EcoCalendar

BAA had always included a “Calendar of Community Events” in the print newsletter since the very first issue in 1990, and it always promoted events of interest from other like-minded orgs. As more and more people started using email in the 1990s, Peter Drekmeier began assembling a list and sending a calendar out regularly that way.

By 1997, as the web had started taking off, Mark Bult registered the EcoCalendar.org domain for BAA and created a website with a form for outside orgs and individuals to submit their events, which would go to an editor for review, then get posted to the website, into the email calendar, and into the print newsletter (space limitations notwithstanding).

The EcoCalendar was the main repository of Earth Day events for organizations all over the region in 1988, 1999, and 2000, and was publicized in ads and collateral material publicizing Earth Day. It was also one of the very first cooperative efforts shared by BAA and the PCCF when merger talks began in 1998.

A handful of BAA volunteers kept the process running, accepting and reviewing submissions, ensuring they confirmed to a standard format and included the necessary details, and posting them to the website on a weekly basis (or more frequently during busy periods around Earth Day, for example).

Plans developed later to fold the EcoCalendar into the EcoGuide. When the EcoGuide was put on a back burner, the calendar continued on its own. The website and weekly email versions of the EcoCalendar continued to grow in size and popularity into the Acterra years, with over 2,300 subscribers receiving the weekly calendar email.

Domain for sale: EcoCalendar.org

Mark Bult still owns the domain EcoCalendar.org and will entertain purchase requests coming from the right cause.