Done Lately?

I'm not writing here much right now, but I have been busy on many many collaborative sites so I wanted to share a brief update about that...

I recently joined the MOMocrats. I've been blogging about politics on and off for a while, and doing it on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog gave a few of us the idea of doing it for our respective presidential candidates. I was frankly too busy to start another collaborative blog myself, so I just blogged about Hillary wherever I could (which has other advantages of reaching a broader audience vs. preaching to the choir), but some of my friends started blogging together about John Edwards and their site was great. We talked early on about working together once a nominee was selected and it was sort-of de facto that we would put our efforts together whenever that point came. When Edwards dropped out of the race, most of them began supporting Obama, but they also opened up the blog for everyone to participate and so I joined. I'm in the minority there as a Hillary supporter, but we have a great dialogue and it's a wonderful group of intelligent people. So I haven't written much yet, but stay tuned, especially toward the election.

For Playborhood, I did some research about preschools and wrote an article about the preschool search pertaining to kids and play. I also put that research to use when interviewed for Bay Area Parent magazine. And I wrote a brief article for Bay Area Parent which I believe will be in the May issue. I still write regularly for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, including putting up a post last night about meeting Maria Shriver, First Lady of California, which was a real treat - especially after reading her latest book.

I spent last weekend in Sacramento being trained on legislative advocacy in the State of California since I'm now the Junior Representative from the Junior League of Palo Alto/Mid-Peninsula to the State Public Affairs Committee for the Junior Leagues of California. (I know it's a mouth full. Sorry.) What that means is that I get to review proposed bills, research them, meet with legislators, and vote within a committee over the next two years as to any legislation the Junior Leagues will support. As we focus on women and children, our issue areas are education, health, family support, and domestic violence prevention. It's a great learning opportunity and it's a wonderful feeling to know we're helping change lives.

Early last week, I compiled some materials that USACM had written about our positions on national technology policies into a paper that we submitted to the Yale Technology Law Journal for the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference that supposedly will be submitted to the next presidential administration as recommendations on information technology policy. I like keeping active in the tech policy arena when I can, and as a member now of USACM for over 10 years, I enjoy the people involved immensely. Anyway we'll see if the paper is accepted. I would like to think the next administration could learn from USACM - some incredibly brilliant people are involved.

SFBayStyle is growing strong. With a large group of interesting writers, we're getting some great feedback and we're having a lot of opportunities to cover some fantastic events. What I love about creating our own blog about style and fashion is that we can do whatever we want with it, which to me means emphasizing the nonprofit, philanthropic and community component as often as possible. And we have nearly 300 articles up in under a year.

I recently began blogging for ecofabulous, a great site for finding everything that's beautiful and eco for homes, clothes, dining, travel, etc. I also covered the World Figure Skating Championships for BlogHer (Sports & Fitness) and I look forward to writing more for them in the future.

I'm still writing on occasion for Acceller's Digital Landing site. It's a great place for learning basics about technology - TV, phones, computers, etc. So I know my audience here is above all that, but you can send your parents there.

Looking back at this list, it seems like I'm doing a lot, and I am, but I like participating in a lot of different venues because it means I can write about all sorts of topics that I find interesting while working in the community as well. For anyone who wants to keep tabs on my current endeavors for whatever reason, see grangers.com. Otherwise, please be patient and I'll write more of my own thoughts here soon.

If You Want to Write a Novel, There's No Time Like November

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, begins again this Thursday, November 1st. It's a month-long journey into the experience of speed fiction, and tens of thousands (perhaps more?) have participated to date. "The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." Loads of people do it, and they love it. The idea is to focus on quantity, not quality, and to come to the end and say: "hey, I wrote a novel."

NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty, who also came up with my nickname, Sairy. He's a friend from high school and he now runs the nonprofit, the Office of Letters and Light, which manages NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and more based in Oakland. Chris also authored No Plot? No Problem! the handbook and kit for writing novels quickly. Chris is a brilliant writer, and NaNoWriMo has enjoyed significant success to date.

In any case, if you've ever wanted to write a novel, this is a great environment - supportive, fun, and low key. Best wishes to everyone who participates in NaNoWriMo this year!

Philanthropy & SFBayStyle

I have a lot to post on this blog, but it may be a few days... I'm working on getting a couple of collaborative sites rolling. I've mentioned SFBayStyle.com before - it's really growing now. We're adding writers and events. We have a whole lot of nonprofit philanthropic events we'll be covering in the next few months. And we're working the eco angle as well, so environmentalists, stay tuned for that.

I've moved my art, music, fashion and philanthropic posts that are unrelated to tech over to SFBayStyle because it seemed to be a better fit, so Sairy.com will continue to house the old posts, but it's now really going to focus on what the tagline says - tech, politics (candidates & policy), philanthropy (nonprofits & causes) and culture that relates to those things... the original plan for this blog. That way since many people are only interested in one vs. the other & not both, they won't have to weed through whichever doesn't interest them in order to find what does.

I'll post later this week or next about the other launch I'm working on...

New York Times & Women in Online Politics

Yesterday, New York Times reporter, Katharine (Kit) Seeyle, published an inquiry on their blog, "The Caucus", asking readers to respond to "why more men seemed to be involved in politics online than women... if you agreed with that and... why or why not." The discussion is still going strong in the comments there, and today Seeyle published her artilce, "Women, Politics and the Internet", on the New York Times site. (Note: I was quoted - minus my last name and without much context, but it's in there.)

