The annual History Fair for the district served by the Great Prairie Area Education Agency was held March 16 at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center, with schools from 15 surrounding cities attending. Eleven Maharishi School students were selected to advance to the state competition, being held May 3rd in Des Moines at the Sate Historical Building.

This year’s theme was “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” Innovation suggests creative new approaches to any facet of life, within a historical context. This was a challenging topic, and students had to keep the entire theme in mind as they researched and created their presentations. Students presented their topics as a website, documentary, poster exhibit, performance, or historical paper. Only two projects in each category were chosen to advance to the state History Fair.

The students’ history teacher was Catherine Wadsworth. “All of the students did an amazing job; they developed their research and computer skills,” said Ms. Wadsworth. “The students challenged their arguments and developed critical thinking. Every one of them created fantastic projects.”

front: Bimba Shrestha, Navin Singh. middle: David Fleshman, Mickey DeAngelis, Alexander Hauptman, Dia Huggins, Heilani Muehlman, Leanna Miller, Camille Goodale and Hifza Akber, Solaris Nite

The Maharishi School winners are: Navin Singh, How the Camera Changed our Lives, an individual exhibit; David Fleshman and Mickey DeAngelis, Braille: Illuminating Darkness, Advancing Society, a group exhibit; Camille Goodale and Hifza Akber, Sign Language: The Unspoken, a group documentary; Leanna Miller and Heilani Muehlman, The Grapevine of Ballet and Isadora Duncan Dance, a group documentary; Dia Huggins, Biofuel: Why Now? Why Not Before?, a historical paper; Bimba Shrestha, Music Television Changed Music, a website; Alexander Hauptman and Solaris Nite, Antibiotics, a website.

Thanks to Catherine Wadsworth, Kathy Shaw, Karen Price and numerous parent volunteers who put in a tremendous effort to make the event successful for all.

The History Day competition is sponsored by the National History Day Foundation in collaboration with the State Historical Society of Iowa.

[Tech Tips is a new column I am introducing on Fairfield Voice. Please let me know if there are any specific tech topics you'd like to see covered.]

The problem: dozens of websites manage calendars listing Fairfield Iowa related events. There is a lot of duplication of efforts between these calendars, and an event organizer that needs to get an event published/updated needs to work with all this duplication of efforts in order to promote the event to the widest audience.

The solution: Google Calendar, a free service (requires a free gmail account) allows multiple websites to share a single calendar of events.

Let me give an example. Glen Keenan, owner of Chickadee, a local consignment store for women and kids, publishes a calendar of family activities using Google Calendar. He manages the calendar from his Google account by adding the time, location and description of family friendly activities in the Fairfield area. Nothing new here – he’s doing what dozens of other businesses and organizations in town are doing – creating and publishing events to a calendar.

However the difference here is that the calendar Glen created:

• Can be easily shared on any website.
• Users can add this calendar to their own calendars (Google, Outlook, iCal).
• Glenn can give permissions to other users to help manage (publish/edit) events on his calendar.
• Users can add reminders, so that they are emailed or text messaged as the event nears.
• Events can be assigned to a location in Google Maps – directions anyone?
• Attach files/documents to events.

Glen published his calendar to his store’s website, by simply copying a bit of html code, and pasting it into a page on Chickadee’s website. Visitors to his site can go to that calendar, browse family oriented events, add reminders for specific events they like, and/or click a button to add the entire calendar to their own online Calender. So for those using Gmail, they would have their Google Calendar updated in real time with all the events listed in Glen’s Family Activities Calendar.

Additionally, other website admins, like myself, can copy the same bit of html, and paste it into our websites, like I did here on FairfieldVoice. Each time Glen updates the Family Event Calendar in his Google account (publishing new, or editing existing events), the calendars on FairfieldVoice, Chickadee, and my personal Google Calendar (I am subscribing to the Family Activities Calendar) are all simultaneously updated with those new events. Publish once – update everywhere!

