MSCR Announces Friends of MSCR Auction

November 10, 2020

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nicole Graper at ngraper@madison.k12.wi.us

MSCR Announces Friends of MSCR Auction
Proceeds support MSCR Programs

Since 2013, the Friends of MSCR has gifted $430,000 to MSCR. These funds support new program initiatives and much needed equipment including outdoor and environmental education, adapted recreation and inclusion services, Latino community outreach, afterschool clubs and neighborhood center programming, to better serve the Madison community.

Please join MSCR and bid on fabulous items in the 2020 Online Auction! Items include pet care, gift baskets, entertainment, spa services, sports memorabilia and much more.

“We are grateful to the Friends of MSCR for their support of recreation programming in the Madison community. Thank you to the generous donors and bidders who make this online auction possible. Every bid and donation help ensure access to high quality affordable recreation and enrichment for our community members,” described Janet Dyer, MSCR Executive Director.

This year’s Online Auction is supported by the following generous sponsors:
Community Believers – $1,000+

• Oak Park Place
• Park Bank
• Anne & Phillip Duffy, in memory of Robert Parenteau

Recreation Enthusiasts – $500

• Slow Roll Cycles

Afterschool Advocate – $300

• Greenleaf Media
• QTI Group
• Stroud, Willink, & Howard LLC

Check out 32auctions.com/mscr2020 to view all of the items. The auction takes place through November 20.

MSCR offers many recreation programs for all ages that are accessible and affordable.  Fee assistance is available. Please call 608-204-3000 or visit mscr.org for more information.  MSCR is Madison’s public recreation department serving the community since 1926.

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LÜM: The Music Modernization Act is Stifling Innovation in the Music Industry

By Max Fergus, LÜM CEO

We were told when we started our company that the institutions within the music industry were always going to be against us. In fact, many people told us these institutions would do everything in their power to curb innovation to make sure the money stayed where it always has – in the pockets of the major labels and the major music streaming services.

Finally, after 10 years of archaic practices in the music streaming industry, which widened the financial gap between the one percent of the music industry stakeholders and the rest of the starving artists, the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”) was created. At its most basic level, the goal was to take the onus off of major streaming platforms to track and remit royalties generated from these major platforms into the pockets of the right artists/labels in a more timely fashion through a new government-subsidized organization known as the Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”).

Sounds great, right? Wrong. This will set back the music industry for years to come.

Imagine starting a process to MODERNIZE MUSIC and how music is monetized for all artists, yet the only stakeholders the MLC brought in to discuss how the MMA and the MLC would operate are the major streaming platforms and major labels themselves.So, what did they do? They structured the MLC in a way that will save these major corporations millions of dollars while completely neglecting the reason why the law was written in the first place – to oversee the music streaming platforms that have consistently, purposefully and negligently not paid the creators – whose content drives their service – their fair share in a transparent and efficient way.

The MMA was designed to regulate and modernize the practices of “royalty-bearing” music streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple. Next year, the MLC will open its doors and, as part of its first year of operations, it requires the companies included within the MLC to help pay for “start-up fees.” Companies outside of the largest music streaming companies, such as smaller DSPs and smaller royalty-bearing music streaming platforms, must also share unproportionally in these expenses. Essentially, the MLC and the largest streaming platforms want smaller services to pay more than their fair share for the MLC to oversee and audit the largest players in the music streaming industry…even those services who operate to fix the same problems as the new entity itself.

It gets worse.

Is the MLC Putting Smaller Streaming Platforms Out of Business?

LÜM was created to serve a similar foundational mission to these entities – to help guide an industry that needs to better support its creators through innovation. Because of that, we made a choice to not be a part of the traditional recorded music industry. We pay NO royalties and instead have proven that there is a better future. Instead of royalties, LÜM created the first virtual gifting system in a music discovery platform that allows fans to help directly support their favorite independent artists. The result?

Artists on LÜM earn an average of ~6x more per stream than every single other music streaming platform in the U.S.

Just like so many other companies that are trying to advance the music industry, LÜM is now facing an uphill battle against an organization (MLC) that was developed in conjunction with the same stakeholders who put the music industry in this position in the first place. The fees LÜM and other innovative companies are facing, to help fund the MLC, are substantial. Every new innovative company will face them and will provide a financial hurdle that will leave the majority of current and future innovative music startups dead in the water. No new entrants and no new competition mean the industry will stay exactly where it has for the last 15 years – putting money in the pockets of the rich and neglecting those that are trying to change the industry for the better.

