[Forum] Calling All Creative Types!

[Joseph Conway]

Dear all,

Governor Deval Patrick has set up a website where citizens can post 
issues that they want to bring to his attention.  I created a "Western 
Massachusetts Economic Development" post.  It is intended to highlight 
some of what the creative sector and its advocates out here in Western 
Mass are trying to accomplish, and to remind him of the economic 
development commitments he made to the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley and 
their creative economies during the election campaign. 

You can read more about the site in today's Boston Globe at 
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/24/patrick_site_to_go_live____activists_cant_wait_to_log_on/ 
.

My aim is to use this web site post as one more venue for drumming up 
interest in Boston for the economic development and creative economy 
issues most important to us, such as:

    * Implementation of parts of the Berkshire Blueprint
    * Support for our local institutions (WCMA, Williams, MCLA, BCC,
      MoCA, the Clark, Bfair, extension of the rail trail)
    * Support for the arts and tourism here in the Berkshires
    * Improvements to our transportation infrastructure
    * Stronger protections for our environment and natural resources
    * More (and more effective) human services, etc.

Most of the people currently logging on and posting are professional 
lobbying organizations and interest groups who want a bigger piece of 
the state budget.  Fair enough, but I think that what many of us have 
been trying to accomplish through our different organizational and other 
informal efforts (i.e., Open Studios, Drinking Liberally, 
BerkshireVisualArts.org, Bhip etc.) is a lot "truer" to the site's 
vision of soliciting information from the real grassroots.  If enough of 
us log on and vote to approve (or disapprove) my post, or (I hope) add 
comments to it or (even better) post their own issues, our collective 
economic development/creative sector issues can rise to the top of the 
site.  Because of the way politics works, we may be able to get a decent 
amount of attention to the Western Mass creative economy causes dear to 
our hearts.

So I ask you to please go to the general website, at 
http://www.devalpatrick.com, or go directly to the Western Mass issue 
page I created, http://devalpatrick.com/issue.php?issue_id=7578254.  
Please log in, read my post, and consider adding your vote in support of 
what I have written.  Please also consider posting your own creative 
economy/arts-related issues, or adding a post on any other issue of 
importance to you.

If you do add comments in support of my post, I ask that you refrain 
from including any personal invectives or inflammatory remarks regarding 
specific public officials or community organizations.  Please feel free 
to pass this email along to anyone else you think might be interested in 
supporting this effort. 

One last thing: To use the Governor's web site effectively and drum up 
positive support for Western Mass, we need to post wisely and 
decorously.  If you do post, please think more "Mr. Smith Goes to 
Washington" and less "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome."

Thank you,
Joe Conway