Imagine if the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center published their events in a Google Calendar. The Fairfield Voice, The Fairfield Ledger, The Iowa Source, and of course the FACC’s website, could all display a current version of the same event listing for the FACC. The creator of the FACC events calendar could promote others, like people who run organizations that run events at the FACC, to manage their events on the FACC calendar, and therefore spreading the workload of managing calendar updates. That calendar could then be easily added to any website interested in providing real time event listings for the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

In edition to a full event description, each event could include links to ticketing, files and documents, contact number and emails, show times, and directions (for those driving from out of town) powered by Google Maps.

What I would love to see is a ring of Fairfield calendars powered by Google and shared across websites and subscribed to by residents. Anyone can start a Google Calendar, just pick a theme – Chamber of Commerce, City Council, Music, FACC, Public Schools, Yoga, Sports, Workshops – and invite other people to help manage and promote, publish your events and ask to have the Calendar “hosted” on Fairfield Voice and other sites.

Got questions to help get you started? I’m happy to help, just post your question below.

Saturday Night at the Sondheim series and FMC Productions is pleased to present “Motown R & B,” Friday, January 29th and Saturday, January 30th at 7:30 featuring Fairfield’s own “Soul Revue Orchestra.”  This event is being produced by FMC Productions who brought you concerts such as Woodstock!,  Good Die Young and Fairfield Unplugged.  Motown R&B will feature many of the musicians from these past productions as well as some fresh new talent.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased on line or at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center Box Office.

This production of Motown R&B is being co-sponsored by FMC Productions and KRUU-LP 100.1 FM, an open source, grassroots community radio station.

The Saturday Night at the Sondheim Series is part of a monthly program designed to raise funds to support the Stephen Sondheim Theater and the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

As the cars arrived at the center of town, people climbed out of them with a purpose. Many more dressed up than they’ve been for years. Most came in small groups. Parking spaces filled quickly…

You see, MUM brought Steven Covey – business/self-help author and lecturer to the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. After receiving an award, Dr. Covey wowed the crowd with thoughts around how to grow companies by truly engaging and nurturing employees – what a concept

I watched as people streamed out of the Center, and rushed to my lunch appointment at Revelations. I’d never met the person I was about to meet with before, so I stood near the door. As I did, within less than 10 minutes, the line at the counter had reached the door.

When my appointment arrived, he and I decided to leave since it was so crowded. We walked over to Red Rock Grill which was practically empty. We sat down and ordered, and within minutes, Red Rock too, was a mass of humanity.

My appointment, who hadn’t attended the Covey event, wondered aloud about the crowds. I mentioned that it was due to Steven Covey being at the Center and that launched us into a discussion around the importance of the Center to Fairfield…

Let’s face it, a lot of people were against the Center from day one. Some never understood it. Many misconceptions still guide people’s opinions of it. At the end of the day however, there is no denying that when events are held at the Center with mass appeal, that the crowds come, they stay, and they spend money at local businesses. In the case of Dr. Covey, of course we have to thank MUM, but regardless of who you thank, how many towns in SE Iowa can boast that they hosted Steven Covey, The Second City Comedy troupe, and Paul McCartney’s son all within the matter of a few weeks? Only a town with a facility like the Center.

I know that you’re still out there, people who still believe that building the Center was folly. And perhaps at the time it was. But the fact remains that it is here. There is a beautiful building that is now starting to break even on an operating basis, with new management who is attracting the type of talent to town who appeals to a broad cross-section of attendees – not just Fairfieldians either!

As such, we have two choices as a community. Support it, so that we can derive pleasure and revenue across the board from it, or to let it die, leaving a huge scar on this incredible community that we call home.

When my family and I were deciding to move to Fairfield for a job that I had received an offer for, the Center among other things, was a major factor in our decision. Coming from Denver (and originally from NY) we were used to having a wide range of entertainment options minutes from home. The Center affords us this.

Although I was recently laid off from the job that brought us here, our family has fallen in love with Fairfield and as such, we’re going to stay. And if we’re going to stay I thought, we’re going to support those entities that helped to attract us to Fairfield in the firstplace – one of those being the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

What about you?