I didn’t mean for it to go so long since our last entry here, but blame it on the holidays;)
One piece of good news is that I was introduced to a good guy named Dennis and we met to discuss working together some on a logo for Marion’s Ledge. He seemed to be interested in the concept and to understand my thinking in what I am looking for. I’m looking forward to meeting with him again soon.

I spent a good part of yesterday revising the look of the website and I hope it’s a lot better! The first version was the first bit of playing with doing a website that I’d ever done, and though I’m still verrry much a novice, I’d since come to be embarrassed to see it. While I think this version is a big improvement, and in some ways I really like it, there are certainly parts of it that are stopgap for now and it’ll no doubt get worked over a lot more in the not-too-distant future.
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The main thing I wanted to talk about this time though was to address a question that Hailey has been asked. That is...
Why is Marion’s Ledge a nonprofit?
The answer is that I envision Marion’s Ledge being a non-profit by virtue of the fact that it is a guest-driven, or experience-driven design, not a product or sales driven design. It’s primary mission is to foster community and engagement, not to sell coffee and pastries... although I do like coffee and pastries:).
Though we need to make a profit to be viable and to exist, we do not exist to make a profit.

I’m told that as a non-profit we will be asked to justify ourselves by answering “what impact are we making?”
There are two areas that I foresee Marion’s Ledge having an impact. One is in bringing Houston in to engage our guests, and the other is in helping our guests venture out to engage Houston.

1. I don’t know if you necessarily have community by virtue of being small, but being a big spread-out city certainly makes it a challenge. I remember being especially stimulated by various communities I’ve been a member of that were engaged in a project or activity. It is this kind of stimulating active community that we hope to create in Marion’s Ledge by inviting active Houstonians to have a home there. I hope to enhance this further with the addition of stimulating perspectives by inviting travelers through. I’d hope that the impact of this brew on Houston’s culture and energy may be profound.
2. Houston has a great deal to offer with lots of music, theater, dance, art, lectures, and various other activities. Marion’s Ledge doesn’t aim to trap it’s guests there but rather to also be a gateway to the rest of the city. Like a hostel (and I would want us to do this even if we hadn’t included a hostel), I want it to be a resource, to make a visit to Marion’s Ledge a catalyst to discover what’s outside our doors. In some respects, we should all be travelers, explorers, even though we’re in our home city. In addition to offering it’s guests things of interest in Marion’s Ledge itself, we want to actively help our guests find things of interest out and around town. The impact can be great when Houstonians are more interested and engaged in their city in that it helps them be better ambassadors of Houston, and helps Houston express a more vibrant culture.