Welcome back to Connect! Unite! Act! Wow! Thank you to everyone who attended our event last night, it was fantastic to have so many members of the Daily Kos community come together and celebrate the last 20 years. It is always a joy to share memories and gather with friends. It is also a reminder of something that has been taken from us. Every so often I’m reminded that Connect Unite Act used to provide a nearly daily update of when we could get together anywhere in the country. Trust me, I remember Neeta and I writing some of those diaries when the night before we would be shooting each other messages: “I am struggling bad with a topic, what do you have, have you thought of anything?” It was great and also nerve-wracking. Frankly, I am so awestruck of our editorial team that can turn out numerous articles in a day when two people were challenged with doing one a day and we both sat at times and said, “I am just at a loss.”
At a certain point, we ran into two problems. First, we reduced the number of times the diary ran in order to make sure we had fresher content and to give us time to look over what we wanted to say. By the time we finally started to figure out a groove, a new problem happened: COVID.
And this is where Connect Unite Act ran into an immediate rethink. It became difficult, and irresponsible it seemed, to encourage people to get together in person when we didn’t know about the safety involved for people attending. It’s hard to say to people, “Start getting together” when the next sentence might be, “Of course, you could get infected.” What is the right answer? How do we come up with the right solution that helps get our community members together in a way that we can enjoy each other and that we can be safe while doing it? And how can I keep the core concept going without burning myself out on a daily basis? I love the community, but there are only so many hours in a day I have for every task, and at some point I have to be able to get sleep and rest.
So how do we accomplish the goals that were originally meant for Connect Unite Act? I’m hopeful that last night is a good example of why virtual meetings may be a big part of where Connect Unite Act announcements will be in the future.
In the past, we always enjoyed hosting or announcing events in geographical areas to meet up with Daily Kos members. We went to New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, Missouri, Colorado, Florida. Great times!
I’m just not going to be hopping into a car to make that trip anymore. I love you all, but it just isn’t possible. What is possible, though, is working with the groups on Daily Kos to set up virtual meetings. The ability to say to a group, “If any group on Daily Kos desires to set up a meeting, I can help facilitate that meeting and get you an opportunity to see one another again” and for us to gather in a way beyond our geographic area.
Have you ever wanted to see people in the group you participate with here on Daily Kos, but they live far away? Maybe you just want a monthly get-together?
When I see the future of what we can do to empower the next phase of community building, I want more community members to see themselves as active participants in building relationships with people beyond words on a page.
I love what I write, but I look back at some of it and the way people respond and I think: “I was thinking about this with a much different tone when I wrote it than the way it is being received.”
That isn’t always a bad thing, but wouldn’t it be a great thing to just see each other smile and say hello?