SUE FEA

Last updated18:19, June 26 2017

Theresa Fryer

Arrowtown singer-songwriter Holly Arrowsmith is crowd funding her latest album.

House concerts and wedding gigs are all up for grabs as Queenstown's own TUI Award-winning queen of folk Holly Arrowsmith turns to crowdfunding for her second album due out later this year.

Arrowsmith, who was back home in Queenstown early this week to star in Auckland folk band Tiny Ruins' Sherwood show, launched a Kickstarter campaign on June 15.

She has until July 6 -22 days - to raise the $21,000 to fund her second album, which is almost complete.

Donations can range from as little as $10 or $20, for a free digital album or CD, through to $1000 for which Arrowsmith will sing at your wedding.

"I'll sing you down the isle and do a one-hour canape set for guests. For $1500 I'll do that in Australia as well, travel included," she said.

So far she's been pledged two $500 house concerts in Queenstown and Te Awamutu.

"We set up in your living room, or backyard, and create a beautiful ambience."

She's offering a host of other rewards, and if she doesn't reach her target by July 6, people don't pay on their pledges.

"I'm nervous, but hopeful," Arrowsmith said.

She's already got a generous pledge from an American family, who drove 321 kms (200 miles) from Minnesota to Wyoming to hear her show in the United States.

"People are basically pre-ordering now, buying my album to support its creation."

The money will cover production, mastering, pressing vinyls, CDs and marketing.

Arrowsmith describes this as her "most honest work yet" themes of home-sickness, loss, painful growth and hope in dim places. Cities emerge "like dark forests" for the first time, but as always there's a

strong reflection of nature.

Slow Train Creekwas written in a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado during her American tour last year.

Most of the nine new songs were recorded in a 'pop-up studio' created in a Colac Bay bach where Arrowsmith and her Arrowtown producers, Tom Lynch and Steve Roberts, were holed up making music for several

weeks late last year.

"I think recording in that bach at Colac Bay has had a massive influence on the album," she said.

"It feels like you're sitting there next to the fire with me. The intimacy is cool."

She's trying to build on that in the final stages being recorded at renowned Lyttelton music studio, The Sitting Room,where she's working with producer Ben Edwards, who's recorded with Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin and The Eastern.

Arrowsmith may have been born in Sante Fe, New Mexico, but it's the mountains of her beloved Wakatipu where she grew up, that have inspired the album.

"I'd just moved to Auckland 18 months ago when I started writing the album. I literally wrote the first song, Farewell,as we were driving out of the Kawarau Gorge, saying 'goodbye' to my home and all those nostalgic memories," she said.

"When I returned to Auckland from my South Island tour last year, and drove into that southern motorway, I felt really disappointed."

Soon after she and husband, Mike, moved to Christchurch.

"Auckland isn't a bad place, but I'm just a South Island girl at heart. I miss the people, the mountains, family and friends."

To donate search 'Holly Arrowsmith' on http://www.kickstarter.com

-Stuff

Read the original:
Arrowtown musician Holly Arrowsmith crowd funding new album - The Southland Times

CHEYENNE Steve Borin, a Cheyenne businessman and developer, is looking into using crowd funding as a way to buy a vacant building in downtown Cheyenne.

Borin informally presented his idea Tuesday to the City of Cheyennes Fight the Blight Committee.

His concept would help bring the vacant Bell Building at 1605 Central Ave. back to useful life or ultimately tear it down and use the space for other purposes.

Crowd funding is a process where people donate money online for a specific purpose.

Everybody who gives money to the crowd fund would then be interested in the downtown, Borin said. He stressed that he still is working out the kinks in his plan, but first the City of Cheyenne could use some of its grant money from the Environmental Protection Agencys brown field project to pay for cleaning up asbestos at the old building.

Once thats done, the public could buy the building through crowd funding. Anyone could contribute to the cost of the 18,869-square-foot building in downtown Cheyenne.

Developers could bid their proposals for renovation or redevelopment on the publicly owned building to the City of Cheyenne, he said. The city would select the developer and work could begin.

Personally, Borin likes the idea of creating a public meeting space there.

Thats a realistic approach. We do the crowd funding to get it to the point where somebody could bid on it and then rehab the building in a logical fashion, he said.

If the idea works, it can be used again with other vacant buildings in downtown Cheyenne.

It appears to me that its time that we cant lean on any particular public entity, he said, like the city or the Downtown Development Authority/Main Street.

Borin renovated an old building on 17th Street and turned its upper floors into five lofts.

I know it can be done, he said. It will take a lot of participating from everybody and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking.

The project would need to raise between $300,000 and $400,000.

The four-story Bell Building at 1605 Central Ave. has been vacant since 2004, according to Patrick Graham, a real estate agent who is listing the property for $425,000.

The earthen-colored building was constructed in 1913 and once was used as a car dealership, Graham said. He has seen a photograph of the building where six large floor-to-ceiling glass windows accent the second and third floors instead of the small windows located there now. Parked behind the windows are automobiles.

The building itself has huge I-beams inside, and structurally it is a pretty sound building, Graham said. But theres water damage and buckled floors, he said.

Speaking from a personal standpoint, Graham said the building can be saved, but he represents his clients first.

