[Imc-outreach] Re: [Imc] Greetings from Tallahassee IMC

[Mike Lehman]

Hi Rich,
I took a quick look at your questionaire. It is very comprehensive and 
with a good response rate, could provide some real insights into the 
shape of Indymedia as a movement in the US. I personally would support 
the participation of UC IMC in this. We'll probably talk about this at 
our next Steering meeting on March 16.

In fact, IMCs might find it productive to use your questionaire as the 
basis of an internal evaluation of their own effectiveness in serving 
their communities, whether or not they choose to participate in the survey.

One thing that was a little unclear to me is the structure of the 
question bank. Some questions seem directed at the individual filling 
out the form, while others seem to be directed at local IMCs as an 
organization. Did I miss it, or is there a way to designate that the 
form is either being filled as an individual response or as the official 
response of our IMC?

I'm just wanting to avoid any confusion about whether you're possibly 
surveying individual's opinions about THEIR own IMC, too. It seems to me 
you are looking at IMCs as organizations in comparison to each other and 
that these questions often seem to worded so that they are directed at 
the individual filling out the form, which could lead to some ambiguous 
results in analyzing the data.

In other words, are you requesting that someone take responsibility for 
filling out one form to represent UC IMC as a whole or are you wanting 
multiple individuals from UC IMC to fill out a form to gain a range of 
opinions about our IMC?

Or maybe I'm just confused, as I'm a grad student also, and I just get 
this way about the middle of the semester. It'll probably be worse 
before it gets better.
:)
Regards,
Mike Lehman


Rich Templin wrote:

> Greetings Urbana-Champaign,
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> I hope things are going well at the post office!  
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> My name is Rich Templin, and I am a member of the Tallahassee-RedHills IMC.  Our site has been down for some time due to some technical issues, but we have a great bunch of new members and new energy and should be back up soon!  I am also one of the moderators for the IMC Research list at imc-research at lists.indymedia.org.  In my day job I work for the Florida AFL-CIO.  
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> I have been working with others for some time on a research project that, when finished, will provide the network of a basic “census” of the North American IMCs, general questions concerning very basic operations (basic collective makeup, resources etc.).  The project came out of a workshop at the IMC Conference last year in Austin. If it works, other areas around the globe will have a good model for conducting a similar census. This is important because as we continue to discuss the ways to strengthen our movement for the future, we need to have an idea where we are at right now.  
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> The IMC Research Working Group has had a lot of discussions about research and the IMC movement, and those conversations have really informed what are trying to accomplish.  In formulating our research project, we have worked to address many of the concerns that others have raised across the network. Once you look it over I am confident you will see that reflected.  We are committed to making the final product a resource for the network, for everyone to use as they see fit rather than a piece of intellectual property “owned” by a select few.  
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> We have set up a simple website that outlines the goals of the research, the principles we are following and a short questionnaire to collect some data.  Please take a few moments to visit the site and fill-out the questionnaire.  If, after visiting the site you have any concerns or questions, please let me know and they will be addressed.  I really hope you take a moment to participate, I truly believe that with everyone’s help we can produce something that will benefit everyone.
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> Thanks for you time.  Please respond one way or the other, even you are not interested.  The website is at www.indymediaresearch.org <http://www.indymediaresearch.org/> .  
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> In solidarity,
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> Rich
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> Tallahassee-RedHills IMC
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