Cart 0 items Login | Register | Help Buy Sell Alchemy Community Blog Your Etsy Handmade Items: tags, titles Handmade Items: tags, titles, descriptions Supplies: tags, titles Vintage: tags, titles All items: tags, titles Sellers: usernames Materials Home > Workshop > Minutes Workshop Minutes: Street Team Meeting 2008.2.28 Minutes Started Thu Feb 28 2008 16:17:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) kristinalaw joined the room kristinalaw left the room RunAliceRun joined the room RunAliceRun left the room ArtMind joined the room ArtMind: Oops, all alone... :) BululuStudio joined the room BululuStudio: Hello! ArtMind: Hi Bulu ArtMind: Was just complaining I was all alone BululuStudio: hi BululuStudio: no anymore ArtMind: you know what's happening here soon? sarawearsskirts: teams workshop! sarawearsskirts: http://team.etsy.com/workshops.html ArtMind: Hmm... I'm part of a team but no team leader BululuStudio: oh ArtMind: What time does it start exactly? ArtMind: It's nearly 5.30 pm here BululuStudio: ok bye ArtMind: Bye sarawearsskirts: it begins at noon EST sarawearsskirts: so about half an hour BululuStudio left the room ArtMind: OK, might be back then... :) See ya! BeadedSocks joined the room sarawearsskirts: artmind, this is not just for team leaders sarawearsskirts: it's for anyone on a team sarawearsskirts: oh boy, we're dropping like flies. :) BeadedSocks: Hi Sara & ArtMind kimmchi joined the room BeadedSocks: Sara ~ the critique helped last week. I retook most of my sock pictures and really like the results. Thanks! sarawearsskirts: oh excellent! BeadedSocks: :) sarawearsskirts: ooooh! sarawearsskirts: that looks so nice! sarawearsskirts: i like how the pink compliments the beads! BeadedSocks: Better than on white. sarawearsskirts: much! sarawearsskirts: is it just pink paper? BeadedSocks: I might try a few different background colors, but for now we are using pink. Yes, Pink posterboard found in the art department. sarawearsskirts: amazing. sarawearsskirts: it's so good sarawearsskirts: your shop is looking for nice and consistent! BeadedSocks: I love my light box! sarawearsskirts: yay! sarawearsskirts: i think these could use a little pink paper action sarawearsskirts: but overall, it looks wonderful! BeadedSocks: Yes, I am going to get blue, but maybe pink would be better for now. :) sarawearsskirts: i see you've already had two sales today! sarawearsskirts: excellent! BeadedSocks: I didn't even notice LOL sarawearsskirts: sacrilege! you didn't notice two sales!?! :) BeadedSocks: Still laughing! BeadedSocks: What is the topic for today? sarawearsskirts: i wanted to go over teams and using the virtual labs vs. private chat rooms, and see if anyone has success stories from the critiques. sarawearsskirts: (you're a great example!) BeadedSocks: Can you remind me how we schedule a room in virtual labs? Moms should have a group critique. It would be fun. BeadedSocks: There are a lot of critiques in the forum, but the labs are such a great place for everyone to really get involved. sarawearsskirts: well, the how-to of scheduling a labs room is something i'm working on BeadedSocks: Is there a room, you would suggest to all meet in ~ at a certain time? sarawearsskirts: so i was hoping to get a feel for what teams are looking for in using it sarawearsskirts: mmm, no, right now the labs are mostly open when there's an admin in them, is my understanding Minutes Stopped Thu Feb 28 2008 16:37:08 GMT+0000 (UTC) Minutes Started Thu Feb 28 2008 16:52:08 GMT+0000 (UTC) BeadedSocks: We are both Utah :) sarawearsskirts: shall we begin? montezumamudd: Let's wildwood: ok sarawearsskirts: thanks, all, for joining us! sarawearsskirts: i wanted to go over a couple things this week sarawearsskirts: i'm meeting with marymary, the admin who does a lot of work in the virtual labs sarawearsskirts: about guidelines for allowing teams to schedule events and things in the labs sarawearsskirts: so soon we'll have a simple how-to for scheduling rooms, since right now things are falling through some cracks sarawearsskirts: and i want to afford teams all the resources we can in terms of meeting virtually. sarawearsskirts: :) Please vote: are you on an etsy team currently? sarawearsskirts: great! if you're not, are you familiar with the teams