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Update #2: 12/4 Update
Hello everyone! It's been a while since our last update (sorry! We've been busy!), and we wanted to share with you what we've got so far. It's been an interesting few weeks, full of surprises and let downs, but altogether has been a great learning experience.
- We have a new team member in the Hostel:Northampton project, her name is Dena Marger (you can check out her bio on the front page)! We're all really excited about expanding our project and tapping into new resources, and this is a giant step forward in that realm.
- We've checked out around 6 new properties since we last updated, some were amazing, others not so great. The most recent on is a fairly large building (3,000+ Square feet), totally gutted, and ready for a big renovation. Room sizes look like they'd work for what we need them too, and we're in the process of meeting with the City to figure out what we'd need to do for zoning regulations.
- As always, work is continuing on our business plan, as well as our official LLC paperwork. We've made alot of headway, and are working on tailoring it to our site-specific needs, which change with every new building we look at.
Thank you for your continued support throughout this process, and please, fi you know others who are interested in starting the first hostel in the Pioneer Valley, please, please, please! Encourage them to help support our project!
Thanks again!
The Hostel:Northampton Project.
Update #1: Hostel Update #1!
Hello friends!
First things first, thank you so much for taking the time (and money!) to support us. In the past couple of days we've been talking with realtors, finding out what we would need to do to a property to bring it up to town code, and looking into forming an LLC (Limited Liability Company).
Our next step is to continue with the all-consuming task of writing the business plan and continue making calls to the Northampton Building Inspector until someone calls us back. Oh, the joys of real estate shopping!
Hopefully soon we'll have some more exciting news :)
jeanine (and rich and wendy)
33
Backers
$3,865
pledged of $15,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on January 9, 2010.
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With a donation of $10 or more, you will receive a handmade postcard with our sincere thanks.
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With a donation of $100 or more, you will receive a handmade Hostel Northampton t-shirt!
Pledge $1,000 or more
At the $1,000 donation level, you will receive a t-shirt and 7 free nights at Hostel:Northampton.
Project By
Connected
The Hostel:Northampton Project is:
Jeanine Dargis: Ever since debuting her only-half-kidding childhood idea of starting JeanineCo, a company that makes everything except for kitchen sinks at age 8, Jeanine always knew that she wanted to run a business one day. Thankfully, her ideas have scaled back a bit in scope and gotten a little less megalomaniacal in nature. Upon graduation from Hampshire College in 2006, Jeanine has spent most of her postgraduation years in the Valley, working as an office manager, photographer, farmer, baker, and graphic designer, though (mostly) not at the same time.
Wendy Messerli: Wendy Messerli: In 2003 Wendy relocated from Central Connecticut to attend Hampshire College in the Pioneer Valley and has found herself here since. She currently resides in Northampton and is repeatedly amazed by it's magic. Between boughts of travel she can be found taking photographs, drawing, cooking, Dj'ing at a local radio station, staring longingly at buildings or exploring your basement. She works as a bookkeeper at a local family owned print shop and has learned a great deal about the ins and outs of small businesses.
Rich Droser: Despite growing up a city boy in Boston and New York, Rich has found himself at home here in the Valley, working in the Social Thought and Political Economy Program at UMASS, and has been in the area since 2003. When not riding a bike or cooking, Rich is often found on the pool deck at the local YMCA coaching the Age Group swim team, but has also been spotted working for a local sugar shack, and is usually plotting the next way to travel, but always with an eye on returning home to Northampton, the Valley's true Paradise City.
Dena Marger: Dena Marger has been a reference librarian at a variety of academic institutions over the past ten years. A love of travel, the hostel experience/lifestyle, and the Pioneer Valley brought her to the Entrepreneurial Certificate Program at Greenfield Community College, in order to begin turn the idea for a hostel in the Pioneer Valley into a reality for the backpackers of the world. Her ability to compile and organize information as well as interpret and help solve information needs will enable her to provide the kind of personalized local travel information that will greatly enhance the hosteling experience for travelers visiting the Valley.
