Eee! The order is in for my new laptop! In 7 - 10 days (so they say), the mac gods will be sending me a sweet 15" aluminum G4 powerbook. And all it took was the sacrifice of a virgin... Thanks gl, for talking me into the backlit keys. :-)
Gadzooks my sleep schedule is messed up right now. Slept from like 4pm - 9pm last night, then from 4am - 5am, then from 9am - noon today. Ugh!
Still, it didn't stop me from getting out to see a movie with Leopoldo. Saw "The Weather Underground" at Cinema 21. It was an EXCELLENT documentary about a radical branch of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that went underground and took to bombing institutions of American injustice. It did such a good job of covering the moral complexity of the situation, I feel like any comments I make would give a skewed impression.
Things that I'm still thinking about... The film conveyed that the revolutionaries emerged in a context where it felt like the whole world was going crazy -- the insanity was contagious. Whatever talk we have about starting revolution today, we don't have a Viet Nam going on providing the same context of horror. I'm left thinking that post-Viet Nam, the government has gone to great lengths to sterilize and white-wash its wars. I'm feeling antsier now, in retrospect, about "embedded reporters" in most recent war on Iraq.
...There are several things that I can't help but respect the Weathermen for: the extent to which they recognized personal responsibility for the atrocities being perpetrated in our names; the (successful) effort they made to ensure that no one would be harmed by their bombings. It was also very powerful to hear one of these leftist militants condemn the 9/11 attacks. There IS a distinction between destruction of property and murder.
None of which erases other bad stuff: At points their advocacy of violence had no intelligence behind it (mindless rioting); later on, they aided Nixon's cause, because they became seen as mentally ill and criminals; within their organization, there was paranoia and cultish behaviors. Yet, there's something compelling about hearing people who were at the avant garde of U.S. history for a while. What would they recommend we should be doing today? At the end of the picture, the last thing we hear is one of the leaders saying that he doesn't know what should be done now. Complexity wins out.
Leopoldo has been mulling my idea to do some guerilla film-making with Carl & Andrew. Critical mass is beginning to emerge. He offered an innovation on the idea that I think has merit: those of us in the collective-to-be should have movie nights, where we watch and then discuss films. Excellent idea! I've been trying to figure out how to make a group cohere, and I think this would be just the vehicle we need, to bond as a group.
The H.P. Lovecraft filmfest is next weekend. Didn't manage to get the short I was working on done this year. When I missed the deadline, and then realized it would kill me to try to get it done this summer, I was demoralized for a while. Then I got busy with the Crisis Line... But I'm guessing that after the fest, I'm going to be pumped to get back to work. ...When I went to the Animation Fest at Cinema 21 on Tuesday I started feeling pumped about doing animation in general, hours in advance of going to the show. The trick, as always, is that I need to figure out how to manage time.
Time-wise, I'm juggling kind of a lot right now. There's the Crisis Line, J, gl, the deferred Lovecraft film, writing on hold, walking the butte hasn't happened for maybe two months... "Experiments in time"; not sure what that means, but when the phrase occured to me, I liked it as a new idea for how to approach projects. Another time-management idea: to develop a flow-chart for creating my weekly / monthly agenda... I so often forget to ask J for her schedule in advance. Things go so much better when I remember to be active about planning time together.
Started reading Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" last night (did I mention that?). Got about half way through. Looking forward to possibly finishing it tonight -- though I really ought to try to get back on a reasonable sleep schedule. I ought to get up earlyish tomorrow so I can do Crisis Line work. The fundraising meeting's not til Monday night, and J consented to switch our meeting to Tuesday, nonetheless there's a lot to get under control. ...But what I'd rather do is try some new animation.
Watching VHS animation collections at Leopoldo's this afternoon (after "Weather Underground"), I was surprised to realize that I haven't tried animating pencil sketches. Seems like that would be a really quick and easy style to experiment with. Something along the lines of what the "squiggle vision" folks did; sloppy is OK. ...I'm also feeling interested in exploring 3D some more. I should try animating a basic stick figure -- I haven't really done that much with simple exercises in motion -- I've been so focused on modeling. I should also try playing with my "Rumbletum" character minus the fur; and I should fool around with texturing the Elder Things.
With regards to the Crisis Line, Aimee and Andrea can't attend tomorrow's meeting -- so I'm going to be on my own. Don't want to waste people's time; want to be prepared. I need to make a new list of who's signed up for what tasks for the birthday party. Need to check-in by phone where appropriate, strategize about what needs to happen next. I'd like to push people to acknowledge exactly what they're responsible for, more explicitly. I want to establish permission to pester them for progress reports, as bad as that sounds. With an event on this scale, I'm not happy with potluck-style organizing.
