!!!SPECIAL ALERT!!! FROM THE DESK OF TCA: We’re taking a 6 month hiatus (July 12, 2010 – January 2011)
by jen
Discussing serious business at a TCA meeting in the park
Dearest Readers,
As some of you may know, I started the Toronto Craft Alert as a personal blog in February 2006, simply because there was no other dedicated space to find out about local crafty happenings. Since then, the TCA readership and the scope of the project has grown bigtime, and while this is a great thing indeed, it has become increasingly challenging to keep up with public demand. As a result our small, dedicated crew of volunteers, many with full-time jobs and crafty businesses of their own, have been feeling the pressure.
I’m writing you all today to let you know that the TCA website will be taking a 6 month hiatus as of Monday July 12, coming back online in January 2011. We will post all submissions received thus far, but we will no longer be able to accept your submitted listings as we work our way through current ones.
While we are offline, we encourage you to share your own crafty news through the forum, which we have re-organized to make it easier for you to do so. Also, if you are on Facebook, you can also join the TCA group and spread your news there. We will periodically send out updates through our mailing list, particularly when things heat up around the holiday craft show season.
ETA: Some places who have offered themselves up as a venue to get the word out: Toronto Etsy Street Team & Canada Arts Connect
While this news may come as a sad surprise to many, please know that as we take our first break from posting listings in over four years we plan to focus our energies on behind-the-scenes improvements. We will take this opportunity to re-energize the project, re-jig time consuming processes to make them more efficient, recruit and train more volunteers, generate more editorial content, and add important new features. We also hope to bring a more personalized voice back to the site. All of this work will ultimately lead to a stronger, more streamlined TCA.
Before we sign off, on behalf of the TCA team, I just wanted to say thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for the TCA project. We’ll see you back here in January 2011 with our crafty party hats on, ready for action!
Much love,
Jen Anisef and the TCA crew (Angelune Des Lauriers, Rosalyn Faustino, Caitlyn Murphy, Amy Borkwood, Tasha Caswell & Jennifer Wang)
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Filed under: From the Desk of TCA
1 M Solomon // Jul 6, 2010 at 12:14 am
Thanks and much appreciation for your great work, and have an energizing and fulfilling break!
2 Steph // Jul 6, 2010 at 5:23 am
We are truly lucky to have a site like TCA so thank you! Enjoy the break!
3 michelle/nft // Jul 6, 2010 at 7:16 am
*sad face*
But you all totally deserve the break! Thanks so much for all your hard work – we’ll miss you and will look forward to your return!
4 Alison // Jul 6, 2010 at 7:38 am
You guys do such an amazing job and I can’t wait to see what you have for us in 2011.
Enjoy the summer, and lots of luck with your own individual projects.
5 ola // Jul 6, 2010 at 9:31 am
Nooooo, this place is so important to me.
The forum changes are spectacular though. I’m glad you guys know how vital this newsletter/community center is for Toronto crafties.
6 maggie // Jul 6, 2010 at 10:14 am
Thank you so much for all you have done – this has been a truly wonderful site and is much appreciated. Enjoy your well-deserved break.
7 jen // Jul 6, 2010 at 10:38 am
you guys! so much love and support flowing through the inbox and right here. it is truly motivating for us to get focused on making things easier to manage so we can keep this project going for the long haul, and hopefully improve the service along the way. see you in the forums! xjx
8 Ele // Jul 6, 2010 at 2:16 pm
We’ll miss you! I’m so glad this site exists and really appreciate all your work. Looking forward to seeing the re-vamped version. Enjoy your hiatus!
9 Kristen // Jul 6, 2010 at 2:21 pm
You will definitely be missed!! TCA is such an amazing resource and I’m excited to see what happens with it next year. All the best : )
10 Ele // Jul 6, 2010 at 3:18 pm
The Toronto Etsy Street Team is happy to post vendor calls on our team blog (especially during the TCA hiatus)!
http://torontoetsystreetteam.blogspot.com/
11 arounna // Jul 7, 2010 at 7:46 pm
have a restful and creative break – looking forward to TCA when it returns.
xx
12 Nerina // Jul 9, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I am going to miss this fabulous resourse. If anyone would like to post vendor calls or team shoutouts or just to chat about the fact that you are missed, they can do so on my blog until January if they like:
http://nicnacmaniac-nicnacmaniac.blogspot.com/
Enjoy your time off and spend it wisely…we will be looking forward to your return!! Happy Summer/Fall and Winter xOxO Nerina
13 angelune // Jul 14, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Hello everyone – I am reading the forums, and it looks like lots of people are reading, but it looks like people are still too shy to reply. Don’t be afraid, there are lots of crafters looking for answers there, help each other out!