Roundup: “Devil in the Details”

Tuesday Sept 17, 2024
From the less messy desk of Amanda Eichstaedt…

Devil in the Details

When I was running this morning I was enjoying the bright red poison oak leaves hanging in the trees. They looked like decorations. The blackberries have gotten to that stage where there is more sour red than sweet black parts of the berry. Baby quail are almost full-sized and the bucks and their harems are traveling around together. Getting a glimpse of the decorative poison oak and the bright green new eucalyptus trees caught me off guard. At first I thought I was seeing something man-made. 

Blackberries.     photo: Pexels

While we will still have some nice warm days through October, the season is shifting. I need to thank my staff for being so understanding of my extreme levels of frustration this summer. I never intended to spend the bulk of those gorgeous summer days ruminating over a database migration. 

The good news is that it has gone quite well, the bad news is that it has taken longer than we anticipated for a variety of reasons.

You may be asking yourself, “Why do I even care?” You just want to turn on the radio and hear the fine programming produced by over 100 volunteers along with some chosen content that you are fond of, or to just read this newsletter, overlook my typos, and go on about your business.

You may care because you also contribute to KWMR (and for that we thank you so very much!). We have used a database for our contributions called Kindful since 2015. It has worked reasonably well. We are now using a database called Bloomerang. They bought Kindful. (I would love to know who makes up these names). Bloomerang also bought a company called QGive (we will be using that, too). Before Kindful we used Donor Snap and prior to that it was Filemaker Pro.

You will see a few changes. The receipts you get when you make a contribution and the thank you letters will also look different. And starting on October15 this newsletter will look different since we will be creating it directly in Bloomerang, and not using Mailchimp any longer.

At KWMR we strive to keep you in the loop. We want you to know where your contributions are going and what we are up to down here in the Creamery Building. As we are making these changes we would love to get your feedback! There will be ample opportunities using LINKS to send emails to me about how you like what we are doing.

One thing for sure is that this overall newsletter will be shorter and we are going to revamp how we handle the highlights and inform you of which shows are on the specific weeks. So hang tight with us, and if something isn’t working for you now, or throughout the changes, please let us know! We do this for you!

One project that has not been frustrating to work on this summer is the Wills for West Marin initiative. I did a very fun interview with Kim Klein that you can catch HERE. And the list of public seminars, starting tomorrow with one at St. Columba’s can be registered for HERE.

Today, right NOW (if you are reading this at 5 PM) KWMR has two consecutive Epicenter Programs that cover the meeting from September 5th that covered the Advancing Housing Solutions For Workers In West Marin. This is an in depth dive into the conditions for many of those trying to live affordably in West Marin. You can view the Executive Summary and the Full Report HERE. KWMR continue to follow this important initiative.

Amanda Eichstaedt
Station Manager/Executive Director

No AI was used in creating this column.