Be part of creating more opportunities in Mendocino County. If we $50,000 in donations from our local community we will receive another $50,000 from a private grant. This money will go towards creating jobs and opportunities for our community.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Wowser is something special. It’s a playground for innovators and makers. It’s like a temple for creatives. It’s a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.

By gathering local innovators, inventors, creatives, and entrepreneurs in one location, we harness and enhance existing skill sets to create locally made products, which provide a unique jobs skills training opportunity for our young and underemployed community. Through our community-wide support network for members, we connect with local resources on a case-by-case basis creating a community-based business incubator. The results are new products and services that lead to new businesses, jobs, and skills development.

One of Wowser’s many perspectives…certainly not its only one…is it is a business incubator for start-ups to thrive independently. It’s also an incubator for personal start-ups and restarts.

It would be a lot easier to run the makerspace solely as a non-profit. However, what makes Wowser a quantum leap better is that we run Wowser as an entity that is self-supporting through separate revenue producing modules, which may or may not be spun off as separate for-profit businesses that continue to support Wowser into the future. This is how Wowser is self-sustaining and supports its community with both jobs skills and revenue production, hiring local people, and increasing the tax basis of our community. This makes sense financially.

We’ve secured a private grant of $50,000 contingent on a match of the same amount. Your flat or recurring donation will go towards the match. Your support will provide the bridge needed as we launch our revenue producing activities.

If everyone reading this donated, our fundraising would be done within an hour. But not everyone can or will donate. And that’s fine. We’re confident that just enough people will decide to give.

Please consider making a monthly donation of $3, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wowser as we move into our revenue producing activities: CLICK HERE TO DONATE

The purpose of Wowser is to provide for the interested people of Greater Willits Area a transformed ability to use experiential learning as a pathway for a personal life that works.

We’ve secured a private grant of $50,000 contingent on a match of the same amount. Your flat or recurring donation will go towards the match.Your support will provide the bridge needed as we launch our revenue producing activities. Make your donation HERE.

Thank you for participating in Wilits’ future.

Wowser started with a dream and an old vacant warehouse.

Now there’s life.

Wowser has over 200 members. We’ve hosted open houses, initiated Mondays at Wowser, and been blessed with numerous media stories. We have the tools and supplies needed to get things done, including the business of our business.

In February, we hosted a local economic summit that included government officials, entrepreneurs, business people, members and educators. We have listened, and spent the last several weeks assessing feedback.

We’ve come to a lot of realizations. One of those realizations is that this isn’t “our” company. This is big, big deal. What’s proven to be self-evident is that this is Willits’ company.

So, what is the community going to do with the company?

We’ve experienced the dream with clarity. We can see with clear vision that tons of these things we’re working on are going to work. Not all of them. Many of them of will.

We’re putting together the management and leadership structure necessary to get the job done. This way we can vet and manage all the great ideas that have come forward, and include the professional management and structure to bring them forward as revenue producing activities that will support Wowser long term.

We have moved from the dream stage to the practicalities of implementation stage. We need money to bring this forward. This is where our community can help us help them. We’re launching a $500,000 seed funding campaign to initiate our revenue producing activities.

We’re researching different ways of raising this money. We have several mechanisms we’re exploring, including crowdfunding. To get to that, however, the seed funding needs to come first. And we’re raising $50,000 of it now.

A question that comes up often in our conversations is, how is Wowser going to stay open and sustain itself?

We do it by addressing key community challenges by:

– Increasing tax revenue for Willits
– Providing skills training and vocational training
– Creating Jobs [Read more…]

If you’re an outstanding Digital Marketing Manager with experience optimizing campaigns and looking to join a great team, look no further. We’re looking for someone to match our high energy, drive, and integrity while working with us through our steep growth curve. The ideal candidate will be a disciplined, organized, and project management oriented.

