Another Constant Contact trial

Constant Contact has added an event management feature to their products and I’m doing a free trial of it.  The home page for the Lighting the Way fundraising dinner is http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2mwo78e46593a93 .  It includes online registration, and we’ll see how it goes.

 

What a difference one customer makes

I’m still getting the hang of managing inventory.  Most of the time I end up ordering too much, as I did with hajj-related stuff, which was partly a problem also because I started publicizing too late.  So since I just sent out a “shop at LOI for eid gifts ” mailing last week, I didn’t want to repeat that, so I ordered less than I was inclined to.  Yesterday a customer – and good friend – came in and bought a bunch of stuff, and I’m hoping today the displays of eid gifts still look presentable.  I have the counter crammed full of sidelines.  Today is the talk by Patricia Selmo and I’m expecting between 10 and 20 people and I’m counting on them buying.

Speaking of which, slowly but surely sales are increasing.  There’s still not a lot of traffic into the bookstore, but people who come in often make big purchases.  Light of Islam may never be the kind of place that people come to all day long.  I don’t know.

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Light of Islam is a nonprofit bookstore whose mission is to provide the Houston-area community with accurate and accessible information about Islam and Muslims. Find out more at http://www.light-of-islam.org/.

 

Too much

I’m feeling really overloaded, between tending to the physical store, executing ideas, buying merchandise, publicizing events (and the bookstore itself), handling administrative issues, planning events, taking care of the web site (which I’m not even doing regularly), running classes, helping customers (when there are some) and even more things I can’t think of at the moment.  I just don’t know how to keep up.

 

No MAS

Ha, ha, the title is a play on words.  Seriously, though, I found out a couple days ago that there will be no MAS conference this year.  I understand Texas Dawah is also not taking place.  It’s a shame I will lose those opportunities for a little extra money and a lot of publicity.

 

Books are talking to me!

I was standing here stressing over slow traffic, worry about the fundraiser, etc., etc. and decided to grab “Islam’s Treatment for Anxiety and Worry” by Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid.  I picked it up and it fell open to this page.  Crazy!

 

 

Follow your dreams

On Saturday, November 21, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Light of Islam will host Patricia Selmo, lifestyle coach, founder of The Blissful Soul and co-founder of the International Association of Women Spiritual Leaders. She will discuss ways to explore your life dreams and design a lifestyle to achieve them.  Refreshments will be served.

 

Turn-key fundraising dinner plan?

Well, virtually turn-key – if I plan far enough ahead I could do these things in my sleep

I’ve sent out the Constant Contact newsletter invites, posted it on Facebook (an experiment which is coming to an end, but more about that in another post), and will have the paper invites in the mail by the end of the week.  I have the location and speaker down.  I decided yesterday that I’m going to have a silent auction, and will contact local business owners about donating goods or services.  I’m not going to have a book sale (as I did at the June 2008 fundraiser) because it’s just too complicated.

Here are a couple videos of the speaker, Imam Wazir Ali, from YouTube:

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Light of Islam is a nonprofit bookstore whose mission is to provide the Houston-area community with accurate and accessible information about Islam and Muslims. Find out more at http://www.light-of-islam.org/.

 

Lighting the Way

Light of Islam Bookstore
Houston’s nonprofit bookstore and educational center
Cordially invites you to
Lighting the Way: A fundraising dinner
Saturday, December 12, 2009 ~ 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Keynote Speaker: Imam Wazir Ali
Director, Mercy Community Center/Imam, Masjid Al-Qur’an
Shalamar Restaurant Banquet Hall
15142 Highway 3, Webster, TX 77598
$25 admission per person
RSVP by December 7, 2009 to 832-205-1457 or dinner@light-of-islam.org
For more information, contact Ruth Nasrullah at 832-205-1457

 

I finally know where I’ll be on November 1

Initially I was going to have a booth at the Arab American Festival on October 31 and November 1, but changed my mind after hearing less than favorable things about it, and thinking harder about the logistics involved. ( I’m thinking there was something else I was considering for that weekend, but can’t think of what…)

I got an e-mail yesterday about Celebrate Houston! and I’m going to have a booth there.  More later.

 

Surrounded by books

Yesterday I finally finished shelving everything.  I then labeled the sections (something that I had not done before) and tidied everything up.  There are now bookcases along every wall in the browsing room.  It’s strange that a few people came in and didn’t notice anything different, including the counter in the front room.  The last step now is to get proper display units for the CDs and DVDs.  That’s a challenge because I haven’t found any yet that can hold the number of CDs I carry, and I don’t really want to have more than one display, unless I keep kids’ items in the kids’ section in the browsing room – but space is already super tight in there.