Hire First Staff Member, Kara Meyer

After a few years of testing out our idea, it was time to make a major move to create a more formalized structure for + POOL’s development. We didn’t know anything about running non-profits, let alone how to build one, but we knew we wanted to create one to make sure + POOL was developed for the public.  We knew we needed someone at the helm that was way smarter and more experienced than us, and so we reached out to our nonprofit friends and asked around.

We met Kara when she was Director of External Relations at Storefront For Art & Architecture, where she had given us hours of free advice on what to do (and what not to do) regarding fundraising and project development, all while simultaneously organizing the team representing the United States at the 2014 Venice Biennale and raising all the money to do it. Before that she was at an amazing organization called Art in General that commissioned artists to create new work (score!). She not only understood what we were trying to do, but she knew how to get us there. We took her out for lunch, told her what we were hoping to do, crossed (or plussed) our fingers, and boom: we had our first full-time staff member, despite only having $12,000 in the bank after spending everything on Float Lab. Uhhhhh. Kara Meyer is an incredible human being.

Since early 2015, she’s done an extraordinary amount to make + POOL happen, but the biggest is helping build an entire non-profit 501(c)3 organization from the ground up. When we started + POOL, we had no idea how many conversations, spreadsheets, forms, meetings, applications, grants, emails and phone calls were going to be a part of our daily lives, and she’s organized that potential chaos into something that’s beyond productive—she’s made it an art. Thank you, Kara—there will be no + POOL without you.