Morra Aarons of BlogHer and Women and Work, was interviewed by Seeyle and followed up quickly with a post asking for more women to participate in the discussion yesterday afternoon before the deadline of the article today. Following her lead and looking at the post on the New York Times blog, I noticed a lot of women frustrated about the apparent lack of attention paid to women in politics online, and many people addressing the topic of blogs and how the discussion often turns derogatory.

One of the commenters, "woman on the inside," (comment #34 and accidentally republished in #41) wrote about how the men tend to pat each other on the backs and help each other out more and tend to be louder and more brash. She says that there are many women working in online politics, but they're not getting on "Meet the Press." This goes into another issue that Shesource.org, a partner to The White House Project and VoteRunLead.org is trying to address - getting more media attention to women whiich, I think is at the heart of this matter. I'd like to hear what Women in Media and News thinks about this topic.

I noticed this phenomenon in the Mother Jones article series on online politics a few months back and wrote about it here. Morra and Esther Dyson were two out of like 4 women interviewed vs. approx. 20 men for that series. The editor wrote back that she reached out to Arianna Huffington and looked for more. In her defense, it's not like there's a list out there of who all is involved in this field.

"woman on the inside" (I think I know who you are, but I won't out you) also uses the example of Karina Newton from Speaker Pelosi's office, and she mentions Zephyr Teachout (from the Dean campaign) and Amanda Michel among others. I'll name a few more names of women who are involved in the presidential campaigns this time around - Tracy Russo and Amy Rubin are working for John Edwards and Crystal Patterson blogs for Hillary Clinton. Mindy Finn (just to prove we're not all Democrats) is Mitt Romney's Director of eStrategy (and formerly of the RNC).

More names: Laura Quinn, Liza Sabater, Jane Hamsher, Taylor Marsh, Chellie Pingree, Susan Crawford, Becky Donatelli, Mary Katherine Ham, Heather Mansfield, Dahlia Lithwick, Chris Nolan, Maryscott O'Connor, Jeralyn Mertitt, Allison Hayward, Mary Hodder, Kathy Mitchell, Lorelei Kelly, Heather Holdridge, Jeanne Jackson, Michelle Malkin, Kate Kaye, Allison Fine, Amanda Marcotte, Barbara O'Brien. These women play major roles in political blogs and policy nonprofits. And of course we can't forget the BlogHer founders Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort and Jory Des Jardins or even Elizabeth Edwards who blogs frequently and likes to meet with bloggers. What about some of the companies that work on the back-end? There are a few that are women-owned and run like ROI Solutions, run by Gina Vanderloop or Orchid Suites' Tanya Renne. So while this is not even a remotely comprehensive and I don't have everyone's current affiliations, my point here is to show that there are not only many capable women working in online politics, but there are many capable women leaders working in online politics.

In my post about an event I attended a couple of weeks ago, two of the speakers were women (out of 6, that's progress) - Michelle Kraus and Perla Ni. And what about the mommybloggers? Elisa Batista of MotherTalkers, Stefania Pomponi-Butler (who wears many hats like me but also blogs about politics), and Grace Davis all blog actively about political issues. Ann Crady founded Maya's Mom as a social network or parents, but it's not like parents just talk about parenting. And of course Joan Blades can't be missed - she founded MoveOn and MomsRising. I'm not even going into the long long list of women involved in technology policy list including a majority who run the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (Bet you didn't realize that! Much credit for this should go to Shari Steele.) Also women play major roles in ACM, EPIC, Creative Commons and CPSR, all leading technology policy advocacy groups I've worked with. Well-known names in that space include Annalee Newitz (see my blogroll).

Anyway, back to the New York Times. Emily McKhann of BlogHer was also interviewed and quoted in the article, and Erin Kotecki Vest of BlogHer and Queen of Spain got in on the comments, just after mine. (Mine is #48; Erin's is #49.) (Emily and Cooper Munroe are spearheading BlogHers Act.) I then tipped-off the Silicon Valley Moms about the discussion and Beth Blecherman and Glennia Campbell submitted comments #59 and #63 respectively. Rather than reprinting my long quote here, I'll just note that my main points were not about how men and women communicate differently (because I really don't know much about that - I am both a problem-solver and a consensus-builder, unlike what I said about the generalizations I've read) but I do want to point out the variety of ways women are involved in politics, not just via blogs. I think that's a huge point that may not have had enough emphasis in the article. Many women are involved and just because we're not out there spilling our guts in the blogosphere, that doesn't mean we aren't playing a dynamic, important role.

$100 Will Soon Buy A Laptop & $200 Will Send a Second To a Child in Rwanda...

Or Haiti, Cambodia or Afghanistan. Pretty cool, huh? According to BBC News, the laptops will be green or white and will work in the sun and with a variety of power options. The program is called G1G1 or "give one, get one". It's developed by OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).

They supposedly run on 10% or less energy than most laptops. Right now, according to the New York Times, prices are closer to $400 for 2 laptops, but that's still super cheap by American standards. I'm all over this. My daughter could use a computer of her own to learn on, and I love the idea of providing a computer for a child who probably won't have another opportunity to get one.

