For over 10 years (which seems impossible) I’ve had the pleasure of sitting on the Brewery Artwalk Association board. I’ve had the same role, Technology Manager, for that entire duration. It’s all Kristine’s fault of course. She had asked if I could join the board way back then and promised it wouldn’t be a huge commitment. I suppose it’s not totally her fault that I hung around so long.
Most of what I did was behind the scenes. Website updating and management, infrastructure stuff, making sure we could operate smoothly in an increasingly technological world, etc etc. Besides the day to day we moved the old website from Drupal to WordPress (thanks Sarah and Dustin for taking that on!), moved our internal communications from disparate text messages to Slack (taking advantage of their free non-profit plan), moved internal organization from a smattering of hard drives to Google Workspace (again taking advantage of their free non-profit plan), and moving Artwalk artist registration from Eventbrite to our own hosted site which saved artists on additional fees that no one should be paying.
Over those many years the BAA not only kept Artwalk going twice a year but made sure there was solid financial footing should any surprises arise and when they did (thanks Covid) the board made sure the organization could make it through the uncertainty of the pandemic and come out the other side. (That wasn’t the only challenge but it sure was the biggest) There’s still work to be done and, as always, it will take the community and the existing board to make future Artwalks even more successful.
It’s been a pleasure serving on the board but the time has come for me to step aside and focus on other things. I wish the BAA and my neighbors great success.
See ya ’round the campus.
#baa #breweryartwalk #thebrewery
