I need a short rest.
After two and a half years of nonstop activity with this list, I feel
a need to take a week and do some spring cleaning, both physical and
psychological. I hope you understand.
Our recent semi-heated discussions have left me pondering a number of
things about the overall focus and direction (or lack thereof) of our
mailing list(s), and I feel a need for some quiet time to just think
things through a bit, and to relax and do a few other things.
Therefore...
I am hereby announcing a NativeNet "vacation" for the next week - until
Wednesday, 13 May. During this time, I will continue to pass through
articles containing important alerts and news bulletins, and I will
answer personal mail - though I may be more terse than usual. I will
also relay articles on the following subjects:
1. The recently-announced NativeNet membership survey.
2. What you most want from this list. (The survey should give us
some of this information, but in a different form, and it will
take longer to evaluate.)
3. NativeNet projects! Every time I mention projects, I get a few
responses, but the overall response has been disappointing. I
feel there is a lot of potential we're not really utilizing here,
people. I think the philosophical discussions we have are useful
and important (though a couple of people have written to me per-
sonally to express a contrary opinion, and would like to see the
"chit-chat" separated from the more "newsy" kinds of things).
I want and need help with projects. I want to launch projects
that can qualify for grant funding, and I need help. The original
intent of this mailing list was to do something about the land and
resource and cultural ripoffs to which indigenous peoples have been
subjected for so long. These projects are an effort to address these
kinds of problems, and to help native societies become strong and
viable. I feel a need to exercise my facilitator's prerogative just
a bit here to focus people's attention on this subject for a short
space of time, even if it means limiting our meaningful conversations
for a while.
The projects we've been considering include:
native schools telecommunications & curriculum development
better curriculum for non-native schools about native subjects
planning for specialized lists, like the reading discussion one
I suggested recently
helping tribal councils in U.S. and Canada use telecommunications
helping native grassroots organizations use telecommuncations
producing a NativeNet informational brochure
helping design, conduct, and evaluate and the upcoming survey
developing and implementing a database listing resources to
counteract traditional biased observances of the Columbus
Quincentenary (the database would be searchable by emailed
queries, and could be updated in the same manner)
helping get native and non-native media outlets (newspapers,
radio/television, tribal publications) using telecommunications
effectively
I want to thank those people (you know who you are) who *have*
offered their help for various projects. I'll be contacting you
as soon as it seems we have some real teams who want to tackle
some of these projects so we can be more effective, and don't
run a serious risk of getting burned out and dispirited.
I'm considering the idea of establishing a new mailing list to handle
the discussion portion of NativeNet, and possibly linking it with Usenet's
"alt.native" newsgroup - and maybe handing it off to someone else for
moderation, so I can focus more directly on projects. I would still run
the physical relay, which would be difficult for someone else to do who
did not have the machine resources and technical skills to provide links
among IGC/APC, listserv, and Usenet, but someone else could moderate the
discussions - or it could be a rotating responsibility, as is sometimes
done on other lists or moderated Usenet newsgroups. Please feel free to
comment on this idea - either privately or publicly (just send a response
to this article to respond publicly - if you want to respond to me per-
sonally, you'll have to enter my address explicitly: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us).
OK. That's all for now. I just feel it's time to "shift gears" a bit.
Let's see what happens.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst