The NLR It List

I would like to introduce a new concept to my blog; the Natural Learning Rhythms seal of approval. You will begin to see posts added about Natural Learning Rhythms approved items (books, toys, etc.), places (parks, restaurants, etc.) and maybe even a few people. I have worked with Natural Learning Rhythms for over 15 years and have in that time become intimately aware of what works and what doesn’t, what is supportive to a child’s development and what is detrimental. In these posts I will mostly focus on things that work and are supportive, but you may also get a few negative reviews because I might not be able to resist.

I have lived in Portland for six years and I have come to use several different websites to find fun family friendly activities around the area. And I have this incredible knowledge about what children need to support their optimal development. So why not create such a site myself? Actually to be perfectly honest the idea is not solely my own, Ba suggested that I create such a list as well. So here is how it will work: I will write posts every now and then about people, places or things that I come across and I will review them from a developmental perspective using Natural Learning Rhythms as the guide. The the person, place or thing will either get the seal of approval or it won’t (I will try and create a little icon so that you can know with one quick glance if it made the “It” list or not). All posts will be labeled “The NLR It List” so that you can easily search for them and see all the posts in one place.

I will try and explain in detail why a person, place or thing got the seal or didn’t, so that you can begin to understand Natural Learning Rhythms and how it can be applied. If you have persons, places or things you would like me to review, write a comment to that effect and I will try and work them in. I will never review something unless I have a personal experience of it/them. Also if you disagree with my review, please also feel free to post, I invite your feedback. This is going to be fun!

Fundraising

If I have not stated this before, can I just say that this venture is pushing me to the limits of and beyond my comfort zone in so many ways. Asking people for money is not something I feel particularly comfortable doing. But I can see that if I am going to be successful in creating this educational expression, I am going to have to get comfortable with it.

Given that this is something that I feel so passionate about, that I have committed countless hours to and focused my creative life force on, it seems by extension that it should be easy for my to ask other people to give to it as well. Not so. The thought of sitting down and asking someone for $5-10 thousand dollars is terrifying. Why? Well what if they hate me for asking? What if they say no? Or what if they feel like they can’t say no, but they really want to? I guess my thinking is a little faulty, I mean this really isn’t about me, it is about the children, and who wouldn’t want to support children? Rejoice even in the opportunity? But what if I can’t express myself well enough to show people that that is what this is about? It would be so much easier for me to wrap my mind around the concept that this is not about me, if I wasn’t the one doing the asking.

Marketing with Owen Jones

Sorry it has been so long since I posted, been busy waiting for some things to fall into place. The board has approved Owen Jones. This is fantastic news; it means that we are all seeing the same picture. We have to have a marketing approach and Owen Jones’ view of what we need in order to get this thing up and running is so right on it gives me goosebumps. As some of you may have figured out by now, I am not in this venture alone. This blog is my journey, but I am privileged to be part of a group of committed individuals all working with EnCompass (www.EnCompassInstitute.org). Okay, back to Owen Jones. They are a local creative marketing firm, emphasis on the creative part. As their principle, Rusty, likes to say, the first thing they have to do is fall in love with our organization. Once they have done that, then they can really go to work, creating a rebranding experience that will translate our vision to the community.

They have given us a proposal outlining our journey with them, what to expect, what it will cost and how long it will take. When they presented it to us they said that in an ideal world, they would be able to do this for us for free, but the economy being what is, that is just not a reality for them at this time. Still it feels good to know that they see the value in what we are doing and they want to support us and they did work a generous discount on their services into the bottom line. They are a wonderfully creative and insightful group of individuals I can’t wait to get started. So, next step: create a fundraising plan. Great, another thing I have never done.

A building update

I wanted to write a quick update on the building situation. Last week I spent more than my share of hours looking into the building that I wrote about in the North Pearl district. I talked with PDC (Portland Development Commission), the city, the owner rep, and the architects. It was quite a week. What I found out from the city is that in order to have a school in any building, it has to have an ‘E’ use classification, this refers to the building code and what the building has to have in terms of fire safety, ADA, seismic rating, etc. The Pearl building currently has an F and S use. What I found out from the architects is that this particular building has non-reinforced concrete walls, which means that in order to bring the building up to an E use, we have to seismically upgrade the building’s walls. What does that mean to us? $750,000.00 worth of rebar and concrete reconstruction of the building’s exiting walls, apparently. Needless to say this made my heart sink; perhaps this building would not work for us after all.

Not giving up yet. I called the owner rep and passed this info on to him. Apparently he was well aware of this and told me that PDC has all sorts of money available to offset these costs. So, being the diligent researcher that I am, I called the PDC. I had no idea what they really do down at the PDC, but now I do. They provide gap loans mostly. This means that when you want to upgrade a building (say seismically for $750,000), and you have say $300,000 and the bank is willing to give you $300,000 and you are still $150,000 short, you can apply to PDC for a loan to cover that $150,000, but you have to pay it back. Okay, well that still requires me to come up with a serious amount of capitol to put into the building, which I don’t currently have. Strike two.

PDC also has granting programs. For example we can apply for a grant to make “storefront improvements” to make the building look pretty on the outside (doesn’t really help us). Or they also have a DOC program which gives money to help with the design and concept development of a redevelopment project. That could be useful. However, this building sits in the River District Urban Renewal Area and apparently there is a “cloud” over the funding for this district and these grants would only be available to us if we applied and for them by the end of October! Strike three. All this seems to make it not really worth the effort given the whole scope of what needs to be done to this building in order to bring it up to snuff for our use. Three strikes, you know what that means, the search continues…