This Week's Hi-5:
Rings, Runners, and 12 Years of Showing Up
Alex Hillman
Looking back at the week, several things made us wanna give a high five. Enjoy!
1. C’mon, Marathon.
Indy Hall member Emily Esten is a run leader for Queer Run, and currently collecting signatures for an open letter asking the Philadelphia Marathon to establish an elite nonbinary division with equal prize money.
Turns out, Philly was the first major US city to do this at the Philadelphia Distance Run back in 2021. Followed by the Broad St Run and Philly 10k.
But our city’s largest and most visible race weekend — the Philadelphia Marathon — still hasn’t, ahem, caught up.
We’re glad Emily is doing this advocacy and thought to share it with us so we could stand alongside them and the nonbinary community.
Read more about the issue and support our nonbinary runners by signing and sharing: queerrun.net/non-binary-pmw-equity
2. Two Wins for Win 💍
Win got engaged! 💍 And of course the Indy Hall community erupted with cheers.
But a new chapter with her partner isn’t all she’s launching. Win also shared that she is relaunching her weekly Online Artist Studio to help beat your worst creative procrastination.
Join her for an online, pay what you wish coworking session every Monday evening from 8-10pm. Bring your creative projects, jam out to some good tunes, and get things done. Grab a spot →
3. Steal This Meetup Format
This week’s Cursor Philly meetup ditched the talk-from-the-front format for something we think is way better: a lightly facilitated way to learn from the people sitting right next to you, and share what you know.
Modeled after the “think pair share” exercise that every teacher will be familiar with, meetup organizer Luis gave everyone a set of conversation starters designed to surface lessons learned and open questions about their experience building tools with Cursor.
At the end of 45 mins, the hard part was getting folks to break from their conversations to come back and share with the whole room what they’d discussed.
If you run meetups or events where the default is “one person stands in the front of the room while everyone watches”, consider stealing this format.
4. Free Tools for Good
I always love when a member comes to us with an idea.
I love it even more when they come back and show us something they actually built.
And I love it MOST when they share that thing with the world. That’s when we get to celebrate alongside them, and share it with others too.
Indy Hall member Adam Serlin launched a free report generator that helps individuals, nonprofits, and policymakers understand civic data.
This one’s focused on gun violence, a space Adam works in through gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform. Plug in a zip code, get a clear picture of what’s happening in any neighborhood. Totally free.
Go check it out and share with anyone who this might help: bethevariable.com
5. Look Who’s Still Here
We’ve been working on getting better at remembering (and actually celebrating) the meaningful milestones that happen when people stick around our community.
Malcolm Stanley, Tyler Lane, and Christy Snyder hit the 2 year mark, while Graham Beckley, Brett Shollenberger, and Joe Rosato each hit their first year milestones!
Most of these folks found their way here in the years since we reopened after quarantine. Thanks for being part of the comeback.
But the most special milestone this month is Javon Harper, who has been a part of the Indy Hall community for 12 years 🤯.
Javon’s been a part of so many memories over the years, across three entirely different spaces.
Proud to know you Javon, and call you a friend all these years!
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