Big Step

Things have begun to happen on the music part of my life, so I thought I'd share the process here. It's been a dream of mine for a while to start a steel band in a school or community setting. I got my Masters in Steel Pan, so I'm trying to get one started. I've had several organizations, a music school and community center contact me about this possibility, but for various reasons, it never happened. I figured if I want it to happen I'm going to have to rent a space somewhere, and that wouldn't happen for many, many years.

Yesterday I was talking to someone from my church and he threw out the idea of having a community steel band at the church! Whoa, that's huge! A facility to rehearse in is a major step. The next step is to get instruments (very expensive) and figure out how I want to fund this. Do I want to form a non-profit organization, or a normal business, kind of like a music store that teaches classes?

I went to the library and picked up some books on non profits, writing grants and starting a business. I need to weigh my options and figure out what will work best. With a non-profit it's easier to get donations, and government grants are only for non-profit organizations. But I feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of work and bookeeping that goes into it, and being just one person, that's scary! I'd like to get my husband involved so he can quit his day job, but he doesn't have the same knowledge of steel pan that I do. He is a great musician though, so there is a role we could find, plus just helping me with the bookeeping and business details. We're still in the infant stages with this and there's a lot of work to do. I'm excited and I feel a new sense of motivation that I had kind of lost since graduating last may. Now that one major step has happened it doesn't seem as much like a distant dream.

I also wanted to share some new stamps with you!

 These were so fun to make! They are a set of 9 stamps, 3 for each robot and you can mix and match them with different colors and body parts!