Reading Whitney

A small group of us, die hards from Podcamp Philly and Podcamp East, came together this past weekend for Podcamp 2023 in Philadelphia.

There were amazing sessions talking about how AI and Chat GPT will pose challenges to those of us who are involved in digital marketing, or looking to build brands for passion projects in the age when getting digital attention is going to get harder unless you are willing to pay for it.

We talked as a group about how making your voice heard is critical, especially in local government- and how to try to pressure people to make change- and the pushback from people like Gov. DeSantis who is looking at laws to make bloggers register if they want to talk smack about him. (But somehow, registering your guns is a problem? Maybe the keyboard is mightier than the sword…)

Learning Together

Podcamp 2023 proved once again that having smart people in a room, questioning and exploring things together makes all of us smarter. Somehow, Zoom calls alone don’t foster the same give and take, and learning from others. It works in a pinch, but being around friends in a space where exploring and sharing new ideas is the cornerstone – is a different, and compelling thing.

It was disappointing that we had fewer people show up than signed up- the co-pay model for these small conferences helps get some people to come, but others – it’s not enough to compel attendance. However, organizers have to plan for the max number of people that sign up, leaving them holding the bag for things like extra catering or rented space, and that’s a drag, and a deterrent when planning future events.

If you have any ideas on how to get more people to sign up and show up for organic events, especially those where sessions are planned the day of rather than weeks in advance, let me know.

Preplanning, or Ad Hoc?

I think the pre-seeding of sessions and signing up in advance for spots may be what’s needed, as we all seem to want everything to be more predictable, especially in a world that seems more and more uncertain. We went full bar-camp day of sign up this time, nd I think it may have led more people to stay home, but I don’t know for sure.

Or it could be the era for the small, community-based unconferences has passed, and everyone wants a big event or nothing.

The magic of podcamp was always that people from a variety of backgrounds, industries and experience got together and shared ideas and expertise in a pace, at low to no cost- making it available to everyone. This also fostered sharing and community, in a very quaker-values way- everyone has something to contribute, so we should honor everyone and let them decide what to share, providing space for the conversation to the place.

The space isn’t brand new any more, and many people have “niched up” – developing expertise in areas, and the number of “newbies” is fewer as well- so maybe the value proposition also needs to change.

What I do know is this weekend was like returning to a place where I felt immediately at home- it was kind of like having a high school reunion- seeing people you haven’t seen for forever, but fall back in with like no time at all has passed- and post-pandemic, this was a real balm for my soul.

When we got together and played “Battledecks”- memories flooded back, and seeing what a great tool all of these early experiences were that helped make me a better presenter in my professional life. Podcamp made me a better and more confident public speaker, and it made me better as an elected official later on as well. I will be forever grateful to everyone I’ve met at Podcamp and for every experience, as they all continue to pay off for me in the long term.

Question for you

Are you interested in Unconferences? What is the appeal? Why this vs. a normal conference? What’s your ROI for coming? And how do we intriduce these community-centered conference to a new generation?

Looking forward to your comments!

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is getting into trouble because he spoke his truth, saying he’s looking forward to a time when he’s not mayor. As someone who was a Township Supervisor for 6 years, I understand this sentiment perhaps as much as anyone.

Being a local elected official may look great from the outside. You get to show up in places, they announce your name, you wave to the crowd. People seem to pay a little more attention when you say something. People ask your opinion. You have the opportunity to make changes, and work on things you care about. You can help people in your community by helping them navigate the government, and even by teaching them how to make officials like you uncomfortable, so they listen and make change. Those parts of the job are great.

However, much of the job is like a customer service job. People yell at you, for things that are not, and cannot be your fault or responsibility. They assume you have much more power and authority than you do. They assume everything that happens, good and bad, but especially the bad stuff, is your personal fault and incompetence. If you have to raise taxes because you need to balance the budget and make sure the staff gets paid, then you are a spendthrift taking money out of the mouths of their children. If you put in a new stop light or traffic signal, you are only interested in making money off of your citizens. Here in Kennett Township, people like the fact they have a better and quicker police response, but conversely, they think its too expensive and think somehow we live in Mayberry where nothing ever happens, yet they want to be assured that a prompt police response will happen if something like the Uvalde school shooting happens. (You can’t get a quick response unless you have officers in place already…)

There’s no winning in local politics. Everyone in the public seems to think you are a moron, and somehow benefitting from the job. For Township supervisors, the pay is $2,500 A YEAR, codified in state statute, so there’s no way we can give ourselves a raise. For the time required, I once worked it out that we were getting about $5.00 an hour- way less than minimum wage to be sure. You only run for this office if you care about the community and have something you want to do. The amount of stress is incredible. You certainly don’t do it for the pay.

