Partnerships Meetings Update November 2, 2007

November 2nd, 2007 at 12:03pm Toby Campbell Permalink

Seattle Public Library

Chris Tugwell and I met with Jennifer Bisson on October 5th. We asked Jennifer about possibilities for collaboration, and she focused on the group of teens she is working with at the downtown library once a week (they meet from 4-5pm Thursdays). The teen group at the library this year will be divided into a myspace group, an audiocast group and a marketing group.
We discussed the possibility of letting the library borrow the YMCA’s video equipment or collaborating with them to make videos for their audiocast group. Teens could collaborate on interviews and editing – maybe around authors that come to town. The library also has spring programming planned around theater and hip-hop. May 2nd will be the all ages arts night again. Immigrant and hip-hop focus is likely. We discussed the possibility of posting their student’s book reviews. We also discussed having our youth meet in person. Writers in the schools seemed like a good possibility for doing a joint project as well.
Chris Tugwell followed up with Jennifer over email a couple of weeks after our meeting, and we are attempting to move forward with a small-scale collaboration with them in the short term.

The Vera Project

Toby had the opportunity to meet with several staff from the Vera Project at the end of October. Staff their expressed an interest in concrete partnerships that dovetail well with their current activities and mission. They receive dozens of inquiries regarding potential partnerships each week, so they must be selective and strategic about the partners they choose to work with.
My feeling (Toby) is that we should keep a partnership with Vera in mind for the future. They’ve got a great youth governance structure that we could learn from, and the physical venue space they have for shows would be a wonderful resource to pair with our website and curriculum on civic engagement once the Puget Sound Off project develops further. For the time being though, I think we should hold off on partnering with Vera until we can approach them with something concrete that is thoughtfully tailored to their mission and activities.

Further Partnerships Update

Toby and Chris Tugwell are working together to come up with a short list of partners we would like to reach out to in the near term, and will continue to reach out to new partners in the coming weeks.

Entry Filed under: partner strategy