Blogging After the Wall

Recently, I read a post on Epiblogger about The Blogging Wall, which is like the wall a marathon runner encounters (except you can still sip coffee, check email, and you don’t feel like throwing up). Because I am currently training for my first triathlon, I’m learning about the wall in very concrete terms. The best way to overcome the wall is to keep pushing.

So you’ll see this blog receive more regular attention from a variety of writers as ChristmasFuture continues to communicate our growth and current activities. The last few months have been filled with planning our next season and coordinating our various activities, such as:

School Program
The 2008 ChristmasFuture School Program offers teachers of grades 3-9 free, downloadable curriculum on global citizenship and extreme poverty. Recently, I’ve finished our strategic and marketing plan for this activity, which means we’re almost ready to start approaching teachers and schools about using our curriculum as part of their End Poverty Week activities (Nov. 24-28, 2008). The curriculum is complemented by our website, which can be used as an in-class resource to view development projects, watch videos, and create class/school teams to raise funds for projects. Revised and improved curriculum and school program functionality for the website will be ready Sept. 1.

OneYoga
We’re in the middle of planning a large fundraising event called OneYoga, scheduled for November 16, 2008 in Calgary, that will bring 1000 people together to practice yoga for 108 minutes and raise funds to help end extreme poverty. This is a first of its kind event for Calgary. We’re on the cusp of approaching local studios to get involved. Keep an eye on the blog for more info.

Marketing and Communications
We’re working on simplifying and streamlining many elements of our website, so I’ve been working with the rest of the CF team to create content and add clarity. We’ve also settled on the name for our parent organization and are working on rolling that out intelligently.

Volunteers
ChristmasFuture is comprised of a network of talented volunteers who are doing everything from planning events, providing insight into our plans, creating content . . . The list is long. We’re due for a volunteer and supporter engagement event soon—details to come. Also, ChristmasFuture is participating in the upcoming TimeRaiser event on Thursday, June 19th at Flames Central in Calgary. People bid on pieces of art with pledges of volunteer hours to non-profit organizations. I’ll do a specific post about this event soon; meantime, checkout Timeraiser.ca if you’re interested.

Image for this post taken from kiell.com.