program? montezumamudd left the room sarawearsskirts: you can find more information on etsy teams here: http://team.etsy.com montezumamudd joined the room Vote results: 6 yay, 1 nay, 4 abstain Please vote: click yes if you're on a global team, no if you're on a location team sarawearsskirts: great! so we have a slight majority of global team members today, which is nice for our topic of discussion then Vote results: 5 yay, 3 nay, 3 abstain sarawearsskirts: okay sarawearsskirts: to ask questions publicly here in the workshops, sarawearsskirts: you can type /ask in to the chat bar at the bottom of the screen, followed by your question sarawearsskirts: and i'll go through and we can answer the questions and discuss them together IndieMoon joined the room sarawearsskirts: okay, /poll would your team be interested in holding events in the virtual labs in the future? sarawearsskirts: sorry! Please vote: would your team be interested in holding events in the virtual labs in the future? ReiGN joined the room sarawearsskirts: okay, great! Vote results: 7 yay, 1 nay, 4 abstain sarawearsskirts: so i see this is important for teams wildwood asks, what is the avg size of global teams...members sarawearsskirts: great question! sarawearsskirts: global teams, until recently were, for the most part, fairly large sarawearsskirts: lately we've had an influx of smaller global teams sarawearsskirts: a lot fo teams migrating over from eBay groups sarawearsskirts: okay, i'm going to open the floor in a moment OzarkGypsyArt joined the room sarawearsskirts asks, what would teams like to use the virtual labs for? sarawearsskirts: (floor's open!) kristinalaw: Planning events sarawearsskirts: virtual trunk shows have been mentioned in the past wildwood: we would use labs to plan our events kristinalaw: Cross promoting sarawearsskirts: planning is a great use - like general meetings ReiGN: what is a virtua; trunk show ? BeadedSocks: trunk shows and critques wildwood: but we're already doing that privately on yahoo groups OzarkGypsyArt left the room sarawearsskirts: oooh, kristina - elaborate on that idea! crimsonseadragon: virtual trunk shows is a must for global teams sarawearsskirts: reign, a virtual trunk show might be when teams get buyers into the virtual labs and put up listing cards and then can answer buyer questions montezumamudd: Please explain trunk shows a bit more sarawearsskirts: in real time kristinalaw: Well each week we could have a specific activity to cross promote sarawearsskirts: you would advertise a time / date kristinalaw: and here we could talk about it ReiGN: o that is cool, thanks kristinalaw: exchange ideas sarawearsskirts: nice! kimmchi: Yesi think that would be cool - the virtual trunk shows dkskinner left the room kristinalaw: talk about what we have done dkskinner left the room Please vote: did you know you can create private chat room for your team? Vote results: 7 yay, 3 nay, 1 abstain ReiGN: we hold our meeting in the chats wildwood: our members aren't very chatty sarawearsskirts: you can create rooms here: http://www.etsy.com/chat_main.php wildwood: but they do pitch in when there's action to take sarawearsskirts: i guess i'm wondering what the benefit of a team using the virtual labs vs. the chat rooms might be, other than an increased capacity sarawearsskirts: what do you all think? wildwood: I would think participation is the key montezumamudd: We would probably still continue to do all our chatting in our thread. ReiGN: can WE use our cams in the virtual labs wildwood: if you build it...will they come? sarawearsskirts: do you think you'd get more participation in a virtual lab? kristinalaw: I think so sarawearsskirts: reign, an etsy admin has to be present for the webcams to be enabled. crimsonseadragon: yes yes ReiGN: o crimsonseadragon: business in the labs crimsonseadragon: life in the chat rooms sarawearsskirts: which is why it would need to be scheduled in advance - so we can plan to be working crimsonseadragon: that's the difference sarawearsskirts: crimson, that's one way of looking at it montezumamudd: We have tried to schedule live chats in the past, but being a global team and having members who work real jobs, it is hard to find a time that works for the majority. sarawearsskirts: but the chat rooms can certianly be used