[Imc] Name?

[Mike Lehman]

My concern with naming ourselves as Central Illinois or whatever IMC is
that we preempt the initiative of other folks. I can clearly see the
reason with Urbana & Champaign being something we take control of, for
the reasons I stated. Whether we may be getting ahead of ourselves and
be discouraging to or alienating others by going ahead and laying claim
to all the turf between Chicago and St. Louis is something I think we
should be careful with.

Now, if we can invite folks from all the places we want to work together
with and then having such a result is another matter. If we did have
some kind of regional IMC get-together, with appropriate and interested
folks invited from all points, then we would have the political basis
for calling ourselves such.

I was thinking more in terms of a vague enough local corporate name
(other than whatever-IMC) that COULD be expanded to include others as we
may decide at a later date. If we have a name that is generic enough to
begin with, people can get into things by putting up the relevant
(Decatur, Springfield, etc, IMCs) without feeling like they have to cut
a deal with us. They could be themselves and do it all or they could use
our resources and we'd work together; I think we have to be open to
that. I think we should be careful not to appear presumptious by naming
ourselves first and then trying to bring people onboard.

Another reason why I like the vague-sounding corporate name is that
someone at say, the local police dept, may get a call from us. If we say
it's the IMC calling, folks may associate us automatically with our
great, but muckraking coverage. If we say we are from the CMA, that is a
little less upfront, but more likely to at least get our foot in the
door.

How long this strategy might work is a question (those that will come to
quickly loath us for not being the malleable patsies most of the media
are will probably catch on quickly.) I'm NOT suggesting anything
deceptive, simply having the credentials say that we are from our
corporate entity. No need to cover up a connection, just not make a big
deal of it. We would be the CMA, dba UIMC, in this example. No
business-type can be crtical of this; they do it all the time;>)

Mike Lehman

Paul Riismandel wrote:
> 

> 
> I also want to bring up again the idea of the IMC having a bigger scope
> than just Urbana and Champaign.  The recent shutdown of Mbanna Kantako's
> Human Rights Radio in Springfield  is just one example of events happening
> elsewhere in Central Illinois that are important to us all, but that we
> would never find out about here in our local media.  There is a significant
> void there I think an IMC with centralized servers in Urbana, but
> "satellite offices" and contributors across downstate Illinois can serve.
> 
> Naming ourselves as just Urbana or Champaign I think can be a
> discouragement for folks in other Illinois cities from paying much
> attention.  But if we were to integrate a larger scope into the name, with
> something like "Central Illinois IMC," then we make clear the intent to
> link up the communities of this area, that are too often unaware of each
> other, and overshadowed by Chicago.  Remember, some of the countries
> biggest companies (and biggest labor exploiters) are here in Central
> Illinois: ADM, Staley and Caterpillar.  How much news about labor troubles
> in Decatur, like when strikers get attacked by police, actually gets
> reported fairly here?