Organizing for America | Mary Ritter's Blog: Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 update

Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 update

By Mary R. Il. - Nov 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm EST

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Hello MYBO people!

It's time for another update on the Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009! Some of you would say past-due...

A number of people have been working very hard, and there is some big news to announce to you.
....

Where's it going to be? When's it going to be?

The date and location of the ball have been decided!

Our very first Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 will be on January 19, the night before the inauguration, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Pennsylvania Avenue. That's right on the Inaugural Parade route, between the Capital and the White House. The plan is that after the Ball ends, people will be able to go right out in large groups and stake out space on the parade route, or over on the National Mall where there will be giant TVs -- a night vigil, awaiting the Inauguration. This is not only symbolic, but also practical, since 4 million people are expected to descend on Washington Tuesday morning to see the Inauguration. We'll have a head start. The space can accommodate around 2000 people, and we expect to sell out quickly.

(By the way, Monday night is a traditional inaugural ball night--we'll be one of many such events, and we're hoping we can get the President-elect and Mrs. Obama to drop by and greet the folks who worked so hard throughout the last 18 months.)
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Sponsors and Underwriters

The only thing holding us back is making the deposit on the Reagan Building. We are still hoping for those among you who feel that you can to step forward and help sponsor the event. Your sponsorship assures us and everyone attending the ball of two things:

First, that we can make the $52,000 deposit on the Reagan Building. We are getting close, thanks to those who have stepped up to sponsor and underwrite the event (and we will get the list of underwriters and sponsors onto the website), but we need more of you to get us all the way there. To date, we have some $45,000 in pledged monies. Not bad! It's starting to come in too, now that... wait, that's for later.
Second, lower ticket prices. Every penny (those still exist, right?) of sponsor and underwriting money will go to one ultimate goal: bring the ticket prices for the event as low as we can.

Just to be 100% clear: a couple people have asked if non-sponsors will be able to purchase tickets, and the answer is yes! The whole point of sponsorship and underwriting is to make sure that a certain number of tickets will be able to be offered at a lower price in general sale.

What does your sponsorship get you again?

At the $2,000 level: 4 free tickets to the event, publicity space in our program and on the website, and a very special sponsor gift.

At the $1,000 level: 2 free tickets (Surprise! The holidays have come early! Yes, the is retroactive to those of you who have already sponsored. That was fun!), publicity space in our program and on the website, and a very special sponsor gift.

At the $500 level: 1 free ticket to the event (Yes, you, too!), publicity space in our program and on the website, and a very special sponsor gift.

Below $500 level: Pre-sale ticket access, mention in our program and on the website, and a sponsor gift.

Disclaimer: Your donation is not tax-deductible. We apologize, but it takes the IRS up to a year to review new non-profit applications, and they can always refuse you. Since we don't have the luxury of that kind of time, we've had to just proceed with non-profit status.

We'd also to thank Corinne Carson for spear-heading the "high-roller Obama donor" research project. Corinne and a group of MYBO volunteers have taken on the job of using public information on the largest Obama campaign donors to help us identify additional individuals to contact to solicit sponsorship help for our event. The team includes (and I hope I have missed no one) Deborah Burke, Georgina Osorio, Giovanni Sce, Jessie Bochert, Kim Roberts, Mark Habeeb, Marlene Smith, Mary Hicks, Maxine Sears, Pam Jarvis, and Vickie Togans.

If you can give some of your time to help us out on this, please reply to this email, and we'll get you in touch with Corinne and set-up. We need to get as much done as quickly as possible to help us get the sponsorship and underwriting in. The faster we can do this, the faster we can make our projections for total budget off-set from contributions, establish our ticket prices and get them up for sale for y'all.
You betcha'!

If you or someone, or a business or organization you know would like to be an underwriter?

We would be glad to offer our underwriters the opportunity for publicity during the event, including signage, a space named for themselves or their company or organization, distribution of informational materials, and prominent recognition of your underwriting in all Grassroots Ball publicity materials, in addition to publicity on our website.

We will work with each underwriter to develop a publicity package tailored to the level of your underwriting support and publicity needs.
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And, la pièce de résistance! (It's okay, French is okay again, we're friends!)

When can we get onto the website?

Now! Just click on this link, or cut and paste the following url into your web browser address line: http://www.grassrootsballdc2009.com/

That means that for those of you who have sponsored, but hated the thought of ordering a bank wire transfer of funds (we don't blame you), PayPal is up and working!

For those of you who might be tempted once you are on the website, please, please do! It will be so greatly appreciated. We will know who you are from the PayPal documents emailed to us, but feel free to let us know so we can tell you how much we appreciate your donation on behalf of everyone, and then thank you again later, once the paperwork is forwarded to us.

Please be sure to register so that you can participate in the Forum as soon as it is up and running, too.

There is also a link to Change.gov, right in the comfort of our own website!

Adrienne Williams, our volunteer web manager, has put in a lot of time and effort to make this happen, along with Karen, who contributed the graphics. A big thank you to Adrienne and Karen!

Mary, Russell and I promise to get our photos and bios up on the About Us page, just as soon as we find a few spare moments!
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Calling all graphic designers!

Please reply to this email if you can volunteer your skills to help us with:

a logo design competition (we have some criteria for the logo, logo-type and colors that we will share with you. The logo will be put out to everyone for their vote, but the Organizing Committee retains a majority vote!),
help with signage design for the event, program layout and design, buttons and bumper stickers, and
the coordination of logo-merchandising for us to offer as sponsor gifts and to make available to everyone for sale to further off-set the cost of the event. We have some MYBO volunteers offering their assistance and some contacts to give you.

For this last, we have to hit the ground running Monda to allow for order, production and delivery time.

Please submit samples of your work with your reply. Thank you!
....

One last thing...

Calling all singers, bands, folk, blues, and jazz artists!

Our very own first Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 wants to build the base of its ball entertainment on you. Our base was solid enough to get Obama elected, so... please reply to this email with samples of you performing (video, music file, etc.).

The Reagan Building space allows as a range of different venues, from the 600-seat amphitheater for larger performance and multi-media and image/video presentation -- like Meredith Wheeler's Bridge Project, and we are looking for additional submissions to run during the night -- to a dance floor with raised stage, the monumental amphitheater foyer, and several more intimate spaces for quieter cabaret-style performance and conversation.

We're getting started now reviewing submissions -- no promises made -- but we will listen/watch and get back to you as soon as we can.

We'll also be looking into some local artists and possibly some big names (don't get your hopes up too high now) for your enjoyment.
....

And now, we turn you over to the website: http://grassrootsballdc2009.com!

Thanks for all your interest, support, encouragement, help and your donations -- we are the ones we have been waiting for, and without you, this wouldn't be happening. We need you.

Yes We Can!

The Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 Organizing Committee
Mary Ritter, Russell Miller, Jacqueline Ashton de Floris

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