In addition to my positive response to the typography, I love this image for what it tells us.

“Haven’t had much need for emergency services here. ”

That beach grass grows quickly, so it is possible that trucks were pouring down that path just last season, rescuing homes and businesses from all kinds of disaster, but I think not. I think this access was built because of town regs, and has sat unused for ages.

I appreciate that the road itself is not over-engineered. Even though the sand won’t be a solid road bed for the heavy trucks, they have allowed it to naturally blend into the landscape. In the town of Shelburne VT, where I sit on the Development Review Board we have recently disallowed pervious pavers from being used for emergency access routes. It seemed necessary to defer to the judgment of the Fire Chief in this case, but I lament the unneccessary lot coverage, where grass could have grown.

It is a difficult balance, providing security v. leaving things undisturbed and elegantly simple.

winwinapps handles money, so security trumps elegance with us. Our migration to a framework (symfony v. Zend cast your vote below) is motivated in part by a desire to provide the most simple and powerful solution to potential security problems. The draw of the open source community is strong, and intertwined with the increased security, and improved features that we will be able to tap into when our move is complete.

As we migrate the app we build in solutions for problems which we may never encounter. Our own fireroads. Sometimes built over sandy dunes and others impervious pavement.

But how do we harness it?

I’ve had meetings the last two days with emerging membership groups in Vermont. There is something exciting about those early meetings…why have we come together? What are our stories? What can we do for each other? For our community? Yet the challenge is clear. How do we become and stay relevant? How do we serve our members and beyond? So many questions and so many different ways to answer them.

For me the answer comes in three stages:

1. Define our niche, a central question we can answer,  and mission we can work towards. For the sole proprietor group we have a clear sense of who our market is, and then the market itself and help define the broad mission.

2. Have short, medium and long term projects with definable goals. Use both pain points and bright spots to help With one group we will be working towards a Group Purchasing Option, where we can act as a co-op to negotiate deals on office supplies and advertising rates.

3. Have a predictable agenda with room for networking, personal problem solving and peer to peer support that is the positive by-products of long term groups.

How do you help carve out your niche? How do you create projects and programs that support your mission?

I start with the basics. How many winwin accounts we added this week. How many of them converted to active accounts. How many prospects I met with in person, online and on the phone.

I count twitter followers, bit.ly clicks (another reason to love hootsuite) facebook like-ers and interactions. (come on folks, some of you can make some comments on that there facebook page.)

With the help of hubspot’s twitter grader and website grader I collect basic (and free) stats on how winwin ranks in the big world of the interweb. Let them explain their algorithms, I just type in the numbers. Google indexed pages, inbound links, overall grade.

For a bit of ego-smashing I enter how many blog posts I have made that week (cue the guilt) and how many comments have been made by non robots (cue the self pity.)

Then I skip on over to google analytics and input my bounce rate, number of visitors, number of new visitors, and average time on site for winwinapps.com.

In all I collect 34 data which takes me 10 minutes. For a while I was graphing them too, but I don’t seem to need that yet to spot trends. My intention is to notice what things track together. Some obvious ones…spikes in prospects lead to spikes in new accounts. As the weeks go by the trends become clearer.

Report from hubspot

What data do you collect each week? What is on your report card?

The idea: A strong farm economy creates local jobs, provides nutritious food and preserves the close-knit communities of our state.The Vermont Fresh Network helps Vermont farms and restaurants team up to provide the freshest local food at restaurants.

Annual Forum: Talking, thinking, tasting, learning, and tasting again. This event celebrates food and its impact on our economy and ourselves. Workshops, keynote speakers NYTimes’ Marian Burros and editor and author Judith Jones and dining outshine even the fabulous Shelburne Farms setting. This event sells out so buy tickets now!

The winwin: In addition to VFN’s annual forum, Farmer’s dinners and other delicious events the incredible team based in Richmond VT is constantly dreaming up ideas about how to make connections. Their upcoming matchmaking series will unite farmers directly with suppliers, and their robust website acts as a hub for their network, so everyone can find fresh local food. Which is a real winwin.

How are using winwin apps: Vermont Fresh Network’s Annual forum is on August 8th, 2010 at Shelburne Farms. They are using winwin for Forum ticketing. Beginning in September they will be registering diners for their incredible farmer’s dinner series, as well as email campaigns.

More info: Vermont Fresh Network offers memberships for individuals, families, and supporting members…

A membership to the Vermont Fresh Network means you support local farmers and chefs. In return you will receive:

• a subscription to Edible Green Mountains.
• advance invitations and discounts to VFN events, including our Annual Forum, Farmer’s Dinners, and more.
• VFN’s quarterly e-newsletter.
• a VFN window decal.
• inclusion in a community of people who share your commitment to and support of the vibrant Vermont working landscape.

For more information please visit www.vermontfresh.net

About “winwinner” Wednesday: Each week we profile one of the nonprofits using winwin apps to make the world a better place. If you’d like to be featured on our blog, drop us a line!

I made one of the top five parenting errors last Thursday…I overdelivered. The boys had 90% of my attention. I didn’t check email. Tweet. Post. Or even watch Wimbledon. We picked strawberries, went to the lake, went to a playground, explored a stream, picked up our farm share, visited the library, did an art project.

As a former full time stay at home mom the I can tell you that good planning can stretch the above activities out for a month.  We squeezed it all into an eight hour period. Notably lacking nap or rest time.

What to do now?

Lower the bar. Starting with a blog post and star wars play. Plus…Wimbledon is on.

