WEBVTT 00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:09.827 - Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks, 00:00:09.827 --> 00:00:18.908 - so I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. On this 00:00:18.908 --> 00:00:21.246 - day in history, May 19th, 00:00:57.090 --> 00:01:12.552 - Good afternoon. Psalm 118, 24 says, this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in 00:01:12.552 --> 00:01:26.942 - it. Abraham Lincoln said, folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be. 00:01:27.074 --> 00:01:35.651 - Charles Schultz says, happiness is a warm puppy. Or one of my favorite, a scout is cheerful. Proverbs 00:01:35.651 --> 00:01:44.481 - 17-22 says, a cheerful heart is good medicine. Being happy offers significant health benefits, including 00:01:44.481 --> 00:01:53.479 - stronger immune system, lower stress levels, improved heart health, reduced pain, and increased longevity. 00:01:53.479 --> 00:01:56.254 - Happiness fosters better habits, 00:01:56.418 --> 00:02:04.429 - such as healthy eating and regular exercise, which can increase your lifespan. It also boosts resilience 00:02:04.429 --> 00:02:12.593 - and cognitive function. Finding happiness in the face of adversity involves cultivating resilience through 00:02:12.593 --> 00:02:20.375 - gratitude, maintaining a growth mindset, and nurturing social connections. It is a proactive, dynamic 00:02:20.375 --> 00:02:26.174 - process of focusing on what can be controlled, celebrating small victories, 00:02:27.106 --> 00:02:35.410 - and finding meaning despite challenging circumstances. Practices like mindfulness, self-care, and humor 00:02:35.410 --> 00:02:43.475 - help manage stress and build lasting strength. So key strategies for cultivating joy during hardship 00:02:43.475 --> 00:02:51.939 - is one, practicing gratitude. Actively acknowledging the good things, even small ones, shifts our focuses 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.494 - from deficiencies to abundance. 00:02:55.778 --> 00:03:02.998 - Foster a growth mindset. View challenges as opportunities for personal growth rather than insurmountable 00:03:02.998 --> 00:03:09.874 - obstacles. Focus on control. Concentrate efforts on actions within your control while accepting the 00:03:09.874 --> 00:03:16.819 - things that cannot be changed. Connect with others. Lean on relationships and supportive communities 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:24.039 - to feel less alone in your struggle. And engage in self-care. Prioritize sleep, exercise, and activities 00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:25.758 - that bring joy or peace. 00:03:26.274 --> 00:03:34.956 - to manage emotional regulation. So I hope you can use this reflection to center your thoughts and actions 00:03:34.956 --> 00:03:43.311 - towards pursuing more happiness. Thanks. Thank you, Randy. Leslie Kutsenko will introduce some of our 00:03:43.311 --> 00:03:51.666 - guests today, and also, while she's up front, provide us with a brief update of this week's Wonderlab 00:03:51.666 --> 00:03:54.942 - Summer Blastoff Service Project. Hello. 00:03:55.618 --> 00:04:06.437 - How is everybody? Awesome. So I have some limestone host guests. So with Michael Shermas, I have Ann 00:04:06.437 --> 00:04:17.363 - Kibler, Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, and Becky Wan. Nope, nope. Dacen Anderson with Joy Harder. So then 00:04:17.363 --> 00:04:25.182 - I have Betty Coffee, who is the sister of Glenda, who's a clergy member. 00:04:25.314 --> 00:04:36.156 - Raise your hands. Emily Reynolds with Michael with Limestone Pose. This is going swimmingly. And anyone 00:04:36.156 --> 00:04:46.790 - is a guest of Brad Meyer. Do we have any guests online? Well, we have one person who is identified as 00:04:46.790 --> 00:04:53.150 - user. So that's our mysterious guest or Rotarian of the day. 00:04:56.482 --> 00:05:04.937 - That's all folks. Summer Blast Off. Summer Blast Off. Okay, so we're getting ready for Summer Blast 00:05:04.937 --> 00:05:14.238 - Off, which is from 3 to 8 p.m. outside at Wonder Lab. We need volunteers for the Rotary to hand out STEM kits 00:05:14.306 --> 00:05:20.444 - All of the STEM kits have been completed or will be completed by the end of today. So you don't actually 00:05:20.444 --> 00:05:26.406 - have to assemble anything. You don't have to create a science project. We just need to show up and be 00:05:26.406 --> 00:05:32.368 - Rotarians for service. Where it's in a shaded area, you don't have to bring anything. We have chairs, 00:05:32.368 --> 00:05:38.272 - tables, all the banners are coming, et cetera. You just have to bring yourself. So there's a sign up 00:05:38.272 --> 00:05:40.318 - sheet that's at the checkout desk. 00:05:40.386 --> 00:05:48.449 - Please, please, please sign up. We would love more Rotarians. There's only five people that have signed 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:56.511 - up so far. So please, please, please volunteer for Summer Blast Stop. Question. It's not going to rain. 00:05:56.511 --> 00:06:04.341 - If it rains, everything gets moved inside Wonder Lab. We've had big events inside Wonder Lab before. 00:06:04.341 --> 00:06:10.078 - The explosions will have to be eliminated though. What day this Thursday? 00:06:10.594 --> 00:06:17.504 - from three to eight and with the Rotary Foundation giving the $6,000 grant, it's not only coming free 00:06:17.504 --> 00:06:24.482 - admission, all of the STEM kits and everything that goes along with this. So it's a free admission day 00:06:24.482 --> 00:06:25.566 - the entire day. 00:06:25.666 --> 00:06:33.484 - However, the block party is when school ends. We have everything from the STEM bus, the ROI bus. We 00:06:33.484 --> 00:06:41.772 - have all of the local museums, including Monroe County History Center, the Terre Haute Children's Museum. 00:06:41.772 --> 00:06:49.668 - We have Wesselman Woods coming, Parks and Rec, the library, Morgensterns, Bloomington Fine Arts, and 00:06:49.668 --> 00:06:54.750 - I know there's more. So it's going to be a big party. Thank you. 00:07:01.058 --> 00:07:09.813 - Thanks. Thanks, Leslie. Guests, certainly, if you'd like to learn anything about rotary, please ask 00:07:09.813 --> 00:07:18.655 - someone at your table. Can we have a round of applause for today's guests? And Sally, the phrase big 00:07:18.655 --> 00:07:27.847 - brother is listening when you find out who unknown user is, let us know. My theory is that Tyler planted 00:07:27.847 --> 00:07:29.598 - someone. Ah, I see. 00:07:32.898 --> 00:07:40.870 - birthdays. We have a number of birthdays to observe today. Tomorrow, Melinda Cedar and Alice Zulman. 00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:48.999 - On the 21st, Marcy Hibbard. On the 24th, Tina Swanson. And then Bill Brown has a birthday on the 25th. 00:07:48.999 --> 00:07:57.287 - We also have some anniversaries to note. Jim Griffith, one year tomorrow. On the 22nd, Maria Carraschio, 00:07:57.287 --> 00:08:02.654 - one year. On the 23rd, Girono Rotich, three years. And on the 25th, 00:08:03.042 --> 00:08:17.196 - Marcus Debro five years. Tyler can you fire up the PowerPoint. Okay well we'll start with the district 00:08:17.196 --> 00:08:32.862 - conference which is a week and a half ago in Louisville. Three districts Kentucky Tennessee and southern Indiana. 