how to use your supportland card

"Local business make our region great. And loving local businesses just got sweeter." —Supportland

Neighborhood Notes recently sent out more than 75 Supportland rewards cards loaded with points as a thank you to those that filled out our reader survey. And in response, we got a few questions, like “How do you use this thing?”

Supportland co-founder Katrina Scotto di Carlo isn’t caught off guard: “Supportland is an experimental concept that has truly never been done, so it's not surprising that there's some head scratching,” she admits.

What is Supportland?

Supportland supports local. Or as Scotto di Carlo puts it: "Supportland rewards folks for doing right by their community."

A rewards system for locally owned businesses and the neighbors who love them, Supportland helps its 101 participating businesses reward more than 30,000 cardholders with points. It's the equivalent of a supermarket club card or frequent flyer miles, but you're rewarded for patronizing indie businesses. You earn points for shopping at locally owned businesses and accumulated points can be spent on various rewards from any participating business.

If you earn 50 points for making a purchase at a local boutique, you can turn around and spend 30 on a cup of coffee. Or put those points toward an oil change. Or fresh ink from the tattoo parlor.

Plus, the Supportland card also functions like those classic paper punch cards, except you don’t have to stuff your wallet with a bunch of individual paper cards. Your Your Supportland card is like having dozens of punch cards in your wallet on a single card that automatically tracks all of your purchases. You can still get your punches without those hole-ridden, beat up pieces of paper.

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Learn more about how to use your Supportland card at Neighborhood Notes.

5 local alternatives to 24 hour fitness

You should have made your New Year's resolutions by now, and if you're anything like the rest of us, it's likely that one of your resolutions involves your health: eating right, getting in shape, shedding a few pounds, or training for a marathon if you're one of those ambitious (aka crazy) types.

But, we're already halfway through January so it's time to take stock of your good intentions and look hard at yourself in the mirror: Are you really staying true to your promises of healthy living? If fitness was on your list, we're here to give you a little push by offering some cool, local alternatives to the fitness giants.

The Green Microgym

Self-proclaimed to be the "world's first electricity generating gyms," The Green Microgyms really are green. With three locations (Sellwood, Belmont, Alberta) open 24 hours, each gym offers "members a completely green gym" experience by capturing the energy from a workout and repurposing it to power the building. Or as the gym's website states: "The energy bar one member just ate powers the ceiling fan for the next three hours." If feeling good about being green isn't enough, you can also "Burn and Earn." Teaming up with Supportland, you can earn five points to use at local businesses for every half hour workout on any piece of electricity-generating equipment. Franchising opportunities are already available in over half of the nation's states as The Green Microgym continues its aim to reduce the impact of your footprint, on more than one level. One day free trial.

The Green Microgym Sellwood: 7703 SE 13th, 503.933.2230; Belmont: 828 SE 34th, Studio B, 503.313.6216; Alberta: 1237 NE Alberta St., 503.933.2230

East Portland Community Center & Pool

Under Portland Parks & Rec control since 1998, amenities include an indoor basketball court, rock climbing wall, and a spacious pool area with a four-lane, 25-yard lap pool, a leisure pool with water two slides, and a hot tub. The fitness room has free weights and machines as well as bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, and stair climbers, plus personal training is available. Drop-in group exercise classes include Nia, Zumba, cardio, Pilates, yoga, belly dancing, water aerobics and more. With plenty of pass options, the center is extremely family friendly and affordable. Drop-in trial passes are $2.

East Portland Community Center & Pool, 740 SE 106th Ave., 503.823.3450

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Read the rest on Neighborhood Notes.

10 creative uses for your small business calendar

Any small business owner or organization can create value through creative calendaring.

Business calendars are nothing new—from scheduling appointments and meetings to planning promotions and paying the bills or employees—but it's likely that you are not using your calendar to its full potential.

"I'm trying to move towards a space where it's not only an individual planning tool, but it's also a group planning tool and a historical record for the organization," explains Loren Guerriero, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Mercy Corps NW.

Don't worry, you don't have to look far to learn about the benefits of advanced calendaring processes as the testimonials below from several Portland thought leaders will demonstrate that any small business owner or organization can create value through creative calendaring.

"I rely on my calendar; it's critical to how I conduct myself through the day,” says Lisa Christy, an Associate Media Director at Wieden+Kennedy. "If something's not on the calendar, it's not real."

If your own sentiments don't echo Christy's, it might be time to reconsider how you use calendars. So, what are the purposes for a calendar?

Organization

Calendars can help you compartmentalize your time. They will help you stay organized, plan ahead and even relieve some stress while potentially increasing productivity.

"I don't have to worry about where I'm supposed to be and when and with whom," Christy continues. "It frees all that up… so I can focus my energy on thinking about what I'm doing as opposed to worrying about where I'm supposed to be."

"It keeps me on task and keeps me going," Christy adds.

In an agency environment where "a lot of people are working on a lot of different stuff" like at Ben Lloyd's Amplify Interactive, some employees choose to block out certain times to work on the same weekly tasks or projects for clients, making sure everything is properly maintained and deadlines are met.

Communication

Or better yet, communicating without communicating. At a boutique digital agency like Amplify Interactive, president Ben Lloyd can schedule appointments with his employees without even exchanging a word. Simply turn on several calendars side by side, compare availabilities, and Lloyd can schedule a meeting for the entire team with a few clicks. Employees will automatically see the meeting, location, time, and any other pertinent information in their own calendar windows.

"Organization and calendaring is usually one of the first things that we talk about when I interview people," Lloyd says, "because it's a really big part of working in an agency environment like ours."

But the communication extends far beyond the walls of his office and personal employees.

"We're able to send calendar appointments to clients and see who's attending all from the calendaring system," Lloyd says.

And organizations like Mercy Corps NW have both internal and external calendars.

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Read the next eight tips on Neighborhood Notes.