Kickstand Blog

Fueling the innovation engine.

Available Position - Kickstand Board Administrator

Monday, July 19, 2010

Position Description:

Part-time position providing secretarial and /administrative support, communication coordination, and membership record- keeping services for Kickstand and its Board of Directors. Reporting Relationship:

Reports to the President of the Board of Directors and works with members of the Kickstand Board as needed.

Essential Functions:

  1. Serves as the central "point of contact" for all membership inquiries that Kickstand receives (including phone, mail, email, and website inquiries) via answering service, incoming mail and e-mail messages to Kickstand.
  2. Provides a consistent "presence" for the organization.
  3. Responsible for Kickstand’s membership renewal process, including:

    - Mailings to prospective/new members communicating with prospective and expiring Kickstand members via email, phone or in person for the purpose of signing them up as members.

    - Processing Kickstand memberships that are collected offline (i.e. memberships that are received during monthly member meetings) and adding them to the membership database applications.

    - Following up via phone as needed, maintaining the integrity and consistency of data within the membership database.

    - Monitoring and reporting on membership signups on a monthly basis during the monthly board meeting. and web site, and

    - Assisting with the preparation and distribution of membership name tags for during monthly meetings.

  4. Assists Treasurer by preparing and presenting monthly financial reports to the Board comparing actual expenditures and income to budget amounts; keeping detailed records of expense and income; assuring bank account is balanced; and being responsible for the payment of expenses incurred by Kickstand and the deposit of dues and other income paid to Kickstand.
  5. Prepares and disseminates monthly newsletter.
  6. Provides secretarial and clerical support as needed, including support on special projects.
  7. Attends monthly membership meetings and assists with registration or greeting members as needed. Attends monthly Board meetings.
  8. Retains Kickstand’s historical information, as well as key forms, files and publications.

Position Requirements:

Good communication, organizational, typing and computer skills required, including database management experience with a website content management system (i.e. one of the following systems: Wordpress, Drupal, Expression Engine, Adobe Business Catalyst, or similar). Must have own personal computer and be able to work between 8 to 20 hours per week up to 1000 hours per year. Able to work one or two evening functions per month. Reliable transportation needed to pick up mail and attend monthly member meetings and board meetings.

If you are interested, please email Becky Gates.

July Newsletter

Monday, July 05, 2010
July Monthly Meeting
What: 
'Meet Boise' Scavenger Hunt
When: Thursday, July 8, 2010 @ 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Starts at  The WaterCooler
Last chance to RSVP
KICKSTAND MEMBERS MAY BRING ONE GUEST FOR FREE
You spend lots of time focused on putting your best foot forward, whether to new hires, investors, strategic partners or potential customers. The perfect pitch, the ultimate sales deck, the polished presentation. What about the rest? As businesses grow, it is very likely that customers, vendors, investors, or partners will come into town for meetings, sales pitches and otherwise. So what next?

When visitors come to town, what do you do with them?
Where do you take them for lunch, dinner or after-hours entertainment?
Where do you recommend they stay?

No matter what business you are in, or hoping to be in, you are also in the entertainment business.  Join us for an entertaining and interactive July Kickstand meeting - the 'Meet Boise' Scavenger Hunt - designed to get members out and about to find new locales and share their favorite spots with each other. Oh, and have fun and win prizes along the way!


INNOVATION IN THE NEWS

A Unified Statewide Voice for Technology
The boards of directors of the Idaho Technology Council and the Idaho Software Employers Alliance (ISEA) announced that the software employers’ organization has merged with the ITC in a move to unify the voice for technology in Idaho and the region. Effective with this merger, the Idaho Technology Council has established a software working group, called the Idaho Software Alliance, to strengthen the software community statewide. Key ITC members Keynetics, Balihoo, A-T Solutions, Unity Medical Group and WhiteCloud Analytics will join with Microsoft, Healthwise, Clearwater Analytics and other companies that previously were members of ISEA to assume responsibility for fostering leadership recruitment, workforce development and growth among Idaho software developers.

Boise's Biomark Makes Inc. Magazine's Top 2010 Small Company Workplaces
Because Biomark believes cross-training and variety make for higher job satisfaction, all employees have the opportunity to do fieldwork and get their hands dirty tagging fish and animals. Staff members from the CEO to the customer service reps tag salmon with the staff biologists. When choosing his new company headquarters, CEO Dean Park passed on cheaper options and chose a location to minimize commuting time (and maximize the number of employees able to bike to work).