effectively for "business" of team sarawearsskirts: montezuma, i understand that completely! :) kimmchi: i have never been in the chat area, is it organized like this? crimsonseadragon: yes, but people have a lot of fun talking about other things sarawearsskirts: trying to find a time to even hold these workshops is a challenge! wildwood: what about a static page that visitors leave comments? sarawearsskirts: here's the link, kimmchi wildwood: doesnt require our presence sarawearsskirts: http://www.etsy.com/chat.php?room_id=green/room sarawearsskirts: wildwood, that's kind of what the forums are, no? etsyBABY joined the room kimmchi: thanks montezumamudd: Yes - that is how the Mud Team uses the forum. junkculture joined the room wildwood: well I was thinking a page withelements that stay there for a speicifed length sarawearsskirts: hmmm montezumamudd: elements? wildwood: like if we want to hold a special promotion for Mothers Day sarawearsskirts: i think that's whole other flashy program (ie, jared would need to build a new space, which i think is unlikely at this time, since he just built us these lovely labs) wildwood: and we build a page with a few link and photos wildwood: ok sarawearsskirts: so, given the amazing tools we currently have, wildwood: I guess we already do that with our blogs anyway IndieMoon: perhaps just a teams calendar page sarawearsskirts: how can we help teams use these virtual rooms better? crimsonseadragon: ooh i like the calendar idea sarawearsskirts: indiemoon, that's something that will come with the new teams section montezumamudd: Cute! sarawearsskirts: we're working on that for the big community teams pages upgrades kristinalaw: Teams calendar page is a great idea IndieMoon: great sarawearsskirts: okay, given the tools and pages we HAVE, what can we do? sarawearsskirts: :) sarawearsskirts: we could dream up new tools and pages all day perfectlyadorned left the room wildwood: :) etsyBABY: Wanted to say hi - 1st time here :) - Jen sarawearsskirts: but let's talk about how to use the ones we have effectively kristinalaw: oki sarawearsskirts: since we really have great things available currently IndieMoon: is there a way to capture these kinds of sessions? sarawearsskirts: that i think we could use effectively sarawearsskirts: indiemoon, i post transcripts on the workshop page in the teams section sarawearsskirts: http://team.etsy.com/workshops.html montezumamudd: I am not that familiar with the capabilities of these rooms - what more can they do? brefour joined the room sarawearsskirts: for past transcripts sarawearsskirts: let me give you all a quick tour? IndieMoon: ok that's good - what about the chats? posting an events log would be useful for the global teams sarawearsskirts: for fun, we can throw things kristinalaw: how about a storque article featuring a different team each week? brefour left the room sarawearsskirts: kristina - i did that for a while, but we decided to scale back the content of the storque to make it more readable sarawearsskirts: so that's not going to happen again, at least for a whil kristinalaw: I see junkculture left the room junkculture joined the room kristinalaw: Many people I talk to do not even know about teams sarawearsskirts: for trunk shows in here, you can make listing cards, similiar to the chat rooms projectfelt joined the room kristinalaw: So what could we do to get the word out in an organized matter? etsyBABY left the room etsyBABY joined the room sarawearsskirts: kristina, what ideas do you have? kristinalaw: I like that idea sarawearsskirts: i do several teams-centered articles for the storque each week kristinalaw: For the labs? sarawearsskirts: and there's the section of the forums kristinalaw: Or the chatrooms? sarawearsskirts: what do you mean? sarawearsskirts: (sorry, i'm not following) sarawearsskirts: for the labs? junkculture left the room kristinalaw: You asked me what ideas did I have? art4milkbones joined the room sarawearsskirts: what ideas for getting the word about teams out sarawearsskirts: let's brainstorm kristinalaw: I do not know yet sarawearsskirts: okay wildwood: blogs! kristinalaw: I am still brand new sarawearsskirts: right kristinalaw: but I am learning a lot sarawearsskirts: there's a new blog ring for team blogs now wildwood: coolness