neighborhood trash-can fire.

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Coming Up….

The Maven — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:41:59 +0000

Things I am working on while I am being a soccer mom, host to my mother-in-law, and backlogged on my laundry.

- “Oh, No She Didn’t! More Tales from the State Senate Debate.
- Video of Friday, May 9th State Senate Debate
- Observations from the Fundraisers (need to attend a Migden gathering to be fair)
- My thoughts on birth certificates
- The Marin Organizing Committee and Contempo Marin
- Judy Arnold interview

Tomorrow I will be celebrating Mother’s Day with my husband, mother-in-law, and my little boy. Next week will be my birthday.

If you are on Skype, you can contact me by Skyping marinmaven.

Frank Egger and I would like you to know that there will be a big Golden Gate Bridge Walk and Rally on May 31st against the Spraying for the Light Brown Moth. We will gather, 9 a.m. Walk starts at 10 a.m. It will start on the San Francisco side, Bridge Parking Lot. Park (car pool) at the East Battery parking lot off Lincoln Blvd. just below Marin side, Vista Point Parking Lot. After walk take Coastal Trail from Bridge Parking Lot to Mason St and Crissy Field. If you can’t make the walk, come to the rally. The will be a Rally at 12 noon (bring your lunch) West End of Crissy Field, between Mason Street and Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center.

Staffing assistance including security and monitors needed. Permit conditions are very restrictive for safety purposes. For More info: www.stopthespraymarin.org or e-mail fegger@pacbell.net.

I am hoping that we can get people to take public transportation or carpool to the event.

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Maven’s Mission & Dilemma

The Maven — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:29:40 +0000

Maven’s Mission

The mission of Marinmaven.com is to encourage Marin residents to engage with all that is Marin. I want Marinites to get out there and enjoy the outdoors, the arts, local politics and volunteerism. What I tell people is that Marinmaven.com is a central place for Marin politics, living, arts, events, activism, and non-profit advocacy. We stand for the ethic of buying locally and encouraging green business.

As I see it, I cannot compete with MarinIJ because they are a long established newspaper with a huge staff. I cannot compete with Marin Magazine for the same reason. All I can do is be different. Marinmaven is not just an information site, but a site that offers ways for people to use that information. Marin Magazine is a beautiful magazine and I am a huge fan of it. I have a couple of issues laying around the house. The thing about Marin Magazine is that it is focused on folks who have huge disposable income. I cannot afford the stuff that is advertised in that magazine. They have a section called, “Retail Therapy” whereas I am bringing up that there are costs in consumption. Marinmaven is about the people from Canal and Marin City as it is for the folks in Belvedere and Ross.

I am also a parent of a four year old and I want a Marin that uses its affluence to bring all of its residents together to tackle global warming, solve social problems, protect our resources, and create a real community from Ross to the Canal, to Fairfax to Marin City, and Nicasio to Tiburon.

Global warming threatens to flood Highway 101, so if you think traffic is bad now we better do something about Global Warming before it gets worse.

I have a long list of stories I am working on and the list keeps getting longer as I reach out to the community.

Think of my job as making it my business to know what is going on in Marin. That, my friends, is a full-time job.

Maven’s Track Record

Since the World Wide Web went public, I have been out there creating websites that win awards and respect of the communities I have served. My peers in the industry named me the Top 25 Most Influential Women of the Web, based on my pioneering work. Forbes Magazine called my website, Voices of Adoption, “the NPR of Adoption websites.” Since 1994, I have designed and re-designed several non-profit and corporate websites. During my adult life I have been involved with various forms of activism and was an early collaborator with online activism activities. In my professional and non-profit work I have been in the position of media relations and investigating and reporting news stories. I also have experience in coordinating volunteers and managing people.

Maven’s Dilemma

Maven’s dilemma is simple. Should I offer advertising on this site, or should I keep it advertisement free and ask everyone in Marin to kick in money to keep it ad free and make it possible for me to work full-time on this website? Working full-time on this website would mean additional costs to our family, and keep me from getting a full-time job. My time is worth something. I will be researching, interviewing people, writing, conducting outreach, organizing and promoting events, photographing, collecting and editing video. Sometimes, when I say we, I mean me. Everything you see is me. It would be great to get help and then I will be organizing volunteers and if we raise enough money — paid help.

The question is how will I raise money for this site? I can do the standard banner advertising. I would much rather use this site to promote all kinds of local businesses, especially Green Businesses. I don’t want businesses to pay me because I put graphics on my page with their contact information. I want them to contribute, because they want a place to let the public know what they are doing. I want them to contribute because they think what this site is doing is good for the community.

Another reason I want to go advertising-free is that I don’t think Google ads are working for me. I don’t know if I want an Amazon store, because I would rather promote local products including bookstores instead. If I have a store I am going to have to figure out how to have it only include local products.

Email me at marinmaven@gmail.com if you have any ideas to share with me on this topic.

So in the next few days I am going to set out a virtual tip jar via paypal. I will also have a way for people to contribute if they do not want to go via paypal.

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