I still think the basic concept is relevant. That people, ordinary and all people, should get together and share ideas and thoughts in an immediate, personal setting.
And its amazing to meet people on the street who have been to a forum or two and have them mention it or inquire as to its continuity.
Giving people an opportunity for expression, ie your attention is empowering...I think.
So here's the situation. We've lost essentially three co-organizers (Jomo hasn't made it official) and the remaining two (Carl and I) have been taking time off. Its been over a month since the last forum happened and if any amount of momentum was built up through the dry/outdoor season, its probably gone by now. But I'm still thinking about it and I just called the owner of the Underground, the basement of the Madison? building there where Starbucks is, about having the forum there.
Or should I just go solo under the bridge? with some flyering and publicity of course.
Should the format be tweaked? Should the guidelines be amended? What can we do to attract more people? Will you show up? When is a good time? Help. Leave a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Though I was often too busy or tired to get there, I benefited greatly from Open Forum. Now that I am in Washington, I am thinking about organizing something like it in the Puyallup/Tacoma area. Any pointers for starting up a forum?
Hey bro! Great to hear from you.
I think the key to starting a forum is having a small group to get it going. Unless you can market the crap out of it and draw a reliable crowd, in which case, one person might be enough. Ultimately its the participants and arguably simply the number of participants that make or break this kind of forum.
Your comment, which is greatly appreciated btw, in addition to the many people who have participated as well as all the people who've joined my facebook group (friends of corvallis open forum) reinforce my belief that we're on the right track, that the idea has merit.
I'm just coming to the realization that the floundering of this idea is probably a failure of leadership more than anything. I've always been the reluctant but de facto leader. I thought if the ball really got rolling there wouldn't need to be a leader, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe people need to be led to not need a leader...or something like that.
Anyways, I am available at any time to help however I can when you want to start one up.
In a nutshell, I had some flyers and a two page statement written up which I showed to some close friends who showed interest, in addition to support from a fellow green party listserve writer and
then my friend's friend became involved and we started having meetings about what the guidelines should be, what kind of signage we wanted and who could bring chairs, that sort of thing. Of course a good public location was decided upon also.
Post a Comment