The Republic Rides Again!

Yup, the Publisher is Risen! and the Republic is slooowly hauling itself back to its feet and slogging on into the Land of the Living Media. Urg.

But it's taking a while. So, dear subscribers, don't give up hope just yet.

More to come.

Lost Dog String Band and a masquerade fundraiser

This weekend, Mardi Gras gets celebrated on Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Ken Kunkel Community Hall in Goldstream.

Below is the party poster. Lost Dog Old Time String Band, with Lynn Basham as caller, is going to provide some Applachian-style dance tunes, and there will be all kinds of goodies at the potluck. Here's the program of events.

The purpose of the festivities is to provide The Ester Republic with some funds to make the transition to a nonprofit organization (and, of course, to have a lot of fun—any excuse for a party is a good one!)

I'll be the Purple Publisher, and since I'm making an official Introduction Speech (short, I promise), I'll be easy to recognize even with a mask and costume. We'll have masks for those who couldn't get one in time, and we're encouraging mining-related costumes (but really, anything goes!). Ronn Murray Photography will be providing professional-quality portraits so you can immortalize your appearence in costume, too.

Bring a dish and a donation for the hat, and there's toasting and speechifying and a costume and mustache/beard contest (gents' and ladies' divisions)! Prizes and books and back issues, too!

We're not dead yet!

That Monty Python reference holds true: it may be months since Madame Publisher has posted on this blog, but she's still kicking. It's been a far-too-exciting fall and winter (a seemingly never-ending cold, a broken wrist, and serious debt in RepublicWorld), which interfered in the publication schedule. However, the Republic is heading for some pretty cool changes, some of which have already begun:

Twitter: yes, the Republic (although not really the Publisher of same) has joined the modern sound-bite era with a Twitter account. @EsterRepublic (the Publisher doesn't quite understand this esoteric 140-character means of communication, but she has the skilled help of two web-savvy teenagers).

Facebook: the Facebook page now has two new additional admins (the aforesaid web-savvy experts). Actual news may begin appearing.

Website redesign: after an editorial/marketing meeting yesterday, in which several excellent ideas were aired, the assembled group decided that it was time to redesign the website--to make it more functional, take advantage of all the nifty things that the web offers, and easier to find stuff. I actually have a team of people at work on this! Hoo!

Fundraiser: A massive fundraising shindig is being held at Hartung Hall on Feb. 25, 7 pm (that's a Saturday night): the Miners Masquerade Ball. That means costumes! There will be a toasting and speechifying contest (pay attention, Toastmasters!), a beard and moustache contest (men's and ladies' divisions), potluck food (bring edibles), live music (Lost Dog Old-Time String Band!), and DANCING. This will replace the Birthday Bashes, but there will likely be awards for the Publisher's Picks, and certainly prizes and games and other fun things. More info on this festival soon.

Foundation: The Republic is going to be working on creating a long-term support structure for the paper, etc. This will involve creating a nonprofit foundation (as discussed long ago and now revived): the People's Endowment for the Ester Republic, or PEER.

So that's the quickie update. More shall be appearing here in due time.

Revamping the Republic

Life has been exceedingly hectic of late, and looking at the date of my last post on this blog, I realize just exactly how hectic it has been. I've finally reached the point of maximum overdrive, and so in July I wrote an editorial threatening to shut down The Ester Republic if I didn't find help and a way to deal with the workload. I held a meeting in August to begin reorganizing the paper and book publishing biz along some sort of nonprofit lines, and gratifyingly, eight people showed up.

Whew. I wouldn't have to shut it all down after all.

Well, maybe. We had an excellent discussion, and came up with several ideas and directions to go in, which I described in my August editorial (and also notes from the meeting). I set up a few pages on the whole reorganization on the website, but since then I've been able to do almost nothing on the research I intended or the job descriptions. Jeremiah Shrock has been helping me, and has come up with a couple of draft recruitment posters, but in general, things have gotten even worse, and yours truly is pretty fried.

The paper is two issues behind (one is at the printer now) and about three months' worth of data entry in arrears. October looks to be the most intensely busy month in my entire career with the John Trigg Ester Library (annual membership meeting, seed program launch, final design meetings, grant proposal writing, etc.), but fortunately it is my last one as a board member.

So, November will be devoted to catching up at the Republic. I will be posting job descriptions here and on the revamp pages. Events related to the reorganization will also be posted here and there, and on Facebook. And the fancy new recruitment posters will also be coming up soon.

The Republic ain't dead yet (and neither is the Publisher, although lately she feels like something the cats dragged in). And the Publisher's Deadline will sail at Readers on the Run this weekend, so we aren't sunk yet, either.

Triple Mondo Edition: the Publisher Procrasinate

So, this week (FINALLY) the May/June/July issue of The Ester Republic will come out. It's going to be gargantuan: a minimum of 40 pages. It covers news from redistricting to community revenue sharing to work parties on the park and the stage to the Fourth of July and the Angry Young & Poor concert to gardening and organic agriculture to the EVFD patch collections to reviews of books and movies to who knows what all. And there are song lyrics and poems and photos galore. No view from Ray on the lump this time, though. "Where will it all end?" asks the image on the back cover. "Hit by a Truck," answers my editorial.

No rest for the wicked.

Independence Day in Ester

It's that time of year again! The Ester Fourth of July Parade will start at noon (ish) in the village square, pass the Judicial Review Booth (don't forget your judicial discernment enhancements, a.k.a. "bribes") in a semi-orderly and goofy fashion (after the veritable flock of youthfully driven and wildly decorated bicycles zooms past the judges at high speed), take a breather to impress the judges suitably, march (or jog or dance or stroll or drive or jig) down our illustrious and tree-lined Main Street, take a left (of course) onto Village Road, saunter past the Ida Lane Gazebo and the Ester Post Office, take another left onto the Old Nenana Highway, and trudge in the hot sun or rainy fog or clouds of mosquitoes or whathaveyou to the Ester Community Park, where said parade participants will turn left for a Final Time, there to participate in an Excellent Picnic & Party put on by the Ester Community Association, and receive Fabulous Prizes Recycled from Years (and Dumpsters) Past!