Change.org Presidential Matchmaker Feature

One of my favorite sites in the whole world (and as it turns out, it's locally run)is Change.org. Tonight, I met the founder, Ben Rattray, who is - no surprise - both knowledgeable and passionate about enabling people to take action for important causes and candidates. While poking around Change.org further, I found a cool Presidential Matchmaker widget that matches you up with presidential candidates.

Surprise - my selection on issues matched me up with Hillary Clinton at 81%. The only reason it wasn't closer is because the issues are listed as one-liners so it's difficult to know exactly what they're supporting and in some cases I'd support something Hillary "strongly supports" and vice versa, so in reality we're probably more in the 95th percentile on the issues. I think the feature could actually be more specific, but it does a fairly good job laying out a variety of issues and it's fun to use.

At the bottom of my comparison list was Duncan Hunter at 22% in common with my views. The only place we remotely agreed was that I answered that I was ok with churches assisting people on welfare (although I might change my mind on this if I knew more about the issue) and he's strongly in favor. Why? I don't see why letting churches give food to some people in their communities is bad unless that means it's in lieu of the government giving funds. I don't think it should be an either-or proposition and I don't think the government should reduce welfare support just because churches might pitch in. I know the issue goes deeper than this, but that's not the purpose of this post. No way am I voting for Duncan Hunter in any universe, but Change.org always gets my vote.

You have to join Change.org and select the Politicians tab in order to see the Matchmaker feature. Enjoy.

Vote in BlogHers Act Poll on Global Healthcare

BlogHers Act is taking on a year-long initiative to make an impact in an area selected by BlogHer members. We voted and the topic selected was global healthcare, but since that is so broad, we're trying to narrow it down some. Here's a poll on sub-topics. You can select more than one...




Here's the related post. My choices were clean water and training healthcare workers. I'm very passionate about the maternal healthcare issue, but I think that clean water supercedes it - if you have a bunch of babies that can't drink clean water...

I think 3 action items for the campaign would be great:
1) Clean water campaign
2) Train healthcare workers
3) Provide birthing kits to communities

I think these could all 3 go together - the clean water is harder because it's related to infrastructure, but the other two are more easily achieved... anyway this may be biting off more than we can chew, but raising awareness is the first step.

Kos's Keynote

If you didn't make it to the Yearly KOS convention, you can still see and read Kos's keynote. It's an inspiring look at what one person can really do to make a difference given the technology we now have at our fingertips.

BlogHer Update

I'm entering day two of BlogHer - yesterday we launched BlogHers ACT and we'll be focusing on "global health" which encompasses a lot of issues, so we're working on narrowing it down. Two big things that came out of the brainstorm session yesterday were "empowering midwives" and "clean water." Essentially women and children are the most affected around the world in terms of health risks and early deaths - especially childbirth-related - and so things like birthing kits and clean water can make an incredible difference on alll levels. It's tricky to do all of this, of course, but BlogHer has tens of thousands of bloggers (I don't remember the exact figure off the top of my head right now) in their system so if we can even mobilize 1/10th of that online, choose a specific mission, partner with some great organizations, we'll be well on our way to raising awareness and getting something done. I'll be blogging a lot more about specifics over the next few months.

Today the politics track takes place including my Second Life panel at 1:30 Pacific/SL time. We'll be discussing candidates in Second Life and online in general and how these online media like blogs are making a difference in the campaigns. My virtual session overlaps slightly with the end of the GOTV session here so that's a bit of a bummer, but for the most part people can goto both and then the closing keynote will be from Elizabeth Edwards.

Future Campaign Solutions Site is Up

Just a quick note - I finally got around to putting up a basic business web site so people can see what I actually do as a consultant for nonprofits and political organizations in terms of online strategy, communications, etc. Check it out at futurecampaigns.com. It still needs some tuning, but it's a start. I'll keep blogging here on related topics for now.

Patagonia's Latest Grantee & New Palo Alto Store

Saturday, the new Patagonia store in Palo Alto held their Grand Opening. With hourly raffles, live music, and community organizations in-house, it was really fun. (Not to mention the shopping. I came out with an organic cotton/hemp blend jacket and an organic cotton cap.) The new space suits the store well. I was impressed with their new line of shoes and they have an entire section devoted to eco books. (This is not new from other stores, but it's right in front where it's easy to see.) I was also happy to see that since their opening, they've gotten a lot of pro-environment petitions signed. That's something I've always admired about Patagonia.

A pioneer in technical and eco clothing, Patagonia is now making jackets out of recycled polyester as well as expanding their organic product line. I was also impressed by their children's clothing since I'd never really looked at that before having a baby. Our daughter's been decked-out in Patagonia since birth, but it was all gifts - this was my first time in one of their stores since.

Patagonia gave away a $1000 gift certificate at 4pm to a local woman through a drawing, they had some fantastic ice cream, courtesy of Rick's Ice Cream ("Palo Alto's gourmet micro creamery"), great cookies, drinks, and the Save Nature organization provided some very cool bugs to pet - an African millipede, a pair of not-so-scary domesticated giant cockroaches, and a couple of exotic walking sticks. Hidden Villa and the Sierra Club also had tables present. A $5000 grant was presented to Ventana Wildlife Society. They had the most votes on the Patagonia site for their organization. It was well-deserved.