Not sure how much time will be devoted to discussing the party at this point. I'd like to also put time in discussing my plan for new infrastructure. With Andrea & Barbara asking when we should do trainings for fundraising volunteers, I think the time is ripe to put out a big proposal; something 5 - 8 pages long, with a cover. Right now I see four big areas that have to be addressed: volunteer recruitment strategy, volunteer processing, long-range calendar planning, and hosting of meetings. I need to look at each of these categories individually, work out what all's involved. Guess I could do a little of that right now...
Volunteer recruitment. Advertisements in newspapers. Radio PSAs. Posting flyers. In-person visits to likely candidates (e.g. women's centers).
Volunteer processing. Who's the "first contact" person? General application form. Specific interests form. Interview with Andrea. Status levels (?): unable to attend; on-call for specific events; responsible for running committee. Two types of volunteers: qualified as speakers, not qualified to speak. [Philosophy: every volunteeer represents the org, participates in public education.] Recruiting volunteers from the general pool to specific, time-limited projects. A notebook that documents volunteer personal info. Establishing a form-letter process for communicating volunteer info back to Andrea. A time-line of contact with the new volunteers: first contact, application, interview, training / orientation, sorting to project, tracking of hours, volunteer review [sounds like a flowchart!].
Long-range calendar. Priorities for each quarter. Awareness of other groups' events. Speaking vs. non-speaking projects. Categories of projects: major events, minor initiatives, events hosted by other groups, tabling. [Fundraising cmte's purview: special events, coordinating with outside groups, small donors.] Designated coordinators for ongoing projects? Periodic review / strategy sessions for the committee. Dollar goals for each project. Establishing time-lines for specific projects. Schedule for trainings.
Meetings management. Sending email meeting reminders. Collecting RSVPs. Writing agendas. Facilitating meetings. Collecting sign-in sheets. Collecting updates in advance of meetings. Designating different functions for different meetings. In-person: check-ins from project coordinators, brainstorming re special events, strategic development for annual calendar and infrastructure issues. Seven tips for running more effective meetings.
Title for my new proposal: "Friends of the Crisis Line"... Infrastructure will make PWCL's fundraising arm more effective.
I should try making some quick & sloppy illustrations in Adobe Illustrator to help distinguish sections within the proposal.
Gadzooks my sleep schedule is messed up right now. Slept from like 4pm - 9pm last night, then from 4am - 5am, then from 9am - noon today. Ugh!
Still, it didn't stop me from getting out to see a movie with Leopoldo. Saw "The Weather Underground" at Cinema 21. It was an EXCELLENT documentary about a radical branch of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that went underground and took to bombing institutions of American injustice. It did such a good job of covering the moral complexity of the situation, I feel like any comments I make would give a skewed impression.
Things that I'm still thinking about... The film conveyed that the revolutionaries emerged in a context where it felt like the whole world was going crazy -- the insanity was contagious. Whatever talk we have about starting revolution today, we don't have a Viet Nam going on providing the same context of horror. I'm left thinking that post-Viet Nam, the government has gone to great lengths to sterilize and white-wash its wars. I'm feeling antsier now, in retrospect, about "embedded reporters" in most recent war on Iraq.
...There are several things that I can't help but respect the Weathermen for: the extent to which they recognized personal responsibility for the atrocities being perpetrated in our names; the (successful) effort they made to ensure that no one would be harmed by their bombings. It was also very powerful to hear one of these leftist militants condemn the 9/11 attacks. There IS a distinction between destruction of property and murder.
None of which erases other bad stuff: At points their advocacy of violence had no intelligence behind it (mindless rioting); later on, they aided Nixon's cause, because they became seen as mentally ill and criminals; within their organization, there was paranoia and cultish behaviors. Yet, there's something compelling about hearing people who were at the avant garde of U.S. history for a while. What would they recommend we should be doing today? At the end of the picture, the last thing we hear is one of the leaders saying that he doesn't know what should be done now. Complexity wins out.
Leopoldo has been mulling my idea to do some guerilla film-making with Carl & Andrew. Critical mass is beginning to emerge. He offered an innovation on the idea that I think has merit: those of us in the collective-to-be should have movie nights, where we watch and then discuss films. Excellent idea! I've been trying to figure out how to make a group cohere, and I think this would be just the vehicle we need, to bond as a group.