sarawearsskirts: did you all see that? wildwood: I needs it montezumamudd: link, please kristinalaw: Yes I added our team to it already sarawearsskirts: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5491985 sarawearsskirts: great! sarawearsskirts: i'm really excited about it! kristinalaw: Me too. wildwood: vury kewl, sara sarawearsskirts: so, let's get back to our original topic - sarawearsskirts: how teams can use the Virtual Labs and the Chat Rooms kristinalaw: How aobut putting something on a main page about the teams sarawearsskirts: the Teams have a prominent link from the Community page art4milkbones left the room kristinalaw: so new people can find out right away about it sarawearsskirts: it's right there when you click "community" wildwood: our members want to reach buyers beyond etsy kristinalaw: I know that sarawearsskirts: wildwood, yes. reaching out is what teams are all about kristinalaw: but many of my new members do not go there sarawearsskirts: why not? kristinalaw: If I did not tell them how to get there kristinalaw: they probably would not find us here sarawearsskirts: kristina, out of curosity, how are new members finding your team if they don't know where the teams pages are? sarawearsskirts: i'm confused about that wildwood: we get new members from forums posts more than anything sarawearsskirts: are you recruiting? you could send a link to the community hub when reaching out to new members wildwood: but Id like to use virtula labs to connect with buyers kristinalaw: I go through the stores I am interedted in and I send them a personal invitation montezumamudd: It might be fun to have a monthly meet and greet - a new team each month. People could stop in and meet the artists and ask questions. kimmchi: my team is getting abit overlya "chatty" in thegoogl egroup, so we may start doing a weekly chat like this to vrain storm before our physical meetings sarawearsskirts: but if people are finding the forums, they're on the page that has the big link to the teams, as well! sarawearsskirts: that was why we redesigned the site a bit to include this community hub sarawearsskirts: good idea, kimmchi kimmchi: i really apologize for my bad typing wildwood: I like the new community arrangement sarawearsskirts: i do, too, wildwood kristinalaw: I have not seen the new arragement yet kristinalaw: I will go and check it out sarawearsskirts: kristina, that's great, but perhaps when you're reaching out to new members, include a little explanation of the community page kristinalaw: That is cool kristinalaw: Thank you sarawearsskirts: http://www.etsy.com/community.php kimmchi: me too - takes the focus off the forums montezumamudd: What about a monthly meet and greet - a new team each month. sarawearsskirts: yeah, it's been there over a month now, and the teams inbox has been full ever since! kristinalaw: I will from now on wildwood: can virtual labs help us with demonstrations?... sarawearsskirts: people are really finding teams easier than before - it's a lot more exposure. IndieMoon: I like the Montez 'team meet n greet' idea wildwood: like if we want to show something being made... sarawearsskirts: wildwood, elaborate, i like where you're going with this sarawearsskirts: ahhh sarawearsskirts: that would be a great idea kimmchi: yes, we have gotten like 20 new members this month, we were wondering where it was coming from! sarawearsskirts: something we should schedule with marymary IndieMoon: ohhh now THAT would be wonderful!!! wildwood: well if we have video, or photos or woodcarving (for instnance) sarawearsskirts: kimmchi, that's where! sarawearsskirts: wildwood, that would be great - wildwood: and the maker is in person to describe wildwood: and demonstrate! sarawearsskirts: i think the labs can support live cams (not video) kimmchi: wildwood - that sounds tooo cool! sarawearsskirts: but having a live demonstration in cooperation with the labs ladies would be amazing wildwood: people LOVE to see something being made IndieMoon: ok - is there anyplace in the team's tools that we could link a youtube? IndieMoon: But the realtime demo like wildwood mentioned... they would LOVE that sarawearsskirts: indiemoon, a team leader can email me a link to include on the team's profile page and i can put it in there wildwood: several