I'll be going back to Patagonia again once the crowd subsides to do more shopping - they have some great skirts, shirts, tunics, jackets, shorts and cropped pants to last through summer and early fall.

...

(Also posted at SFBayStyle.)

Not Quite Robin Hood - ID Theft Scams and Nonprofits

According to this Slashdot post (via Symantec), a new identity theft tactic is to test out stolen credit card numbers on nonprofit web sites to determine whether accounts are valid before going on to use the cards elsewhere. Although it might sound like a Robin Hood scheme at first - giving money to charity - it's just another scam.

Live Earth Store & Charity Auction

Live Earth is going strong with concerts still happening in the U.S.. If you want to get an eco-friendly t-shirt or belt to support the cause, check out the Live Earth Store. They have shirts made from bamboo and organic cotton as well as belts from recycled fireman's hoses. They look great too! Also take a peek at the shop if you want to see the auction of "high profile concert memorabilia" (via eBay) and a way to purchase carbon offsets, check out this Live Earth Shop link.

Also check out this cool widget for watching the Live Earth Charity Auctions...

Bloghers Act - Initiative Launching in 3 Weeks

Blogher, for those who don't know, is a women's blogging community online through their site, ad network and cross linking and offline through their conferences and informal local gatherings. The Blogher '07 annual conference is happening at the end of July in Chicago. (It looks like I'll be there as a panelist for their Blogher Second Life online series. I just signed-up, so I'll post more info later.) They are launching an exciting new initiative to harness the power of their fantastic women's network.

Their program is called Bloghers Act, and it has two goals: 1) make a difference in a single cause (voted on by Blogher members) and 2) identify the top 4 issues we feel candidates need to address in the upcoming election. It will be interesting to see where the votes come out.

I would love to see candidates more seriously address some of the issues I didn't vote for, like "separation of church and state", but I know too well most of the candidates won't dare to go there for fear of losing a large segment of voters, so instead I chose to hear more about what they want to do about the environment and the economy since they're both ticking time bombs. Whatever the Bloghers come up with, I'll support it and I hope to be involved on some level to see it through. I think it's a great idea and a wonderful way to harness the power of women bloggers.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Change.org

I just checked out change.org, thanks to a tip from e.politics. So far, I'm fairly impressed - they are a social networking site for people interested in nonprofit issues and recently they added a section for political candidates because they want to help level the playing field there. The site's fresh and clean, and the nonprofit listing pages remind me a little of Orkut's groups.

It groups nonprofits by the changes they aim to affect, labeling them most often with action verbs like "stop global warming", "save darfur", "separate church and state", and "protect wildlife". You can search by category, like 'animals' and in there, search by specific change like "stop puppy mills" and there you'll find recommended nonprofits that are related. You can also search by nonprofit or by politician like many other social networking sites. What's really cool is you can provide recommendations for politicians on certain issues, and you can write reviews about nonprofits.

Each organization has an 'About' section, reviews, supporters, photos, videos, news, volunteering/action and fundraising areas. Discussions take place within the nonprofit pages - some are calls to action; others contain event information. They partner with JustGive - a 501c3 that passes along the contributions to the nonprofits as allocated. So far they've raised over $36,000. It will be interesting to see how they take off with their political area and how the site is primarily utilized in the long term. I plan to play around with it a little more and see if it sticks for me. I had a few problems using it and I have yet to determine whether it was my browser or their code causing the problems, but in general I like the site and the concept.

Fashion Show Benefitting Leukemia & Lymphoma on Thursday

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are hosting their third annual fashion show, "Five Designers and a Poodle", Thursday (June 21) at Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street. The show features Colleen Quen, Rachel Roy, Bacca Da Silva, Simayof and "many more". VIP Reception begins at 6:30 and main event starts at 7:30, lasting until 1a.m.
General admission of $75 includes wine, food, fashion show, silent auction, and dancing. VIP reception tickets for $125/person include goody bags and more food options. Supposedly 100% of the proceeds go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (that's nearly unheard-of for nonprofit fundraising events.) To get tickets, call 415-989-0230 or email info[at]hathawaypr.com.
(Cross-posted at sfbaystyle.com.)

Silicon Valley & Bay Area Charitable Giving Pales in Comparison to Other Areas

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while... for anyone who didn't see the April San Francisco magazine, they reviewed philanthropic giving in Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. They got the numbers from the NewTithing Group. Unfortunately I couldn't find out how they differentiate between "Bay Area" and "Silicon Valley" but it's no shock to me that people farther south of San Francisco toward San Jose contribute less philanthropically. However, not that much less. L.A., on the other hand, gives twice as much per capita than the Bay Area.

Nationally, California is way below other states like Oklahoma and Nebraska, whereas Utah is highest on the list. (I don't know if this includes church giving - the LDS church urges most members to give at least 10% in tithing to the church so that could skew the numbers if so.) In any case, California is 22nd in philanthropic giving nationally according to the research done by that group.

While poking around, I found an interesting site for nonprofit benchmarking at The Center for What Works.

Buying & Selling on EBay While Giving to Charity

My husband is now working on the charity-related auction program within eBay and their umbrella name is Giving Works. Giving Works allows buyers to search by items that donate parts or all of their proceeds to charity. It also allows sellers to donate a percentage of their sale proceeds to the organization(s) of their choice. "Help save an animal every time you shop" is one promotion they have, for example, but there are many. Supposedly over 10,000 nonprofits are in their system and users can add others.

