Magical SOUP-An Experiment in Micro-Funding
My ladyfriend and I dropped into the SW Soup meetup last night. If you haven't heard of this yet, it is an experiment in funding small community-improving projects approved by a vote from all who put in their $5 entry fee for a bowl of amazing soup, some great bread, and insane desserts. It is held once a month [[for now), and seems to be growing faster than the originators ever imagined.
It was PACKED, and the organizers seemed overwhelmed at the size of the crowd. Indeed, some didn't have seats, and I'm pretty sure the food ran out early. I never even SAW any of Flyhouse Micha's desserts, but am damn glad I learned of her relative obsession with baking sweets!
We saw many familiar faces, but MOST of the room were strangers to us. Lovely creatures, all...and apparently very rabidly infected by the Spirit of Detroit. I cannot remember another roomful of individuals with such a joyful, curious, hopeful, loving, and enthusiastic presence or energy.
Before hearing the three proposals, the founder Kate introduced two of the previous winners. Hearing the first fellow describe the basic energy-efficiency and other helpful money- and life-saving classes they share with Highland Park neighborhoods, and then getting a healthy dose of confirmation from a VERY enthusiastic young fellow from the 'hood [[Isaiah/Zeke), had me in tears.
I sensed the Spirit of Detroit in action, destroying the divides which currently plague our city. In this instance, it was a total annihilation of racial and age 'isms'...it was obvious that Zeke and the idea guy [[sorry to not have his name or organization, I'll try to get that today and update this thread) had become friends during this process. I daresay Zeke now has a positive role model to emulate in his [[and our) future.
More later, I've got to get some work done. Spent last week fighting off some damn lung and throat attack.
Cheers and more, kudos to Kate at SW Soup and all her staff. Kudos also to all who came out on a Sunday night to continue the metamorphosis of Detroit.
Sincerely,
John
From fryar's "Somebody Should Do Something" file
Huh? Somebody is doing something? ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gannon
I think it should be encouraged in EVERY neighborhood in this city. There is no shortage of individuals willing to put a little into a pot which accumulates to become a large [[and hopefully effective) spark for fostering new ideas.
Truly. Since they're having overflow issues, maybe the time for that can be said to have come, at this point. I think I read somewhere that these guys meet on a roof or something, but it also seems like a great way to promote an establishment in a neighborhood, say on Wednesday night or something. Hamtramck SOUP, Skip? :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
n7hn
I say It sounds great. Sharing ideas and food, creating stronger ties in the community. I say even If thats all thats accomplished, its accomplished ALOT.
Yes. Surely it accomplishes more - some of the ideas thrown up at these things likely stick, so to speak - but that alone is the bedrock of civic society.
To indulge in a brief tangent along these lines, if there was an effective way to promote block parties, I would be all for it. In order to promote civic society. Tax me, ask me for a donation, I don't care. I hate scrappers enough to just throw some money into the pot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
n7hn
I looked at the site. What kind of things are being funded?
This is something I, too, would like to see more of on their site. Some manner of tracking or follow-ups can really help identify and foster the success stories. And help to promote the setting up of SOUPs in the neighborhoods.
Should DY have an eSOUP? (with apologies for snarkyness to newdetroit)
Hey, my "somebody should do something" file is suddenly kind of excited.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gannon
It is held once a month [[for now), and seems to be growing faster than the originators ever imagined.
eSOUP@DY, anyone?
Here's an easy-to-implement idea:
1) We apply a convention on DY where we use the word "esoup" in a post in order to highlight that thread [["i.e. DetroitDad, great job cleaning up that downtown graffiti, if you wanted to, maybe you could put together a graffiti-cleaning kit with some esoup proceeds")
2) I [[doesn't have to be me, but I volunteer) run a DY search for "esoup" on a monthly basis, maybe the first of each month or thereabouts, and post a summary of ideas in the last month in a new thread. Others could add ideas to this post. We crowd-source the selection of preliminary candidates to DY members in a somewhat unscientific manner, basically on the basis of everyone's comments in that thread, sort of like a verbal vote, just kind of gauging what emerges as the best-liked ideas. Maybe this should be improved upon, but initially, this is a doable approach, and surveys and websites can be written at a future time.
3) After maybe a week, a link is posted that will take you to Paypal in order to contribute your fiver or tener, and vote for your favorite idea.
4) Winning idea gets micro-funded.
We have people on this board with experience about the relevant mechanics as far as using Paypal goes, the SOUP folks might be willing to contribute some ideas with regard to approaches that can be taken or types of projects that have succeeded in the past, and we may be able to get an existing nonprofit to "umbrella" this project so our fivers or teners are tax deductible.
This isn't the best system, long-term, but it's enough to get started.
Do I roll up my sleeves :cool: ?
