In this episode, host Lee Smalt interviews Alicia Allen (formerly Alicia Reece), co-founder of Nice Moves Minnesota and head of operations at Modular, for an in-depth look at building and sustaining creative communities.

This episode covers:

• Nice Moves origins: Casual conversations between Mike Nelson, Mike Zugshwort, and Alicia at bars and barbecues converged into an official organization, launching in 2016 with just a logo and Facebook page
• Infrastructure development: Transition from informal friend groups to structured nonprofits, including fiscal sponsorship with Minneapolis Television Network and establishing boards with term limits to handle member transitions
• Pandemic growth: 2020 forced rapid formalization and the move to Discord, expanding reach beyond Minneapolis
• Leadership transitions: The challenges of stepping away as founders while ensuring continuity, emphasizing early documentation and accepting that organizations evolve beyond original vision
• Mentorship scaling: Ongoing challenge of mentor demand outpacing availability, with new Tally-Notion integration helping match participants based on specific skills and career goals
• Community impact: Salary surveys that forced local studios to raise compensation levels, and recognition from MCAD professors as a legitimate professional development organization
• Technical skills gained: Documentation, systems thinking, change management, and strategic planning as transferable skills from community work to professional operations

Upcoming Schedule:

• No meeting Monday, September 15th (Camp MoGraph attendance)
• Regular programming resumes September 22nd

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Monday Meeting Discord⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠MondayMeeting LinkedIn⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠MondayMeeting Instagram⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠MondayMeeting Bluesky⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠MondayMeeting Newsletter⁠

Nice Moves webpage: https://nicemoves.org/

NM Discord: https://discord.gg/X2TRASPkv8Modular webpage: https://www.modularstudio.tv/

Foreign Fauna webpage: https://foreignfauna.com/

Tally: https://tally.so/

Zapier: https://zapier.com/

Make: https://www.make.com/