News : Taking care of business, and planning for the seemingly impossible

The other day we sat around the table with our new web gal, and discussed the future of Vinton Today.

It was the first time we had been in on the planning of the tech side of Vinton Today.

It was pretty easy.

We said something like, “See this?” (Clicking on Vinton Today) “We want to do this again, but can you make us look like the newer model, but it HAS to run like the old one or we will act like bratty two year olds that are in the candy aisle!”

Well, we acted all grown up and professional like, but deep down we were thinking that! (Hi Kathy :)

We talked about changing the look, but not too extreme so that Virginia Gay Hospital wouldn't have a run on cardiac patients, but enough to make it look new and fresh, and all uptowny.

We made our list of things that the website MUST have, and then we looked at various designs and ideas and tried to imagine them personalized for Vinton Today.

We planned, we looked at our checkbook, we groaned over the cost of simply parking the website, and how much more that will cost.

Then we looked at plug ins and widgets and asked if we could do this or that and then it happened.

If you've never sat in a meeting with Kurt Karr and watched the wheels turn, you are missing out on a treat.

The meetings always starts slow.

We take care of business.

We discuss problems and then we turn to “is there something we can do better.”

At this point, you can just about see all the circuits lighting up on Kurt's side of the table.

Lu automatically reaches for her seatbelt and Dean and I sit across the table and just wait for it.

About 5 seconds later WHOOSH! Ideas start flying out of Kurts brain, and as quickly as he can explain them to us, the room fills with things we had never thought of, or new ideas come out that at first sound impossible but then they grow on you.

Yesterday, we went through our list, from a previous meeting and got to one of those Kurt ideas (Kurt had stepped out of the room to take a phone call).

We all chuckled and said, “Nah that was one of Kurt's ideas”. We crossed it of the list. Kurt came back into the room and after we finished the list, he said, “What about....” and we all laughed.

It was the idea we had just taken off the table.

Needless to say, we put it back on.

After all, this whole Vinton Today idea started in the hyper active brain of Kurt Karr, so your just don't mess with genius.

That led to a discussion of the equipment that Dean would need to carry out Kurt's idea.

I have to admit when Kathy, our new web gal, showed us the page of possible plug ins and all the bells and whistles, It was like seeing a print out of a Kurt brain.

“You can get this widget (or plug in) to make the website...”

Or

“You could get this one and then it would...”

OR

Oh the possibilities!

I guess I'm an easy shopper, or I've just had too many kids, just give me something that works, and that I can use, and I'm good.

So as we compile all the pieces we need for the new website, don't panic, it won't overwhelm you, but hopefully we can add some new widgets or plug ins or whatchamacalllits just to make life interesting.

Don't forget you can still help donate to the project by clicking HERE, and again, thanks for all of your support. We know that there is no way that we could do what we do without all of you, and we really appreciate the way you have made this all possible.

PS Val: I post things too. You're next. K