Welcome, everyone! Thank you for joining me. We’re gathering to figure out how we can help minimize the negative impacts of the government change in January and beyond.
What’s most obvious and easiest to do at a distance is to gather good information, keep it updated, and get it out to those who need it. You’ll find a lot of librarians around here and more to come, which is excellent because librarianship reaches everywhere in the country.
We’ve begun with Kara Hurvitz’s excellent Concrete Suggestions document (and Kara may be joining our team here). To the groupings in that list I’ve added two additional topics for us to be aware of and active in: climate and wealth inequality.
Our second area of focus is resilience. How can we take care of ourselves and others pushing against these negative changes? Some of that will be technological—learning to make our communications secure and durable, and teaching others how to do the same—and some of it will be personal—not stretching ourselves too thin while making sure those at risk feel they aren’t alone in this.
To that last point, I am deeply glad you’ve joined. I want to learn from you and for us to achieve more with all our varied experiences and skills. But I also want you to participate to the degree you can without shorting yourself. As with natural disaster preparedness, the first priority is setting yourself up not to be another victim. After that’s done, then you can turn to helping others. We will all appreciate whatever time you can give and understand that you will be setting limits so you can take care of yourself too. Please do let us know if you need help.
On a practical note, please update your profiles with your skills, any demographic notes you care to add, and your preferred pronouns. Thanks!
Glad to be doing good with you all!
MetaGrrrl 