Script Frenzy - NaNoWriMo for Screenwriters & Playwrights

I can't believe I had to hear about this from a newspaper clipping sent via snailmail from my mother instead of via broadband or word of mouth. Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, aka November), the man who coined my nickname, 'Sairy', when we were in high school together, has now launched Script Frenzy, a month-long scriptwriting 'contest' where writers hash out scripts for full length screenplays or stage plays. Looks like fun.

I was one of the first people to participate in NaNoWriMo but I bailed because of my carpal tunnel syndrome... it was pretty fierce at the time. But back in college, I recall writing a one-act play in 2 weeks while studying British Film & Theatre over the summer in London, so I figure if I could do that then, certainly I could do it again now. I've written a hand full of other plays and screenplays and directed/co-produced one of them, but that was all in college and they weren't particularly good. I probably write over 2000 words a day professionally now not to mention email, so if their requirement is 20,000 words in a month, no sweat. (Famous last words.) For point of reference, this post is 375 words. The 4 posts I've written today add up to 2400 words. Dialogue is easy. Just talk to yourself for several hours and voila!

Looking at the Script Frenzy site, they have tips for script writing, an insightful blog, a forum for participants, and of course a call for action. One of my favorite parts is the donation package incentives. As someone who's worked with a lot of nonprofits, these perks are some of the most amusing I've seen. For $5000, their team will make a 5 minute movie about you and enact it with anything from finger puppets to A-List actors. And these guys are smart - it would probably be damn good and definitely it would be funny. In any case, they need money to keep the contest going and to launch it again in future years. They also support young writers in a variety of ways.

They operate NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy both through their nonprofit, The Office of Letters and Light.

Great Father's Day Gift Idea - Universalgiving.org

Universalgiving.org sent me email - I don't know if they're hooked up with donorschoose.org or what, but I liked their idea so I don't really care how they got my name. Anyway the gist of it is they help you choose nonprofits to give to as a gift for Dad.

Here's part of the message they sent:
"Instead of another tie, why not...
• provide clothing for a family of four in Peru
• sponsor an orphanage meal in the Dominican Republic
• provide computer training for teens in Gambia
• help a child learn to read in rural Ghana or
• find something else that strikes your Dad's fancy with a casual browsing through our hundreds of other exceptional opportunities

Whichever way you decide to honor your dad this Father's Day, know that UniversalGiving represents a trustworthy and generally fantastic option for honoring loved ones while uplifting our world community."

I liked this, so I found a great organization, Kupenda, that helps children in Africa with disabilities and donated to them on behalf of my father. I hope my dad doesn't mind my writing this here, but the reason I selected this organization is because my dad is a polio survivor, paralyzed in the right arm, upper left arm, and chest since age 16. He became a successful lawyer, got married, had 2 children and has been active in Childrens TLC, a Kansas City-based organization which teaches disabled children & Wheels for Freedom, a national organization that provides wheelchairs to disabled children. He also sponsored an African man to attend college in Kansas. I think my dad is a wonderful example for children with disabilities so I told the organization about him as well. Happy early Father's Day, Dad!

The great thing about universalgiving.org is it has a huge selection of organizations to choose from and there are also volunteer opportunities. Say for example I wanted to volunteer for Kupenda, they have a program that takes volunteers to Kenya to help educate the children. And it works with Paypal so it's all easy on the transaction side. I gave a little extra to cover the online transaction fee so that Kupenda wouldn't have to bear that burden on their end, but one way or the other it's taken out of the donation amount. Universalgiving.org also takes donations, of course, to keep them around providing such a great service.

Recent Posts on SVMoms Blog & SFBayStyle

FWIW, I've been writing a lot of posts other places in the past couple of weeks. Here's a sampling:

On SFBayStyle...



• Closet Obsession - My husband may be one of the few metrosexual males who groked this post but it covers why I find closets fascinating.


• Fall/Winter 2007 Fashion Trends List - Published each season, my list covers all that I've read and viewed in magazines and online about the coming season's fashion trends.


• Wilkes Bashford & SF Symphony Present Fashion Show - I attended a fashion show last week for the SF Symphony and a local high-end retailer that was a lot of fun. Includes photos.



On the Silicon Valley Moms Blog...



• The Dreaded Daycare Dilemma - For those of you not from the Bay Area, you may not understand how hard it is to get kids into pre-school here but I had to get my daughter on a list when I was pregnant to get a spot just now for the coming fall; however, the decision wasn't so easy so I enlisted the help of my fellow mommybloggers while making the decision.


• Four Inspirational Moms on Perserverence - About a book co-written by 4 women, including former California Senator Jackie Speier, this tells a little about my experience with Jackie and what her book covers.


• Confessions of a Sugarholic... - A new shop opened in Menlo Park, the "Sugar Shack" and this post chronicles my own battles with sugar (it always wins) and how I feel about this exciting new business.


• Great Summer Reading - A book review of Momzillas, new well-written, hilarious chick lit.

