OK, for once I have done what I said that I would, and I have arranged a time and a place for us all to meet. Next Thursday, September 16, from 7:00 PM until 10:00, all the Ypsi bloggers, and all those local folks who read our sites and feel like they might want to say hello, will have access to Frenchies, the private bar next to the Sidetrack. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there will be no set agenda. This meeting, quite possibly the first and last of its kind, will just be for fun.
So far, the Ypsi blogging folks who have expressed an interest in attending are:
Leighton from Leighton rhymes with Satan
Jan from Dirtgrain
Steve from the Seat of Revolution
Hillary from the Bunker
Me, Mark, from MM.com
Laura from Ypsidixit
& Cory from An Emprie Wilderness
There may be others too, but these are the men and women who have tracked me down so far and said that theyd like to be there And, if none of them attend, I guess itll just be me. Thats OK though, because weve arranged, with the generous support of Linda French, the owner, for there to be excellent prices on beer and food So, even if no one else comes, Ill be able to eat and drink my fill for a few bucks while talking to myself about blogging.
As for drinks, they will be billed happy hour prices. That means 25 oz. drafts of anything on tap for $2.95. And, food will be %30 off.
As for location, all of this will be taking place at Frenchies, the place right next to the Sidetrack, in Ypsilantis historic Depot Town.
As I said, there wont be a set agenda, but my hope is that some action may come out of this gathering, even if it’s just the formation of a committee or two. Ideally, Id like to leave with some kind of plan as to how each of us can more effectively work together to create positive change within our local community, whether that means just sharing information more easily, coming together to create a voting guide (as has been suggested by Hillary Cherry), or perhaps even hosting a debate among the candidates running for City Council. At the very least, though, even if we dont have one substantive conversation, well have some inexpensive beers and meet one another, and thats not so bad an outcome either.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that Im looking forward to taking this little on-line community of ours out into the real world, if only for an evening, before darting back beneath the rocks of anonymity like a paranoid hermit crab.
Feel free to take the logo at the top of this post and use it on your own sites if you’d like to. I think were all of the same opinion that the more people we can get to Frenchies the better.
And, Id like to stress again, that you dont have to have a blog to attend. All you need to have is an interest in this community and a fondness for this somewhat subversive media that some of us dabble in. My suspicion is that our readers represent a powerful demographic that can really make things happen locally, and it’ll be interesting to see whether or not that proves to be true.
OK, I hope to see you in a week.
-Mark