Responsibilities:

• Drive and execute large scale product campaigns
• Work with the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) for ongoing management and optimization of these campaigns with a heavy emphasis on tracking and reporting
• Coordinate appropriately across other channels to ensure smooth integration of multi-media advertising campaigns
• Develop and tactically execute crowd funding campaigns
• Lead customer experience testing and optimizations throughout the customer journey (ad creative, ad placement, landing page experience, conversion forms, post-conversion relationship, A/B and multivariate testing, etc)

Desired  Candidate has:

• At least 4 years of experience with a strong performance history and demonstrated success.
• Experience with Crowd funding a plus
• Knowledge of Ad Servers, campaign optimization tools, or online tracking technology desirable
• Exceptional ability to communicate cross-functionally within a highly energetic team
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically about complex issues, leading to thoughtful recommendations, action plans, and campaigns that drive high ROI
• Comfortable speaking about and presenting data

Salary range:  Market

Deadline for applicants March 30, 2015.

Please send a letter to:

Office of the Chief Executive:
Roger Wilson, Cyndee Logan, Ian Fitzpatrick
330 E. Commercial St.
Willits, CA 95490

For more information come to our event on Saturday, March 21 at noon. Learn more HERE. 

This support person will be a member of the Administrative Team and report directly to the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE).  The Assistant will provide administrative support, manage projects, interact with high level contacts and make appropriate decisions where necessary in order to effectively carry out the business of Wowser.

Responsibilities include but aren’t limited to:

• Administrative support for various projects in a high growth environment. Duties include managing OCE calendars, scheduling appointments, completing expense reports, screening calls, reviewing incoming mail/email and routing appropriately, and other tasks as requested
• Understand all receptionist duties in order to manage and provide back-up for the receptionist throughout the day including routing calls, greeting guests, giving tours, making badges, and seating meetings
• Communicate clearly and professionally via phone, email, and written correspondence with Wowser’s investors, portfolio companies, and outside parties
• Interact with investors, donors, and prospective companies in a courteous, professional manner
• Schedule all aspects of travel (domestic & international) for meetings, conferences and other events
• Anticipate the needs of the OCE and initiate communications or schedule accordingly
• Attend Wowser functions as necessary

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Three years of current administrative support. A background in a corporate environment is preferred.
• BA degree preferred but not mandatory
• Some Knowledge of MS Access and skilled at Word/Excel/PowerPoint; comfortable learning new computer applications and conducting research on the internet
• Highly organized and able to prioritize and respond to a fast paced growth environment
• Strong team player; flexible and willing to take on unfamiliar tasks
• Ability to problem-solve and have good judgment skills

Salary range:  Market

Deadline for applicants March 30, 2015.

Please send a letter to:
Office of the Chief Executive:
Roger Wilson, Cyndee Logan, Ian Fitzpatrick
330 E. Commercial St.
Willits, CA 95490

For more information come to our event on Saturday: HERE

Wowser is in the midst of transformative growth and we’re seeking a vibrant Board of Directors.

We invite you to apply for a seat on our Board. As we continue to grow as an economic catalyst for Willits, we’re seeking forward thinking and business-courageous individuals who are eager to create jobs and provide skills training for the community.

We’re creating a super-structure which has our Board of Directors at the top. The Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) reports to the Board which provides accountability, guidance, input, and leadership.

Wowser is seeking a working Board that has profound conversational intimacy in a safe space. A Board that is capable of vetting audacious possibilities that are realizable.

We’ll be working and learning together on new and innovative approaches with all insights focused on transforming Willits to a story of success.

We want a working Board whose members roll up up their sleeves and works with our leadership team.

Wowser offers ongoing board leadership development.

This is a transformational business opportunity. Join us.

Deadline for applicants: March 26, 2015.

Please send a letter to:

Office of the Chief Executive
Roger Wilson, Cyndee Logan, Ian Fitzpatrick
330 E. Commercial St.
Willits, CA 95490

Learn more about this super-structure at our event on Saturday at noon: HERE.