We cannot let this happen. Innovation must continue or we face a scary reality for the music industry and the majority of artists and innovators that have been neglected by it.

Wisconsin Union: Thanksgiving To Go Returns With Multiple Menu Options, Traditional Favorites

Nov. 6, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Wisconsin Union
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu

THANKSGIVING TO GO RETURNS WITH MULTIPLE MENU OPTIONS, TRADITIONAL FAVORITES

Wisconsin Union to offer affordable, gourmet, pick-up Thanksgiving meals

MADISON — The Wisconsin Union team has made affordable, gourmet Thanksgiving To Go meals available for purchase this year, with ordering available now through Nov. 20 and pick-up on Nov. 25.

This year’s menu options include bourbon roasted turkey; gingersnap mustard glazed ham; sage stuffing; mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows; housemade cranberry orange relish; and pumpkin, pecan or fudge bottom pie. Customers can purchase these items à la carte or as a personal-size or family-size meal.

Customers can also order à la carte items or a personal-size meal from a vegetarian menu that includes creamy butternut squash lasagna; herbed green beans; buttered, dill rainbow carrots; housemade cranberry orange relish; a fresh dinner roll with butter; and a slice of pumpkin, pecan or fudge bottom pie.

The Wisconsin Union team will provide the meals cooked, chilled and packed in reheatable containers. The multiple course individual-size meal starts at $14 per person, and the family-size meal starts at $145 for a family of six. The Wisconsin Union is offering University of Wisconsin-Madison students that purchase with a Wiscard a discounted individual-size meal for $10.

This year, the Wisconsin Union team in partnership with the Dean of Students Office will provide UW-Madison students in need with a free individual-size meal. Customers can add a donation to their orders at checkout to help provide a meal to a student in need. Students in need of a free meal can complete the meal request form here.

This year presented unique challenges with modified operations in light of COVID-19, but the Wisconsin Union team worked together to make Thanksgiving To Go, a years-long tradition of the Wisconsin Union, possible.

“Thanksgiving To Go takes so much stress out of Thanksgiving,” said Carl Korz, associate director of dining and hospitality at the Wisconsin Union. “Instead of spending hours planning and cooking, with Thanksgiving To Go, customers can have a gourmet, affordable meal that helps them maximize time with the people they care about. We also want to ensure those students that need to stay on campus during November break have a delicious, cost effective meal option.”

Customers can pick up their Thanksgiving To Go orders on Nov. 25 in Tripp Commons in Memorial Union or curbside at the west entrance to Memorial Union on North Park Street. While ordering, customers will select a 30-minute period during which they will pick up their orders.

Customers must wear a mask or another form of face covering for curbside and in-person pick-up, and those students that order with a Wiscard must bring their Wiscards to pay for the meal on-site.

Those interested in learning more or ordering Thanksgiving To Go may visit union.wisc.edu/thanksgiving.

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About the Wisconsin Union

The Wisconsin Union enhances the lives of members and visitors through recreational, cultural, educational and social opportunities. Formed in 1907, the Wisconsin Union is a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more about the Union and its tradition of providing experiences for a lifetime: union.wisc.edu.

To read this release online, visit union.wisc.edu/about/news/thanksgiving-2020.

Suttle-Straus Announces Webinar on Converting Website Visitors Into Leads

Suttle-Straus, a commercial printing and marketing services provider in Waunakee, is hosting a complimentary webinar titled “Convert Website Visitors Into Leads and Revenue.”

Did you know you can create a list of leads from your website WITHOUT having visitors complete a single form field?

According to Google Analytics, 96% of the people visiting your website leave without taking any action. If all of your marketing channels are driving traffic to your website but only convert 4% of the visitors, how can you find out who these visitors are and send them relevant offers quickly?

In this webinar you can learn how to grab anonymous website visitors, retarget them with direct mail, and return them to convert on abandoned shopping carts, non-profit donation campaigns, or repeat loyalty purchases.