After my iPhone took a swim on Saturday my husband (an electrical engineer at this tiny little company) took it away, plunged it into a bag of organic brown rice and put the bag in our mechanical room which safely and efficiently measures in at about 250 degrees.

Since the 3G ipad came into my life I have been pretty down on the phone. Its apps are not as slick. Screen real estate woefully inadequate. Sure it can make call, take pictures, give me directions and basically feel as much a part of my body as my third arm. (ummm, that analogy might not be exactly right.) but it is just TOO SMALL to be worth much at all.

I take it back iPhone. I love you.

Since foursquare has lost my log in (or I have, one or the other, who knows.) My phone is the only thing that keeps me in dorky mayor bliss. Plus it turns out most of my actual social life isn’t through social media. Who knew how much I depended on texting to meet friends?

You did? You must be a friend of mine.

I also got together with Lara Dickson from Deep Dish Creative, and Mike Hayes from Magic Hat to plan Burlington Social Media day. That was sort of work-play. Speaking of work play, clear your calendar for Wednesday June 30th if you are anywhere near Burlington, VT.

Divested of: One of many vacations, lots of kale.

Connected with: Boys and Girls Club of Burlington, Ed Shepard, Heidi Boncher, my children

Checked off: Front end of ticketing/registration re-vamp.

Next up: Burlington Social Media Day. Hunting (for treasure) and Gathering (with friends at tweetups).

After years of subtle judgment over my husband’s daily comic subscription I have recently joined in. I guess it was google reader that wore me down. Clicking to subscribe became part of my work life. I love reading about email marketing, online auctions, donation solicitations and other 501c3 nitty gritty stuff for hours a day, yet sometimes I just need another perspective. Preferably one that doesn’t include images of fish drowning in oil.

So I signed on to laugh at my email once a day with Gaping void.

This image is used without permission but with much admiration from Gaping Void.  See the double link…maybe Hugh won’t ask me to take it down.

What does this have to do with winwin? That other fish. The one who is not google. That’s us. It is such a challenge to explain my startup without referencing other companies. I try to describe our reach and impact, events that we have run, etc. Nothing seems to light the fire of understanding more than citing names that people know. So winwin? We are event brite meets mail chimp meets ebay with a wordpress web site on top. But is that really more descriptive? I guess so. It seems to be the way folks introduce one another in this web based softworld. Whatever meets whatever, the new google. How postmodern.

Nothing is new. Right Hugh?

winwinapps (serves 1,000)

1 cup eventbrite

2 slices mailchimp

.5 pages bidding for good

1 lb customized webstack (can find at winwinapps specialty market)

Start with an event and add attendees, auction items, and sponsors

interface with twitter, ical, and facebook.

If you don’t have any merchant services in your pantry you can substitute paypal. Just remember to add a spoonful of sugar to make up for your users for having to navigate away from your page.

What is your postmodern  business recipe?

It is a hard and lonely road that leads in and out of startupville. I regularly reach out to other companies that are related to what winwinapps does. Mostly these companies are only tangentially related, but yesterday I exchanged a few emails with one of the founders of Crowdrise.

I know Ed Norton is the face of the company, but clearly he is not the one writing the code.

Although I have some gripes about pricing, one part of Crowdrise that I celebrate (and its core funtionality imo) is its humor and fun.

Their mission is to make volunteering and giving FUN. In this they succeed. With points, jokes, and an incredible ability to interact in social space they remind us that giving back should be a blast. Their style is flippant as well as frivolous their tagline in fact is: if you don’t give back, no one will like you.

So what of the animal hair? Robert and I have chatted very briefly about our businesses, where winwinapps goes beyond donations to act as an overall toolkit for nonprofits, but mostly we have talked about hair. It makes him seem more real to me, makes me feel more connected to him, and fits well with the brand identity of his company. Not sure winwin needs those dos, but we do try to mix in a fair amount of fun with business. As for Crowdrise founder Robert, I like him.

That’s Nate and Aaron up there, and their incredible food. Although you can’t see Sue or Laura or the rest of the crew’s smiling faces, their mark is everywhere. From butcher boards, to great pours, to reclaiming reclaimed bars to keep things ultra local, Bluebird Tavern is my favorite place to eat, drink, and visit with friends.

Their incredible dedication to turning out food that is art is matched by their desire to make their community better. Bluebird hosts Community Night Wednesdays where they give 10% of their sales to a local non-profit partner, asking only  for basic help marketing the evening. (Application linked above.)

Their blue room, recently updated by the old bar from Harlem (via Smokejacks), features wifi (as does the whole venue) as well as projectors and large scale seating. This flexible space can host a stand up cocktail party, a sitdown dinner for many, or your best board meeting ever.

This Sunday they are co-hosting a bash at the barn at The Intervale. From 4:30-8:00 they will be serving up spicy (and not so spicy) bouillabaisse, and Dedalus will be pouring at least 6 versions of Rose. (A varietal you either already love, or need to try again in its current renaissance.) You can buy $40 all you can eat and drink tickets via their winwinapps webstack.

Although this event doesn’t benefit a local nonprofit in the most strict sense, it helps our community by advancing the Intervale Barn as a venue, supporting local small business, and all of the local vendors that Bluebird works with regularly.

Join us Sunday evening, and you will see what I am harping about!

About “winwinner” Wednesday: Each week we profile one of the nonprofits using winwin apps to make the world a better place. If you’d like to be featured on our blog, drop us a line!