There will be GAMES and QUANTITIES OF WATER (most if it NOT in a glass but all over you if you don't move fast enough) and LOTS OF FOOD (if you bring donations or picnics) and loads of your neighbors and friends and dogs and kids and FUN FUN FUN!

If you would like to be one of the gaily-dressed and irreverent Paraders Extraordinaire, show up in the village of Ester at 11 am and heed the Directions of the Parade Director, who shall be recognizable by A Booming Voice (or maybe a loudspeaker or just a pointy finger) and (probably) A Silly Hat. Be Prepared to Sign In (this is so the judges and the Ester Republic newspaper publisher can tell who you are later, after all the notes and whatnot have been obscured by chocolate, water, beer, ice cream, and barbecue sauce), and award said aforementioned FABULOUS PRIZES.

Jest don't ferget that bribagery. And Food for the Picnic (bring extra to support the hungry paraders around you). And donations for the Pig Purchase, and to help out the Ester Community Association, which puts on this silliness every year.

As per usual, Do Not Expect Political Correctness. We like our parades Irreverent, Political, Punny, not necessarily Mature, and Not Too Long. Also Loud (the Ester Fire Department will be there, and the Red Hackle Bagpipe Band is coming again, YAY!). And with LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS. (Bring a sign.)

If you would like to be a Designated Spectator, be sure to Cheer and Clap a lot, because most of the parade participants are amateurs, and need encouragement. It takes a lot of chutzpah to make up a costume and a theme the night before and get all those drill team moves sorta down in the 24 hours before the parade. Spectators are also encouraged to bring Food, Beverages, and dogs and kids and their Uncle Ned.

The Food Policy Conference: computers and workshops

I was having significant computer problems while in Portland (the laptop kept conking out) and the hotel computer wouldn't let me have more than one window open at a time. Very frustrating. However, now I am back and with excellent connectivity, so I can tell you all about the conference and easily link to the pertinent websites!

On the way down and back, I was reading Gary Paul Nabhan's book, Where Our Food Comes From.

So, here's the workshops and sessions I went to:

• Food Policy Advocacy 101: short course. I took a ton of notes on this half-day course. There was much discussion on strategy: constituents, allies, opponents, and targets. They mentioned an organization called the Midwest Academy, which trains people on how to organize for social change. They discussed what each of these elements were in a strategic advocacy campaign (constituents: those people you directly represent; allies: those who are on the ground for you; opponents: those who don't like what you represent and will work against you; targets: the specific people who can give you what you want). They described coalitions and recruitment, and how good communications, personal relationships, clear roles and responsibilities, transparency and accountability, a broad reach, and consensus-building are all important to making a coalition that works. In coalitions, formalized agreements can really help keep things clear and accountable. They recommended coalition letters, a memorandum of understanding between organizations, and formal agreements and titles for individual volunteers who build that coalition and make it work.
  

Throughout the conference my role in the library seemed most relevant, even though I was down there on behalf of food and agriculture organizations. This was because much of what I heard about was community organizing—work engaging the public and getting them involved in policy issues that directly affect them. I was pretty astounded that hardly anyone there had heard of the idea of a seed library (more on this later).

• Regional networking with the Canadians: lots of joking around (very politely!) by an impressively savvy bunch of food activists who were NOT happy about Stephen Harper and his government's potential impact on food policy.
• Food systems planning: this wasn't what it was advertised to be, and I and several other participants left it feeling quite shortchanged. Still, it was interesting, and the People's Budget came up in discussion.
• Building diverse local food policy leadership: this was basically about being inclusive, avoiding discrimination and privileging, and using a nifty tool called an interrelationship diagram. This workshop was conducted by Kolu Zigbi, of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, and Rodrigo Rodriguez of the Southwest Organizing Project. These two were dynamic, interesting speakers, and excellent workshop teachers.
  
• Planning for the future of food: this was a presentation of four strategic action plans at four different levels, from neighborhood to city to county to state. The plans were Food for Growth, from Buffalo's West Side in New York state; Transforming the Oakland Food System (California); Multnomah Food Action Plan: Grow and Thrive 2025 (Multnomah County, Oregon); and the Michigan Good Food Charter.
• Accessing and using food data to support collaborative policy decisions: this was all about a great GIS mapping and database synthesis project by CARES. Really powerful tool, but only as good as the resource databases (which seem to be considerably out of date in Alaska, but this may change now that the 2010 Census is done).
• Local food systems: this was pretty frustrating until I finally deviated from the prescribed discussion points and asked people in our group what was working for them. Then the discussion took off like a rocket and I found out about all kinds of cool things: neighborhood cooperative chicken flocks, the growth in communal community gardens in Port Townsend (up from three to 25 in one year in a community of about 8,000), an eat local week program focused on a 100-mile diet in public schools, the part of the USDA’s SNAP that allows for purchasing of food plants (something new to many at the workshop including me, although it has been part of the program since 1973), a local theme garden with plants labeled in Latin (a Roman theme), a marketing co-op for urban farmers (Urban Abundance), rotating free tastings by vendors at a local farmers’ market, a food & market calendar created through a collaborative effort from many local health and food organizations and businesses, using faith-based and other community organizations to publicize information on local food, and so on.

Overall, the conference was great. I'm really glad I went.