This webinar will cover:

• How to capture visitors to your website and get their address, without the use of a single form
• How you can use time, date and pages visited by the individual to create an urgent call to action
• What retargeted direct mail is
• How retargeted direct mail can help increase average order size, decrease abandoned shopping carts and drive a 9-18% response rate

Convert Your Website Visitors Into Leads and Revenue
Speaker: The Suttle-Straus Direct Mail Team
Date/Time: November 12, 2020 Noon Central Time
Cost: Complimentary
Register here: https://www.suttle-straus.com/getleads

About Suttle-Straus (www.suttle-straus.com)
Suttle-Straus provides comprehensive marketing solutions including creative design, mailing, fulfillment, distribution, displays, signage, promotional products, conventional and digital printing. Our S4 Marketing Resource Center print-on-demand technology advances the execution speed of local marketing for distributed networks. Through long-term, collaborative client partnerships, Suttle-Straus delivers marketing solutions that help our customers win.

Virtual 2nd Black Arts Matter Festival Will Raise Up Black Voices and Art Around the Country

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 26, 2020

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Phone: (608) 262-8862
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu

VIRTUAL 2ND BLACK ARTS MATTER FESTIVAL WILL RAISE UP BLACK VOICES AND ART AROUND THE COUNTRY

MADISON – The Black Arts Matter (BAM) Festival will return to raise up Black voices and art virtually Nov. 5, 12 and 19 with three events curated and co-produced by interdisciplinary artist, slam poet and UW-Madison alumna Shasparay Irvin ‘20 and the Wisconsin Union Theater.

During the first event on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. CDT, spoken word and performance artist Ebony Stewart will perform her critically acclaimed one-woman show, called “Ocean.” The award-winning play includes themes of maternal love, motherhood and womanhood. Stewart will take part in a live question-and-answer session immediately following her performance.

Then, on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. CDT, saxophonist and singer Braxton Cook will perform a live concert, participate in a Q&A, and hold a workshop about looping, which is a short segment of music played seamlessly on repeat. Some may refer to Cook’s music as jazz, but his sound has also been heralded as all its own, combining jazz, soul, R&B, and alternative music.

The Festival will continue on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. CDT with a poetry slam during which eight artists from around the country will compete for cash prizes and the honor of being named the winner of the 2nd Annual Black Arts Matter Festival poetry slam.

Irvin created the Black Arts Matter Festival as a UW-Madison student and debuted the first Festival in March 2019 to hundreds of attendees. She founded the BAM Festival with the mission of building a community around Black artistry by uplifting Black art and Black voices in white-dominated spaces. The idea arose as she observed a lack of diversity in Madison area arts performances.

“I decided to create this festival to prioritize Black voices in a predominantly white space, especially a white-centric arts space,” Irvin said.

The Wisconsin Union Theater joins Irvin in the planning and implementing of this year’s festival in a collaborative effort to raise up Black voices around the country.

“I have such high respect for Shasparay who, when she saw a need for something, created it herself. When I learned about her work in 2019, I knew immediately that I wanted to find a way to support her artistry and her vision even before joining the Wisconsin Union Theater,” Wisconsin Union Theater Director Elizabeth Snodgrass said. “I’m thrilled to be working with her on the Festival, because it is so aligned with the Theater’s programming goals. We are working to create space for what has been too often absent on stages, including Black art.”

The team aims for all of its spaces, including online ones, to be accessible. Those that need accommodations can reach out to the Wisconsin Union Theater team at wisconsinuniontheater@union.wisc.edu.

The Wisconsin Union Theater has provided a variety of arts events, from music to dance to plays in its more than 75 years on the UW-Madison campus. The student organization, called the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee participates in the planning of many Theater events, including the BAM Festival.

Presenting programming like the BAM Festival reflects part of a lived promise by the Wisconsin Union Theater to take action in standing against racial inequities and in decentering whiteness. For a full statement on the Theater’s stance and efforts, click here.

This series is made possible with financial support from Dane Arts, the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Joel Skornica Fund, the Frautschi Fund, and the Hodgin Fund as well as in-kind support from The Capital City Hues.

For more information about the Festival and to sign-up to receive Festival updates, click here. 

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About the Wisconsin Union Theater

For more than 75 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has served as a center for cultural activity in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The Theater hosts performances in multiple locations, including Memorial Union, and has an expansive history of remarkable performances. The Wisconsin Union Theater is part of the Wisconsin Union, a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more about the Theater: union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater.

About the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee

The Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee plans and promotes events for the historic Wisconsin Union Theater stages. The student-led committee programs a variety of events to provide a diverse and cultural experience for students, faculty, alumni, community members and visitors. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/get-involved/wud/performing-arts.

To read this release online, visit union.wisc.edu/black-arts-matter.