From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Tue Dec 1 17:46:26 2009 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News and Events List) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 14:46:26 -0800 Subject: [CounterCorp] Be part of the "soft launch" of our new website! Message-ID: <979DF6EF-424F-4783-B4C1-946FC2B62BAB@countercorp.org> Dear CounterCorp supporters, Hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a happy one, as well as some well-deserved time off from work to spend with family and friends! Here at CounterCorp global headquarters we have several exciting announcements we want to share with you now that the holiday is over, and before folks get caught up in the next big holiday cycle: 1) BETA VERSION OF NEW COUNTERCORP WEBSITE -- More than two years in the making, the new CounterCorp website is now in the "beta" (pre- launch) stage and available for your viewing pleasure. It was conceived and developed by our original volunteer web guru, Dennis Williams, and then more recently updated and completed by our current volunteer webmaster, Nathan Frankel. CounterCorp's new home on the Internet features a vastly enhanced look and feel, and a variety of potential functionalities that we'll be gradually rolling out in the coming months. The beta version of the website is not yet "live", but it will be shortly. In the meantime, we're asking members of the CounterCorp community to take a look at it and send us your feedback. This could include any typos or other errors that you find, things that are confusing or don't look (or work) right, or any suggestions you have for what kinds of new features you'd like the site to have. We may not be able to implement every idea we get, but we want to know what you think of the site, and how we can change it for the better. You can check out the beta version of the site at http://beta.countercorp.org and send any feedback you have to website at countercorp.org. We look forward to hearing from you! 2) COUNTERCORP IS NOW ON TWITTER -- Since its inception in 2006, our CounterCorp News e-mail list has been the best way to stay updated on CounterCorp event and project announcements, and it will continue to serve that role. But we're interested to see if Twitter can serve a useful purpose for our supporters and community members. (For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, it's a way to send very short --140 characters or less -- announcements known as "tweets" to people via text, instant message, or the Web.) So this is also an announcement of the "soft launch" of our new Twitter feed, at http://www.twitter.com/countercorp. We haven't even announced this on the new beta site yet, because we wanted to give CounterCorp supporters the chance to receive our first tweets. We're going to use Twitter to announce breaking news, such as when the new website goes live, an exciting new project we're about to unveil, and the dates and location of next year's Anti-Corporate Film Festival. Try it out and tell us what you think ... * * * Thanks as always for your support -- we couldn't do any of this without you! John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 2010 www.countercorp.org Subscribe to CounterCorp's News and Events e-mail list Follow the breaking news about CounterCorp on Twitter See the latest event details on your computer, phone, or iPod calendar by subscribing to CounterCorp's e-calendar For an inside look at corporate power, influence, culture, and crime, subscribe to our Corporation Watch e-mail list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From countercorp-news at countercorp.org Wed Dec 30 15:05:00 2009 From: countercorp-news at countercorp.org (CounterCorp News) Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:05:00 -0800 Subject: [CounterCorp] Goodbye to a great 2009, hello to an even better 2010! Message-ID: Dear CounterCorp supporters, As with most other non-profit organizations, media outlets, and pretty much everyone else, we feel compelled to end 2009 with a brief retrospective, along with a "last call" for donations, and an announcement to start 2010 off with a bang: (#1) OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL FILM FESTIVAL YET -- The 2009 Anti- Corporate Film Festival, the first one we've ever held in the Spring (and specifically, in May), was our most successful yet, and we think that was due at least in part to two new elements we introduced this year: our first opening night party, and the first-ever CounterCorp t- shirt. The opening night party at the San Francisco Media Archive was a great success -- thanks to volunteer caterer Ellen Roggemann (www.radicalradish.org ), wine donated by Alec Gordon, a great venue, and of course a great crowd. The t-shirts proved a similarly popular item at this year's Festival, and we hope to have them in larger sizes next year. As a result of the party, the t-shirts, and the generally well- attended screenings, this year's Festival came within about $500 of breaking even, which is pretty rare for any festival, including the really big ones -- which all have corporate sponsors (which we don't have and do not want) and big institutional donors (which we'd like but haven't gotten yet). So we view the success of this year's Festival as an indication that we're on the right track, that public awareness of and interest in the CounterCorp Festival is growing, and that hopefully the Anti-Corporate Film Festival will be even more successful next year! (#2) LAST CALL FOR END-OF-YEAR DONATIONS -- Despite the success of this year's Festival, we still need to cover the remaining $500 in debts associated with it, as well as the other expenses that arose during the year, such as our very modest office space, website hosting, transportation costs for events, and other basic administrative expenses. As you know, CounterCorp and the Anti-Corporate Film Festival are organized and run *entirely* by volunteers -- no one gets a salary or any kind of stipend or other payment for their hard work, time, and effort. (We'd like to change that, but doing so is dependent on successful fundraising, which is something we're working on.) So we're asking our supporters to please consider making an end-of- year donation in any amount that you can afford to help us pay off the deficit from this year's Festival, as well as the other costs we incur during the course of the year. Any and all contributions are *greatly* appreciated AND tax deductible. To donate online through the secure eBay account of our fiscal agent, Independent Arts and Media, use this link or go to the "Donations" page on our newly revamped website: www.countercorp.org/donations. If you prefer to make an in-kind donation of materials or services, please e-mail us at donations2009 at countercorp.org. (#3) NEW 2010 FESTIVAL TRAILER CONTEST -- With the success of this year's Film Festival, we've made it our goal to try to add something new to the Festival every year from now on. So for the 5th Annual CounterCorp Festival in May, we decided to create a Festival trailer, just like they have at those big-budget film festivals we mentioned before. But since we lack the big budgets those festivals have to commission trailers from professional filmmakers, we decided to "crowd source" the first CounterCorp trailer by holding a contest and asking our supporters and members of the general public to create one for us. In short, we're seeking a 30-second trailer that will be posted on the new CounterCorp website, shown in the theater in the days (and hopefully weeks) prior to the Festival itself, and shown before each film at the Festival. Complete details about the trailer contest can be found on the new CounterCorp website -- either by using the link in the "NEWS" box in the top right-hand corner of the front page, or by clicking on the "News" button in the navigation bar across the top of the site, and then selecting "Trailer Contest". We look forward to reviewing a wide variety of creative, funny, and possibly even disturbing trailers from all sorts of filmmakers in the coming months! * * * Thanks again to everyone who attended this year's Anti-Corporate Film Festival or otherwise supported us throughout the year -- we couldn't do any of this without YOU! John Wilner Director CounterCorp: Putting An End to Business as Usual 5th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival, May 2010 www.countercorp.org Follow the breaking news about CounterCorp on Twitter See the latest event details on your computer, phone, or iPod calendar by subscribing to CounterCorp's e-calendar For an inside look at corporate power, influence, culture, and crime, subscribe to our Corporation Watch e-mail list