TOTUS

PROJECT PROPOSAL-Spring 2015

Name(s): Jourdyn Alli
Title & Description of project/idea to bring TOTUS to the larger UMD Community:
#OpenMicMondays
My idea is surrounded around the social media trend of #ManCrushMondays and
#WomanCrushWednesdays. I think it would be interesting to encourage University of Maryland students
to post clips of them reciting poetry on video supported platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. When
they post the videos they will attach a poem title, their name, major, and year, and the hashtag
#OpenMicMonday or #OMM. Throughout the day several students and peers would see these videos
and be encouraged to post their own. It would create a virtual open mic that would be hosted by
TOTUS. The first three Mondays of the month would be a virtual open mic. The last Monday of the
month could be an in-person open mic where we allow the individuals who posted online to recite their
entire poem in public.
How will you enact this (include any partnerships with departments/student groups)?
Honestly, this could be in partnership with pretty much any student group. I would suggest focusing on
the more popular groups such as BSU, CSA, and ASA in order to gain popularity among the student body.
I would also suggest partnering with Terpoets, so that there would be a few guaranteed poets who
could post their work to encourage others to participate. I think we could also use the English
Department because they have several creative writing and poetry courses. With their partnership, we
could receive assistance with promotion in classrooms via professors.

Required materials/funds (please provide a detailed budget if necessary):

The materials and funds would only be needed for the end-of-the-month open mic. Other than that, the
social media open mics would be free and only need the assistance of TOTUS members and partners to
help get other users to post videos. For the in-person open mic, we would need a venue, preferably in
stamp, a microphone, chairs for the audience, and food. I would also suggest allocating some funds
toward social media promotion such as promotional tweets via Twitter. You can target the specific area
you would like the tweet to reach and it would be forced on users timelines.
Budget
STAMP Atrium: $230.00
Twitter Promotion: $400
o Week 1: $100
o Week 2: $100
o Week 3: $100
o Week 4: $100
Food: $100
Total: $730.00

How will you track the number of students reached?
Because the majority of the open mics would occur online, we could use the number of retweets or
favorites to track the number of students reached. Also Twitter now allows users to receive the analytics
on tweets sent, so we could check the number of impressions or views each tweet received directly on
the platform. We could also track the amount of individuals that come to the in-person event through a
sign-up sheet.
How will you determine if the project/idea is successful?
I will determine if the project/idea is successful by the amount of participation in the first three
Mondays of posting. I say this because this will really gauge the amount of individuals who are willing to
attend the end-of-the-month open mic. Not only would the participation gauge the ideas success, but
also the interaction among the UMD community with the poets. If we can get the hashtag to trend
online or at least receive a lot of individuals who comment on others videos, we will have successfully
ran an online campaign.