This Thursday, August 26, Madison Ave. Collective is celebrating our second anniversary. You, faithful reader, are invited to celebrate with us. View details and RSVP here.

Bring a guest and stop by anytime between 4–7pm. This open-house party will be held at the Madison Ave. Collective world headquarters in downtown Corvallis, Oregon.

The party will feature munchies from Block 15, treats from Rocket Queen Cupcakes, fun pics from Smile Booth, and cool people like YOU. Oh, and something else we think is kinda fantastic, too. (You’ll have to show up to find out.) Hope to see you then!

One lucky non-profit got $250,000, 4 won $100,000 and 195 runner ups got 20,000, that’s a lot of dough.
See the top 250 here »

This was exciting for me to see my web working hard in the real work and making a difference in real lives, they had 70,000 blood donation over last summer and we will see what happens by the end of this summer! Just wanted to share some success and a great story about social media and the web.

Music Saves Lives website »

Bill Zipp is a sales and marketing veteran who loves to help independent business owners master the business side of their business. Apparently he also loves to write, and we’re soaking up every bit of it. Bill’s brand name is Summit Small Business, and here’s his Matchbook profile.

Ali Smith is a terrific portrait photographer who does business under the name Thistledown Photography. Ali has a background in textile design and hails from across the pond. Listen closely and you might hear a hint of that great British accent. Here’s Ali’s Matchbook profile.

We’re excited to have Ali and Bill join our group — two more nice people who do good work.

This Friday, April 23, the MAC is having its first-ever office furniture and electronics sale. We’ve gathered a bunch of stuff that’s been collecting dust… er, uh I mean quality, valuable items that you probably can’t live without. Read all about it on Craigslist… and we’ll see you Friday starting at 10am.

These are milestones. Benchmarks of success. Or maybe just nice, round numbers for the OCD in all of us.

How about one hundred members? We know. It has a nice ring to it. In fact, it’s the reason for this post.

Our creative talent directory Matchbook has been very successful. Since it’s inception, 82 super-talented creatives, geeks, and guides have signed up. It’s attracting the very best the Willamette Valley has to offer – exactly the people we at the MAC had in mind when we set out to create it.

But we need more. 18 more.

We could be satisfied with 82, but (blame it on our fragile egos) it just won’t feel legit until Matchbook reaches one hundred. So how do we get the last dozen and a half members to reach it? And, we hate to be picky, but we’d like them from some pretty specific places.

Here is a fact. The majority of our members are in the greater Corvallis area. That’s not a bad thing. However, Matchbook happens to be a service for Corvallis and Salem and Eugene. No doubt there is an abundance of talent in those cities. We think they should be listed too.

It’s just that finding them has been tough. So we are open to your ideas. Should we run a giveaway? A booth at the fair? Fall in behind the Slug Queen at the Eugene Celebration Parade?

Help us spread the word about Matchbook. Hey, if you don’t think it’s worth your time, no worries. We won’t be hurt. However, if you think it’s a service worth talking about, fire off your ideas in the comments.

Welcome aboard, Kevin! We’re happy to have you part of the crew.

Matt sez: As part of the class, Jen and I are offing a free evaluation to the first three businesses brave enough to submit their social profile to us. Just send an email with links to your social media outlets to matt@resoundlab.com. You’ll get real, actionable advice and a guaranteed “A” in the class.

Get all the details here.

Please feel free to check out the site and let me know what you think.  Everything should work except for the Search feature which I’m still working on…

-North