Recent updates

Eco boat-glamping idea blocked, project dead

An update for Eco boat-glamping aboard historic sailing boat in Bristol Harbour

Oct 17 2016

Keen observers will have noticed that I gave this project a big push a few weeks ago and then it all went quiet.

As soon as it launched it quickly gained support and within days we had pledges totalling £1400. The campaign was doing what I wanted which was prove that there was demand for the product and support for my vision of how to achieve it. I emailed the Harbour Master to make him aware of the crowd funding campaign and that's when progress came to a hault.  

In essence, his response said that he is not prepared to discuss licensing with me until I purchase the boat. My stance is that I am not prepared to risk purchasing the boat until licensing has been discussed and I have some indication that permission is likely to be granted. And in that we've reached stalemate.

He describes my project as a "hotel" and explains that getting permission is "a case of the Harbour Authority and Bristol City Councils mooring policy and planning if this can go ahead". As soon as I hear someone in a position of authority using words like "Planning" and "Hotel" to describe an idea that needs to go through 3 authoritative bodies it just feels like I'm being set up to fail. Would you gamble your life savings on an application being granted for "a new hotel on Bristol Harbour"? 

So here we are, watching the young flames of an idea fizzle out so soon, suffocated by bureaucracy.  The only hope for Svanskar becoming an eco-glamping experience now would be for somebody who can afford to lose £30,000 stealing the idea and executing it themselves at the risk of permission being denied. Except that's not going to happen because the kind of people who can afford to lose £30k are not the kind of people willing to spend 6 months sawing, sanding, screwing and painting for no money, they are the kind of people who pay other people to do that, and if you are paying wages you need to cover that cost and you want the end product to be a profitable, scalable business, not a one-off historic vessel.

This idea was only ever viable in conjunction with my current personal search for a big life project. I'm bored of my recent career in the web industry and keen to re-ignite my craft skills to create something amazing. Converting Svankar was going to be my Grand Design but Bristol's not ready for it.

Thank you to those who pledged support, I'm sorry I couldn't make it happen. I will keep searching for my big project. 

Martin 

The Jump - Week 3

An update for El Gran Salto (The Jump)

Oct 10 2016

Hello wonderful backers! 

We are on our third week on campaign for El Gran Salto (The Jump). Thanks to your amazing support we´ve gathered so far $2450 dollars. As you can tell, this is not even 10% of our goal. We are confident that the contributions will keep coming, so we won´t stop working for that. To encourage new backers, this week we are making a raffle of Vinicius, the official mascot of the Rio 2016 Olympics, among all new backers that arrive.

Thanks for helping us share the news and for being the life of this campaign. Have an amazing week!

Jorge Porras

Director

Vouchers - Important

An update for Bristol's First Cat Cafe

Oct 4 2016

Dear Supporters,

We are moving forward !

After another follow up with the landlord we have mapped our action plan and builders will start their work on the safety part of the building next week.

For this reason I feel it's the right time to send the Vouchers you all have been waiting for. I will be sending them on next Monday, so PLEASE keep your eyes on your spam box (from info@youandmeow.co.uk, I would recommend to add this address to your email book, because if your Voucher lands in spam, some of the emails are deleted just after few days, depending on your email settings). Not taking care of this now may cause some problems along the way which I believe are not necessary. Please bare in mind that all of our Vouchers will be valid for 6 months starting from our Official Opening Date (which will be announced end of October/beginning of November) so please make sure you receive yours. I pay attention to this as I still have not received the details from some of you even after my 4 attempts, so those Vouchers will be kept on hold.

Again, if you have not received any of my ''Perk Instructions'' emails from which I need your details please contact me at info@youandmeow.co.uk as this is the last/best time to follow up on that.

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Ewa

Rewards

An update for Beyond the Stage Photography Exhibition

Oct 3 2016

Hi all

Just a quick update for veryone who requested a reward.  If you haven't received an email about this already you will do very shortly.  Thank you for your patience :-)

Ken

LAUNCH DATE FOR THE IMPERIAL PLAN NOW SET!

An update for The Imperial Plan by The Fable

Oct 3 2016

Hi Backers, 

Well I am delighted to announce that earlier today I uploaded the entire album of The Imperial Plan to the online distributor (Tunecore) and set the launch date:

November 11th, 2016 - Armistice Day!

The album cover design is down to the last few edits, so the physical CD will be produced over the next couple of weeks in plenty of time to go on sale alongside the digital release.

It is my intent to forward copies of the CD to all of you as soon as they are ready, which should be well before November 11th. If your pledge included other rewards such as the WW1 magazine or one of the books written by Richard Van Emden about WW1 they will be forwarded along with your CD. As an added bonus, all books have been personally signed by the author.

