The Tenderloin asked, we’re delivering: a community calendar
This is our first content offering, as we build a neighborhood newsroom.
A Tenderloin newsroom is on the horizon, coming into view. Our team is deep in the content-production trenches, receiving and generating story drafts, building the technical and logistical infrastructure, and figuring out what kinds of content we can financially afford to produce. Consider this newsletter part of an ongoing dispatch from said trenches, updating you on our progress.
Because it was such a popular request, we’ve decided that a community events calendar is the first thing we ought to make. We have a prototype.
I’m happy to report that I was able to get a satisfying number of events added to that prototype based entirely on flyers distributed at neighborhood meetings. In addition to the time it takes to attend meetings like those, I anticipate our newsroom will devote a minimum of one hour a week to uploading information to the tool.
Putting together this prototype has made it clear to me that building and maintaining a community calendar is about much more than inputting event details. We will also devote time to telling people and organizations about it, and inviting them to add to it themselves and share it with their networks. Those will be necessary steps on the path to making the calendar a vital resource and actually getting neighbors out to events.
The process for community members to get their events into the calendar is straightforward and virtually instant — assuming one of us is looking at our email when the approval request comes in. If you would like to add a Tenderloin event to the calendar, give it a try and let me know how it goes.
In general, I’m interested in your feedback. Does the calendar show all the key information that you’d want to know about an event? If you have your browser set to a non-English language, does the calendar display in that language?
Email us at hello@newsrelaynetwork.org if you have things to say.
The platform we’re using right now is Tockify, and it’s a good compromise between cost and functionality. There are platforms out there that scrape websites that have event listings within a certain geographical area, but that kind of automation is pricey! We’ll probably consider it down the line, when we’re operating on less of a shoestring budget and if it becomes too cumbersome for our staff and community members to enter everything by hand.
Speaking of which — if you like this calendar and want to help us both provide it sustainably and improve it, now is an excellent time to make a donation to News Relay Network. We’re a lean operation and all levels of support are welcome as we pick up momentum to launch!