InnVision and Downtown Streets Team Helping Palo Alto Homeless

Yesterday, "In Style Palo Alto", presented by Boutiques on Bryant Street, benefitting Downtown Streets Team presented a fashion show, silent auction and arts & crafts fair in downtown Palo Alto. The Streets Team and InnVision just launched a new campaign to raise funds to help homeless in Palo Alto by placing donation cups in downtown retailers and encouraging people to give there vs. directly to the homeless. This is a great idea as downtown Palo Alto sometimes has as many panhandlers as some neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Interesting Nonprofit Concept - donorschoose.org

Crate & Barrel sent me a letter about a month ago saying that they wanted to thank me for being a customer and that they were doing a program where customers can select where a $25 donation will go. Thinking the site would be some portal to non profits, I checked it out and also of course figuring if I can get $25 sent to another worthy cause, great. donorschoose.org actually is a very specific site where they have accounts related to education and requests by educators to fund their specific projects. They don't always tell you where they are, but the options are quite extensive.

I chose the SF Bay Area because I have a sense of local issues here and then I selected arts & music - there were several options for different types of projects - technology based, reading based, by subject, region, etc. but that one interested me since the arts are so generally neglected in schools here. Finding thousands of proposals just for the arts, having a toddler at home who is very musical and going through the preschool selection process where I am seeking a school with a good music program that my daughter will love, I decided to search for 'preschool music' and the first one that came up said something about creating an environment for dance and music at a preschool and helping by purchasing a cd player and instruments for the classroom so I put my $25 gift card toward that.

You can fund the whole project yourself, of course, or add to the personal donations. What I didn't find out is what happens if these programs are only partly funded - do they get any money? do they get some money? do they go through another process? I'll check that out another time, but I wanted to mention it as an interesting way to be really specific about where your money goes rather than just having a blanket $25 donation going to the Red Cross and not knowing where that money will actually end up. I'm in favor of both kinds of systems, of course. Organizations need to manage their own funds in order to operate properly, but I think this is an interesting business model that provides a more local feel to contributing in the education space.

SF Opera Fete & SF Bay Style

I'm not publicizing this too much yet because it's still a work in progress (no top bar design, no metrics, no feeds as of yet) but a few friends and I are putting together a new web site - SF Bay Style - sfbaystyle.com - that will encompass all aspects of stylish living in the Bay Area. This means we'll write about topics like eco fashion, stylish events, fabulous interiors and luxury hotels but we'll also cover stylish but inexpensive places to dine, where to get great deals on clothes locally, how to put together great looks without much time, and anything else that the market defines. We're trying to have fun with it and we're still learning and deciding how to frame i, so we're open to ideas and feedback.

I've put up a few posts on the site that are republished from here and SVMoms just to get the flavor going, but the first post that's new is one I wrote about Tuesday's San Francisco Opera Designer Fete - a fashion show put together annually by the San Francisco Opera Guild. I also included a couple of fun photos from the event. Let me know what you think.

Save the Environment This Week & Wildlife Next Week

I didn't intend for my blog to turn into a chronicle of non profit events, but since that's one of the things I spend the most time on, I hear about a lot of wonderful opportunities to give to organizations in need so for now, until I move philanthropic activities to another site, here's another great event:

In Palo Alto, Wildlife Rescue, Inc. is having a "Wildlife Rescue Day" at Mitchell Park at 3800 Middlefield Rd. on May 5th from 11am-4pm. They'll take cash donations, gift cards (great idea), unscented paper towels and tp, cottonballs & q-tips, wheat germ, unopened jars of baby food, liquid hand soap, plastic garbage bags and pet carriers. Check out wildliferescue.ws - they will be receiving a lot of orphans as spring gets into full gear with all of the new baby animals. Non-locals can contribute too.

What I Learned Last Night From Bill Clinton

Last night in San Francisco was the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network Launch Reception - an event which intended to attract philanthropic leaders under 40 to get involved with the Clinton Foundation. The pre-event organization and mobilization effort online was impressive and it was a great opportunity to see Bill Clinton live locally, a great cause, and a fabulous group of people.

Let's start with the stats. The event raised $200,000. That means the Clinton Foundation now has $200,000 more to use in their efforts in saving lives around the world - particularly in their efforts working with those suffering with AIDS and from terrible poverty. It sounds like they have had some real success in places like Rwanda from what former President Clinton said in his short speech.

As to the event itself encompassed 1500 people standing room only in a mid-sized ballroom in SF. Before that, I was in a room for the host reception with about 75 people. Having heard how charismatic and impressive he can be in person, I expected to be wowed by being in the same room with him and I expected a grand entrance, but there was no fanfare - he just came in to take photographs and shake hands before going down and speaking to the main reception. In the main ballroom, people were waiting patiently for the speech - many of them who had never seen President Clinton (like me).

Once Clinton entered the main ballroom, he was greeted by an excited crowd and his speech included a lot of wonderful information about the work of the Clinton Foundation. Although I have worked in online fundraising and online marketing for campaigns for many non profits, I learned from Bill Clinton's speech. He said that online fundraising does make a difference and he cited examples as to how small donations with the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina made a huge impact. I hadn't heard that angle before. And the event itself proved that point very clearly. We all learned in 2004 how online fundraising can make an impact in elections, but this really showed the grassroots, ground level impact. More importantly, I was impressed that he was up there emphasizing this fact. Many politicians give it lip service, but when Clinton gives his stats, people listen.