Thanks again for all of your support. I do hope you will enjoy it and will consider it worthy enough to tell others about it.

Best regards,

Mike

Moldova-themed supper club on 20th October!

An update for Help us fund and launch 91 Ways International pop up Peace Cafes!

Oct 3 2016

----Menu release!----

Announcing our delicious menu for our Moldova-themed supper club on 20th October!

Expect scrummy pastries, stuffed vine leaves and fresh flavours, interwoven with Cezara's stories and memories.

Book here. 

Emergency Collection Update.

An update for Calais Refugee Solidarity Bristol

Oct 3 2016

As well as the van-load that left this week, we now have another 3 wonderful drivers volunteering to fill their vans with aid and drive it over to Calais for us in the next 2 weeks. We need your help to fill them! Please drop off any donations ASAP and please share this with people outside this group.

10000 people will soon be displaced yet again and we need to do what we can minimise that trauma if at all possible.

https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/calais-refugee-support-group-bristol 

Get ready for a Sunday suprise!

An update for Victoria Klewin & The TrueTones debut album

Oct 1 2016

Hi everyone,

Hope you're having a great weekend so far and the months have been kind to you all. It feels to me like the summer lasted about 5 minutes! I'm delighted to say that I'm about to make it all better by telling you that TOMORROW I will be making the FULL ALBUM available to YOU exclusively!! This will be the digital tracks for streaming and/or download. Hard copies will follow as soon as they are manufactured. I can't wait for you to hear it!

We have already had some wonderful responses from various radio and press and are expecting more in the coming months by way of reviews, interviews and more airplay. BBC Radio Scotland have been showing the album a lot of love and a few magazines have asked for features. My big goal however is BBC Radio 2 or 6 music...some play from them would be ideal...and then there's Jools Holland, but that's a tough nut to crack. It's really vital that we try to maximise promotion/publicity for the album and create a buzz around the project to make sure it gets heard by the right people. So...once you've all had a listen to the album you so generously helped to create, please use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or whatever other medium you like to tell us (and everyone else!) what you think. If you're partial to a hashtag please use #vktt #victoriaklewin #dancemetoheaven. If social media isn't your thing, please do get in touch by email or a message on here. Your feedback is really important to us as this album is as much yours as it is ours!

In the coming weeks and months you can expect more exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and footage, an announcement of the date for the private launch event in Bristol (to which you are all invited!) and your hard copies and other rewards in the post (unless you're coming to the launch event, in which case they will be wrapped up for you in nice shiny paper by our little elves, i.e: me!). We will be using the launch event to also shoot footage for the next video/single release. We've chosen to release 'Home Alone' as the next single as it's been one of the strongest tracks on the album in terms of media response. No-one else knows that yet though, so shhhhh! ;)

Soooooooo much to do still so I better love you and leave you for now, but here are a few shots from the photoshoot we did for the album cover. Hope you like them. Check your inboxes tomorrow to hear the finished product!! Woooo, here we go!

THANK YOU!!!!

Victoria xxx

SXSW Apprentice

An update for The South by Southwest Apprentice

Sep 29 2016

Thank you to everyone who has given so generously over the last week - we are short of our target but the total so far means that we will be able to offer an Apprentice 5 months of mentoring and a trip to SXSW, which is a truly extraordinary opportunity.  We are very grateful to you all.  

There is still time to pledge so please do continue to talk about the initiative and encourage your contacts to support it.

Very many thanks from us all at Bristol Media.

Semana 1 Campaña El Gran Salto

An update for El Gran Salto (The Jump)

Sep 27 2016

Hola! 

Hace una semana que lanzamos la campaña para El Gran Salto. Nuevamente quiero agradecerte tu gran aportación. En verdad ha sido invaluable para arrancar y motivar a más gente a que participe en este proyecto. 

Hemos visto mucho interés en apoyar a que la película sea una realidad. Pero también nos hemos dado cuenta de que poca gente conoce en realidad cómo funciona una campaña de Crowdfunding. Quizá esa sea una de las razones por las que no se han animado a hacer una aportación.

En esta segunda semana trataremos de explicar en que consiste el proceso de aportar a una campaña como esta y porqué es una opción cada vez más utilizada para sacar adelante proyectos como el nuestro. Así cómo cuales son los beneficios para todos al contribuir. 

¿Tienes alguna sugerencia de cómo podríamos mejorar la campaña? ¿Conoces a alguien que creas pueda también ser parte de ella?

¡Gracias nuevamente! Tus aportaciones y comentarios nos acercan cada vez más a la meta. 

Excelente semana. 

Jorge Porras,

Director