In my case, during my term, we discovered the Township manager had been stealing from the Township. It went on for years before I was elected, and I actually took time off my “day job” in order to put all my effort into helping the investigation and the huge amount of work required to fix everything the previous manager broke. It was incredibly stressful, and because there were ongoing investigations that would see the manager eventually sentenced to jail, I couldn’t talk about it to anyone. It was horrible to have people assume we were all stupid and negligent, when most of it happened before I even hit the door. Yet at re-election time, people wanted a change, and I was not re-elected.

At first, I was disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? But then I started to understand the scope of the constant stress and how it had been affecting me. Since leaving office, my blood pressure has dropped over 50 points. I have remembered what it’s like to be happy, and to have free time. My family says I’m no longer angry all the time. My quality of life has improved in immeasurable ways.

So when Mayor Kinney says he will be glad when he’s not mayor, I know that means that he will longs for the day when every problem doesn’t end up on his desk; that he will no longer be held responsible for things and random acts of violence and stupidity over which he has no control, nor the ability to forsee; that while being a Mayor is an important job, it does not grant omniscience and let you prevent pandemics, national recessions, take control of our health care system and more.

Being a public servant and elected official has its up sides. But it also means living under a spotlight, under a magnifying glass where you often have no hope of winning and somehow, the voices of the critics always seem so much louder than the supporters. I even had a “stalker” for a bit, who was trying to say he had no responsibility for paying taxes because he was a sovereign citizen, and kept trying to contact me personally. It was a little scary, to be honest, not knowing this person, or what their intentions were.

Yes, running for the job and accepting it means you “asked for it”; but I would also say that there’s no way anyone can really anticipate what this will mean until you are in the position yourself. Just like no woman “asks for it” when she wears clothing that later, people say meant she was asking for an assault, there’s no way most people elected to public office for the first time can really understand the scope of the job before them. It’s always a lot more work and stress than it looks from the outside. Just because your name is in the papers doesn’t make you any different, or more important or smarter or dumber than you were the day before. All it does is make you more stressed as you try to do the job, when everyone is standing around like Monday morning Quarterbacks, telling you how they could do it better.

We really treat our public officials horribly, and we’re lucky anyone chooses to run for office in the first place. Should any of us really be surprised that we see more and more of the most crass attention seekers who are interested in the spotlight more than doing the actual job running for office? That’s what we get when we chew up and spit out the people who do really care and try to do the right thing.

So I hope that somehow, Philadelphia will get over the fact that Mayor Kenney let a truth bomb slip and let you know that being the mayor is really hard. He may like the job, but he’s also honest that being able to sleep at night because you no longer have to worry about everything that happens will be a great night indeed.

I’m back to sleeping through the night, and waking up refreshed, something that didn’t happen for close to three years. I’m getting the opportunity to spend time with friends and family, and have a life back. While I’m glad a got a chance to serve, I do not miss being the lightning rod for everyone’s anger and frustrations at the world, especially in this day and age. And I sincerely hope this is the case for Mayor Kenney when he eventually leaves office as well.

Being honest shouldn’t be a crime. And we should all recognize this as a symptom that perhaps, there’s a better and kinder way to deal with public officials than full frontal attacks 24 x 7. We’re just people. And we all have bad days too. But remember- Your personal problems are likely nothing compared to having to deal with a City full of problems every day, hoping you can make headway and make a difference, but knowing that solutions are hard and take a long time. And no one will ever think the solution is good enough, fast enough or cheap enough.

So let’s cut the guy a break, huh?

I lost my bid for re-election as a Township Supervisor.