He said hes not sure how Borins plan would work, and that it has pros and cons.

Borin said his idea can improve downtown.

You take an unused property and make it bloom again, he said.

See more here:
Crowd funding could be used to buy the long-vacant Bell Building downtown - Wyoming Tribune

Thanks to changes in federal and state statutes, Wyoming residents will be able - as of July 1 - to make investments through crowdfunding options. Information released by Secretary of State Ed Murray's office notes that crowd funding occurs when a business raises capital by seeking and receiving monetary investments by a large number of people.

The practice had not been available to investors until the Wyoming Legislature amended state securities statutes. Federal legislation was also changed a few years ago enabling individuals to invest in a non-publicly traded company if they were an "accredited investor" with $200,000 in hand or $300,000 in annual income or net worth over $1.0 million. Now, residents of Wyoming can invest in Wyoming businesses by joining others as investors.

The Secretary of State's information notes "crowdfunding platforms serve as portals where contributors can view, research and fund projects in various sectors, including technology, manufacturing and more." The office notes, "numerous crowdfunding platforms are active and raise millions of dollars for various projects."

There are five basic forms of crowdfunding:

1.Donations are a philanthropic gift with no expectation of a return.

2. Rewards are contributions in exchange for a possible pre-order of a product or other premiums.

3,4 and 5 Lending, Equity and Royalty all involve capital repayment, an ownership in a business or a share of revenue earned in return for an investment.

There have already been various crowd-funding operations that help non-profits in Wyoming, including the Powell Economic Partnership that used part of a $100,000 in federal funding to kickstart local efforts.

Will Dinneen of the Secretary of State's office said donation-based crowdfunding has been around for years in Wyoming and across the U.S. "WIN is different as it allows for the offer and sale of financial securities through crowd funding. Instead of receiving a gift or a possible tax deduction for a contribution, under WIN and other equity based models an investor would receive ownership shares in a business." Only Wyoming based companies and Wyoming investors can participate in WIN authorized efforts.

Wyoming statutes were changed in 2016 when Secretary of State Ed Murray noted that securities-based crowd funding would be incorporated into modernization of the Wyoming Securities Act. The agency included in proposed legislative changes WIN, the acronym for Wyoming Invests Now. The Cowboy State joined 36 other states in allowing crowd funding as a method individuals can use to invest in companies in Wyoming.

Once a business entity is registered with the Secretary of State's office they can initiate a crowd-funding model, which allows for equity or debt-based forms of securities or a combination of both. In return, investors are eligible to see a financial return on their money. Murray's information released earlier in June notes that "WIN opens new opportunities for potential adult investors."

Secretary Murray said, "WIN will open the door to community investors and allow them the opportunity to evaluate a good business idea, invest [their money] and seek a return on that investment." There are still risks with WIN investments, as there are with any participation in buying stocks, mutual funds or a variety of other products. Kelly Janes is director of the Secretary of State's Compliance Division. In an interview with AARPs Wyoming Newsletter she said "crowd funding is an exciting opportunity to raise capital but we want to caution investors to do their homework and contact our office to check the legitimacy of any investment offering."

The Secretary of State's office in Cheyenne can be reached at 307/777-7370 or atcompliance@wyo.gov.

Here is the original post:
Wyo. Sect'y of State unveils new crowdfunding platform - Wyoming Business Report

#HB7069:Backroom dealing over the Florida Legislature's proposed education budget and conforming bill caught even lawmakers offguard. Education advocates continue to call for a veto of HB 7069 despite Gov. Rick Scott's insistence on higher per-student funding as part of the agreement. St. Johns County school district leaders worry that provisions for "schools of hope" in the bill will diminish support for traditional public schools, the St. Augustine Record reports. More on "schools of hope" from TC Palm. A special session begins Wednesday, Florida Politics reports.

TEACHER DIVERSITY: The Pinellas County school district aims to increase its ratio of black teachers.

CROWD FUNDING:South Florida teachers turn to online fundraising sources to help pay for some basic classroom items, as well as some extras, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

BUDGET CUTS: Marion County school district leaders look for $10 million in spending reductions that have limited classroom effect, the Ocala Star-Banner reports.

SUMMER SLIDE:Polk County educators offer ideas to keep kids learning over the summer, the Ledger reports.

COST OF LIVING:Gov. Rick Scott vetoes funding to study teacher cost-of-living disparities, the Miami Herald reports.

SUPERINTENDENTS:Clay County School Board members give new superintendent Addison Davis positive marks after six months on the job, the Florida Times-Union reports.

SCHEDULING:All Lee County middle schools will run on the same block schedules in the fall, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

LETTERHEAD: Sarasota High School gets a new address after renovations relocate its entrance, the Herald-Tribune reports.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING: A lab school in Gainesville dives into personalized learning for its students, Redefined reports.

READING LESSONS: Sarasota County schools rely on Direct Instruction to teach children to read, the Herald-Tribune reports.

NEW LAW:Gov. Rick Scott has signed into law HB 293, mandating a study of high-performing middle school reading and math programs in other states. The study has a budget of $50,000.

See original here:
Florida education news: #HB7069, teacher diversity, crowd funding and more - Tampabay.com (blog)