Tikka Rose has a new game. She knocks over trashcans and frolics around the back field as i pick up her mess. It’s great fun–for Tikka. Fresh air, free happy barks, I’m outside with her instead of staring at a screen; really, what could be better?
This may not be completely fair. There are other fauna to be found at Watkins Manor; at least three feral cats, other dogs who come into the open gate, even gophers and my beloved possums. Any of them could have been the culprit.
None of that matters; the upshot is that I am left to use that thing with the claw at the end and pick up trash. Truthfully, it’s not that bad; Tikka is not wrong. I’m outside, Tikka is happy; I get to watch the early sunset–or I would have, had I not been staring at screens.
It does make one thoughtful though. Trash pickup is solitary work, just you and a panting dog not even pretending to remorse (I just know it was her), and your musings.
No surprise, I was thinking about Lace on Race. How far we have come and how far I hope we will be able to go.
And thinking about all of you.
We have done amazing things in just a month! Moved to the website, kept up with commentary, learned new ways of navigating. I am proud of us.
But there is more to do.
We made our Basic goal with a week to spare. I am still hoping we can do more. We took the risk of beginning to, in a small way that I hope will increase, reimburse our Admin team. We are investing in new tools, one of which is getting an old Mac up and running again so we can do better graphics with Photoshop. We also need to plan for what will probably be a leaner month in December with holiday preparations; being realistic about expectations so we can meet our final goal for this year by the 22nd of December. In that spirit, I am placing the Ask here; it is part of our work together; work I am leaning in with faith that will continue past the New Year. If you have not yet had the what I hope is the happy opportunity to engage with us in a tangible way, click the contribute button. Yes, you are needed. No, no engagement is too small. Yes, I feel we can do this.
Ok. That’s done.
We have a month to go before we can truly assess whether our experiment has been successful; whether we can continue to double down, or if we need to start winding down. Financially at least, it looks more than hopeful, which is why we are planning for 2020 and beyond.
But we need you. While page views are encouraging, what is not is post engagement. We are seeing fewer comments (almost no one has engaged with the newest On Being, which is absolutely the most important one so far), and more reacts and one word responses. I do not want to see a wholesale regression. If you have not had a chance to look at the new Guidelines, posted on the website, and easy to find, I encourage you to do so.
But I also know that change is hard. I know that commenting on the website is different than commenting on the Page has been. I know that this hybrid we are living with for now, being both on the Page and on the website is kinda tricky. For now, when I see something important on my personal feed that I want to share with you, it’s easiest to share via the Page. We are finding ways to change that, but for now, this is how it is.
Also true: probably in advance of Election Season, both Lace on Race the Page and my own personal feed are even more suppressed than usual, and that itself was pretty bad. I myself see almost nothing from Lace on Race in my personal feed anymore. And even things I post that are original to my personal page seem to get lost in the void. This means that I, and you, need to become relentlessly intentional about coming to the Page and to the website. Facebook will not help you. Coming here needs to be considered a part of your ongoing praxis.
Page views, between the Page and the Site are down, but climbing back up. What has not rebounded is the authentic and robust engagement we once had. Part of me is not surprised. But we need to do better than we are currently doing.
When I talk about sustainability and viability, most of you think of funding, and yes, that is a crucial piece. But engagement is also crucial. For the community.
And also for you. I mean, that’s why you decided to walk. Right?
In the almost month since we have gone live at the website there have been people who have been critical and discouraging. Also to be expected. I approved their comments so the community can see. What they have spoken of that is true, and worth seriously considering is this lack of engagement. They come expecting a vibrant community, but so far that is not what we look like.
Listen. This cannot be what it looks like to some on the outside–a vanity project for my ego and aggrandizement. Ugh. Nope. This needs to look more like the community we have worked hard to build over the last two years. The only people who can make this truly happen is you all.
Toward that end, these are my thoughts. That this is indeed a new start, and we need to begin to look at this like a new venture. So Reset 2.0.
We need a dedicated cohort who will commit to coming here and engaging with both the posts and with each other.
After I get up, feed and water the perp (lookin’ atchoo, sweet Tikka) and finish up trash detail, I will post asking for different but complementary cohorts of folks; there can and hopefully will be overlap. One, people who are interested in becoming part of the New Gaggle (or whatever we wind up calling it); people who are willing to become part of working groups which will be led up by Gaggle walkers (heh); other people who may or may not want such a formal relationship but who are willing to show up in a real and reliable way to engage regularly and mindfully on posts, and for Sustainers: existing Sustainers who are willing to continue to commit, or willing to re-commit, to fulfilling their pledges to be here in ways tangible and not for the health and long term viability of this community, which includes engagement.
Absent you, this is an empty shell. Period.
After looking hard at our two choices, doubling down or shutting down, we decided to double down.
We need you to do the same.
More information on what will be needed and expected from each of the cohorts I described will be in the next post.
It’s impossible to double down in an empty room.
I will tell the truth. Those two women who were, ahem, less than encouraging lit a fire, and got under my skin. I want to prove them wrong, and I want to prove that our vision and ethos and method have staying power. That this is worth the long haul. If this is something you can buy into and hold in your hand while we walk, let us know.
With love,
your lace.
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