l) a reporting style rather than soapbox (we can reserve that for us)
2)short and to-the-point comments (Jim Fisher will certainly appreciate
that)
3)willingness to respond via the list and privately to constituents'
questions/comments
4) responses that are 'real'. No cya rhetoric, generalities, catch
phrases that in the end say
nothing;
5) continuous but well-spaced reports. We aren't bombarded with daily
details but he also doesn't
wait until just before a primary to let us know what he's been up to in
the past year.
Given these guidelines, my 'vision' of the political use of this list
would be as follows;
Monday; we already receive a Moscow City Council agenda update and (I
think it's Monday) now a Latah County agenda; this would be Local Night;
city/county elected officials can email their views on current happenings
or upcoming items they feel strongly about
Tuesday; State Night- Rep. Trail can send his report if anything has
happened that week, as well as any other state officials who might want to
'reach out and touch someone'
Thursday; Fed Night- Our federal reps can let us know what they've been
up to (yeah, I'm holding my breath for those reports)
Sat. and Sun.; With an election year coming up, these evenings could be
reserved for pure campaigning....with Tom Trail's guidelines in mind
Or we could just have one night a week reserved for all political
reports.....or once a month....Since we only have a few visionary
representatives (Tom, Lois Melina, Linda Pall) that have grasp the
possibilities of this medium, maybe these guidelines are premature. But
Timothy Lohrmann did bring up some valid points, and sooner or later this
list will have to deal with them.
Jo Williams tajs@potlatch.com