00:08:36.194 --> 00:08:44.086 - Here is the entrance to the reception area at Galt House before the crowds arrived. Here's a picture 00:08:44.086 --> 00:08:52.290 - taken during one of the meeting sessions. It was well attended. There was a full room. Here are pictures 00:08:52.290 --> 00:09:00.104 - from the Friendship House. And on the left, you can see people looking at baskets, deciding whether 00:09:00.104 --> 00:09:05.886 - to bid on baskets. And on the right is a picture of our basket, which was 00:09:06.114 --> 00:09:13.524 - prepared, donated by Judy Witt. You can see there were a number of bids, and there were more bids after 00:09:13.524 --> 00:09:20.864 - that. So this gathering was a week after the Kentucky Derby. So one of the themes was all the hats and 00:09:20.864 --> 00:09:27.989 - things that people wear at the Derby. And so Alann was not to be outdone. I don't know if there was 00:09:27.989 --> 00:09:32.478 - an award for best dressed, but he would have been a contender. 00:09:33.122 --> 00:09:39.638 - And you can look in the background and see people wearing lots of different hats. And if you really 00:09:39.638 --> 00:09:46.284 - focus in, you can't see it on the screen, but his name tag indicates district governor nominee. So at 00:09:46.284 --> 00:09:53.321 - the business meeting, Judy Witt made the motion. We unanimously vote for a land to be the district governor 00:09:53.321 --> 00:09:56.318 - for 28-29. So he's on his way. It's official. 00:10:01.666 --> 00:10:09.044 - So here's a picture of us winning the Club Excellence Award. It was called something else years ago. 00:10:09.044 --> 00:10:16.569 - This is something that we won last year. My guess is we probably won it every year. A handful of clubs 00:10:16.569 --> 00:10:24.020 - received this award. It's based on you set goals at the beginning of the year. You're allowed to make 00:10:24.020 --> 00:10:30.814 - a few changes. And then if you meet 13 of the 24 goals, you get the award. And here is this. 00:10:31.714 --> 00:10:40.995 - So it's kind of cool. I remember last year, Tracy handed it to me to look at. And I think this will 00:10:40.995 --> 00:10:50.554 - probably endure the same fate. Within a month or so, it'll end up in a box at Teacher's Warehouse. But 00:10:50.554 --> 00:11:01.598 - in the meantime, it's kind of nice to have. So social event. So Saturday was all business stuff, informative sessions. 00:11:01.826 --> 00:11:09.748 - Friday evening, there were four different outings. One was the Louisville Slugger Baseball Museum. Alain, 00:11:09.748 --> 00:11:17.446 - my wife Lisa and I went to the Peerless Distillery, which is a craft distillery just a few blocks away 00:11:17.446 --> 00:11:25.144 - from the hotel. So here are barrels of bourbon aging. And then the last thing we did on the, yes, they 00:11:25.144 --> 00:11:31.198 - even aged as we watched. And the last thing we did was go to their tasting room. 00:11:31.298 --> 00:11:39.474 - A tasting room, you'd go in and you'd get four small servings of rye or bourbon. And this is my wife 00:11:39.474 --> 00:11:47.568 - Lisa after the tasting. Lisa slumped on the bar and then from here I carried her back to the hotel. 00:11:47.568 --> 00:11:55.663 - This picture was posed, my wife and I are both lightweights and just to make sure there was no club 00:11:55.663 --> 00:11:58.334 - money being used to buy bourbon. 00:12:01.762 --> 00:12:08.903 - So highlights, the Friendship House raised $14,000 for the Rotary Foundation, money used to eradicate 00:12:08.903 --> 00:12:16.043 - polio and to do international projects. We donated a number of shoes. Some of you donated your gently 00:12:16.043 --> 00:12:23.184 - used and new shoes. Lots of other Rotarians did the same. They had a box on each floor for shoes, and 00:12:23.184 --> 00:12:29.694 - they were always full. So I don't know how many shoes they left with, but there was a bunch. 00:12:30.306 --> 00:12:37.334 - It was interesting meeting Rotarians from Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee. The Tennesseans had very deep 00:12:37.334 --> 00:12:44.431 - accents. So it was interesting. Sessions were informative, and the social outings were fun. Louisville 00:12:44.431 --> 00:12:51.390 - was a really fun place to have it. So let's move to a celebration of service, and let's look back to 00:12:51.390 --> 00:12:58.349 - last week. And the scholarship committee has traditionally been one of our stronger committees. This 00:12:58.349 --> 00:12:59.934 - year was no exception. 00:13:00.034 --> 00:13:06.879 - And we had a really upbeat, joyful session last year. But that starts with a lot of work. So here's 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:13.792 - a picture from one of the planning sessions. I think Jim Shea took this picture. Jeff Richardson was 00:13:13.792 --> 00:13:20.774 - one of the co-chairs. Jeff is a wonderful host. So if you attended this meeting at Jeff's house, look 00:13:20.774 --> 00:13:22.622 - at all the food is served. 00:13:23.810 --> 00:13:30.404 - Jeff has been on our club board. He's leaving at the end of the term. Always brings cookies to the meeting. 00:13:30.404 --> 00:13:36.632 - Jeff is the guy you want to have in your organization. So here's a more traditional meeting with some 00:13:36.632 --> 00:13:42.737 - of the club members talking about scholarships. Like I said, there was a lot of planning. I want to 00:13:42.737 --> 00:13:48.843 - say they had nine finalists and they had to get down to four. And that was really hard because they 00:13:48.843 --> 00:13:51.102 - liked the nine individuals they had. 00:13:53.186 --> 00:13:58.987 - So the scholarship committee, Jonas Chang and Jeff Richardson were the co-chairs. Jeff Bradley, 00:13:58.987 --> 00:14:05.151 - Diana Hoffman, Steve Engel, Tim Jessen, Sandy Keller, Leslie Kutsenko, Connie Chakalas, Jim Shea, and 00:14:05.151 --> 00:14:11.678 - John Zote. Hopeful I didn't miss anyone, but can we have a round of applause for our scholarship committee. 00:14:18.594 --> 00:14:26.622 - And then this is the end result. Here are the four high school seniors we heard from last week. Just 00:14:26.622 --> 00:14:34.572 - very upbeat, knowledgeable. I enjoyed all four of them. And they're heading off to do great things. 00:14:34.572 --> 00:14:42.759 - So here's a picture of an empty plate. And this is a reminder to me that we ran out of food last week. 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.654 - So that hasn't happened in my year of president. 00:14:46.850 --> 00:14:53.688 - I really want to apologize. We had communicated to the IMU beforehand that we are expecting a big crowd. 00:14:53.688 --> 00:15:00.461 - And evidently the word didn't get through the system properly. So we ran out of food. I think everybody 00:15:00.461 --> 00:15:07.038 - got something. Lots of people didn't get what they hoped to get. So the IMU was very apologetic. But 00:15:07.038 --> 00:15:14.462 - I will want to remind the group that for a group our size, when we eat somewhere, if you go other places in town, 00:15:14.594 --> 00:15:21.841 - they want a fixed number a week, five days ahead of time. The IMU lets us roll with whomever comes in 00:15:21.841 --> 00:15:29.301 - because we just fit into the other things that they're doing. So that's really convenient. And sometimes 00:15:29.301 --> 00:15:36.476 - it's easy to forget. So now we're in the summer. There were fewer things going on. So they're having 00:15:36.476 --> 00:15:42.302 - to adjust to their workload. But anyway, so sorry for running out of food. I see. 00:15:43.554 --> 00:15:50.177 - Yes, and Tracy does say that it definitely keeps the cost down. I would say if we had to have a firm 00:15:50.177 --> 00:15:56.799 - number each week and ask each and every one of you if you plan to attend, we'd build in a little bit 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:03.619 - of pad and the extra costs would get spread out among the members. So anyway, hopefully it won't happen 00:16:03.619 --> 00:16:10.176 - again. But if it does, just please roll with it. So Wonderlab summer blast off, I want to echo what 00:16:10.176 --> 00:16:11.422 - Leslie had to say. 00:16:11.778 --> 00:16:19.340 - Once again, this is a Rotary Foundation Rotary Club-sponsored project. Here is the kit. You can see 00:16:19.340 --> 00:16:27.130 - the glow worm. I've already helped assemble some of these kits, so it's kind of cool. And here is what 00:16:27.130 --> 00:16:34.768 - Leslie's shown, and the actual sign-up sheet is there, and Leslie's sitting here at the front table. 