HBM Fundraiser a success

Last Saturday, Friends of Community Media held a bingo fundraiser at the entertainment / restaurant – Hamburger Mary’s – and it went well. 60-70 people attended and hundreds of dollars was raised. Richard Thompson organized the event, following in the footsteps of what put KKFI community radio on the air (BINGO) in Kansas City.

The fundraiser was to help launch a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators.  This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns.  The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.

Suggestions on Local KC News

AUTHOR: Spencer Graves

MIGHT YOU HELP TRYING TO IMPROVE LOCAL NEWS?

      Friends of Community Media is working to develop a local consensus
for improving the quality of local news.  In this effort, we are
following the example that Freepress.net used to convince the New Jersey
legislature to create the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium
(NJCIC).  This is a 501(c)(3), which recently approved 14 projects
funded at $35,000 each to do different things in different parts of New
Jersey in conjunction with a professor at one of five leading public
universities in New Jersey.  We do NOT expect to do exactly that.
Instead, we want to ask leaders in government, business, nonprofits,
etc., if they are concerned about the quality of local news, and if yes,
what might they support to improve this.

      Below please find an email similar to what Spencer Graves sent to 22
different politicians at city, county, state and federal levels.  In
following up by phone on those mails, he spoke with 7 humans and left
voice messages for the rest.  And he had two follow-up meetings with a
legislative assistant for a city councilperson.  His next task is to do
something similar with local news outlets like the KansasReflector.com
and TheBeacon.media.

      Spencer would love to hear what you might like to do in this regard.
He would happily help you got contact information for anyone you might
like to ask about this and draft questions, if you would like that.  If
we get enough people discussing this with others, we can get substantive
action to improve the quality of local information available to people.
That, in turn, will encourage more people to vote and vote
intelligently, leading to better public policies, according to research
Spencer has seen and is cited in his email.

Spencer.Graves@EffectiveDefense.org

Improving Local KC Media

Spencer Graves, Secretary of Friends of Community Media, has written a well-researched and thoughtful article on ideas to improve local journalism and Kansas City Media.

BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARDS: Hamburger Mary’s Bingo Fundraiser

UPDATE: MARY’S REQUIRES EVERYONE ATTENDING TO BRING PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION.  YOUR CARD, A PHOTOCOPY, OR READABLE PICTURE WILL WORK.

If you don’t know about our “Hambingo” fundraiser yet, read on:

As many of you know, FCM is fundraising for a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators.  This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns.  The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.

To this end, FCM is holding a bingo fundraiser at Hamburger Marys’ Midtown KCMO location (3700 Broadway Blvd #110) on 8/21 from 4-6 PM.  Prizes will include handmade jewelry, KKFI and FCM t-shirts, and gift cards to local businesses.  Come for a hilarious afternoon of drag queens, bingo competition, drinks, burgers, exciting prizes, and extraordinary fun!  RSVP on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/493290592005801

NOTE: This event will be very risqué.  A drag-queen runs the bingo game, and they will use foul language and make suggestive jokes.  If that doesn’t sound fun to you, we suggest that you support FCM by donating on our website, here: https://ourfcm.org/donate.

Questions? Contact Richard Thompson at (913)209-4114 or richthompson209@gmail.com.