Idaho Statesman:
Sun Shines on Micron Green Energy Venture

The partnership could soon be making ultra-thin solar panels in the Valley and help jumpstart an industry cluster. Transform Solar, formed in February by Micron Technology and Australia's Origin Energy, says it will introduce its unique Sliver solar cells to the market "in a limited and strategic way" in 2011.


Balihoo Wins Red Herring 100 North America Award

Boise's Balihoo is a winner of the prestigious Red Herring 100 North America Award. Following a thorough analysis of hundreds of cutting edge companies and technologies and based on Balihoo's potential for explosive growth, the Red Herring editorial team chose Balihoo as one of its award recipients. Each year the Red Herring 100 North America award identifies the most promising private technology ventures from around the world, including past award winners such as Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Salesforce.com, and YouTube.

EVENTS OF NOTE
TechBoise moves to a new day
July 7 (tonight!) marks TechBoise's switch to having monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of the month. Stop by the Watercooler tonight at 5:30 to learn more about the group's new website & new focus.

Girls in Tech Boise moves to a new day
Making the first Wednesday & Thursday the nexus of all things tech and innovative in Boise, Girls in Tech is moving its meeting day to the lunch hour of the first Wednesday of the month. Their next meeting is Wednesday, August 7 from 12-1pm.

BYP Lounging Series with 'The Gang'
“The Gang” is a group of eight high performing, highly creative organizations based in Boise.  They range from the Boise State Football program to Healthwise, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office and ProClarity/Microsoft, as well as The Gang members lounging with you.  The leaders and members of these creative and successful organizations hold an annual Gang Meeting and the leaders meet periodically during the year to discuss “messy problems” they face. Hear from a few members of the Gang on July 27 at 5:30.

Space Days 2010 - Women in Space
A fantastic lineup of speakers and interactive exhibits for the whole family from August 2-6 at the Discovery Center of Idaho.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

Special thanks to our loyal sponsors whose participation enables up to keep growing Kickstand and providing you with opportunities to network, learn and grow.

Platinum Sponsor Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm offering a full spectrum of legal services. With more than 650 lawyers in 14 offices across the United States and in China, the firm serves great companies ranging in size from start-ups to FORTUNE 100. Many of the firm's clients are leaders in traditional industries and emerging technology markets.

Have innovation in the news to share? Events that would be of interest to the Kickstand membership? Email them to jflynn@kickstand.org by the end of the month.

July Meeting: Meet Boise Scavenger Hunt

Monday, June 28, 2010
UP NEXT
July Monthly Meeting
What: 
'Meet Boise' Scavenger Hunt
When: Thursday, July 8, 2010 @ 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Starts at  The WaterCooler
RSVP

You spend lots of time focused on putting your best foot forward, whether to new hires, investors, strategic partners or potential customers. The perfect pitch, the ultimate sales deck, the polished presentation. What about the rest? As businesses grow, it is very likely that customers, vendors, investors, or partners will come into town for meetings, sales pitches and otherwise. So what next?

When visitors come to town, what do you do with them?
Where do you take them for lunch, dinner or after-hours entertainment?
Where do you recommend they stay?

No matter what business you are in, or hoping to be in, you are also in the entertainment business.

Join us for an entertaining and interactive July Kickstand meeting - the 'Meet Boise' Scavenger Hunt - designed to get members out and about to find new locales and share their favorite spots with each other.

Oh, and have fun and win prizes along the way!
KICKSTAND MEMBERS MAY BRING ONE GUEST FOR FREE
RSVP Now!
(No need to log in to RSVP, just complete the form)

June Newsletter

Monday, June 07, 2010
UP NEXT
June Monthly Meeting
What: 
Capturing Intellectual Property
When: Thursday, June 10, 2010 @ 5:30-7pm
Where: The WaterCooler
RSVP

You asked, we listened. Join Kickstand June 10 for a meeting devoted to 'Capturing Intellectual Property.' It's a topic many of our members have been asking for more information about, and was an issue discussed among many IdaVation attendees. If you have an idea, even an inkling of an idea, you need to be here.