The H.P. Lovecraft filmfest is next weekend. Didn't manage to get the short I was working on done this year. When I missed the deadline, and then realized it would kill me to try to get it done this summer, I was demoralized for a while. Then I got busy with the Crisis Line... But I'm guessing that after the fest, I'm going to be pumped to get back to work. ...When I went to the Animation Fest at Cinema 21 on Tuesday I started feeling pumped about doing animation in general, hours in advance of going to the show. The trick, as always, is that I need to figure out how to manage time.
Time-wise, I'm juggling kind of a lot right now. There's the Crisis Line, J, gl, the deferred Lovecraft film, writing on hold, walking the butte hasn't happened for maybe two months... "Experiments in time"; not sure what that means, but when the phrase occured to me, I liked it as a new idea for how to approach projects. Another time-management idea: to develop a flow-chart for creating my weekly / monthly agenda... I so often forget to ask J for her schedule in advance. Things go so much better when I remember to be active about planning time together.
Started reading Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" last night (did I mention that?). Got about half way through. Looking forward to possibly finishing it tonight -- though I really ought to try to get back on a reasonable sleep schedule. I ought to get up earlyish tomorrow so I can do Crisis Line work. The fundraising meeting's not til Monday night, and J consented to switch our meeting to Tuesday, nonetheless there's a lot to get under control. ...But what I'd rather do is try some new animation.
Watching VHS animation collections at Leopoldo's this afternoon (after "Weather Underground"), I was surprised to realize that I haven't tried animating pencil sketches. Seems like that would be a really quick and easy style to experiment with. Something along the lines of what the "squiggle vision" folks did; sloppy is OK. ...I'm also feeling interested in exploring 3D some more. I should try animating a basic stick figure -- I haven't really done that much with simple exercises in motion -- I've been so focused on modeling. I should also try playing with my "Rumbletum" character minus the fur; and I should fool around with texturing the Elder Things.
With regards to the Crisis Line, Aimee and Andrea can't attend tomorrow's meeting -- so I'm going to be on my own. Don't want to waste people's time; want to be prepared. I need to make a new list of who's signed up for what tasks for the birthday party. Need to check-in by phone where appropriate, strategize about what needs to happen next. I'd like to push people to acknowledge exactly what they're responsible for, more explicitly. I want to establish permission to pester them for progress reports, as bad as that sounds. With an event on this scale, I'm not happy with potluck-style organizing.
Not sure how much time will be devoted to discussing the party at this point. I'd like to also put time in discussing my plan for new infrastructure. With Andrea & Barbara asking when we should do trainings for fundraising volunteers, I think the time is ripe to put out a big proposal; something 5 - 8 pages long, with a cover. Right now I see four big areas that have to be addressed: volunteer recruitment strategy, volunteer processing, long-range calendar planning, and hosting of meetings. I need to look at each of these categories individually, work out what all's involved. Guess I could do a little of that right now...
Volunteer recruitment. Advertisements in newspapers. Radio PSAs. Posting flyers. In-person visits to likely candidates (e.g. women's centers).
Volunteer processing. Who's the "first contact" person? General application form. Specific interests form. Interview with Andrea. Status levels (?): unable to attend; on-call for specific events; responsible for running committee. Two types of volunteers: qualified as speakers, not qualified to speak. [Philosophy: every volunteeer represents the org, participates in public education.] Recruiting volunteers from the general pool to specific, time-limited projects. A notebook that documents volunteer personal info. Establishing a form-letter process for communicating volunteer info back to Andrea. A time-line of contact with the new volunteers: first contact, application, interview, training / orientation, sorting to project, tracking of hours, volunteer review [sounds like a flowchart!].
Long-range calendar. Priorities for each quarter. Awareness of other groups' events. Speaking vs. non-speaking projects. Categories of projects: major events, minor initiatives, events hosted by other groups, tabling. [Fundraising cmte's purview: special events, coordinating with outside groups, small donors.] Designated coordinators for ongoing projects? Periodic review / strategy sessions for the committee. Dollar goals for each project. Establishing time-lines for specific projects. Schedule for trainings.
Meetings management. Sending email meeting reminders. Collecting RSVPs. Writing agendas. Facilitating meetings. Collecting sign-in sheets. Collecting updates in advance of meetings. Designating different functions for different meetings. In-person: check-ins from project coordinators, brainstorming re special events, strategic development for annual calendar and infrastructure issues. Seven tips for running more effective meetings.
Title for my new proposal: "Friends of the Crisis Line"... Infrastructure will make PWCL's fundraising arm more effective.
I should try making some quick & sloppy illustrations in Adobe Illustrator to help distinguish sections within the proposal.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home