5/17 Meeting Notes
How We Have Run Thing
To research and input events on the Visualist, we create a master list of events and then input them from that list.
Master event list. The master event list is here. It is organized by day, and when an event is entered, it is checked off so another person doesn’t enter it as well.The master event list can be found here the list 2026
Creating the event list. We create the event list from our list of venues here, plus information we find through emails, Instagram, and in the wild. We check venues 1–2 times a week, looking at their sites and adding direct links to events on our list.
Events are entered directly through our front end here: https://thevisualist.org/submit/
We also have formatting guidelines on our style sheet, with everything you need to know about how we add events and tags: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWYmiVL9Qp9eLAjM0t7-uabNeURYN3RB0BVnnXnMuJs/edit?usp=sharing
We Need a System for Regular Research
As we expand the number of people entering events, we need to figure out how to make the research list more straightforward and user-friendly. We would like to move it to a spreadsheet, and we have opened a draft where spaces can be added.
We now need to go through our list, get it into the spreadsheet, and add spaces where necessary. We can then make this list public so people can comment and add spaces they know about, expanding our reach. We have started a spreadsheet here Venue List for Research
How Might We Do Regular Volunteer Calls and Stay Connected?
We recognize that this work can be interesting, but it can also feel a bit like an administrative slog. We think a weekly meetup for people to do research and add events would be a good way to keep it feeling fresh and connected. We can do this both in person at spaces and online.
We need to practice this process so we can accurately describe it for people working on the site. Eventually, we may want to make more training materials and videos explaining how to do this work.
Marketing the Site to More People
We need a way to market the site to folks who may not know about it. We would like to create a double-sided flyer: one side focused on finding events and the other on submitting events.
Greg is going to draft some text for this, and Trejon will help design it once we all feel the text is working.
Next Meeting
June 7th, 10:00–11:30 AM at Spudnik Press
30 minutes of research
30 minutes of data entry
30 minutes to talk about what works and what doesn’t, so we can start making training materials
Homework
Look at the spreadsheet and start loading in spaces Venue List for Research (note this spreadsheet will be fully operational by 5/22)
Everyone should add 5 events to the site each week before our meeting so you can get a sense of how the style sheet works
Fundraising
What we need
We need:
$4,000–$5,000 per year for insurance, hosting, and site security.
To pay a part-time person for research is $13,000.
To add a full-time person is $62,000 (not including payroll tax).
The dream budget would be about $100-120k per year
Currently we are bringing in about $3,000–$4,000 per year.
As we came out of the pandemic, we were able to stabilize things briefly. A funder provided a $10,000 grant, and through contracted work on the Living Wage project, we brought in an additional $13,000. This allowed us to hire a part-time researcher, covering about 10 hours of work per week (approximately $13,000 annually), which meaningfully shifted the ongoing research workload away from unpaid board members.
With this added capacity, we were able to complete the Living Wage project and launch our weekly newsletter. For a short period, we had an operating budget of around $25,000 per year.
However, that period was temporary. That funder only supported us for two years before shifting away from arts organizations—a loss that has affected many groups, not just ours. At the same time, the Living Wage project concluded, and with it, the funding that supported our researcher. After three years, we’ve returned to an unpaid board member being responsible for ongoing operations.
Currently, there’s enough funding to keep the site operational, with an annual budget of $4,000, but not enough to remunerate anyone working on it.
Money-making ideas
Grants
We currently receive the Illinois Arts Council grant for IACA, which provides $2,500 per year, and we will be applying for DCASE. However, that is not a guarantee, and the city explicitly states that this should not be considered a long-term reliable source of funding in order to leave room for other organizations.
We are very small and not eligible for some grants, so we need a larger base of donors and earned income.
Earned income ideas
The site must remain free and ad-free in order to maintain it as a trusted space for information and an equitable archive.
Ideas include:
Creating listings packages for local newsprint papers without robust listings, possibly as a subscription service (once the site is upgraded)
Swag (not a major source of income, but some potential)
Creating an app with a one-time download fee of $5 (once the site is upgraded)
Fundraiser
We need to host a fundraiser, possibly a dinner or a party. We have only done one fundraiser in 2019 (a bake sale before COVID hit). We want to be careful not to raise funds on the backs of artists by asking for free labor or work, and instead design something more equitable that supports participating spaces.
Marketing and About Us
It is clear we are not communicating about ourselves as effectively as we need to, and that our current passive donation methods are not working because they are buried at the bottom of the newsletter or About page.
We need a strong, clear pitch for why we are important and what we do. We are opening a document that has a mishmash of language describing the organization. Vesna will create a draft for the next meeting. We are also sharing previous grant applications so everyone can see how we have been describing the organization.
Next meeting
June 7th at 11:30am at Spudnik Press
Homework
Review the language we use to describe ourselves
Bring 1–2 ideas for a successful fundraiser by identifying what has worked well in other spaces
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Fundraising & Organizational Stability: A session dedicated to reviewing our brand messaging, looking over past grant narratives, and brainstorming equitable fundraising ideas.
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | Website Stabilization: We will review our current site framework and data mapping to plan out necessary upgrades.
Web Development
This part of the meeting focused on the following:
Hosting research
What we would like out of a new site
We tabled the hosting research until Manny is able to join us and passed out some previous documents we had created about what could be in a new site, along with our style sheet and a grant application we wrote about getting a new website (it was rejected, but there is some useful information in it).
We welcomed Joelle to the group, and she brings skills in information mapping, wireframing, and data flow. She will attempt to do some wireframing and mapping of our current site.
Next meeting
June 7th at 12:30pm at Spudnik Press
Homework:
Review the information handed out
Meg and Mike will update information on what we think is currently missing
Meg will try to get the entire back up downloaded (it is 80 gigs and takes a while)
