being foolish when there is work to be done

A couple of things you should know and the rules we're operating by around this place:

1. If you want to friend me, go ahead, but you're doing so at your own risk. ( Read more... )

The funeral of Michael Brown is taking place today.

I don't want to talk, much, about him. Those of us watching the news in the US have heard about the good kid he was to his family and community, that he was college bound, that he had his hands raised in surrender when he was MURDERED.

Murdered. Not shot in self-defense. If you're thinking about arguing that fact with me after you've finished reading this: please don't. Just don't, out of respect for me, for this young man, for his family, and for police officers who do their jobs honorably.

Yes, police officers who do their jobs honorably. I said it. I grew up without a father, but I grew up surrounded by good men. Two of them just retired from their positions with the metro PD and state police, one after nearly 40 years of service, the other after close to 30. They are the men who stepped in and served as role models for my brother, who raised sons of their own (and daughters), who kept my community safe.

One of them sat down and talked with my mother about Ferguson, about his anger over Mike Brown's death and about the autopsy results that, to his veteran's experience, made no sense. It makes no sense to my mind, either, with my limited knowledge and ideas shaped between Jim's stories and Sam's, procedural dramas, and the nightly news.

Here's what I know: there are police officers who go to work every day and support their communities. They know there's more to the men and women, the young people, they arrest; they know these kids (they are kids to me at 21, 25, even 30) have stories and there was a path that took them off-course. They know there's a certain kind of desperation that comes with poverty, that gets compounded by race and institutionalized racism. They know these things because they have lived them, because they have sons and daughters of their own facing the same issues as the drug dealers they arrest, the thieves they take off the street.

"Police officer" in my mind defaults to a black man, proud of the accomplishments of his life, educated, as tough as he is caring. This is the man who takes the 2 AM phone call from a nephew in trouble. This is the man who fought back tears, taking a call on Christmas from his imprisoned son.

There is a conflict there, yes, and I will return to it.

( Read more... )

There are a couple of posts I want to give a signal boost to for anyone who hasn't read them and is hanging out for the election-related things:
1. Tanaqui's Another OTW election post: Do All The Things is not a strategy
2. Anatsuno's OTW's mission(s) & Archive vocabulary problems
3. Bookshop's OTW Elections! Now with less confusion! and with a ton of links to other posts about the elections.

I also wanted to post a little bit of thinking I did after a conversation with Renay. She reminded me that I fell into the buzzword trap and after a couple of weeks of heavy conversation, she asked me what a strategic plan was. I've been steeped in nonprofit organizations for the better part of the last two decades and sometimes I forget that terms aren't universal. So, we immediately got on the phone and talked about it, and that night I scribbled down the following:

The major question for the board of a nonprofit should always be: are we carrying out our mission statement?

The purpose of a strategic plan is two-fold. It raises the question of whether we're carrying out our mission statement, not just in the opinion of the board but in the view of stakeholders---staff, volunteers, donors, members of OTW, members and users of AO3, contributors to Transformative Works & Culture and Fanlore, basically everyone who has an interest in OTW and participating in some way in our projects. Those answers, and the wide range of perspectives, allow us all to examine where we're succeeding, where we're struggling, and how we can move forward over the next few years. They help shape the goals of the organization and influence the objectives---the means by which we get to the overall goals to live out our mission statement---for each project and committee, which is the second purpose of a strategic plan. Basically, it means building a roadmap from where we are to where we want to go.

This roadmap is something that will guide the work of OTW as we experience staff turnover, as volunteers become staff, as staff become chairs and board members, and as board members become part of the emeritus. It will provide continuity while also giving us a document that we can all look to in order to measure our progress and that will hold us accountable to each other as general staff, to our members and users, and to the public at large.

*

And today Tanaqui made a brilliant post about why doing all the things is not the same thing as a strategic plan, so I wanted to go ahead and post while some of us are thinking in this direction.

Fanmix and coverart behind cut to spare flists.

( Crimeland Challenge #19: Let's Dance )

Now that the Yuletide reveals are done, I can own up to writing two pieces:

We Make Great Pets (419 words) by sanders
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Danny "Danno" Williams, Chin Ho Kelly, Kona | Kono Kalakaua (2010), Grace Williams
Summary:

Grace sees familiar characteristics in her new ferrets.

Out of the Mouths of Babes (499 words) by sanders
Fandom: Heroes RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adrian Pasdar/Milo Ventimiglia/Natalie Maines
Characters: Milo Ventimiglia, Adrian Pasdar
Summary:

Little ears have big mouths and tend to ask uncomfortable questions as Milo learns thanks to Slade.

Title: When I'm Awake
Author: sanders/sandersyager
Fandom: Shadow of the Templar
Pairing/character: Nate Waxman/Johnny Pilgrim, mostly pre-slash
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1710
Spoilers: Vague for entire series of novels, set in between scenes during High Fidelity
Summary: The red room's like a Nevada whorehouse. Nate wears pajamas that could reboot his system. Johnny sleeps with Nate. In the same bed as Nate, not with Nate.

( When I'm Awake )

The list of things I am not writing, but probably will anyway:
( the list )
*shakes head* My brain is too full of... everything for this not to be a manic phase. Please, god, let it stop soon because I can't keep up and I can't focus and my hands only move so fast through words.

I feel like I'm caught in a really difficult situation and I don't know how to write about it without sounding like the bitter, whiny, insecure fangirl I am. So, I'll own that. I'm a bitter, whiny, insecure fangirl, any part of which might be redundant.
( Is this an ego issue? Absolutely. )

I'm a sheep. I admit it. I accepted an invite code from Becc, and have a DW journal under sanders. Just plain sanders, no longer saddled with a name that's no longer mine. That alone is cause for celebration. Or something.

I also am going to admit that at this very moment, I really, really, really hate the handful of basic layouts offered by DW and it irks the everliving hell out of me that the one I have seems to display slightly off-center. There will, apparently, be much learning of new CSS this weekend because I can't have this.

Why, yes, I'm a picky little geek girl. Shut up.