I learned after the fact that the Clinton Foundation hopes to expand the Millennium Network to several cities around the country and get people under 40-45 involved globally. I know a lot of people who attended the event are looking forward to hearing more about how we can be active not just in fundraising but in ground level work, grassroots organizing, etc. so when I find out more about that, I will post about it and let people know. They will be holding more events - starting with New York City - soon and this is the beginning of a lasting effort to get a more active, young professional membership for the Foundation and to continue fighting big problems like AIDS, poverty, global warming and childhood obesity.

Help Save Berkeley Landmark Ice Rink!

If you're a figure skating fan, could you picture figure skating history without Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, Rudy Galindo, and even Sonja Henie? Of course not, that's absurd! Well, the Berkeley Iceland (in Berkeley, CA) was home to all of these skaters at one time or another - some only on occasion but it has been around for 65 years. It's now closed - land to be sold to the highest bidder and demolished for whatever purposes they choose.

Berkeley Iceland is one of the largest, most beautiful rinks I've ever seen. Tucked in a hidden pocket close to campus, the rink spans Olympic size 200'x100' and includes grand stands for viewing hockey games and performances. The family who own it ran into financial troubles (rinks are expensive to maintain) after having some cooling equipment issues. So now a nonprofit group has banned together to Save Berkeley Iceland. Let's hope they can be as successful as saving Kepler's Bookstore here in Menlo Park has been so far.

Yes, there are rinks in Oakland, San Francisco and Dublin now that aren't too far away for skaters, but none of them is quite like this one. It truly is a historical building. This Thursday, a group meets in the City of Berkeley to determine whether the building can become an official landmark. Whether that has much bearing on its fate remains to be seen, but if you love figure skating, please consider helping Save Berkeley Iceland turn it into an environmentally sustainable rink that will last another 65+ years.

Arthur Miller Theatre Finally Opening Thursday

Arthur Miller is one of those names that always comes up when American Playwrights are discussed. He first wrote plays at my alma mater, the University of Michigan. I don't know if any were ever produced there when he was a student, but I certainly have fond memories of my playwriting classes and the play I wrote/directed/co-produced. Miller was lucky to live a long life and knew a theatre was being built at UofM in his name but was unable to see its completion.

According to a Detroit Free Press article, the Walgreen Drama Center, a building named after its primary donor, Charles Walgreen Jr, (former UofM grad in pharmacy school, founder of Walgreens) houses the Arthur Miller Theatre and the first production will be performed this Thursday. It is, fittingly, "Playing for Time" by Arthur Miller. Sadly, Mr. Walgreen also passed away during the construction, but he made it to 100 years old! (Kinda makes me want to shop at Walgreens more, although I'm already a frequent customer.)

I spent half of my time at UofM on North Campus where engineering classes were held, and half my time on Central Campus where drama, literature and general courses were held. It seems odd to me that the arts and engineering are now all in one place. So much has changed since I was there - campus looks so different now. I'm actually sad they will be replacing the Frieze Building with a dormitory, although I'm sure it's a smart move. I have fond memories of many classes in the Frieze Building - Russian and Writing for TV being two that come to mind.

I'm glad to see that Michigan is making a stronger commitment to the arts. They always had good programs, but I felt they haven't been known for their arts as much as for business, engineering, sports and other areas. Maybe the time has come for the alma mater of Lawrence Kasdan, Judith Guest and James Earl Jones to take its place as a wellspring of great performing artists. (Not that I'm biased.)

Mountain Lions & Leopards & Lynxes, Oh My!

Last night, I attended an event for Leopards, Etc. that brought big cats up close to the attendees. For a small venue in Los Altos Hills, they packed in more people with cameras than are at major philanthropic events in San Francisco. This was way better than celebrity-watching, IMHO. These big cats, brought down from Occidental, CA, where they run amongst Redwoods and Oaks when not working for the organization, represent all of the threatened and endangered big cat species around the world.

The Leopards, Etc. organization provides educational programs where the big cats go out and show the world how special they are. I've never seen such gigantic paws on such gentle creatures. They also raise money for other organizations, like the Snow Leopard Conservancy that saves Snow Leopards from being stoned to death when they encroach on livestock. These other organizations funded raise awareness around the world by putting up fences and teaching locals that it is possible to live in harmony with big cats around the corner. My favorite cat at the event was a Siberian Lynx, named Oksana. Leopards, Etc. allows "adoptions" where you can adopt-a-cat from a distance, like many other animal organizations allow.

For Bay Area locals, you can see the big cats in action at Foothill College at 2pm on Sunday, March 25.

Clinton Foundation's Next Generation of Philanthropic Leaders

If you've never seen Bill Clinton speak, this is a relatively inexpensive way to do so. It's a nonpartisan, tax-deductible event and benefits some wonderful causes. Please join Chuck and I at the event. Let me know if you would like to attend (post a comment or email sairy[at]sairy[dot]com) and we'll get an official invitation sent your way. Normally I wouldn't post full event info, but since there's no web page yet to submit RSVPs, this will have to do for now.

...