Elections are like the world’s longest job interview. I knocked 946 doors, speaking with friends and neighbors; sending mail out to people about what I stood for, and what I believed. I chose not to attack my opponent, even though that seems like a given in most political races these days. Instead, I hoped that my years of service and hard work would be enough to earn the right to continue. It was not. And I totally understand. People weigh the good and the bad, and coming to a decision that a vote for me would encourage people to keep things as is, is a lot to ask from a community under these circumstances, regardless of degree of fault that could be implied.

In the end, the fact I was there when we discovered fraud that had been going on for over a decade was laid on my doorstep. We all deserved to be tossed out, many felt, and I certainly understand their disappointment- I was disappointed that I had not pressed harder on issues that may have helped discover the fraud earlier- when I suggested a forensic audit when I was newly elected, I was told we were having regular audits and it was expensive and unnecessary. Yet, that would have brought much of what was already going on to the surface sooner. But when someone is stealing from you, they don’t exactly make it easy to discover, and they actively discourage any and everyone from looking too closely.

Losing an election requires a bit of grieving, and Monday-morning quarterbacking- what would you have done differently? What didn’t you do? Is it personal? Is the other person really better? What went wrong?

This is an election where the factors at play pre-dated my tenure and I had little choice but to confront them head on when they came to light. By election day, the perpetrator was in jail; a majority of the money was already recovered and more was on the way, and we have a completely new professional team in place, who have been hard at work cleaning up the mess left behind by the former manager. The Township now has clear sight into its finances, and can make clear-eyed decisions about its future as well- rather than taking a view on accounting from before that can best be summed up by “I cannot be broke- I still have checks left” kind of thinking.

I started this post a week or so after election day. Now, in early February, I finally have a little more perspective on the before and after of having held public office.

Even on the local level, politics has become more contentious. There are people who are more interested in gumming up the running of government than in improving it, for purposes that aren’t always clear. This only causes local government to become even less efficient, and people get tangled in the weeds of spending more time justifying every step they make than actually doing the work that needs to be done.

I could not be any happier to be out of the daily scrum at this point.

I am remembering what happiness feels like. I have time to go to the gym, spend time with friends and family, and generally remember what joy is. This last weekend, we popped up to Boston and visited my son, met his friends, had dinner with another close friend, and the whole time, I kept saying to myself- this is what real life used to be like all the time! I missed so much in the misery of the last three years, and while I was in the middle of it, it was impossible to see the other side. Now, I can’t imagine how I got through it all in one piece.

So, thank you for everyone who supported me through this time. I learned how to ask for help, and got much of it when I needed it, even if it was just letting me talk to you and try to keep perspective when things were really bad.

And thank you to those who voted me out of office. You kept me from obsessing about things, many of which were beyond my control. You helped me see that sometimes, walking away from something is the best thing you can do – for yourself. And that it is ok to lose, and you can still end up being a bigger winner than you ever thought.

Those are hard won lessons, but ones I am very glad to have learned.

Onward.

I am a local Township Supervisor in Pennsylvania, running for re-election this year. Supervisor is a part-time position, and comes with a statutory stipend of $2,500.00 a year. that equates to about $5.20 or less an hour of meeting time, and other work we put in to help guide the Township. The real day to day job is done by professional staff who have (mostly) normal work hours except for after hours meetings and being on call during an emergency, salaries, benefits- and these folks do the day to day jobs necessary to keep the Government running.

I love this job, as I am often in a position to help people figure out problems, point them in the right direction if we can’t help, and otherwise work to help make good decisions for the long-term benefit of our community.

I’ve taken on responsibilities that are not my “roll” per se- helping to develop a map of people having a phorid fly pest problem, and coordinating with researchers at Penn State to get help to the residents; Working on our digital infrastructure needs and getting a study- with grant funding to boot- to make sure we know where to prioritize improvements and fix connectivity gaps throughout Southern Chester County. I’ve looked up stats every week and helped people stay on top of COVID data throughout our community for over 18 months now. I’ve helped some people looking to get a little Foof Pantry program started. There’s more, of course, like starting the Holiday Village to help support economic development, improving our website, streaming meetings, adding email communication, and the like.

I hope if I leave any lasting impression on the Township, it’s one of how kindness and caring matter. And how the more you know, the more you can participate and make a difference in your community.

Does it matter?

I don’t know if I will win or lose tomorrow, but our local politics have taken a nasty turn recently, with several people making political arguments personal, and hanging me with years of problems I have worked hard to solve. But in their book, none of the good offsets these long term problems that I did not yet solve- or create- to be honest.

I can’t change any of that, of course.

In Government, in particular, things never move fast enough, and there is never enough money – and no one wants to pay more taxes. As a result, people put off making hard decisions and building up necessary funds to pay for long-term expenses- no one wants a tax increase, especially if it’s for a long-term, not near-term issue.

We see this problem statewide, nationally- at every level. Making sure we have adequate funding to keep our roads and bridges in good repair; making sure we have the Emergency services, parks, transportation, schools, and other resources that everyone wants- not as many people seem eager to pay for them. And when expenses are going up in every area of our lives, taxes seem to be the area people resent the most.

Goals

When I ran for office, one of my goals was for people to better understand how their money was being spent, and learned, at least a little, that their tax money was an investment in the future of their community.

I’ve certainly brought the “Mom” factor to the equation, for better or worse. People often reach out to me on all sorts of channels- email, personal email, text, phone, Facebook messenger and more- to ask questions, complain, offer help- you name it. Accessibility to your public officials and feeling like they are friends and neighbors is important to me- and I am not sure the same thing can be said for my opponent.

Changes

The face may change on our Township, and while I hope many of the things I started will continue, I worry many of them won’t have a champion in the same way if I am gone. That’s not to over-inflate my importance nor play down the importance of others- Government is a team sport to be sure. But caring matters. And when people in positions of power care more about themselves and less about everyone else- or more about power in general- we are all the worse for it.

I hope what I’ve worked hard to accomplish matters. It matters to me, that’s for sure.

When it gets nasty…

I can also say that I have seen a particularly nasty side of politics, and feel the weight of it this year. I worry people who do care about their communities will look at this kind of thing and simply say- I don’t want to be part of that crap- count me out. But if that’s true, then all we are doing is chasing the people who do care and are kind out of a system that desperately needs more kindness, not less.

I’ve come to feel that the race tomorrow is as much about whether facing the worst- [someone stole money from our Township and we have had to work hard to see justice done and recover the funds- not an easy task to be sure]- and doing the job to get it fixed is enough. Sure, I wish I knew there was fraud going on before I even ran for office, and I wish we found it sooner. But I am being saddled with the full weight of something going on years before I got there, and like many things in life, it’s not entirely fair.

I understand everyone’s disappointment- I am disappointed too. I also feel I was sold a bill of goods- everything here is perfect! – that turned out not to be true. I stepped up and dealt with it, rather than resign and walk away, which would have been the easy thing to do.

Even as I write this, I wonder whether walking away was really the right thing to do. Should I have bothered to run for re-election? There are important things I want to do and help with- but is it time for someone else to do them?

I feel like the other side is trying to make me feel humiliated or embarrassed about something that was ongoing long before I ever came along- and tried to make better. And then trying to tell me I somehow am taking too much credit or didn’t work hard enough to fix it, which I know is bullshit.

I’m mad and sad and frustrated, all at the same time.

Voters will decide

The decision about what kind of community they want is in the hands of the voters. I hope they choose well, whether it’s me or someone else.

I know I have worked hard and done a great job, and I don’t know if it will be enough.

Life will go on. Win or lose.

But I know there are some things I will never forget. Some people will do or say anything- and tell you later when you tell them they aren’t being truthful- they responded “well, it COULD be true”- as a way to justify their actions. These folks will do or say anything and not let facts or the truth get in their way. Whatever spin or half-truth is good enough- screw nuance. And these are the types of people who are just not good fiduciaries- they will always put themselves first- and that’s not who I want running my government at any level.

Yeah, but you knew what you were getting into….

My husband looks at me when I express these feelings and asks me what did I expect getting involved in politics? We all know it’s a dirty business with awful people. But I have hoped for so much more, and to be an example of what it could be to others. And now I have a list of names of who some of these “will do anything” people are, facts be damned. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

I’m severely disappointed to learn this about some people I’ve known, and not as surprised as I should be about others.

In the end, we all know that our actions have consequences, and karma is a bitch. That goes for me and everyone on this planet. I just hope that trying to do the right thing even when it’s hard counts for something.

I’ll find out this week, to be sure. Numerically, across my community- something that can only happen when you run for office.

Let’s see what we learn.