00:16:34.768 --> 00:16:36.734 - So other things going on. 00:16:36.930 --> 00:16:45.187 - Business After Hours is on the May 21st, Central Supply Company, 1150 Sunrise Greeting Court in Bloomington, 00:16:45.187 --> 00:16:52.839 - 530 to 730. So after you've volunteered at Wonder Lab, you can go to Chamber Business After Hours or 00:16:52.839 --> 00:17:00.414 - you can go there and do work cleanup at Wonder Lab. We, Rotary Club members, attend free of charge. 00:17:02.530 --> 00:17:09.349 - So fifth annual Refugees Summer Pitch In is this coming Sunday, May 24th at the Upper Cascades Lions 00:17:09.349 --> 00:17:16.100 - Den. Refugees, volunteers, friends are welcome. Bring a dish to share if you can. I don't see Cindy 00:17:16.100 --> 00:17:22.986 - Neidhart here today, but probably Sarah Laughlin or Dave Meyer can help if you need more information. 00:17:22.986 --> 00:17:29.940 - One thing to note, I think that the bridge from Lower Cascades to Upper Cascades is now out. So if you 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:30.750 - want to get 00:17:30.850 --> 00:17:39.558 - to the upper cascades, lines, dens, shelter, you need to get there from Kinzer. Okay, we need two volunteers 00:17:39.558 --> 00:17:47.707 - to work Meals and Wheels the morning of Friday, May 29th. Diana Hoffman is here today. Please see her 00:17:47.707 --> 00:17:57.214 - if you're interested. And then some other things coming up, June 5th and into the 6th, the Beacon Solidarity Sleepout. 00:17:58.050 --> 00:18:04.514 - So June 9th is one of the Tuesdays when the union is fully booked and they ask us to go elsewhere. And 00:18:04.514 --> 00:18:11.041 - so that day, we're meeting at the Neal Marshall Black Culture Center. So kind of file that away on June 00:18:11.041 --> 00:18:17.569 - 9th. We won't be meeting here. We'll be going to Neal Marshall. And then the same thing is true on June 00:18:17.569 --> 00:18:23.907 - 23rd. The union is fully booked. So we're having our club picnic that day. And it'll be at lunchtime 00:18:23.907 --> 00:18:27.422 - on Tuesday the 23rd at the Bryan Park Woodlawn Shelter. 00:18:27.906 --> 00:18:35.044 - And it's a shelter with plenty of parking right next to it. July 11th, the Teacher's Warehouse Supply 00:18:35.044 --> 00:18:42.113 - Drive will need lots of volunteers for that. And then November 6th, the Rotary Toast, if you want to 00:18:42.113 --> 00:18:49.111 - buy a table, they are for sale, not yet selling individual membership or individual tickets. Rotary 00:18:49.111 --> 00:18:54.430 - Seven Area is a focus. And then a reminder that May is Youth Service Month. 00:18:55.874 --> 00:19:07.505 - I think that's everything, and Joy Harder will introduce today's speaker. Thank you, Steve. Hi, everybody. 00:19:07.505 --> 00:19:18.484 - Nice to see you all in person. Can you hear me well? OK. So it is my pleasure to introduce our guest 00:19:18.484 --> 00:19:21.854 - speaker today, Dason Anderson. 00:19:23.490 --> 00:19:31.292 - Dason is the executive editor for the Limestone Post digital magazine. And he's been in that role for 00:19:31.292 --> 00:19:39.095 - about a year. Limestone Post is a local nonprofit organization serving our community through in-depth 00:19:39.095 --> 00:19:47.280 - journalism and cultural storytelling. I'm proud to be involved with Limestone Post since 2021. I currently 00:19:47.280 --> 00:19:50.110 - serve as the president of the board. 00:19:51.842 --> 00:19:58.879 - Dason grew up in south of Bloomington in Lawrence County, where he loved to spend time in the woods. 00:19:58.879 --> 00:20:05.986 - Yes. And the quarries. Yes. He's a real nature guy. And he now calls Bloomington his home after being 00:20:05.986 --> 00:20:13.581 - out west Colorado for quite some time, returning to Bloomington. And he's still out in the woods, traveling, 00:20:13.581 --> 00:20:14.974 - being a nature guy. 00:20:16.322 --> 00:20:23.822 - And interestingly, especially now that we know, we're reminded that May is Youth Services Month. When 00:20:23.822 --> 00:20:31.396 - Dason was in high school and he attended Bedford North Lawrence, he received a high school scholarship 00:20:31.396 --> 00:20:39.117 - from the Bedford Rotary Club. How cool is that? We're gonna clap for you. All right. Dason is an Indiana 00:20:39.117 --> 00:20:45.662 - University alumnus with a degree in creative writing. He is an award-winning journalist, 00:20:46.242 --> 00:20:54.246 - published poet, and he's actually been involved with Limestone Post for many years. He joined Limestone 00:20:54.246 --> 00:21:02.172 - Team in 2016 as assistant editor and then over the last 10 years still had involvement and was engaged 00:21:02.172 --> 00:21:10.561 - with Limestone Post in a variety of capacities. For the past two years of note, Limestone Post contributors, 00:21:10.561 --> 00:21:15.486 - so I mean writers, including Dayson, have received back to back 00:21:16.098 --> 00:21:23.788 - Best of Indiana Journalism Awards from the SPJ. SPJ is the Society for Professional Journalists. And 00:21:23.788 --> 00:21:31.630 - we're quite proud of Dasin and our other writers who have distinguished themselves with some excellent 00:21:31.630 --> 00:21:39.472 - in-depth writing. I don't know if Dasin will remember this, but when we met about a year ago, you said 00:21:39.472 --> 00:21:45.182 - that being the executive editor of Limestone Post would be your dream job. 00:21:45.442 --> 00:21:54.369 - And he's fulfilling his dream. He really is. Dason is enthusiastic, he's creative, and he will lead 00:21:54.369 --> 00:22:03.296 - Limestone Post into the future and help us grow and expand our service to the community and help us 00:22:03.296 --> 00:22:12.670 - all stay informed, engaged, and inspired. Please join me in a warm welcome to Dason Anderson. Thank you. 00:22:14.690 --> 00:22:19.826 - Hello, Rotarians. I will probably echo some of what Joy has said and expand on it. And I'm going to 00:22:19.826 --> 00:22:25.321 - start with an unplanned anecdote just because you brought it up about my dream to step into this position. 00:22:25.321 --> 00:22:30.714 - I was moving home from Colorado after a few years of attempting to live there. I've decided it's a place 00:22:30.714 --> 00:22:36.004 - worth vacationing and not so much residing. But I was in the U-Haul with my brother-in-law at the time 00:22:36.004 --> 00:22:41.242 - driving through Kansas in the middle of the night. And he says, what are you going to do when you get 00:22:41.242 --> 00:22:44.478 - back home? And I had a job lined up. And he said, do you still 00:22:44.738 --> 00:22:52.260 - write for the magazine, because actually he and I had collaborated on a story once. And I said, oh yeah, 00:22:52.260 --> 00:22:59.065 - I've continued to write for it. And he was like, would you ever want to run that ship someday? 00:22:59.065 --> 00:23:06.515 - And I said, well, if Ron ever decides to retire, sure, why not? And lo and behold, it happened. So that 00:23:06.515 --> 00:23:09.022 - was great. Now back to the script. 