Tishman Environmental Scholars Blog: Alli Blogs 6/24

First, a work update. Second, a recreation update.

1. I am working on the final drafts of the ACA brochure. Soon it will parade its pretty self around the office and then circulate; schmooze with the Anchorage conservation community. Working with InDesign was frustrating at first but we sorted out our differences and eventually, even though I didn't understand why one had to go to 'File' and select 'Place' and then usually hit 'Undo Replace' in order to freakin' add a picture, we came to an understanding. Or a sort of mutually accepted low-grade frustration that at least resulted in a nice product. But hey I don't want to speak ill of a computer program; I feel like that could karmically come back at me (probably during finals in my last semester of college, 3am in the computer lab you know).

2. Friend to Friend is difficult. I have a really hard time with calling people up; it's like if you were at a party where, even though you were constantly keeping up momentum and interest, nobody felt obliged to be nice. Face to face (Friend to Friend) people tend to listen more; at least give you the benefit of the doubt. Not over the phone. Sometimes I get a really cute kid on the other line and then mom comes on and she's friendly, but then she won't commit to a time and I have to e-mail her...who knows if I'll hear back. The good news is that despite the difficulties I'm averaging 1 person per Friend-to-Friend evening, which is 2 a week, which is about 6 sendouts to non-members. So I do think that by the end of the summer we'll have new members.

3. I'm pondering options for a blog/myspace/facebook. No, not for me. I have enough of those damn things. This is for ACA/V. But how do you blog for an organization? I've been doing some research to find out, and it turns out that lots of nonprofits do blog. Most of the ones I've looked at include events past and present, causes, pictures etc. But to be honest I haven't found any nonprofblog terribly interesting because there's no contriversy in events, causes, pictures etc... So the catch 22 seems to be that you need contriversy to get attention, but as a nonprof it's really not in our best interest to broadcast cards on the internet. There are a lot of issues out there, especially in Alaska, but it's difficult to write about them in any meaningful way if you're not taking sides. So I guess that's why most nonprof's stick to what what's already public: dates, times, snapshots.

Does that mean we have to have a dull blog/myspace/facebook? Well...maybe not dull, just more informative than subjective. For a nonprofit, the point seems more about getting the word out about upcoming events/issues than sparking meaningful discussion. A blog's just one part of that effort. But maybe something more can be done; tomorrow I have a meeting about it, we'll talk about these fine lines there.

Okay, so that's my research focus for the day: BLOGS! In the meantime, as this is my shared blog in which I'm pretty sure I know what to say, I'll post photos from the solstice weekend: