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ruby’s rants & randomness
If you’re not outraged, you’re not reading my blog.

NCTech4Good 2015 is upon us!

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Facilitating the 2014 NCTech4Good Unconference

Facilitating the 2014 NCTech4Good Unconference

It’s been a little while since I posted about this, but I have been continuing to facilitate NCTech4Good’s hybrid unconference annually since 2011. Tomorrow is our 2015 event!

A lot of people still don’t know what “unconference” means, so I get excited about spreading the gospel. I never fail to have people who looked at me skeptically in the morning come up to me afterward to say how much they loved it and that they will suggest their own organization or community try unconferencing.

Please read my blog post I <3 Unconferences that explains the history and how they work. NCT4G is a simplified hybrid of traditional and “open space” (ie: unconference) event so I will explain our unique methodology here.

Before the conference:

  • Organizers solicit session proposals, invite public voting, and, then hand-curate HALF of the day’s sessions leaving half of the rooms free.
  • Speakers whose sessions are not selected are invited to attend and pitch their session at the beginning of the day.

Kickin #unconference grid at @NCtech4good #unconference. #nct4gAt the conference:

  • The classic “unconference grid” (see right) is pre-populated with cards from sessions that were already picked by the organizers. The grid lets us see which sessions are in which rooms and at what times.
  • Anyone who is interested in convening a session as well as everyone who is already on the grid stands up in front of the group and gives a 30-60 second pitch for their topic. This needn’t be an organized presentation, although Powerpoints are welcome and projectors are available, but can be any form of panel, talk, conversation, demo, Q & A, or even a code sprint!
  • Cards for new sessions are added to The Grid, and then we work out any conflicts or special requirements, and Voila! We have a schedule.

As you can tell, I am very skeptical of the whole idea of messing with unconference process, and I wasn’t completely sure it would work at first. But it has a resounding success for several years in a row and everyone came away satisfied. This year we’ll be doing the same and I expect it to go even better. If you are in central North Carolina, I hope to see you there!

Nonviolence is still a radical notion

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the-montgomery-storyAll of the comics in The Village Voice‘s “The 10 Most Subversive Comics at New York Comic Con” look great, but I most appreciated the shout out to John Lewis’ new book March (which I just read) as well as the Fellowship of Reconciliation‘s 1957 comic explaining nonviolent direct action.

I originally discovered The Montgomery Story when I worked at FOR. I’m so glad they are reprinting it!

“The most subversive comic available at New York Comic Con is at the Top Shelf booth, a reprint of The Montgomery Story, a comic first published in 1957 and approved by Martin Luther King Jr., who saw the pre-published pages and made editorial changes. Most important is a section in the back called “How the Montgomery Method Works,” a blueprint for passive resistance. This comic has been translated into countless languages (a Top Shelf rep showed me Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi). It’s an instruction book for changing the world, and it continues to do so.”

 

Sorry Not Sorry

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After reading this article at Bustle by a woman who struggled to go a whole week without apologizing, I’ve decided to try it myself. Today when there was a misunderstanding over e-mail, it took me some time to figure out how to respond without apologizing because I did feel I was at fault.

Finally I came up with “I should have made that clearer.” It felt great!

Help women chose their own futures

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I’ll be rolling in the the National Abortion Access Bowl-a-thon again this year, and I hope you’ll support me by making a donation on my fundraising page.

I’m raising funds for the Carolina Abortion Fund because I know fortunate I was to be able to have an abortion 25 years ago. If my family and doctor had been less supportive, I would have become a mother well before I was even ready to take care of myself.

izzy & rubyThanks to the ability to choose, and my family’s ability to PAY for it, I was able to wait until I was ready. My wonderful son is a testament to that choice.

When you support me in the Bowl-a-Thon, you’re not only directly helping a woman to access necessary medical care, you’re also giving her back the opportunity to pursue her hopes and dreams. You’re ensuring that no woman is forced to carry a pregnancy to term because she couldn’t come up with the bus fare to a distant clinic, or because she had the wrong insurance, or was short $100. You’re helping a woman decide her future.

repro justive leagueThank you for supporting me and my team, the Reproductive Justice League (at right) and the Carolina Abortion Fund to lower barriers for women who want and need abortions. See this page to see how we’re doing: http://bowlathon.nnaf.org/nnafbowl/fundevent.asp?nnaffundid=85&eventid=145

Thank you, HASTAC

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I’m feeling incredibly grateful this Thanksgiving for the past four and a half years I’ve been working for HASTAC, and especially fortunate to have worked with such amazingly smart and supportive teammates at Duke.

At the end of January, I will be leaving HASTAC for a new adventure as the Network Organizer with the Leading Change Network. I’ll be working with the great Marshall Ganz and many other incredible activists who are organizing for justice all over the world! I’m so excited to come back to advocacy, my spiritual home.

Local officials need to respond to state politics

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Cross-post from OrangePolitics.

A recent column by Kirk Ross in the Chapel Hill News makes very clear how increasingly relevant the N.C. General Assembly’s shenanigans are to us here at the local level. In the past, many have debated the utility of municipal and county governments weighing in with symbolic resoluitions about state and national issues. Well pardon my French, but sh*t just gotreal in Raleigh this summer.

Kirk calls on candidates to make clear what they would do to deal with many draconian budget cuts that will be painfully trickling down to us in months and years to come. This also points to why we need local officials to stand up and lead by fighting back against Art Pope, ALEC, and the other forces that want to drag down our entire state. I may be biased, but my friends the five Orange County elected officals that got arrested at Moral Monday are a great example of this. If you didn’t see it, please watch this video (embedded below) of Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton clearly explaining his constutional rights while being arested by the Capitol Police.

Back to Kirk:

Too often local officials get away with expressing frustration and promising to lobby the local legislative delegation for this issue or that. This year, expect to hear a lot of candidates say they are outraged, but ultimately powerless when it comes to what Raleigh does. That is unacceptable.

If you want to lead a town or a school system in this era you need a plan for dealing with the agenda of the state’s far-right power structure and its consequences. And you owe the voters at least a glimpse of what that plan is, because that slash-and-burn agenda is not going to stop just because the session has ended. And next year, there are already indications that even more changes are in store for cities and towns and public education.

You may have heard about what the Legislature has done to Asheville’s water system and Charlotte’s airport and how the two cities are now suing the state. These may have come across as parochial battles, but they should be clear warnings to anyone in local government.

– chapelhillnews.com: Kirk Ross: We must be ready the next time, 7/26/2013

This is what leadership looks like:

I highly recommend regular reading of The Carolina Mercury to stay informed about how our state is being run.