00:23:09.154 --> 00:23:17.393 - First of all, thank you Rotarians for all the wonderful work you do in the community and around the 00:23:17.393 --> 00:23:25.632 - world, the money that you make accessible to community members and children, and the needs that you 00:23:25.632 --> 00:23:34.118 - provide are invaluable. Of course, I was a beneficiary of the Rotary Club when I was a wee high school 00:23:34.118 --> 00:23:38.238 - lad, and it really helped me in my journey at IU. 00:23:38.594 --> 00:23:45.614 - in that education. I remember I believe it was a man named Irvin. And he had one arm. And I had to shake 00:23:45.614 --> 00:23:52.835 - his hand with my left hand, which I just remember that that moment so distinctly and then being so thankful 00:23:52.835 --> 00:23:59.655 - for for that opportunity. So thank you again. I am indeed from Lawrence County. I still secretly live 00:23:59.655 --> 00:24:06.341 - in Lawrence County, about a mile south of the county line. So I have a Bedford address. Ironically, 00:24:06.341 --> 00:24:07.678 - I thought I'd never 00:24:07.970 --> 00:24:14.295 - move back to my childhood home, but there I am. Bloomington, however, is my chosen home. I spend almost 00:24:14.295 --> 00:24:20.559 - all of my time here in this community with these people. I come up to Bloomington to work from various 00:24:20.559 --> 00:24:26.702 - coffee shops or wherever. And so this is, Bloomington is my chosen home. And I'm very happy and very 00:24:26.702 --> 00:24:32.845 - proud to be a representative member of that. And one of the things that Limestone Post allows me and 00:24:32.845 --> 00:24:36.798 - allows us to do is to give this community a voice and a platform 00:24:36.898 --> 00:24:44.977 - to speak and to share news and information, arts, history, culture. So I'm very happy to be able to 00:24:44.977 --> 00:24:52.329 - do that. I indeed did grow up in the woods. My family, so I say I'm from Bedford, I'm not. 00:24:52.329 --> 00:25:00.409 - I'm from Avoka, Olidick, Springville kind of wilderness area. And so, you know, my backyard was the 00:25:00.409 --> 00:25:02.590 - Avoka State Fish Hatchery. 00:25:02.754 --> 00:25:09.016 - which is now a community foundation run public park, which is great. And so, you know, I just grew up 00:25:09.016 --> 00:25:15.217 - running through the woods and exploring caves and wondering why the fence had danger, no trespassing 00:25:15.217 --> 00:25:21.541 - explosives. And boy, what was on the other side of that fence? I'm glad we never ventured to find out. 00:25:21.541 --> 00:25:27.864 - Otherwise I probably wouldn't be standing here. But, you know, that was just part of growing up in the 00:25:27.864 --> 00:25:30.750 - quarries and on the other side of the highway, 00:25:30.882 --> 00:25:37.118 - my family's from a litic and we lived on our well that my grandparents lived on the dead end street 00:25:37.118 --> 00:25:43.354 - that used to be highway 37 and it dead ends of a cliff with that the Indiana limestone company. And 00:25:43.354 --> 00:25:49.715 - you know it was common practice to just jump off of a giant cliff into dark deep mysterious water and 00:25:49.715 --> 00:25:50.526 - go swimming. 00:25:50.626 --> 00:25:57.011 - So again, amazing that I'm standing here before you today, given the adventures of my youth. But it 00:25:57.011 --> 00:26:03.459 - instilled in me a great love, not only for this industry that has shaped so many of these buildings, 00:26:03.459 --> 00:26:09.908 - the one in which we stand now, so much of this campus and so much of this town and state. Growing up 00:26:09.908 --> 00:26:16.356 - in the limestone quarries, I think, see, I say quarries instead of quarry. So, all right, I think it 00:26:16.356 --> 00:26:19.038 - was a common misnomer around these parts. 00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:26.103 - It gave me such an appreciation for the history and the industry of where we live here in southern Indiana 00:26:26.103 --> 00:26:33.101 - and the limestone belt. And it was a lot of fun. Let's see. So I attended IU where I did major in religious 00:26:33.101 --> 00:26:39.904 - studies and got a minor in creative writing technically. But that was kind of my passion and my pursuit. 00:26:39.904 --> 00:26:46.448 - I started with poetry and in fact this hallway adjacent here to the Georgian room, there's restrooms 00:26:46.448 --> 00:26:47.550 - down at the end. 00:26:48.546 --> 00:26:54.839 - I had to use the facilities one day as a student walking through the union. And I just happened, oh, 00:26:54.839 --> 00:27:01.630 - there's a restroom. And I turned down this hall. And it's lined with these photographs. And I was fascinated 00:27:01.630 --> 00:27:07.985 - by the Frank Hohenberger photographs that this guy went over to Brown County and took pictures of the 00:27:07.985 --> 00:27:14.215 - people living there. And I really had to pee. But I also had to really get to class. So I was like, 00:27:14.215 --> 00:27:18.078 - oh, those are cool pictures. And I came back soon thereafter. 00:27:18.594 --> 00:27:27.674 - And I spent, I think, two or three hours at night one time with my notebook. And I think there are 27 00:27:27.674 --> 00:27:36.754 - photographs. And I just stood there and I wrote a poem about each one. And I did that because I am so 00:27:36.754 --> 00:27:42.718 - invested in the stories of this area and the history of this area. 00:27:42.818 --> 00:27:49.221 - And seeing the photographs of those people, it's going to make me cry because there's this one of this 00:27:49.221 --> 00:27:55.624 - old woman on a porch. You got to go look at it. And just the humanity in those photographs sticks with 00:27:55.624 --> 00:28:01.903 - me to this day. So I was so happy when we got here. I was like, oh, it's in the Georgian room. I can 00:28:01.903 --> 00:28:08.990 - look at those photographs again. So that was awesome. One of the things I did in IU was co-facilitator, co-host a 00:28:09.346 --> 00:28:16.268 - poetry reading, a group of poets. We got together and we did this for almost, I think, three or four 00:28:16.268 --> 00:28:23.189 - years. We published a zine. That was my first foray into publication. We did six runs of a zine. And 00:28:23.189 --> 00:28:30.316 - as IU students, you were allocated printing pages that you can go to the library or wherever and print. 00:28:30.316 --> 00:28:37.375 - So when our poetry group wanted to do the zine project, we asked all of the members of our poetry club 00:28:37.375 --> 00:28:38.814 - to donate their page 00:28:38.978 --> 00:28:46.142 - quota. And so we just ran off dozens of copies of these zines and we were in the 00:28:46.402 --> 00:28:52.389 - Herman B. Wells Library, my friend Pierce and I just commandeering printers and just printing off stacks 00:28:52.389 --> 00:28:58.205 - and stacks of pages of these zines and had a big stapling party and it was a lot of fun. But we would 00:28:58.205 --> 00:29:03.964 - do poetry readings most often at what was Rachel's Cafe is now Uncle Wang's Alley there on the third 00:29:03.964 --> 00:29:09.723 - street by the police station. So that was a wonderful space that they allowed us to use every month. 00:29:09.723 --> 00:29:11.262 - What did we call it first? 00:29:11.394 --> 00:29:19.098 - Thursdays, I think is what it was, we would do poetry readings on the top of parking garages in caves, 00:29:19.098 --> 00:29:26.951 - wherever we could find a spot to read poems to each other. And so that was just another way that I early 00:29:26.951 --> 00:29:34.505 - on got involved with the voices in my community, and learn to love and appreciate the art that comes 00:29:34.505 --> 00:29:40.638 - from collaborative storytelling. After IU, I was looking for a career I worked at 00:29:41.186 --> 00:29:49.212 - Blooming Foods. I was an independent gardener, landscaper, and sticking with the limestone theme, I 00:29:49.212 --> 00:29:57.478 - put up posters at Blooming Foods for hire. The limestone garden gnome. Thank God that didn't take off. 00:29:57.478 --> 00:30:04.862 - But I did have a few private clients. Doug Wissing, who some of you may know, a journalist. 