Roundup: “Who’s That?!”
December 3, 2024
From the messy desk of Amanda…
Greetings, KWMR Round Up readers. I am turning over the main column this week to the very clean desk of Alyssa Tanner. She has a tale to tell! Everyone makes mistakes. Please don’t make the mistake of not donating to KWMR and other local nonprofits during this End of Year Campaign timeframe. Read on….
Thank you for your time and your generosity.
Amanda Eichstaedt
Station Manager/Executive Director
From the Massachusetts desk of Alyssa…
“Who’s That?!”
Alyssa Jane Tanner here, KWMR’s Development Director, bringing you today’s Round-Up!
Some of you amazing supporters of KWMR received a postcard in the mail this week about our End Of Year Appeal. If you did, you likely noticed that it was addressed to a person who is NOT you. Did your spouse start renting out the spare bedroom without letting you know? Did our new flashy database mix up everyone’s information? No! This error was a human error and that human was ME!
It is never okay to share your personal information. Just before sending the Excel Spreadsheet of names and addresses to the fine folks at Unicorn Group Printing, I organized by name without expanding the selection. Meaning your name got paired with another person’s address on the list. Total rookie move on my part. I am so sorry to each of you for making that mistake.
As an apology you have all been entered into a raffle to win a $100 gift card to the online store. With a random number generator 2 winners will be selected and their “postcard mix up buddy” will win, too! A total of 4 winners will be announced next week! Many “postcard mix up buddies” have been reaching out to each other and to us. Who would have thought this mix-up would create Community Connection.
Now seems like a good time to let y’all know about why I have not been on my A game as of late. My partner Annie and I have moved to Massachusetts! We had been renting a place in Wendell, MA for most this year and just purchased a home in Hawley, MA, pop. 353. We have been in a flurry, winterizing our home before the snow comes. Stacking wood, wrapping pipes, replacing insulation, filling in gaps n’ cracks, chasing off groundhogs n’ porcupines. Almost 2 feet of snow hit us on November 28th and we were not quite ready for it, but we are close now! (finger’s crossed!)
Alyssa, Annie, and Mimi (Yasuki’s dog)
This past year working remotely has been working well! When I first approached Amanda with the idea of moving, I knew it was a longshot, but she always looks at things through the lens of possibility. We put together a plan to make it work for KWMR and made it happen! That’s how a lot of things get worked out around these parts. We have an idea or see a problem; we work it out. I am truly honored to be on this kick butt team.
In California I had been working remotely from Petaluma, but wowza is this a step up from living in the sunroom of a one-bedroom home with our truck driver roommate. With our crazy West Marin housing crisis most folks respond to this news with sadness, but I must let you know we are far from sad. We made a list of how we want our daily lives to look and found a way to make it happen. Come spring, Annie will begin the East Coast version of Moon Fox Farm and I will be headed to you all to prepare for the Pledge Drive & KWMR Day (May 2nd).
I do miss home though. I miss going on hikes with Sydney Weisbach, dancing at my parents’ parties, staring at the waves for too long, making the “Jim Halpert” face at Timmy Bunce when he tells me to smile. (How is he still in Point Reyes as often as he is now that he’s not at Cheda’s?! Maybe he’s a little homesick in a way, too.) I miss my coworkers and our programmers, and talking with guests before they go on the air. I get a little sad when someone says that they put something on my empty desk since a cleared surface is a rarity at the station.
Listening to KWMR helps and knowing that so many folks have connections to this area is really very special. Once we get through this winterization list I am diving straight into Jennifer McFarland’s list of places to go. The stories that Kendra Downey of Acoustic Afternoon has told me are just as captivating as you’d imagine. My Rise Up & Shine mug is always there for me in times of tea needs. I have been lucky enough to spend time with Dave Leslie & Zoë Crowhurst, but I missed seeing Jude Robinson on her trip out here this week. I get to deliver a pledge premium to Jason Miller of Redwood Sideband’s sister pretty soon here. When my dad was helping us with the house, we even got to meet Eli Dwight from Western Slope at our local bog, thankfully my dad was wearing his Tim Tanner Plumbing shirt which Eli recognized. I have even seen a few KWMR bumper stickers around Northampton where Annie is now cooking at a restaurant called Homestead.
If you, dear reader, have connections to the area, let me know: [email protected] I’d love to connect with you.
Alyssa & Annie prepping calendars by the fireplace.
Calendars will be sent to all Calendar Club members soon! If you would like to join the Calendar Club now, your contribution will count toward our End of Year goal of $100,000! CLICK HERE
With my winterization overwhelm and brand-new database, I am unclear if I made other mistakes. Just to make sure that we have captured everything, we will be sending you a summary of your total donations for 2024 at the beginning of January.
And! Today is Giving Tuesday! Donations made today will go toward our End of Year goal of $100,000 as well. CLICK HERE to support KWMR and CLICK HERE to support one of the many West Marin nonprofits that make this community function and flourish.
We have changed our fundraising a bit to make things more efficient and cost effective, stretching your donation dollars even more than before. The Fall Pledge Drive has been eliminated and we will now be holding two big fundraisers per year instead of three. These two fundraisers will each have a goal of $100,000:
- 2 week long Pledge Drive ending with KWMR Day party, every May 2nd
- 3 month long End of Year Appeal from October through December
This month you will begin to hear folks on the air requesting your support and talking about what they value about KWMR. Why do they volunteer 2-40 hours per month? Why do they show up to get trained on how to power up the generator? Why have they been doing this consistently for 1-25 years?
And we want to hear from you. What do you value about KWMR? For me, it is being able to stay connected with all of you. It is being able to do live shows, dancing by myself with the music turned up real loud. It is being able to learn such a wide variety of skills and knowledge from very different people that are very much into the thing that they are into. Most importantly, it is knowing how many folks are dedicated to step in in times of emergency to ensure that communications are available.
There is list of reasons longer than you know, that keep me dedicated to supporting KWMR with my funds and my skills, after moving 3,000 miles away. Join me in ensuring KWMR continues to function and flourish.
DONATE TO KWMR’S END-OF-YEAR APPEAL
With love and the warmth of my new fireplace,
Alyssa Jane Tanner
Development Director
(628) 587-1230: Call & Text
[email protected]