We can only be honest with you, folks--given other commitments, the current leadership team cannot make APLAUDD successful by ourselves. If APLAUDD is going to work, here's what kind of help we're going to need:
1. Spread the word: If you believe in the APLAUDD cause, please think of one or two or a dozen friends who would believe in it too who you can recruit to join us. This is as simple as forwarding them a link to this site and telling them to follow the subscription instructions for the email list.
2. Help with the website: If you've surfed this site for more than a minute, you've probably seen about 99% of our current web-building skills. Ultimately we would like the site to include a discussion forum, news items, a public art installation notice/calendar section, online petitions, a donation mechanism, etc. Eventually we'd like to be able to host a gallery of Detroit-area public art, and even have sub-sites where Detroit artists could display (and maybe even sell) their work. But we can't do this alone. If you are or if you know someone who is a competent web developer who would be seriously willing and able to commit to building out the site, with these kinds of features, and maintaining it, please contact us.
3. Join the team: We'd like to expand APLAUDD's leadership team. We
are specifically looking for people for the following volunteer positions, none
of which should require more than 10 hours a week of time:
A. Chief Counsel: Must be an attorney familiar with legal issues related to
volunteer groups and government relations.
B. Chief Technology Officer: a very committed and creative version of the person
described in 2. above; someone who has ideas about how to use technology beyond
the web to further our goals would be especially welcome.
We can create sub-executive positions if someone is interested in getting involved but not that interested. Depending on how big this gets, we may create additional executive positions.
Of course, we are also always looking for artists, especially public artists, to become affiliated with us.
For the record, the APLAUDD organization is currently nothing more than an informal group. Soon it will be part of a for-profit business. This is only because the rules for creating a for-profit business are much simpler than creating a non-profit. We would love to make APLAUDD an official non-profit, but unfortunately we do not have the time nor the funding required. If you think you can help with this, please let us know.
Also, we do not anticipate APLAUDD paying salaries, reimbursing expenses, or financially supporting public art installations anytime in the near future. Again, we would love to do this, but we don't have the time, seed money, or expertise. If we do manage to raise funds, after the administrative expenses are covered we will find a way to distribute the remainder to local public artists.
Interested in helping? email us!
Copyright © 2004 Vince Cavasin and APLAUDD: Art for Public Life And Urban Development in Detroit. All rights reserved.