[New-imc] NORTH TEXAS (question about criteria document)

[Martin Wallace]

Jay, here are some responses from the North Texas Collective to your 
questions. Please feel free to contact any of these people if you have 
more questions.
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This note is in reference to "certification" of ntimc in Denton Tx.

About four months ago I met Martin Wallace through looking for someone
to help me learn the Linux OS. I found his interests in the disparities
in our socitey and his trying to present truth and facts very similiar
to mine. I am twice his age and had some good results exposing
corruption with limited communication skills . North Tx. could certainly
use an organization like this, the standard media is hamstrung and news
is slanted. My main focus, since we now have decent county government,
is mass transit to Denton from Dallas/Fort Worth and Water supply and
related issues in North Texas both which need voters paticipation. I
feel NTIMC is a good way to reach the younger crowd, college, and the
more politically oriented older crowd. Martin has certainly put his
heart and a lot of time into making this project viable with limited
support in all areas. Does IMC have any guide lines that facilate the
operation of a site like this? In a college town it is easy to find
youthfull entusiasim but not much long term dedication or financial
support.

    Thank you, Richard Wilkinson  Ponder Tx.
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regarding the outreach over north texas issue, i
occassionally drive out to granbury and weatherford
and know of a couple of spots where i can
strategically plant fliers asking for writers,
photographers and whatnot.  it would be good to have
contacts out in those areas for some potential
environmental issues with the lake and state park.  i
don't much know how else to spread the word in those
areas, any suggestions?

-Mimi  (runaway_world at yahoo.com)
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Since I'm the one that posted the feature about Meet the Greens, 
perhaps I
can shed some light on my reasoning for it.  The first thing I did was 
check
to see if there were previous features which were announcements of 
upcoming
events.  Having found numerous features along these lines, I posted the
story.  Part of the reasoning for this was that the major media in the 
area
will not cover the event, especially not before it happens.  All in 
all, I
probably should have posted it in the newswire and to the calendar only, 
not
as a feature.  If this is the consensus of everyone, then I have not
objections to the story being deleted.  I will then post it to the 
newswire.

However, I can see a flip side to this issue.  If the GOP or Democrats or
whatever other party wanted to post a notice about their statewide 
candidates
for office, I think it should be allowed.  The reason being that it is 
often
difficult to get major media outlets to give prior notice without a large
amount of time and money invested in it.  I think that candidates making
themselves available for an open forum for anyone with questions is a
newsworthy item.

-Jason Lantz (babel at muselab.org)
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  I agree with jason about the greens story.
 
-mike (mike at awol.org)
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i wouldnt say that ntimc is being represented by all greens at all, i
could be wrong though as i havent met alot of the people working on
this project.† i do have a question though, i have and others have
posted events that are taking place before they happen.† how does
everyone feel about this?† the reason i ask is because although they
are news they arent articles, etc.†

just a thought that has crossed crossed my mind a few times so i
thought i would mention it.†peace.†onelove.†frank.

Frank (ghosttwentythree at yahoo.com)
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My answer to this is not to use the features section to make
announcements any more. We have a calendar and then there is the
newswire on the site, so perhaps we should reserve the features section
for news articles only.

How does this sound?

Martin (amorph13 at worldunrest.org)
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I agree with this

include the Denton Scramble ad as outreach, it seems to be working 
really well

good work,

-mike (mike at awol.org)
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On Thursday, September 5, 2002, at 02:38 AM, Jay wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>
> Sorry for taking so long to respond, and I'm glad to
> see things coming together so nicely.  The web site,
> mission statement, editorial policy etc. look really
> good!  You and your rabble rousing cohorts in North
> Texas have most certainly put a lot of work into this.
>  I only have a couple questions, after which I'll very
> happily put your information in front of the new-imc
> working group, and then imc-process, to bring the
> North Texas IMC into the network.
>
> These questions aren't meant to challenge what you're
> doing, just to encourage reflection where there hasn't
> been, or, assuming there has, to bring out some of
> your goals and ideas so everyone else on the new-imc
> list, and eventually on imc-process, can see the
> direction you're taking as you join the network.
>
> One question has to do with outreach.  I know you've
> been organizing for a while.  What kind of outreach
> has been done to various parts of the community in
> order to bring people into the IMC?  Are most of the
> core members from one particular part of town, or
> ethnic group, etc.?  If so, what has been done, or
> what do you plan to do, to get the word out past that
> group?  Since you've chosen to call yourselves "North
> Texas," what kind of outreach has gone on outside of
> urban areas?
>
> The other question has to do with your thoughts about
> the group's association with the greens.  Not that
> there can't be members of a particular party or group
> involved in an IMC, but every IMC has the
> responsibility to not become affiliated closely with a
> specific organization.  I'm sure you've talked about
> this, I just want to make sure there has been good
> discussion about the site being a venue for many
> shades of opinion, and won't operate as a de facto
> organizing outlet for the local Greens.  (just taking
> the cue from the top feature on your test site, about
> "meet the greens.")
>
> One more thing -- I'm sure people in the network would
> get a kick out of "meeting" the other members of the
> group too.  You've given a great personal
> introduction, and I'm sure everyone on the new-imc
> would be excited to get to know the rest of the group
> as well.
>
> Again, please don't take these questions as
> criticisms.  As you know from being on this list for a
> while, one of our roles is to try to get a group to
> really fill out its membership criteria by answering
> all the questions people are bound to ask, such as
> outreach issues, before your information goes to
> imc-process.  Some "applications" are rockier than
> others.  As far as north texas is concerned, you seem
> to be going the right direction.
>
> Good stuff,
>
> Jay
>