Millennium Network's Inaugural Reception Benefiting the William J. Clinton Foundation
with President Bill Clinton

Saturday, April 14, 2007
6:00pm-9:00pm
Fairmont Hotel
950 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA

Tickets: $100 (Tax-Deductible)

“President Clinton's vision is to encourage the next generation of leaders and philanthropists to address the challenges of global interdependence through the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network, which seeks to engage under 40- year-olds in the work of the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation delivers tangible results to meet pressing issues in the United States," such as:

- Fight Against HIV/AIDS
- Poverty
- Global Warming
- Urban Development
- Childhood Obesity

All Contributions benefit the Clinton Foundation, which are also tax deductible. If you are unable to attend, you are encouraged to donate in support the organization.

Fashion & Beauty Industry Taking Eco-Friendly Steps

I've been waiting for this to happen - finally Patagonia isn't the only major company paying attention to making decent eco-friendly products. Sure, there are oodles of organic small-time retailers you can find online but most of it looks like potato sacks with arms added. Then Bono, champion of the world, launched (along with his wife) Edun, a company that designs and produces organic clothing with strong worker safety and quality regulations (i.e. no sweatshops and fair labor practices) made in Peru. I bought a jacket from Saks made by Edun and I like it. It's progress.

Hybrid cars have been gaining in popularity for the past few years - particularly Hondas and Toyotas. Lexus came out with the first luxury hybrid SUV. That got attention. This year, Bono paired with Gap to create Project Red, a fashion-oriented project to raise money to help fight AIDS in Africa. It may not be directly related to eco-fashion, but it's showing how fashion and philanthropy have become more intertwined and Africa's plight is definitely tied to the environment, particularly in terms of agriculture.

Stella McCartney, PETA advocate and a natural leaning mom, just launched the first designer organic skincare line called "Care", sold at Sephora. And it's about time, because eco-friendly, anti-animal testing, organic make-up companies have been gaining ground. Look at Whole Foods or online natural skincare retailers - there are a lot of choices now. It's no longer just Aveda and Jurlique providing clean options to be beautiful.

Finally, after Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth transformed him from a losing presidential candidate (depending on who you ask, of course) into a winning pop culture ecologist icon, everybody's talking eco. Even Congress, which is always a late adopter. So one could only assume the fashion industry wouldn't be far behind.

Now it's everywhere. Events like the Global Green party in San Francisco have gained press tying fashion and the environment together. Style.com has a "50 ways to go green: earth-friendly guide to spring shopping" on their site.

Women's Wear Daily today published "Models Go Green" about how Isabella Rossellini's daughter, Elettra Rossellini Weidemann, new Lancome Spokesmodel, convinced Lancome to begin taking a more environmental role.

She reportedly requested a carbon neutral program to offset her travel as a spokesmodel. As a result, Lancome partnered with Carbonfund.org in "retrofitting [their] four freestanding Lancôme boutiques to reduce their carbon footprints" and they launched a tree-planting campaign in conjunction with the launch of their new Primordiale serum. "Lancôme will plant a tree for each of the first 10,000 bottles of the new Primordiale serum sold in the U.S."

Designers and models have been shrugging off fur for a while now, but I think recent trends over the past six months are showing the beginning of a new movement toward greater awareness in the entire fashion and beauty industry. At least I hope so.

Newest BalletSJ Board Member Enthusiastic About Organization and Nahat Nomination

I've blogged before about the Ballet San Jose. Tuesday night, I was elected to their Operating Board. ('Operating Board' is another way of sayiing 'Board of Trustees'.) Having wanted to be more involved in a performing arts organization for a long time, I was approached by a friend who also serves on the board to check it out and see if I might be interested. One thing led to another, and now I'm on board.

It's a wonderful group of people, led by John Fry, CEO OF Fry's Electronics. (So if you're an arts lover and you need electronics in the Bay Area, go to Fry's - some of the money will inevitably end up in a dancer's pocket.)

Rather than toot my own horn, you can read my friend, Sherri's post. It just reitterates my bio really but she also says some nice things. Thanks Sherri!

So now that I'm hooked, I'll be going to the remainder of the performances this year. If you want to learn more about them, check out the web site and drop me a line. The artistic director, Dennis Nahat, is incredibly talented. And he was just nominated for an Izzie award (he's a past recipient). That's the SF Bay Area dance equivalent of the Oscars (that unfortunately doesn't have a web site that's easy to find) for his production of Romeo and Juliet last year. Congratulations Dennis!

The next performance of the ballet is a Valentine Potpourri, including a four part mix of classic and modern dance. And here's the thing about this ballet vs. others in the area - San Francisco will always have an incredible ballet company that does exquisite traditional and inspiring performances. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Berkeley performing arts communities bring in groups like the Alvin Ailey dancers and Mikhail Barishnikov's White Oak Dance Project. These are amazing to see, but they are quite different from Ballet San Jose. I don't consider any of these troupes competitors - they each provoke their own emotional response through their art.

BSJ excels in a unique spot that I haven't quite figured-out how to best describe it yet, but it's an original blend of artistry, storytelling, and risk-taking choreographically. The audience tends to be more casual and it's a beautiful theatre, so you get this feeling like you have a private dance recital in your own home and the artistic director made it just for you. (At the Nutcracker, I wanted to snuggle up next to the fireplace they had on the stage.) Of course not all the dancers aren't as polished as some in other dance companies, but this organization is only twenty years old. And it has been restarted in a few different incarnations in order