Outreach and Communications for Dummies
I went to the communications and outreach meeting that Concorida held. It was disturbing.
We are shortly approaching the anniversary of the flood. In the meeting, we were asked to brainstorm on ideas outreach. Let’s define the problem, and start spit-balling. This is where the frustration the neighborhoods felt, is felt by me. You cannot tell me that we need to start with a blank sheet of paper. Bettie Hill was literally writing “Phone Banking” on a blank sheet of paper on an easel.
WWL-TV was there. Not to brainstorm, sadly. They were there to film the event for the evening news. The correspondent had to explain to Stephen Bingler, that there were ethical boundaries that prevented WWL from participating, now that they had been invited to cover the meeting, rather than contribute to it. Despite the fact that she wishes she could, she would have to be invited, and no, it was too late to change.
A variation of Concordia the fig leaf. They have no idea what they are doing, and they have no shame in displaying their ignorance, despite the handsome sum they are being paid for their guidance in the process. The best they can do is convene a meeting and pray on our sense of decency to ask professionals, “so uh, now that we got this contract, you mind giving us a clue as to how to fulfill it?”
That was the case with my recent article, For the Record, This Is Not An Election. In it, I offered a viable solution for voting. One that deserves a follow up. There are may viable solutions on offer over at Think New Orleans. Myself and other volunteers are following up on these daily.
This is an old software industry trick. It’s called Vaporware. Tell them something is coming, gather user feedback, and while they wait they’ll make do with what we’ve got for them already.
By promising answers and not delivering, this process obstructs progress, it makes us wait until the official communications and outreach plan is released, doing without. Suffering.
No Comments | No Trackbacks