Monthly Archives: February 2013

(Community Matters) It’s no surprise I’m my husband’s biggest fan. He knocked it out of the park in yesterday’s performance of How to Use Evernote, his new 30 minute monologue performed at Frontera Fest.

excerpts: Your life would make sense if you could only remember.

Because it just takes one memory, one redeeming insight, and it’s close. You’ve seen it flash and fade before you can grasp. You curse your feeble memory even as you remember that you’re programmed to forget, that sanity depends on forgetting. You forget that. . . .

But now, there’s Evernote, an online filing system for your every thought. If you’ve got the courage to embrace the full adventure of yourself, Evernote is your ultimate memory upgrade. . . .

apply the Hegel add-on to your original note and spawn its antithesis, its flip side, because what you remember is the Shadow of what you’ve managed to forget. . . .

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(Community Matters) Congrats to the founders – uShip, Sparefoot & Boundless as well as all the teams and sponsors of yesterday’s games. Special congrats to SpareFoot for taking gold, uShip for taking silver & Spiceworks for taking bronze – as well as a special shout out to our good friends at Spreadfast for designating EF member company programs as their nonprofit. This year’s purse totaled $30,000.

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(Community Matters) Great fun last night as guests of Suzanne Deal Booth & David Booth at the Blanton Museum’s 50th Anniversary Gala.

Loved launching at the museum, I haven’t toured there in way too long. Collectors and supporters loaned many of their works. Richard Hartgrave and Gary Cooper loaned a Michael Tracy. I especially liked City Plot by El Anatsui, a tapestry of aluminum liquor bottle caps and copper wire. It reminded me of Suzanne Tick’s work – who I immediately texted with a pic and of course she knows the work.

Unfortunately, it’s been a busy weekend and we weren’t able to participate in Friday’s & Saturday’s activities. Tommie & Lynn Meredith hosted a cocktail reception Friday night. Deborah Green, Chris Mattson and Jeannie & Mickey Klein hosted house tours of their collections yesterday. Jeannie & Mickey, Suzanne & David and Mary & Howard Yancy were the Austin co-chairs. I believe the event raised $1.2 – $1.3 million – congrats to all.

update: I love Gary Cooper’s pic and  email note:

RE: President Powers and Franco’s Flowers:

Both made very strong, elegant statements. Powers received a thunderous standing ovation; when introduced, Greg Abbott received only a brief light applause. Where was our esteemed governor? Franco (Tiburzcio Herrera) and his beautiful family–Mandarin Flower Company–created a spectacular effect of massive white arrangements floating in space, as well as a towering white display under the Bullock Museum dome. So proud of him!

(Community Matters)

Happy Valentines Day

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as presented by our dear, 14-yo friend, Dio Cramer

(Community Matters) Stanford Social Innovation Review: Next Gen Donors and Their Plan for Greater Impact

A first-of-its-kind national study shows that Gen X and Millennial major donors aim to revamp philanthropic strategy and take risks on new tools.

The next generations of major donors have the potential to be the most transformative philanthropists in history. The Gen Xers and Millennials who are inheriting the $40 trillion wealth transfer, along with those making their own wealth, will control unprecedented amounts of philanthropic resources.

While they perceive their parents and grandparents as driven by obligation, recognition, and tradition, they see themselves as driven by strategy and impact. Next gen donors want to change how they give, more than what causes they support. They want to revamp philanthropic strategy in ways that can make it more effective.

this so reminds me of my friend Will Meredith

from Politico’s Playbook:

THE WAY TO WIN – “Elizabeth Warren’s silent Senate approach,” by Kate Nocera and Patrick Reis : Senator “Warren has kept the lowest of profiles, speaking only to select Massachusetts media outlets while [largely] shutting out the national press … For a left-leaning icon and national media darling, the role of silent senator is a sharp departure from her rousing campaign and outspoken consumer advocacy. It’s the same tactic used by other first-term senators who entered the chamber to great fanfare … former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton [and] Sen. Al Franken … [O]utlets hoping to nab Warren’s thoughts in the Capitol hallways are either ignored or offered a litany of excuses for why she can’t talk, including Warren’s own recent explanation that she’s ‘walking right now.’ … By picking her battles and flying under the radar, Warren is working to convert her campaign star-power into a reputation as a serious legislator among her Senate colleagues. … Warren’s conspicuously quiet entrance to Congress, as well as her laser-sharp focus on the Bay State, is in part a bid to prove she’s not the carpet-bagging bomb-thrower her critics predicted.” http://politi.co/X75fgD

(Community Matters) Could Rand Paul lead to a GOP divided in two? 

I’m more encouraged by an affirmative to the NYTimes question: Can young, tech-savvy Republicans overthrow their party’s disconnected old guard? Can the Republicans be Saved From Obsolescence?

(Community Matters) This shouldn’t be news to anyone but suppose it might be: Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers

(Community Matters) I’m not a fan of Democrats or Republicans who fatten at the public trough – even less so when they then espouse hypocritical rhetoric. To my R friends, combined with his made up bio –  I wouldn’t put all my eggs in this basket.

What does David Plouffe say about Rubio?

The Hispanic voters in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico don’t give a damn about Marco Rubio, the Tea Party Cuban-American from Florida. You know what? We won the Cuban vote! And it’s because younger Cubans are behaving differently than their parents. It’s probably my favorite stat of the whole campaign. So this notion that Marco Rubio is going to heal their problems – it’s not even sophomoric; it’s juvenile! And by the way: the bigger problem they’ve got with Latinos isn’t immigration. It’s their economic policies and health care. The group that supported the president’s health care bill the most? Latinos.’

I’m encouraged by (while not holding my breath) an affirmative to the NYTimes question: Can young, tech-savvy Republicans overthrow their party’s disconnected old guard? Can the Republicans be Saved From Obsolescence? I continue to believe our country is better served by two strong, rational and reasonable parties striking compromise. 

(Community Matters) One guy’s obsessive cataloguing of his memories generates a to-do list of unfinished business. Steven Tomlinson’s performance, How To Use Evernote, during Friday Thursday night’s and Saturday matinee’s Frontera Fest, Best of Performances.

(Community Matters) The Entrepreneurs Foundation has just named Joshua Baer it’s 2013 Community Leader of the Year

his Capital Factory bio

(Community Matters) USA Today: Tech’s new entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy – not sure I’d call it so new. The approach is good, spurs innovation and more sustainable business models.

HT: Kim Hughes