00:30:05.314 --> 00:30:13.792 - So that kind of got me, oh, journalism, that's an interesting, I would speak to Doug after working at 00:30:13.792 --> 00:30:22.519 - his house. And again, just got my hands dirty and invested in the community and continued to get deeper, 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:31.412 - more deeply knitted into the fabric of Bloomington. Then in 2016, I wanted to get more involved in writing 00:30:31.412 --> 00:30:34.654 - and I thought, well, maybe publication 00:30:34.754 --> 00:30:42.055 - our publishing and editing or journalism would be an avenue of pursuit. And a friend of mine very briefly 00:30:42.055 --> 00:30:49.080 - was the, I think, marketing and advertising person for Limesome Post in 2015-16 when the magazine got 00:30:49.080 --> 00:30:56.175 - started. So I hit him up and he connected me with Ron. And I went into their office, which was at that 00:30:56.175 --> 00:31:02.718 - weird curved intersection on 11th Street by the train tracks or Cottage Grove, I think, maybe. 00:31:03.106 --> 00:31:10.349 - I think now it's a yoga studio. At the time it was kind of a half unfinished blue building. And I go 00:31:10.349 --> 00:31:17.233 - in there and they sit me down at the desk and they give me a laptop with an editing quiz on it. 00:31:17.233 --> 00:31:24.476 - And I passed. And I still, I have a, they gave me a cheat sheet of editing shorthand, which is still 00:31:24.476 --> 00:31:28.062 - in my backpack now with the notes and the margin. 00:31:28.226 --> 00:31:35.912 - And so that was kind of my beginning with Limestone Post. Ron and Linnae, Ron Eade and Linnae Sawinski 00:31:35.912 --> 00:31:43.673 - started Limestone Post in 2015. At the time it was a for-profit publication and we're an online digital 00:31:43.673 --> 00:31:51.136 - magazine serving Bloomington, Monroe County and surrounding areas. Ron was publisher and Linnae was 00:31:51.136 --> 00:31:54.270 - editor, lead editor. They both edited but 00:31:55.202 --> 00:32:01.719 - And so they hired me on as assistant editor and it was a wonderful opportunity and I loved it so much 00:32:01.719 --> 00:32:08.236 - and we had so much fun working together for a few years. I was on the team. I mean, I've never really 00:32:08.236 --> 00:32:14.752 - left the team. But I was on the early years we had that really quirky office up on the northwest side 00:32:14.752 --> 00:32:16.094 - and then we moved to 00:32:16.482 --> 00:32:22.806 - Graham Plaza Hotel on the square, which was luxurious. It was very nice. I loved going to the office 00:32:22.806 --> 00:32:29.318 - there. We had those arched windows with the flower boxes that look over college. So I mean, it was just 00:32:29.318 --> 00:32:35.641 - ideal. But that was very expensive. So then we moved to another shared office location downtown. And 00:32:35.641 --> 00:32:41.214 - those were just wonderful years. We not only was I assistant editor, so I was working on 00:32:41.314 --> 00:32:49.856 - stories from people in the community like Michael Glab and Laurie Borman and Ruthie Cohen and many, 00:32:49.856 --> 00:32:58.569 - many others. And very likely, I probably worked on a story of yours in the early days and didn't even 00:32:58.569 --> 00:33:07.794 - realize it. And I lost my train of thought on that one. Oh, but Ron had also allowed me to be a contributor 00:33:07.794 --> 00:33:08.734 - as well as 00:33:08.962 --> 00:33:15.827 - the, you know, 10 or 15 hours I was putting in every week as assistant editor. And so that's when I 00:33:15.827 --> 00:33:22.898 - really got my chops in more formal writing, because up to that point, I had just been a fancied myself 00:33:22.898 --> 00:33:29.831 - a poet and a creative writer. And so really was able to invest in practice in journalism. In 2018, I 00:33:29.831 --> 00:33:36.902 - moved to Colorado, and I tried to continue working as assistant editor, but 1000 mile gap is quite the 00:33:36.902 --> 00:33:38.206 - gap to bridge when 00:33:38.530 --> 00:33:45.617 - You're working for a magazine that is so hyper focused on one community and so not being here made it 00:33:45.617 --> 00:33:52.565 - very, very difficult to stay involved to the depth and capacity that I wish. So at that time, about 00:33:52.565 --> 00:33:59.721 - 2018 or so, I stepped down from the assistant editor position, but I continued to contribute. I wrote, 00:33:59.721 --> 00:34:02.014 - I think in 2018 or 19, I wrote a 00:34:02.114 --> 00:34:08.858 - piece which is still very near and dear to my heart and may actually be one of my favorite articles 00:34:08.858 --> 00:34:16.074 - that I've written about the history of Hoosier barns and the preservation of those. My family, my family's 00:34:16.074 --> 00:34:22.953 - been in Lawrence County since the 1800s and we have a barn on my dad's mom's childhood home property. 00:34:22.953 --> 00:34:29.630 - A barn that was built in the 1800s and I remember you know as a kid climbing up the ladder and and 00:34:29.794 --> 00:34:37.185 - trying not to get eaten by the buzzards that lived up in the hayloft and just playing there. And they 00:34:37.185 --> 00:34:44.577 - kept cows in the fields then. And I don't think I would do this today. And I probably wouldn't let my 00:34:44.577 --> 00:34:52.186 - son do this. But back in the mid-90s, you got hot. It was July. You go lick the salt lake with the cows. 00:34:52.186 --> 00:34:59.070 - I didn't know that it was gross. Don't recommend doing that, though, because it is very gross. 00:35:01.858 --> 00:35:08.226 - that was just part of it. So writing stories like that was not only a way for me to honor, again, the 00:35:08.226 --> 00:35:14.469 - history of where we're from, but also to honor my own history and my own stories of where I'm from. 00:35:14.469 --> 00:35:20.774 - And so I'm very grateful that Ron allowed me to continue writing for the magazine, even when I lived 00:35:20.774 --> 00:35:27.391 - 1000 miles away. I covered the first eclipse that happened and I covered the second eclipse that happened 00:35:27.391 --> 00:35:31.262 - that story, which I kind of weaved into a larger narrative of 00:35:31.522 --> 00:35:38.701 - Art going on in town with sculptors and performances and live music and all that. That was an award-winning 00:35:38.701 --> 00:35:45.414 - article that I was awarded at the Society of Professional Journalists Awards. We'll get back to that 00:35:45.414 --> 00:35:52.128 - though. In 2019, I was still living far away and Ron and Linnae decided to transition to a nonprofit 00:35:52.128 --> 00:35:54.654 - model for the magazine, which changed 00:35:55.938 --> 00:36:03.515 - more probably behind the scenes than necessarily the the front page of our our website the front page 00:36:03.515 --> 00:36:10.720 - of our magazine but what it did do is allow for a lot more community involvement and sponsorship 00:36:10.720 --> 00:36:18.223 - opportunities and just kind of not share a charitable participation in the community i moved back in 00:36:18.223 --> 00:36:19.486 - 2020 immediately 00:36:19.682 --> 00:36:26.425 - went to the Hundredth Hill with Krista Dutour, wrote a really long piece about a theater residency she 00:36:26.425 --> 00:36:33.037 - was doing there in the midst of COVID, and pretty much just got back to town and jumped back in with 00:36:33.037 --> 00:36:39.715 - the Limestone Post crew. And, you know, Ron and I are buddies. We've been friends for a long time. We 00:36:39.715 --> 00:36:43.774 - would go hiking. And so I got reintegrated into the magazine. 