of my members make a regular circuit thru shows sarawearsskirts: great! wildwood: to demonstrate wildwood: it would be great if we could "Be there" with them sarawearsskirts: yes! this is somethin gi'll suggest to mary sarawearsskirts: i lov it wildwood: :) sarawearsskirts: *love sarawearsskirts: okay, virtual trunk shows, demonstrations... cherryscreations joined the room sarawearsskirts: how else could teams use the virtual labs? sarawearsskirts: these ideas are awesome sarawearsskirts: general meetings... wildwood: I think shoppers would like to see some action wildwood: so to speak sarawearsskirts: exactly kimmchi: actually something my team is struggling with is business advice crimsonseadragon: it makes the Etsy buying experience so much more personal kimmchi: so maybe a visit from an accountant who specializes in artists doing Q and A kimmchi: sorry, that was off topic sarawearsskirts: ooh, like specialized. sarawearsskirts: specialized speakers, rather sarawearsskirts: nice kimmchi: yes :) sarawearsskirts: okay, great list! sarawearsskirts: virtual trunk shows sarawearsskirts: general meetings sarawearsskirts: special speakers sarawearsskirts: demonstrations sarawearsskirts: ... sarawearsskirts: these are great! sarawearsskirts: what else can we come up with? wildwood: dang, we're good wildwood: :) sarawearsskirts: :) kimmchi: heh heh heh projectfelt left the room kristinalaw: How about virtual auctions wildwood: ugh etsyBABY: I am thinking,lol Please vote: did your team do a critique, a la the team tip, this week or last week? sarawearsskirts: http://team.etsy.com/teamtips.html sarawearsskirts: team tips! sarawearsskirts: kristina, etsy doesn't do auctions sarawearsskirts: (but good thinking - keep it coming!) sarawearsskirts: okay, then you all have a mini-homework assignment! kristinalaw: OK etsyBABY: lol sarawearsskirts: get someone else on your team! Vote results: 0 yay, wildwood: good info sarawearsskirts: and say "let's critique each other's shops!" sarawearsskirts: and then visit this list http://team.etsy.com/teamtips.html uncommondepth joined the room sarawearsskirts: of critiquing points. montezumamudd: We do that on a daily basis sarawearsskirts: excellent, montezuma! wildwood: daily! wow sarawearsskirts: then, when you're both done. kimmchi: we ar etrying to schedule a shop critique, but it hasn't happened yet sarawearsskirts: each of you does the same thing with another member sarawearsskirts: and so one sarawearsskirts: it's a GREAT exercise! etsyBABY: I would be wary of that causing feelings being hurt among our members re: critique crimsonseadragon: Etsy for Autism is very new so we are learning montezumamudd: Usually the team critiques one shop. Please vote: will you try to do your homework this weekend? :) wildwood: lol sarawearsskirts: yay! sarawearsskirts: okay, great sarawearsskirts: it should only take like 15 minutes or so wildwood: together we can do anything! sarawearsskirts: but can really be helpful! sarawearsskirts: we did some live critiques in the workshop here last week crimsonseadragon: awesome Vote results: 10 yay, 0 nay, 3 abstain sarawearsskirts: and http://beadedsocks.etsy.com, for example, has since improved her photos sarawearsskirts: and gotten some sales! wildwood: no THAT's action wildwood: now sarawearsskirts: i like to stress telling shops what they're doing well along with what can be improved. etsyBABY: That's a great idea - having it be positive. sarawearsskirts: are there other questions about the virtual labs or team tips or critiques? sarawearsskirts: excellent@ sarawearsskirts: well, thanks for coming out, all! sarawearsskirts: this was a wonderful brainstorm! kimmchi: Thanks sara uncommondepth left the room BeadedSocks: Thanks Sara ReiGN: ho do you suggest we handle the money etsyBABY: Thank you Sara kimmchi left the room cherryscreations left the room sarawearsskirts: reign - team money? ReiGN: yes RonanJames joined the room sarawearsskirts: would you email that question to me at teams@etsy.com and i'll send you some links? sarawearsskirts: with helpful information? ReiGN: k sarawearsskirts: excellent sarawearsskirts: thansk! sarawearsskirts: great session! About | Press | Contact | Teams | Jobs | Merch Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy © 2008 Etsy Inc.