Hi everyone,
They announced the winner for the Feb ideablob.com contest.
http://www.ideablob.com/posts/171

The Farmers market idea came in second place. We were very, very close to winning, within about 20 votes or so...based on my calculations.

I plan on resubmitting the idea in either April or May of 2008. In the mean time, I am working on building a much larger email network and support here in Eugene to increase our chances of winning.

If we can continue to reach out to people in the community and help them understand the idea, I'm confident we can win.

In the mean time, I encourage you to
1) make sure you are registered on http://www.ideablob.com

Registering is a 2 step process.

go to: http://www.ideablob.com

1) sign up, create a username and password

you do not need to give them any more information than that if you don't want to.

Then there will instantly be an email that is sent to your inbox,

2) you must confirm your registration by clicking on the confirm link. You will not be registered unless you confirm it.

If you have problems with this let me know so I can pass this on to the company.

When I resubmit my idea it will take everyone voting twice to make it happen.
Once in the "sprint" and then again in the "final".

The Sprint Leaders are simply ideas that have GAINED the highest number of votes in that particular sprint.

Each month is one cycle. Each cycle is divided into 4 periods called sprints.

The Monthly Showdown begins at the end of 3 sprints. The 2 ideas with most overall votes and the 6 ideas that have gained the most votes during each sprint compete for the final $10,000 award. To level the playing field, each of the 8 finalists begin the monthly showdown with zero votes.

So, my plan is to submit the idea at the beginning of a week, and get enough votes to win the "sprint" for that week. This would put us in the final.

I will let people know when I resubmit the idea. In the mean time, if you can let your friends and neighbors know about this I would appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Erin

Greetings friends, neighbors and acquaintances,

I need your help, please. Votes must be in by 10:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) Friday Feb 29

It shows we are in the lead by 4 votes, which means we could not actually be in the lead when they finally verify all the votes.

go to: www.ideablob.com and vote for Permanent Indoor Farmers Market

I am one of the top 8 finalists for this month's Advanta www.ideablob.com $10,000 prize.

I have less than one day to get a massive amount of votes in to win the $10,000 for the Eugene Farmers Market project.

You can read about the project here: http://ideablob.com/ideas/894-Permanent-Indoor-Farmers-Market

Even if you have voted in earlier rounds, you will need to go vote again. This is the FINAL vote so you must vote again.

If you have not voted/registered before, it will require you to create a username, password and enter your name and email address, then you will have to verify your registration with a click through on the email they send to your email address, then you can go back and VOTE!!!

February 2008 Finalist * Please Make my idea the $10,000 idea! * Vote anytime * Feb 22 -Feb 29

Please Pass this on to others who are supportive of the cause.

Regards,

Erin Ely
Eugene Oregon
Community Activist

I hope you will vote for my idea :)

My idea is based on the Farmers market project that they are doing in Santa Fe NM. http://www.santafefarmersmarket.com/institute/future/

It's a great indoor/outdoor building, room for 150 vendors, would have leaseable office space, a restaurant (like the farmers diner in vermont:http://www.farmersdiner.com/) , community gathering space, a commercial kitchen for those who need one to create value added products, cold storage and root celler, outdoor green space and it is a LEED certified building.

The initial $10,000 would be given directly to a non-profit in Eugene so that the dialog can be moved forward, bringing together the stake holders in the community that would need to have a say and be part of something like this.

With the initial $10,000 a professional facilitator could be hired to start moving the project forward by creating a community dialog to come to a decision on what the best way would be to implement something like this.

Because there has been so much previous dialog and people have not been able to move forward due to their historical differences about the project, I see myself as an impartial instigator, someone who does not have a personal stake in the project so I am the perfect person to bring the idea forward.

I also see a group similar to the Friends of the Library group that finally made the Eugene Library happen
called: Friends of the Farmers Market, to run the capital campaign to make this project a reality here.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Erin

Greetings friends and acquaintances,

I need your help and as many people's help as I can muster up. Votes must be in by Friday Feb 29

http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/894-Permanent-Indoor-Farmers-Market

I am one of the top 8 finalists for this month's Advanta ideablob.com $10,000 prize
I have less than one week left to get enough votes in to win the $10,000 for the Eugene Farmers Market project. You can read about the project when you click on the link to vote for my idea:http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/894-Permanent-Indoor-Farmers-Market

You do not need to live in Eugene to support this idea. I plan to give the money, directly to a local non-profit here that can bring about the discussion to implement the project here.

If you have voted in earlier rounds, you will need to go vote again, ...this is the FINAL vote so you must vote again.

If you have not voted/registered before, it will require you to create a username, password and enter your name and email address, then you will have to verify your registration with a click through on the email they send to your email address.

I would appreciate it if you can please pass this on to others who would be supportive of my cause, it's crucial that it happens now.

Here's the link to vote for my idea: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/894-Permanent-Indoor-Farmers-Market

February 2008 Finalist
Make my idea the $10,000 idea!
Vote anytime between
February 22 -- February 29

I appreciate your help.

Regards,
Erin Ely
Eugene Oregon
Community Activist