00:36:51.458 --> 00:36:58.321 - I did, however, miss out on the Sense of Place publication because that's our one physical magazine, 00:36:58.321 --> 00:37:05.184 - kind of a coffee table style magazine book. I was somewhat involved, but I was living in Colorado at 00:37:05.184 --> 00:37:12.182 - the time and so they published it while I was away. Someone, I didn't catch your name and I apologize, 00:37:12.182 --> 00:37:17.822 - but somebody asked me, you know, where did you print it? And I said, I don't know. 00:37:18.402 --> 00:37:25.878 - Are you printing more? Maybe. I hope so. And we would love to. We would really love to do another print 00:37:25.878 --> 00:37:33.354 - edition. However, that does require a lot of that, a lot of money. So maybe that will be an opportunity 00:37:33.354 --> 00:37:40.614 - we have in the future. But for now, you'll have to visit limestonepost.org to see all of the stories 00:37:40.614 --> 00:37:45.502 - that we publish. I try to publish weekly, twice if I can. We're not 00:37:45.762 --> 00:37:52.186 - We're not consistent with that by a rule, but I like to and each of our stories is going to be covering 00:37:52.186 --> 00:37:58.795 - a topic of maybe what's happening in the news scene, what's happening in the political scene, the economy, 00:37:58.795 --> 00:38:05.342 - the education scene here in town, local government, county government, maybe adjacent county governments. 00:38:06.050 --> 00:38:12.227 - We're also going to cover the arts and the culture and lifestyle. We're going to tell stories about 00:38:12.227 --> 00:38:18.652 - the people that live here and feature the artists who work here and the nonprofit organizers who strive 00:38:18.652 --> 00:38:25.015 - to make this community the wonderful, impressive, amazing community that it is. And what sets us apart 00:38:25.015 --> 00:38:31.254 - in the local news scene from, say, the Herald Times or the work that Jeremy Hogan and Dave Askins do 00:38:31.254 --> 00:38:32.798 - is we're not daily news. 00:38:32.930 --> 00:38:39.343 - We're long form investigative journalism. So we spend time with our stories. We spend time with our 00:38:39.343 --> 00:38:45.820 - writers. There's a dialogue that occurs that goes back and forth when we're in the editorial process 00:38:45.820 --> 00:38:52.361 - so that we can really craft the best quality, you know, deepest diving look into the stories that are 00:38:52.361 --> 00:38:59.159 - being told. I say deepest diving because one of the things we have done in the past was our collaboration 00:38:59.159 --> 00:39:02.686 - with WFHB. We did the deep dive series where FHB would 00:39:03.138 --> 00:39:11.879 - We would write a story, long form investigative journalism story on food pantries or many topics that 00:39:11.879 --> 00:39:20.448 - we covered, housing. And then WFHB would air a radio segment on their news program. Good news is we 00:39:20.448 --> 00:39:29.274 - are bringing back a similar project that is as of yet unnamed. But we will again be collaborating with 00:39:29.274 --> 00:39:32.702 - WFHB to do an even bigger news program. 00:39:33.186 --> 00:39:39.482 - And it'll follow a very similar model. We will do an investigative journalism piece. WFHB will do a 00:39:39.482 --> 00:39:45.966 - joint broadcast piece. But the difference this time is that we are going to continue to go even deeper 00:39:45.966 --> 00:39:52.577 - and engage even further with that story by bringing on perhaps the person who wrote it, the contributor, 00:39:52.577 --> 00:39:58.558 - maybe someone who was interviewed, people from WFHB, and we will have a roundtable discussion. 00:39:59.234 --> 00:40:05.606 - and provide our community with an even deeper look at what's going on. So that's one of the projects 00:40:05.606 --> 00:40:12.168 - this year that we're very, very excited about. We've applied for some other grant opportunities waiting 00:40:12.168 --> 00:40:18.792 - to find out if we'll be awarded those. And if we do, that will be wonderful. It will increase the number 00:40:18.792 --> 00:40:24.534 - of stories that we can write. But we've got a very full editorial calendar. Aside from the 00:40:24.534 --> 00:40:26.174 - grant opportunities, I am 00:40:26.722 --> 00:40:34.126 - so excited to be able to work with contributors to the magazine that have been writing for us for many, 00:40:34.126 --> 00:40:41.743 - many years. Steve Hennefeld, Ruthie Cohen, as I mentioned before, Michael Glab is still one of our regular 00:40:41.743 --> 00:40:49.005 - contributors and we all know he's such a talented individual and storyteller. We've got a really good 00:40:49.005 --> 00:40:51.710 - one from him coming out. But also new 00:40:52.098 --> 00:40:58.693 - community members and people who are eager to try out their hand at journalism or maybe it's friends 00:40:58.693 --> 00:41:05.680 - that I had from back in my poetry collective days or my IU days. And being so integrated in this community 00:41:05.680 --> 00:41:12.210 - for so long has allowed me to really tap into the talent that Bloomington has and fill our magazine 00:41:12.210 --> 00:41:14.430 - with wonderful stories. While I'm 00:41:15.074 --> 00:41:21.888 - At this point, I do want to shout out our staff and our board of directors, Noel and Anne and myself 00:41:21.888 --> 00:41:28.837 - are the staff of Lime Sunpost and I really could not do this without the two of you. So immense thanks 00:41:28.837 --> 00:41:36.056 - and graciousness. And then of course, our board of directors, Joy and Emily, who are here today, probably, 00:41:36.056 --> 00:41:42.398 - no, undoubtedly work harder than I do to keep this magazine alive and to keep it thriving and 00:41:43.394 --> 00:41:50.489 - the effort that you put in is invaluable. And your volunteers, which is amazing. So I appreciate both 00:41:50.489 --> 00:41:57.931 - of you. When the magazine, I know I'm almost on time for the Q&A, so I'll wrap it up here. When we started 00:41:57.931 --> 00:42:05.165 - out our, right, am I good on time or am I over? Good, okay, perfect. Riders with a Voice, Photographers 00:42:05.165 --> 00:42:12.190 - with a Vision was the original motto for Limestone Post Magazine. And we stand by that, we still are 00:42:12.322 --> 00:42:20.768 - a place for that. But now, as we move into our 10th and now 11th year as an organization with a new 00:42:20.768 --> 00:42:29.467 - executive editor, Ron has finally slipped away into retirement and obscurity and no one has heard from 00:42:29.467 --> 00:42:37.406 - him in months. Now, that's not true. I saw him last week. But we're taking on a new approach. 00:42:37.666 --> 00:42:44.272 - to inform, engage, and inspire our readers. And that is something that we all thought about very hard 00:42:44.272 --> 00:42:50.943 - and that I feel really captures our mission as Limestone Post, to inform our community, to engage with 00:42:50.943 --> 00:42:57.874 - our community, and to inspire our community to do more, to contribute more, to write more, to tell stories 00:42:57.874 --> 00:43:04.610 - more, to do what you Rotarians do, and keep community alive. And I'll just wrap this up quickly. Again, 00:43:04.610 --> 00:43:07.006 - yeah, we went to the SPJs this week. 00:43:07.106 --> 00:43:16.082 - this year, SPJ awards this year, and won again as we do every year. So congrats to us. We have a new 00:43:16.082 --> 00:43:25.237 - website. We switched from a .com to a .org, which I think is important. We also shortened the URL from 00:43:25.237 --> 00:43:32.702 - limestonepostmagazine.com to limestonepost.org, so you can get there a lot quicker. 