Posts tagged ‘desmoines’

A Successful Tweetup

I was fortunate enough to make it out to the Des Moines, IA ‘tweetup‘ on Monday night. I had a blast even though a headcold had me feeling like a whipped dog. There was a ton of energy and I felt like I was among people really looking to do some cool things. I was fortunate living in Orlando to meet some pretty cool people and be ‘in the mix’ so to speak. I realized the only reason I was lacking that back in Iowa wasn’t because other people aren’t out there, but because I wasn’t out there meeting people.

Well I’m hoping to be better at that (well as much as I can with everything on my plate). Life is short and as cool as social networks are, the real meat and potatoes of these relationships is face-time and meeting the people behind the avatars (although mine still rules). There’s a community blossoming here and I feel fortunate to have met some of the people working hard to grow it.

As a follow up I”ll be doing some brain-dumping about conversations that were had about BlogOrlando and if that model works in a setting like ours. I think it could, but only with the right mix of people, topics and weather.

A Dash of This, A Dash of That

What happens when you have a school board member elected based on ‘change’? One who is ultimately unqualified, burdened with a chip on his shoulder, looking to advance his political career on the backs of children and fueled by crappy local talk radio? Well you get Jonathan Narcisse.

Check out the video if you’re interested in seeing this debacle.

He’s frustrated and tormented the district from literally the day he was elected and his first meeting. It’s a shame that he was elected to represent and help children who really need an advocate, but he’s using them for personal gain and vendetta. He needs to grow up or step down and let the people who care lead. Ironically he’s caused considerable racial tension in a district that has worked hard to keep it at bay, ultimately hurting the kids he was elected to defend.