1871 Community Newsletter 4.9.15

Welcome again to the 1871 Community Newsletter – your new source for interesting news from the 1871 team, members and friends. From mergers to member opportunities, this is the new place to stay updated on all things 1871. Contact Melissa Wooten: mwooten@1871.com | @1871Chicago

Divvy Data: The 2015 Divvy Data Challenge encourages designers, developers and scientists to visualize over 3 million Divvy trips from the past year in an insightful, beautiful, or creative way. Grab a free Goose Island beer and check out the winners at their Awards Ceremony at 1871 on Tuesday, April 14. bit.ly/1ChZ9LJ | @DivvyBikes

Making the Case for inRentive:  inRentive’s Melissa Moline took home a $100,000 investment from AOL co-founder Steve Case for her pitch at Google Demo Day last week. The opportunity to send members to Google’s annual Demo Day is just one of the many resources 1871 receives as one of only nine Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hubs in North America. bit.ly/1a7blHa | About GFE | @GoogleForEntrep | @inRentive

Help us tell the 1871 story. If you’ve done something interesting with your company, 1871 would love you to write a blog on the experience to be featured on the 1871 website. These posts are a critical way of helping tell the 1871 story, and something we want everyone to be involved with.

Your Life…Only Better: 1871 member Yolobe is hosting a Teen Expo next Saturday, April 18 to connect local students with community resources and potential employers. Join 1871 in supporting a great event. bit.ly/yolobeexpo | @YolobeInc

Mayor Rahm Emanuel stopped by 1871 last week after a get-out-the-vote visit to Braintree (just a few days before his successful re-election). The Mayor shook hands, watched a few members demo their products, and wound up in more than a few selfies. on.fb.me/1CqEjZN

Housekeeping: Tired of squeaky wheels interrupting your evening events? Never fear – the squeaky wheel will be getting the grease (literally and metaphorically)! Per your member survey requests, we’ve asked The Mart to make the cleaning carts quieter or to hold off on cleaning the 2.0 space until after evening classes have ended.

Help Vets Vet Ideas: 1871 member AALLII is running a Kickstarter campaign to help military families smooth the transition from the service to civilian employment. It’s a great cause – be sure to check out their Kickstarter campaign to learn how you can help. kck.st/1NUXiln | @careeraallii

TIME to get away?: If you’re dreaming of warmer weather or planning your next vacation, check out 1871 member company Options Away and the nine other apps for travel junkies recently featured in TIME. ti.me/1NbyQRY

Early and Often: Election season may be over, but you can still vote! Check out the video of 1871 (pre-2.0 expansion), and vote for our space in the Chicago Creative Space Awards. You can vote once per video per day, so “early and often” is key here. bit.ly/1Iu4SW3

Stoked for Stoltz: Our partner Pearson has offered to waive the registration fee for 1871 members for their Learning Summit taking place today and tomorrow in Chicago. We hear that Paul Stoltz’s keynote tomorrow morning on gauging and growing GRIT in education is supposed to be particularly interesting. We’re also expecting Paul to stop by 1871 while he’s in town.

Awesome Alum: You might remember Randiss Hopkins from his time at 1871 last summer. His organization at NIU, The Remember Project, just announced a partnership with After School Matters to provide opportunities for college students to be present in the lives of inner-city youth in Chicago through their Alternative Spring Break initiative. Randiss has landed an internship in DC for the summer, and was just selected as a Newman Civic Fellow. Between all of those things and his promotion in the NIU Jazz Ensemble, we’re really not sure where sleep fits into his schedule. bit.ly/1FnAari | bit.ly/1Plrwli | @RandissWonder

Become a Member of the Member Council: 1871 is getting ready to announce the first members of its member advisory committee, which will meet regularly to provide direct feedback on issues relating to membership at 1871 (including, but not limited to: making corporate connections, improving community involvement, attracting more free pizza to the space).

#CoworkingProblems: In order to make sure that everyone has equal access to conference rooms, please remember that members are allowed to book no more than two consecutive hours for the same conference room (e.g., booking R3 from 9am through 5pm in four separate two-hour slots is not cool).

Sun-Times Ed Board Shines Light on Equity Crowdfunding: The Chicago Sun-Times released an editorial this week supporting a bill that would legalize intrastate crowdfunding in Illinois. The bill was formally announced last month at 1871 by IL Rep. Carol Sente, the SBAC, and 1871 CEO Howard Tullman. While the Sun-Times hopes that interstate crowdfunding will be legal soon (and we agree!), they noted that intrastate crowdfunding is an important step for Illinois while we wait for the national regulations. bit.ly/1ILgjW1

Tweet of the Week: @HakaProducts: Newest addition to the team. She’s ready to code! @1871Chicago bit.ly/1DKRPOQ

Welcome new members! Jonathan Murfey – Alex Krauskopf – Andrew Hill (Food Trace) – Amy Hanna (Luxe) – Thao Nguyen (Star Anise Foods) – Daniel Goff (TechBridge) – Dave Caulton (Cloudspotter) – Christophe Dilworth (GuideUs) – Drew Bassler (GuideUs) – Collin Adler (Cabaray) – Michaela Neatherton (Sente Advisory) – Gregory Stevens (TerraBridge) – Lizzie Ekeberg (Mercaris) – Anthony Loss (Pixl) – Daniel Slowinski (Classkick) – Leah Fine (Classkick) – Siena Reese (Hard Rock Hotel Chicago) – Bryce Bowman (Citizen Schools) – Cristin Zweig (Agent Ace) – Shaun Kremin (CMUK.)

Just For Fun: Ever wish it could be easier to send GIFs while texting? No? Okay, well anyway…a few members of the 1871 team (especially Kristi Dula) are loving a new app that lets users send GIFs directly from their messenger keyboard. Check it out, and keep your GIF game strong. Thanks to the amazing Jill Salzman for the recommendation! bit.ly/1ILgBvP

Birthdays this week: Sunday 4/5 – Eric Brown (Tripador) – Thursday 4/9 – Diane Lee (Alpacu) – Friday 4/10 – Saagar Gupta (Hashtagr) – Jill Salzman (The Founding Mom) – Saturday 4/11 – Adam Milich (1871)

*Don’t see your birthday here? Make sure you fill out your Weave the People Profile!

 Essential Links: @1871Chicago | http://www.1871.com | weavethepeople.com/w/1871/2015/ | www.facebook.com/1871Chicago