Your ELi

The author on graduation day 2006 with Chris Marshall (in red cap) and his housemates.

The students are back.

Depending on where in East Lansing you live, that may just mean that there are longer lines at Meijer. If you live where I live, it’s different. Because I live on a street where we are the only permanent residents, and every single other house is a student rental.

We’ve heard loud and clear from our readers that you want ELi to continue to be a reliable, nonpartisan source of information about local elections and local political campaigns. If you’ve been with us for the last two election cycles, you know we’ve been doing regular reporting for you on issues like the parking lot sale ballot question, the marijuana charter amendment, and the land sale charter amendment, as well as on political campaigns (who is behind them, who finances them, candidate positions, etc.).

Click-baiting photo of Ann Nichols’ ancient dog, Charlie, who has attended many ELi management meetings, almost always under a blanket.

Have you donated? Look what we do for you!

Come on.

Image: ELi's Astronomy Reporter, largely unqualified for his ELi job, but does he let that stop him? No way! (Photo credit: Jenny Stevenson Photography)

Our Managing Editor, Ann Nichols, is supposed to be off duty for a couple of days because she is doing the cooking for a friend’s wedding. (Besides being a lawyer, professional writer, and ELi’s Managing Editor, Ann is also a professional—and spectacular—cook.) This means I’ve got a rare moment where Ann isn’t paying total attention to ELi, which means it’s the perfect opportunity for me to sneak into ELi something she’d probably veto: an appreciation of Ann.

This week we held a new reporters meeting at my house for folks interested in becoming reporters for ELi. We had six potential rookies attend! They ranged in age from ninth grade to people a ninth-grader would consider old. Best of all, their interests ranged all over the place, from arts and music, to city politics, to crime and public safety, to school district activities, to environment and garden.

Do you donate to ELi, and if so, why? We asked, and you answered.

ELi recently conducted its first reader survey, which focused mainly on ranking the reader-requested “Ask ELi” stories so we can plan to cover what interests you the most. The results of that part of the survey are available here.

We also asked readers whether they donate to ELi and why they do (or don’t). Of 52 survey respondents, 33 answered the question “Please tell us why you have or haven't donated to ELi.”

We've received a lot of reader requests for our investigative series known as Ask ELi to Investigate and so we would like to hear from you, our readers, about which ones we should prioritize. Please take our four-minute, anonymous survey by clicking here.

Reminder: ELi is on break this week except for City Council coverage and emergency-type reports. Read more.

Happy Independence Day from your ELi! Before ELi goes on summer break for the week (except for a reader survey and Council coverage, as explained below), I want to share with you a fundraising update and also reflect a little bit on ELi’s place in American history—because Independence Day is my favorite holiday, and ELi is my favorite local service organization.

Right now, ELi is not sustainable. Since a week ago, we have raised an additional $240 in donations, which is not enough to cover our operating expenses for this week. (We currently need about $550/week.) Given that we are in a fundraising month and are trying to raise enough to survive through the end of September, we actually need to be raising much more than our operating expenses right now.

We’re down to the wire.  If we work together, ELi keeps bringing you hyper-local news and features through the end of September.

Progress towards our fundraising goals, as explained below

Just a quick note to update you on our fundraising progress. As our Managing Editor Ann Nichols explained last week, we are trying to raise $8,000 this month to keep ELi going through the end of September and to provide funding for expanded public schools reporting and to support of our growing ranks of student reporters who go out to do great East Lansing-specific reporting for you while you go about your busy life!

YOUR ELi: We Need Educational Reporting

Eli is in fundraising mode once more. This time, we’re looking specifically at two goals that are based on reader response and input about what you value, and what you want to know about.

Our goal this month is to raise $8,000 to keep publishing through the end of September while responding to your desires for more content and coverage. Here are our two goals:

Fuller coverage of East Lansing Public Schools

Next month—which is actually the day after tomorrow—Eli is going to ask you for money again.

I’m imagining your mental responses: “You just asked us for money!” “Why don’t you just run ads like other news sites?” “Why do you people need all that money to run a website?”

Image: trillium blooming in the author's yard (with a peony shoot coming up to the right)

The weather. People all over town are saying to me, “This is the season to live here.” And it isn’t just the weather. It’s the quiet, particularly for those of us who live in the university neighborhoods that ring downtown.