LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD

NEXT STEPS, THANK YOUS, AND FREE STUFF

Hard to believe the second year of EIY Meet-Ups on the Vans Warped Tour has already come and gone! Seems like we were just on the EIY Spring (Into Action) Tour, in preparation for the summer, but it’s already September, and almost the end of another year, and yet there are still so many exciting things that have come up this year that we want to get going! EIY Chapters, Scene Meet-Ups, Scene Reporters, tours, events, and maybe even the launch of a new website… finally… someday? What about the Guild we started in St Pete? What’s the plan with that?

But before we launch 1,000 new ships in 1,000 new directions, I want to take a moment to say thanks to a few people. It’s always a good idea to stop what you’re doing and think about all the people who have helped get you to where you are in life — and if you can’t thank them in person, at least thank them in your heart and mind. They’ll get the message one way or another.

It takes a lot to keep the wheels on this EIY wagon turning, and this idea/project/website/movement absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, and almost to an embarrassing degree, could not would not should not be where it is today without the help of sooooo many individuals across the continent — and the world — including YOU!

Just this year alone, a handful of new, dedicated, passionate, driven people have stepped out and offered a helping hand to me when I needed it most. So, here is my short but emphatic “thank you” shout-out to those people who have kept EIY afloat in 2011:

Natalie from We Are The Kids: Natalie stepped up and took on the responsibility of being the Warped Tour Street Team manager, organizing hundreds of kids and managing tons of messages and content, including the EIY tumblr blog and all the Warped Tour press correspondents throughout the summer. Holy crap, to say that Natalie killed it is the biggest understatement of the year. She may as well have actually killed something, that’s how much she killed it. I thank my lucky stars every day for her help and I’m super excited to see how we can continue to work together now that Warped is over! Be sure to check out the amazing work she is doing through her own blog, We Are The Kids. And oh, did I mention she is only 18 years old? WTF!

Selena Rox, production intern on Warped: Selena was blind-sided one week before the Warped Tour started with an email from Kevin Lyman saying that she would be organizing the EIY Meet-Ups each day on the tour, in my absence. Not only did Selena rise to the occasion, but she did so with enthusiasm and brought her own ideas to the table to make it a successful summer! She posted photos and tweets and comments every day through the EIY Twitter and EIY Facebook Page, so that everyone who missed the tour or the meet-ups could get a feel for what was happening each day backstage. I’m so grateful to Selena for her help this summer, hit her up to say thanks on Twitter!

Joe from Shut Up And Deal: Though Joe actually got involved with EIY in 2010 at the meet-ups on Warped, he really stepped it up this year and filled my shoes at the meet-ups each day, in addition to performing each day with his band and worrying about his own responsibilities on the tour. The fact that he took the time to devote energy and focus to EIY’s efforts and share his own DIY/EIY life experiences is amazing, and I’m excited to hear his feedback and hopefully bring him even further into the EIY circle!

Aside from these three incredible volunteers, I also want to thank Kalani from Phoenix for stepping up when I needed helping with the Facebook page at the start of the tour, and my friend Alex from Brave Citizens for going on the EIY tour with me to tour manage and keep me sane. Of course, I can never thank Kevin Lyman, Lisa Brownlee, Sara Baer, Keri Lee, Julie Grant, or any of the Warped Tour staff enough for always supporting me and my crazy ideas, and for giving EIY a platform on such a gigantic and influential tour.

Now, as for where to go next?!

I think I’m going to kick off this next chapter with many chapters — collectively known as the EIY HANDBOOK.

That’s right, finally, I made it work and got a link for you to download the eBook version of the EIY Handbook, for free! You have waited long enough, and I apologize for the delay! Let me take a moment to explain: I made this zine the old school way, by cutting out all the sections and taping them together to make the pages for the book, then photocopying each page into booklet format to create the master copy. So when I wanted to scan the whole thing in to make an eBook version, I had to do it page by page, turn each into a PDF, and then combine all the PDFs into one big file that I then had to arrange and compress. When I did this, the quality of some of the pages — particularly the interview profile pages with photographs of each contributor in the zine — went way down, and looked terrible on a computer screen. After messing with it a few times and deciding not to reformat the entire thing on my computer, I decided to just take out the interview pages and put them up online instead. So that means that THE eBOOK DOES NOT CONTAIN ALL 60 PAGES OF THE ZINE. The eBook version is only pages with just text, no photos. Keep reading to find out how you can view the missing interview pages without having to get the hard copy if you don’t want to. OR, to get the full original version of the zine with all the interviews, donate now via the website in the left-hand column (it’s a pay-what-you-can sliding scale) and I will mail you your very own handmade copy, plus some free goodies (buttons, guitar picks, and a pamphlet)!

I’m going to be posting one contributor interview per week right here on the EIY blog, starting next Monday 9/12! The interviews will be posted in the order that they are in the book (alphabetically), starting with Adam Kreeft from Kreeft Booking and going through all 35(?) different musicians, booking agents, managers, tour managers, merchandisers, writers, photographers, tour producers, label owners, entrepreneurs, tour accountants, and more!

That should give us all something to chew on while we grease up the wheels and start working on the new phase for the EIY movement.

And don’t forget to connect with us everywhere online: Twitter, Facebook, and tumblr! We are going to launch some specific features on each of those profiles very soon, and we’ll need your help with the content for them!

So much love and respect to all of you — I can’t wait to see what we accomplish next!

Sarah

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