meeting tonight and notes about the meeting

[Charles Lenchner]

(reminder: folks are meeting at the Irish Bar that the IWG met at last
week. This Digital Strategy team is meeting at 7pm; the IWG is meeting
at 5pm. That said, if you read the message below you might see some
uncertainty creeping in.....

Hey all,

On Sunday evening I spent four hours with many wonderful folks. What I
thought we accomplished was the creation of four taskforces, and the
start of work on each of them. Most of the work of IWG is connected to
the development and management of the new website, but my heart was
invested in finding or creating a forum for ‘digital strategy’ that
addresses non website issues.

On Sunday night, I thought we had succeeded. Today, after talking to
Devon about my interests and attending a meeting of the FLO/Solutions
Working Group, I understand more AND I’m also more confused. I’m
hearing, more or less, that a meeting of a group to come up with goals/
solutions/plans addressing digital strategy are moot because ‘someone
just needs to go to the Outreach WG and figure out with them what they
need from FLO/Solutions and then go to lots of other groups and work
it out.’

And indeed, someone is doing that, and it doesn’t include a stop at
the IWG or the Digital Strategy meeting later this evening.

So I’m torn between following this someone around (trying to come up
with solutions for ‘what mass lists should exist for email? What
should they say? Who should decide? How does it get managed and
integrated with social media and the needs of all WGs?’) and returning
to the IWG meeting. I mean… imagine that the Digital Strategy group
comes up with some great ideas in four days, only to discover that two
empowered individuals have it ‘all taken care of’ by making the rounds
of ‘the folks that matter’?

For me, this raises all kinds of questions about transparency,
accountability, democracy and efficiency. But then, I’m a bureaucrat
at heart who likes to know precisely what the right process is for any
activity. #OWS is kind of challenging….

So it’s 4:15 and I don’t know how best to plug in my expertise – after
a few weeks of meetings and personal conversations. Everyone I speak
with affirms that it’s like this ‘for everybody.’ Not sure where I’ll
be at 5pm and 7pm.

Charles

[Steven Schoeffler]

Charles,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. My suggestion:

We have technology. Follow your person around, and stay in touch with us by phone. I know it will be tricky with loud places and all that but maybe we can conquer space this way. It would be a shame to be either out of the loop with the decision making process, or to let our talents go to waste.

Steve

618-530-4842