Category Archives: From the Stationmaster

Thanks for stopping by today

01282014 Snow at Raiload ParkIf you’re reading this on January 30, 2014, you’ve probably arrived on the site because of the open letter to Al Roker currently posted on the site’s editorial section, Dear Birmingham. If you’re just checking to see if we’ve finally updated recently, you’ll want to check the post out.

The site has seen limited updates in the last twelve months, though the intention is to increase the frequency of posts per week by the first week of February. That said, I felt the need to write the commentary – and others in the coming days – outweighed the need to wait. We’ll still be on a slower, more deliberate posting schedule once we get going again, but there will be a stronger focus on experimentation and commentary.

Thanks again for stopping by! We’re looking forward to getting back at it.

Creative collaborative community – that’s the plan

Today I’m starting to test the waters virtually to determine whether or not we’ll open our own office later this summer. The space would double as a coworking community for some of the city’s creatives and a physical home for us to host events related to content on the site.

There’s a new section in the process of being built out that currently has a post explaining what’s on my mind (at least, the first of many that will explain) as well as a survey that will help us determine if we can responsibly move forward with the process. The new section will also be used this spring and summer to help folks get a better understanding about just what coworking is and take a look at some of the other coworking communities taking shape in Birmingham.

The hope for the short term is that those of you that are freelancers and solopreneurs (and potential sponsors) will consider filling out the survey and passing the link on to as many people as possible.

We’ll keep you updated on what’s going on.

Under construction…

For those of you visiting the front page today, yes, we’re aware that the front page looks a little… different.

We’re in the process of launching our new site design, so we’ll be making additional changes to the site throughout the weekend. Please bear with us – we should be in good shape come Monday morning.

Stay tuned…

Follow-up: Johnny Ray’s president joins the conversation

We’ve seen a great deal of traffic over the last few days with regard to our post about the future of Johnny Ray’s. We’re hoping that some of you have had a chance to read the comments. If not, you’ve missed out on something…

One person who we were happy to see respond to the comments was Alton Shields, the President and Managing Director of the Johnny Ray Cos, who was able to quiet rumors that the chain was closing.

We just wanted to take a moment and suggest that folks check out his comments and all of the other comments to all of the other posts on the site whenever and wherever they’re made.

Thanks those that do add their voices to this conversation.

From the Stationmaster: Help out The Bottletree

I generally do not write directly to y’all  unless it’s over on my Birmingham, but I feel as though this is a necessary reason…

Bottletree BW logoSome of you have no doubt heard about The Bottletree’s situation as a result of City Stages’ recent decision to shut down. I do know that The Bottletree has been a major supporter of The Terminal from day one and one of the main reasons that this site is still operating as of right now. I will say that I don’t have any way to put my money where my mouth is because right now I don’t have any money.

Since I can’t support a business that has helped me out on numerous occasions when I’ve been down and out when they need that generosity returned financially, I’m asking you to find any way that you can to help Merrilee, Brad and the rest of the folks over there out.

Eat, drink, see a show, leave a big tip – anything – and if you know of any other vendors that need assistance, besides the ones mentioned in this report by ABC 33/40, please submit a comment to this post and let all of us know.

All kinds of stuff going on…

We were just a little quiet today over here, save for the “deluge” of information shared in the last hour or so. It would be a shame if you didn’t head on over to Timetable as well and check out Jason’s picks for the weekend, including a chance to support someone who’s supported us a lot at Bare Hands Gallery and Josh’s info on the restaurant that’s taking over the former Copeland’s space down there on 280.

Enjoy the ride! And we will have a little more information later on this evening.

Get ready to welcome The Hub

Good morning Birmingham (and elsewhere)! First of all, thanks to those of you that came out last night – it was a lot of fun, and I think that you enjoyed yourselves as well.

The big news story from last night’s event – we’re doing a beta launch of a social network for Birmingham!

The goal is for The Hub to launch on Monday morning, at least, that’s what our web team is thinking right now. The general idea of launching a social network is not to reinvent the wheel. The idea is to provide a place to have the conversation take place for Birmingham online.

For the techies in the area, we’ll be using BuddyPress to build the network and we’re hoping to be able to use Facebook Connect so that you don’t have to create yet another account log in. It will be a beta, so I’ll apologize in advance for site outages and issues, but I think that it will help us 

If you’re interested in being a beta tester for the network, feel free to email us at info@bhamterminal.com.

There will be a little more about this later on today. Enjoy the ride!