00:43:33.346 --> 00:43:39.128 - I could speak about our partnership with the Arnold Center. They did a big story for us last year, and 00:43:39.128 --> 00:43:44.966 - they're going to do another one for us this year. And it's always great to partner and collaborate with 00:43:44.966 --> 00:43:50.579 - students here at the university. So that's another community partner that we're very happy to have. 00:43:50.579 --> 00:43:56.417 - We're growing. We're getting new readers and new subscribers all the time. We just got a new subscriber 00:43:56.417 --> 00:44:01.918 - this morning. If it was one of you, and I forgot your names, I'm sorry, but thank you regardless. 00:44:02.338 --> 00:44:08.066 - And lastly, I'll just say one of my goals when I came on as executive director is I was thinking of 00:44:08.066 --> 00:44:13.852 - what can we do differently? And I wanted to establish columns. We now have three columns. I can only 00:44:13.852 --> 00:44:19.638 - take credit for two of those. Ruthie Cohen's stirring the pot cooking column has been going on since 00:44:19.638 --> 00:44:25.481 - day one. I think it was legitimately one of the first articles that ever got published was was one of 00:44:25.481 --> 00:44:31.267 - her first stirring the pot columns. But we now have Stephen Higgs doing an environment environmental 00:44:31.267 --> 00:44:32.126 - column for us. 00:44:32.226 --> 00:44:42.264 - and Steve Hennefeld doing an education column for us. So we're off to a good start with me at the helm, 00:44:42.264 --> 00:44:52.013 - and I'm happy to take any questions you might have. I saw your hand first, sir. No, no. Oh, we stuck 00:44:52.013 --> 00:45:01.182 - up on you. I defer to you. Fair, fair. First of all, thank you for all that you do. Thank you. 00:45:01.282 --> 00:45:06.203 - was a sophomore last year at IU, junior this year. And his girlfriend last year was doing zines. I don't 00:45:06.203 --> 00:45:11.218 - know how many people in this room know what zines are. So you might want to explain that. Firstly, second, 00:45:11.218 --> 00:45:15.998 - because I had no idea what it was. Secondly, it was interesting because it opened my eyes to at my at 00:45:15.998 --> 00:45:20.826 - that point in time, I was like, oh, there's an underground current because I don't think kids are that 00:45:20.826 --> 00:45:25.559 - informed. And I'm like, oh, no, they're quite informed. So I think it's if you could share that with 00:45:25.559 --> 00:45:29.918 - this group, that would be helpful. And then how are you or are you leveraging the university 00:45:30.242 --> 00:45:38.552 - talent that's out there. Thank you. Those are very good questions. Zines. Sorry, I'm trying to get my 00:45:38.552 --> 00:45:46.862 - notes back out of my pocket so I can have a scratch pad. So zines are little bits of paper folded up, 00:45:46.862 --> 00:45:55.253 - stapled together that are filled with typewritten words, scribbled words, drawings, and then you Xerox 00:45:55.253 --> 00:45:56.638 - off or print off 00:45:56.866 --> 00:46:03.049 - hundreds of copies and give them to your friends or slip them into the bookcase at the at Runcable Spoon 00:46:03.049 --> 00:46:08.938 - or leave them on a table for someone to find. So it's kind of an underground distribution of an art 00:46:08.938 --> 00:46:14.886 - magazine. And it was a lot of fun. Our zine, of course, was poetry and visual art. We called it eggs 00:46:14.886 --> 00:46:20.774 - with all caps because Michelle Gotchlich and I, who we were the co-hosts and co-organizers, we were 00:46:20.774 --> 00:46:24.190 - walking outside the Union over by like we're done meadow. 00:46:25.154 --> 00:46:32.922 - of comes over to the union there's that little I guess facility door where they move in trucks and whatnot 00:46:32.922 --> 00:46:40.401 - and they had these big boxes of eggs out there and we said that's a good name all caps so that's where 00:46:40.401 --> 00:46:47.806 - that came from I think today though kids I mean people's young people still do zines I still see them 00:46:47.806 --> 00:46:54.558 - there's zine conventions and and it's a it's been a thing since I don't know the 60s the 40s 00:46:54.722 --> 00:47:01.474 - forever since we've had paper and could stand right on it. And but I think social media is really influencing 00:47:01.474 --> 00:47:07.674 - the distribution of knowledge amongst young people and the distribution of art amongst young people. 00:47:07.674 --> 00:47:14.120 - And I think like digital zines are a thing that are out there. So I don't know. I mean, I'm not as young 00:47:14.120 --> 00:47:20.319 - as I once was, but I still think zines are fun. Now, how do we collaborate with with students at IU? 00:47:20.319 --> 00:47:21.854 - A lot of times I'll have 00:47:22.338 --> 00:47:29.274 - young journalism students who have maybe graduated or soon to be graduating and they want to work with 00:47:29.274 --> 00:47:36.075 - us. I think we've got three all young women journalists, Ellie Alban, Meredith Perkins, maybe two or 00:47:36.075 --> 00:47:43.011 - one or two more, who came directly from IU and reached out to us to write. And I, Meredith Perkins had 00:47:43.011 --> 00:47:46.782 - submitted her story recently on maternal mental health. 00:47:47.298 --> 00:47:54.889 - We haven't published it yet, but when we do, holy cow, it's amazing. She did an incredible job. So keep 00:47:54.889 --> 00:48:02.334 - an eye out for that one. And then we collaborate with the Arnold Center as well. They do like one big 00:48:02.334 --> 00:48:09.269 - story for us every semester. Yeah. Thank you. Again, thank you for taking the job, coming back 00:48:09.269 --> 00:48:15.838 - to Bloomington, and for all that you do. So my question is sort of on the financial side. 00:48:17.570 --> 00:48:24.683 - What percentage of your of your revenue is coming from subscribers versus other sources? Can you talk 00:48:24.683 --> 00:48:31.866 - a little bit about that? A small amount. Very small amount. We are a free magazine. And as long as I'm 00:48:31.866 --> 00:48:38.491 - in charge, we will always be a free magazine. I don't believe in paywalls. We publish a story. 00:48:38.491 --> 00:48:45.465 - It's out there. It's up there. Anyone can read it with a click and we'll always have free access to 00:48:45.465 --> 00:48:46.302 - that story. 00:48:46.786 --> 00:48:54.119 - We do allow for paid subscription tiers on our site. You don't get anything extra except for the good 00:48:54.119 --> 00:49:01.596 - fuzzy warm feeling of having supported a nonprofit publication. But again, that ties into my philosophy 00:49:01.596 --> 00:49:08.929 - of it's a donation. It's, you know, we're not cordoning off content behind a paywall. That's just how 00:49:08.929 --> 00:49:15.902 - I feel about it personally. But we are very happy to have paid subscribers and we do have a few. 00:49:16.194 --> 00:49:23.068 - Um, it's a very small percentage of our revenue. A lot of what we get is just, uh, larger donations, 00:49:23.068 --> 00:49:29.874 - maybe a one time donation. Um, our donation box or whatever on our website is open perennially, but 00:49:29.874 --> 00:49:36.067 - in the winter, uh, like November, December, we are a part of the news match, uh, campaign, 00:49:36.067 --> 00:49:39.742 - which is the INN, which helped me and is independent. 00:49:40.354 --> 00:49:46.475 - nonprofit news network, something like that. So one of we're a member of a number of other 00:49:46.475 --> 00:49:53.335 - news organizations. So the news match campaign drive is one of our big fundraising opportunities. And 00:49:53.335 --> 00:50:00.666 - that's where a lot of our revenue comes from is just from donations. We also do like community sponsorships. 