Featuring Bill Meade and Bob Sesek of Idaho-based BasicIP, an intellectual property consulting firm, June's meeting will be highly interactive and directed by you, the attendees. Bill and Bob have three topics they could address, and will leave it up to the attendees to choose one of the following at the start of the meeting. Take the jump to RSVP and see the three topics attendees will chose from.

INNOVATION IN THE NEWS

The Economist
In praise of Boise: Why space really is the final frontier in the Internet age


"...Brain workers like to live near each other. It is easier to keep up with the latest ideas if you keep bumping into other people who work in the same field. As Alfred Marshall, an English economist, wrote in 1890: in industrial clusters “the mysteries of the trade become no mystery, but are, as it were, in the air.” That is why geeks flock to Silicon Valley and financiers converge on New York. But such clusters can become victims of their own success. When a hotspot gets too hot, it becomes expensive to live there, which spurs some brainy people—especially those with children—to migrate to places that are not quite so hot but more liveable..."

Forbes
The Knowledge Economy: America's Most Innovative Cities
"...For our ranking we started with the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. and used data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine number of patents per capita. Then we combined it with venture capital investment per capita from the National Venture Capital Association, along with those cities' ratios of high-tech, science and "creative" jobs from ZoomProspector.com and Payscale.com..."
(No. 16 - Boise, Idaho)

Wall Street Journal
Montana, Oklahoma (& Idaho) Outdo usual Suspects in Entrepreneur Study

"...The most active states for entrepreneurial activity last year were Montana and Oklahoma, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. The annual study of new business creation found that the two states had the highest entrepreneurial activity rates, with 470 per 100,000 adults creating businesses each month. The other states with the highest rates were Arizona (460 per 100,000 adults), and Texas and Idaho, both with 450 businesses started per 100,000 adults..."

Gofi.sh Wins 2nd Annual Idaho Startup Weekend

Nampa-based Great American Appetizers President and COO Named Regional Finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Kristi Saucerman, President & CEO of Boise-based Auction Frogs, one of three women business owners recognized with NAWBO/Wells Fargo Trailblazer Award

SAVE THE DATE




What: Girls in Tech Boise Is 1 year old!
Come celebrate the organization, and the rich and diverse tech community of the Boise Valley.

When:
Thursday, June 24, 5:30pm
Where: Owyhee Plaza Patio
RSVP

What: Idaho Technology Council 1st Annual Golf Invitational & Celebration
When: June 22, tee off at noon
Where: Crane Creek Country Club
Cost: $86.70 for full day of golf and meals. Option to attend a post-golf reception at 5pm
RSVP for golf. Contact Jay Larsen at 208-388-3357 or jlarsen@idahotechcouncil.org to RSVP for reception

June Meeting: Capturing Intellectual Property

Friday, June 04, 2010
June Monthly Meeting
What: 
Capturing Intellectual Property
When: Thursday, June 10, 2010 @ 5:30-7pm
Where: The WaterCooler
RSVP

You asked, we listened. Join Kickstand June 10 for a meeting devoted to 'Capturing Intellectual Property.' It's a topic many of our members have been asking for more information about, and was an issue discussed among many IdaVation attendees. If you have an idea, even an inkling of an idea, you need to be here.

Featuring Bill Meade and Bob Sesek of Idaho-based BasicIP, an intellectual property consulting firm, June's meeting will be highly interactive and directed by you, the attendees. Bill and Bob have three topics they could address, and will leave it up to the attendees to choose one of the following at the start of the meeting:

#1 IP Management for Startups 

  • Introduction to what intellectual property is
  • How IP pays for itself
  • Dominant Designs and Architectural Control Points explained  
  • The life cycle of high tech company involvement with IP
  • A suggested strategy for high tech companies as they go through their life cycles

#2 Capturing IP Once You've Started UP: Case Study

  • Case Study of Invention Workshop for Baseline
  • Introduction to strategic Patenting Targets
  • Demonstration of how strategic targets are derived on the fly
  • Dominant Design and Architectural Control Points Explained
  • Technology S-Curves explained  
  • Explanation of how a workshop works
  • Summary explanation of results: John Fordemwalt can describe how it worked for him

#3 Pocket Guide to Invention Workshops

  • What you get from an invention workshop
  • What you have to do to get it
  • How to plan an invention workshop
  • The Slide Deck
  • Aftermath
Show up with business cards - there will be several opportunities to share your interest in deeper-dive workshops on IP.

RSVP now to secure your spot!