a better membership list? a newsletter?

[Sarah Allen]

Happy new year!

I've been thinking, forever, that it's kind of crazy that we don't have an email list.  I'd love to have a newsletter -- there are so many stories I hear that I think everyone would like to hear about!  

Today I read an old post by Ben Horowitz about leadership.  I liked his perspective that "Leaders are neither born nor made" -- he says they are "found" which I'm not sure is exactly the right word, but it started to get at some of what we do in the workshops and the behind-the-scenes work of the Bridges.  Leaders emerge -- they are sometimes cajoled into leadership and sometimes simply step up.  This element of what we do isn't talked about so much, but I think it's even more important and significant than teaching tech.

I'd like to spend some time in the coming year improving how we communicate -- and communicating more frequently.  Ben mentions some new software (that he invests in), NationBuilder, which looks interesting (and has an API so we could integrate with Bridge Troll).  Are there other apps we should consider?  Of course, we could do a newsletter with MailChimp, but there might be benefit to using something that is built for organizations with similar needs.  

Interest in everyone's thoughts.  If anyone particularly is inspired to help investigate this, send me a note off list... many hands make light work!  Would be nice if someone wants to google around for competitors and walk through the trial and compare notes.  Would be amazing if someone actually had experience with this kind of software!

Happy holidays to all of you awesome people.

Sarah

[Sarah Allen]

I've got one volunteer willing to help do research, so I've made a doc -- anyone can view and comment.  If you want to edit, just send me a note.  I think there's a way to request via Google too.