In this update on Madison Hostel Hapnin's:
*Madison Hostel Open House--WEDNESDAY!!!!! *The Importance of the Madison Hostel to Madison *A brief history of the Madison Hostel *A Once in Forever Opportunity (and a Plea for Help!)
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**OPEN HOUSE** You are invited! To the Madison Hostel's Open House and mailing party 141 S. Butler St (near the corner of King & E. Wilson) Wednesday, June 30, 2004, 5:30 PM. Tel: 441-0144
******************************************************* **Come find out why the Madison Hostel is important to Madison**
*The Madison Hostel is a 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit, educational organization dedicated to 'Helping all, especially the young, gain a greater understanding of the world and its people through hostelling.'
*Our Madison hostel is open to all ages. We've had visiting families with small children. We've had octogenarians.
*It is scaled to Madison: it can sleep up to 31 people.
*It is a great place: Well-managed, clean, fun, safe. Great location.
*Every night an instantaneous intercultural community spontaneously generates at 141 South Butler St. Individuals from cultures that corporate media portray as irreconcilably at war sit down and break bread together at our common kitchen.
*It is run by a great group of people who are in tune with all things cool happening in this city. Our hostel turns visitors into locals overnight! Our guest book is testament to the attachment these visitors develop to this place in a very short time.
*It is half the price of any of the cheapest alternatives in town.
*Our hostel puts Madison on the map! Go to http://www.hiayh.org/hostels/hiusahostels.cfm and you'll find that our city's hostel is part of the world-wide network of hostels. As anyone who has travelled in Europe can attest, international travellers tend to follow the little hostel triangle symbols on the map. It is assumed that a place with a hostel generally has something going for it. We are one of the few triangles out here in 'flyover country.'
**A brief history of the Madison Hostel**
In the first few years of the Madison Hostel's existence, the scrappy determination of a small band of volunteers and dedicated, yet underpaid staff made the hostel happen practically out of thin air. (Here's an archived plea for help in establishing the hostel. It's from the local bike newsletter,
http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/bta/spokenword_1196/Hostel.html, circa 1996 when the hostel was just a gleam in the founder's eye.)
Just as the hostel became known to international travellers as a great place to learn about a quintessential American university town, the whole 9/11 thing hit and the struggles of a start up began anew. We still get a lot of international travellers, but the frequency of sell-out nights is not quite what it was. The numbers are creeping back up, and we expect to be back on a self-sustaining even-keel soon.
Setbacks notwithstanding, Madison's hostel has achieved a great degree of acclaim at the state and national organization level, and was showcased for a regional hostelling conference a couple of years ago.
Still, I believe that Madison's Hostel can do much better. We should be striving to own our own building designed to the highest green standards. Indeed, I would like Madison's hostel to be the greenest hostel in the world (zero emissions, baby!).
Keep in mind that the hostels you might have experienced in continental Europe enjoy a significant level of government financial help- something our hostel does not currently enjoy.
**A Once in Forever Opportunity (and a Plea for Help!)**
Our city's hostel has an opportunity to be included in a redevelopment of the properties near the current hostel location at the corners of Butler, King and E. Wilson. Nothing is certain in this endeavor; everything is preliminary.
In any event, in order to take advantage of this golden opportunity, we have to get our ducks in a row on several fronts. You can probably imagine the obvious ones like fundraising and space planning. Indeed we need help in these areas. But there are a myriad of other ways we could use your help including:
*YOU: i.e., service on the board of directors
*Help in board member recruitment
*Capital campaign planning
*Contacts with potential donors large & small
*Contacts with foundations
*Website development/updating
*Newsletter development/editing/production/distribution
*Sponsoring events with international visitors
*Architectural/space planning/interior design
*Database development/maintenance
*Accounting help
*Marketing
*Event planning
*Listing the hostel in any conferences you help plan.
*Your ideas....
Those are big topics and may sound daunting, but don't be scared! The hostel can use whatever help you might be able to lend, even if it is just a matter of forwarding this plea on to your circle of friends or sitting at the farmer's market table on an occasional Saturday.
What it comes down to is this: The hostel needs community involvement to make this thing work and function at the highest capacity. There is already a dedicated core of board members and staff. But a few key people have been stricken by love, babies, and love & babies, thus reducing the amount of time they can spend on hostel matters.
We could really use your help in any way you think you could give it.
Thanks! � Mike Barrett
P.s. More info on the Madison Hostel can be had here http://www.madisonhostel.org. And Lee, our manager, loves giving tours of the hostel to anyone, at any time!
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