00:50:00.666 --> 00:50:07.527 - And we you know, we allow for sponsored articles. So instead of me paying you to write, you pay me to 00:50:07.527 --> 00:50:08.670 - publish you. And 00:50:09.474 --> 00:50:20.856 - Am I missing any other grants, grants, grants and donations and sponsorships? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. 00:50:20.856 --> 00:50:32.239 - I'm just curious if any of us have a subject that might be of interest to your post for publication. 00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:37.310 - How do we contact you? Absolutely. This way. 00:50:37.730 --> 00:50:48.324 - Um, no, you can visit our website and we'll have contact pages on there. My email is editor at limestone 00:50:48.324 --> 00:50:58.816 - pos limestone post.org. Um, and yeah, visit the website, email me directly. Um, also that's my personal 00:50:58.816 --> 00:51:06.686 - phone. So, you know, after 8pm, no, just kidding. You can text me. It's fine. 00:51:08.418 --> 00:51:16.519 - Well, first of all, thank you for your family for preserving the barn. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. In Indiana, 00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:24.467 - we seem to tax people on what are just not farms, not using those barns, but they're being taxed. Yeah. 00:51:24.467 --> 00:51:32.185 - So that causes them to take them down. So we need to do something legislatively, maybe to stop that. 00:51:32.185 --> 00:51:33.790 - Yeah. There's a few. 00:51:34.274 --> 00:51:41.722 - you know, historical preservation societies, especially, and ones that particularly focus on barns, 00:51:41.722 --> 00:51:49.171 - but there aren't many left of those structures standing. Sorry, no, this is weird having me ask you 00:51:49.171 --> 00:51:56.694 - a question. It's not so much a question as I think people will be really interested to know what the 00:51:56.694 --> 00:52:01.982 - Bloomington Monroe County Community Foundation is doing and how that's 00:52:02.594 --> 00:52:09.456 - helping us because what they're doing is really significant. Yeah, it really is. So essentially the 00:52:09.456 --> 00:52:16.386 - Community Foundation invited a number of the local news organizations to apply for this grant and it 00:52:16.386 --> 00:52:23.247 - was kind of one of those things where they were like, hey, we really want to give you this money to 00:52:23.247 --> 00:52:30.384 - bolster and improve the news network here in town. And the idea behind it was that it's a collaborative 00:52:30.384 --> 00:52:31.550 - news effort. And 00:52:31.650 --> 00:52:41.972 - I'm not sure as to all of the recipients, but I can say that Limestone Post and WFHB were both awarded 00:52:41.972 --> 00:52:52.194 - a nice sum of money that will adequately facilitate a long-term collaborative news effort. So we were 00:52:52.194 --> 00:52:59.710 - very happy to come to the table with them. At first, it was supposed to be 00:53:00.130 --> 00:53:05.738 - remember the name of like a receipt based structure where you know you pay for something and then give 00:53:05.738 --> 00:53:11.510 - them a receipt and they reimburse you a reimbursement structure but the community foundation was actually 00:53:11.510 --> 00:53:17.118 - able to give us the money up front which i think will be helpful in just kind of executing the project 00:53:17.118 --> 00:53:22.672 - so we will be bringing on you know i'm going to look for a few other writers or contributors that can 00:53:22.672 --> 00:53:26.974 - dedicate to the themselves to the project so we kind of have like a core group 00:53:27.202 --> 00:53:35.340 - moving ahead. But yeah, we're going to meet with FHB later this week to strategize. So we're very, very 00:53:35.340 --> 00:53:43.713 - excited for this opportunity and very, very grateful to the Community Foundation for making this possible. 00:53:43.713 --> 00:53:51.694 - Jason, what would you do if you had unlimited money and dreams to spend it with limestone folks? Work 00:53:51.694 --> 00:53:56.702 - from a beach in the Caribbean? Work remotely in the cabana? No. 00:53:56.898 --> 00:54:06.660 - It's a very good question. First of all, I would use that money to do a print project. I would use those 00:54:06.660 --> 00:54:16.144 - unlimited funds to pay our contributors more. I think I'm very, very proud of what we are able to pay 00:54:16.144 --> 00:54:25.534 - our contributors. Having been a Limestone Post contributor, you get that invoice or you get the rate 00:54:25.666 --> 00:54:32.173 - from Ron and I was like, damn, okay, yes, thank you. That's, that's generous. And so I make sure to 00:54:32.173 --> 00:54:39.005 - always try to compensate our contributors well. But I would increase that. What else would I do? I think 00:54:39.005 --> 00:54:45.642 - one of the secret projects which I'll let slip because I like you people are archiving the the writer 00:54:45.642 --> 00:54:52.670 - magazine digital archiving the writer magazine, which is a project that we really need funding for we don't 00:54:52.962 --> 00:55:02.162 - We're still in the planning phase of that. So if any of you are lovers of the writer and have ideas, 00:55:02.162 --> 00:55:11.727 - I would be happy to speak with you about that. But that is something that we would immediately put money 00:55:11.727 --> 00:55:16.190 - towards to preserve that gem of Bloomington art. 00:55:16.962 --> 00:55:26.881 - And yeah, I don't know. I mean, do charitable things. Donate, share with other news organizations. Donate 00:55:26.881 --> 00:55:36.520 - to WFHB during their fun to drive. Buy a Corvette. I don't know. I don't know. I wouldn't do that. I'd 00:55:36.520 --> 00:55:46.814 - buy a 1969 black Mustang. And on that note. Thank you. All right. Jason, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. 00:55:48.258 --> 00:55:54.836 - When I was here as an undergraduate, I remember stumbling across the photos in the hallway. And so I 00:55:54.836 --> 00:56:01.415 - was really thrilled when I came back here as a retiree, and many of those same photos were up. But I 00:56:01.415 --> 00:56:08.058 - never thought about writing a poem about each one. So yeah, 27 poems, very impressive. So in honor of 00:56:08.058 --> 00:56:14.962 - your talk, a donation will be made this quarter to Wheeler Mission. I'd like to thank today's volunteers, 00:56:14.962 --> 00:56:17.502 - Jim Shea, Leslie Katsenko, Joy Harder, 00:56:17.922 --> 00:56:24.514 - Sally Gaskell, Randy Saunders, Bill Oates, Michael Shermas, Dave Meyer, Sarah Loughlin. I'd also like 00:56:24.514 --> 00:56:31.234 - to thank our Zoom and audio producer, Tyler Martin-Nichols, who regularly bails us out during meetings. 00:56:31.234 --> 00:56:37.826 - So our next meeting will be here in the Georgia room next Tuesday, May 26. Sergeant Jordan Hassler of 00:56:37.826 --> 00:56:44.030 - the Bloomington Police Department's Canine Unit. And Michael Shermas will his dog Twix be here. 00:56:45.218 --> 00:56:53.010 - And his dog Twix will be our special guest. We really loved having the raptors here a few months ago. 00:56:53.010 --> 00:57:00.726 - I think having Twix from the canine unit will be pretty cool. So please join us. Tyler, if you could 00:57:00.726 --> 00:57:07.678 - share the graphic for the four-way test, please join or stand if you're able. And join me. 00:57:11.522 --> 00:57:18.989 - of the things we think, say, or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, 00:57:18.989 --> 00:57:26.600 - will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, 00:57:26.600 --> 00:57:27.390 - is it fun?