Sorry, the link got butchered below.

Please go here to continue the the discussion.

Yikes,

I tried to do a group mail about putting the draft on the group mail, but a bug has duplicated my small mail to a variety of names. Please disregard. : )

I'm not sure how much time I'd have to devote to this, but I'm willing to try to get the ball rolling in Ireland. Add my name.

Mark C.
Ireland.

Thanks Marcus for the honor. And thanks Jon for helping me find the control panel! :-)

Okay, I am waiting to see what anyone says about whether the scope of my draft is outside the goals at all? Or if anyone wants to help modify it (with any changes or additional ideas) into a "lazy person's" standard form.

Hi folks, I am Cliff from Michigan-Aajigaaning. Thanks for the welcome.

And given the big ol' scroll of this post I'm going to try to start with the oldest and move to the most recent.

-The letter sounds great to me.

-I like the administrative maintenance focus of the group for the site per se, but I also like the all town gathering under the pavilion aspect. Our focus is great, and the town gathering aspect is important and could lead to a refocus and/or other foci.

-Marcus mentions a Z meetup and I've already setup a Michigan group with the intent of contacting anyone listed as originating from Michigan to gather. I notice I get two different lists when I search under MI than I do under Michigan, too. Jonathan's preceding post talks of people actively getting together, too, like MoveOn and I've been curious about this since
the ol' Organization for a Liberated Society (cum Z)

-I'm looking forward to betatesting a revamp, from the sounds of things. I've been commenting with Michael about tags over on a blog post (blog discourse) and, I believe, he says a system like it will be coming.

-Chatting about the name could be on the table, sure! But I don't currently have any ideas.

Glad to come by!

Cliff

So far, we have 6 organizers including our newest, Crip. Assuming we can get staff support, that would also cover even more ground. This leads to a whole different discussion, which is, is ZCC it's own body, separate from Z. Or, are staff, writers, everyone encouraged to join. From our last conversation, Marcus, it sounded like our vision for ZCC was something more tightly bound than a consumer council, and I think there was also some discussion about whether ZCC is the correct name. I guess my own vision is leaning towards the idea of ZCC being a community run extension Z. It would adopt core values of Z. It would allow for writers and staff to be members like everyone else, but would be run somewhat independently. I really think there is a place for something like this. Currently, we have a lot of separate groups, but no umbrella group. Part of Z's mission, 'zeitgeist' is to provide a magazine that covers a diverse range of left issues. So, it would make perfect sense that Z's outreach community would strive to unite diverse left groups into a larger organization. Our strength is in our numbers. My own personal take on this, is that we really need some kind of organization for the far left that performs this. Also, it would be great to have an organization that to be a member, you simply have to be a Z reader and agree with the values of Z, that provides a bridge to further commitment and focus, while reminding us that we're in this together.

First, thank you for the positive feedback, Michael. 

Thanks for the admin priveledges, Marcus. :)  We have two new members.  Welcome, Cliff and Paul.  

Tolstoy, thank you for the work on the letter.  I'm going to post my comments in a separate post.  

Aaron, yes, I think that's method we're going to use for now.  Use the Advanced sustainer search and see show shows up in your area.  I'm not sure if we're totally done with the draft, but yes, we can email the form letter, but I also want people to write what they want.  If they want to write their own personal email, that's fine.  The form is just to help those who are lazy (in a good way, I often prefer to use the word efficient).  I think rather than having a fill in the blank form, we should have an official ZCC letter that is forwarded, and then people can add whatever they want in addition.  What do other people think?

Well, it looks like we lost a member, Scot Chevraz, and I butchered his name up above, coincidence I hope.  Sorry, Scot.  If there are others who are disappointed in the direction of our group so far, or who have thoughts on the direction we should head, I would definitely like to discuss it.  I think so far everyone is making a lot of quick decisions for the sake of efficiency, rather than having meetings to plan meetings where we discuss X so that we can have another meeting to decide on Y, etc.   I hope that doesn't turn anyone off.  If there are issues, we can always slow down and discuss things.  Overall, I think that the democratic principle of giving people voice to the extent of their involvement should be applied (balanced with our core values of course), but if people don't speak up, then we'll never know.

Thanks for keeping up with this Jonathan and everyone else. And thanks for listing Texas as our own region :)

The Austin PPS group has talked about this the last two meetings, and I'm sure we'll do it again. Actually my original idea, before starting APPS, was to have a Z meetup where we'd talk about Z-related politics, the newest Z Mag, maybe read Z-related books, that sort of thing.

In the non-physical world, I like the concrete suggestion of getting people to set up and ramp up their ZSpace pages if they haven't already done so. I bet APPS could split Texas up and contact people to do that. This is also a good opportunity to talk to people about starting participatory society groups. I'd be happy to road trip to Dallas and San Antonio if I can get my guys there to hold a Z meetup.

In related news, two other people posted ZSpace articles recently that prompted me to message them and ask them to join zcc, so hopefully they will.

Finally, Jonathan I'm giving you administrator status in the ZCC group. This is still so nascent we haven't talked about our own process or anything, so I wanted to say that publically, as it were.

SAMPLE OUTREACH E-MAIL

[Okay....here is my rough draft. I thought I would make the subject reflect a contact from a sustainer, rather than from an admin.]

Subject: A question from a fellow ZNet sustainer.

Hello______________,

Would you like to become more involved in ZNet? (Or whatever you want to call it)

Some of the sustainers have formed the Z Consumer's Council to work on things like what changes need to be made to: streamline the site, make it easier to use, create a way for sustainers to offer their input, and address whatever issues arise.

The Z sustainers are embarking on this project to contact people like you to try and make Z a real community with active participants. If you have wanted to be involved, but hesitated for reasons related to the site, this is your chance to help us make changes.

If you need help setting up your site, just let us know.

Here is the link to ZCC to be involved in the group if you'd  likto be involved.

 Z Consumer Council (ZCC) 

Here is the project we are working on : On Jonathan Schindler's Blog where you can go to participate if you like. We are contacting sustainers in our area

I think most members have decided they'll start using the forum to communicate on general items. There are other choices on the ZCC page though.

ZCom Forum (Direct Link)
Forum Index (Choose ZCom)

You won't see much there yet. It's just the start.

Dare I say it - maybe nagging, at least up to a point, does work - brilliant! Good luck!

Ireland's in the house.

Mark Conroy,
Rep. of Ireland.

I'd be happy to contact anyone or help them set up their space. I can begin on all of NJ and PA. I can attempt then all of NY.

I will contact troll and see if he'd be involved. He is doing some local community work at the moment.

So, shall we just create our own letter? Or shall we brainstorm?

I'd be willing to try to contact sustainers in Southeast Michigan and see if I could arrange a meetup. I think that would be a good way to drum up some more participation in ZSpace.