Learning From the Journey

A Party in Transition.

Web sites can serve as a tool of change; first for those building the website, then hopefully later for those entering the website.

Our County Party spent a lot of money and time before the 2008 election on setting up a new website. http://muskegongop.com/ this happened just as I first entered into the County Party. In retrospect, I realize that now that I was at the right place at the right time. I also had just started blogging, and in fact it was a fellow Muskegon blogger who invited me to a County Executive meeting.

All the talk at that meeting was floundering around what the meeting was centered on setting up the new web site. I and my friend seemed like the only ones who knew anything about the internet. We obviously weren’t as our leadership was pushing it. I believe they were pushing it because we had gotten a large contribution just for that purpose; and they were trying to get us to rise to the occasion. To be honest I was just learning how to blog. For those of you who know, the difference between a blog and a website is huge.

My friend and I were treated as experts in the field. I agreed with the consensus , we did need a usable website. Later I ended up putting one or more hours every day into the upkeep of the site. For whatever reasons, after the election, things started happening to the web site. I would enter something and it wouldn’t appear where it used to but in another area. A whole block disappeared. No one could answer or help. I quit. The elections were over, we lost.

The website sat and went quickly out of date. I believe that happened not too long after the election. That brings up one of the changes the party is going through. To keep up and become an effective political force again in Muskegon, the County Party needs to have a full time presence, through the website into the community and not just pop up at election time. Being way behind the game, we need the off election time to regroup and figure out ways to do better in 2010.

I learned my lesson however; I will not volunteer to try to run it again. I will help out as much as I can, whenever I can, but as a Conservative I know that the allure of control leads to corruption.

We just had a meeting with the people interested in the website within the party and someone who will be doing the work. We spent a couple of hours “discussing is a nice word” what we wanted in the site, within the parameters of the existing structure. We did manage to keep on track and I thought it a good meeting.
These confrontational egoistic clashes are good for the party. We are learning how to get things accomplished as a party. We like some others over 200 years ago managed to keep our widely divergent opinions in check and come up with some constructive changes for the website. Our little group of Republicans, learned to work together to make a difference in the website.

The real change and improvement came to how we interact with each other. We are sending a flurry of emails back and forth now with ideas about the website. We have strengthened our infrastructure with this exercise. The next thing we attempt to do perhaps will be done smother and the end result will be better.

We had a change of leadership; we are finally getting a new effort at redoing our website. Not being in the leadership, all I can do is hammer away at what I think is the proper direction for the website to take. Others are doing the same. We however are learning to work together better. I’ve studied a lot of county websites around here and around the state. I even looked at some in New Jersey. Perspective showed me that our website was at least equal to if not more “friendly” than most.
My concept of a website is for it to be a tool to bring people into the party. Also it needs to be a tool for our members to use and to learn from to further our ultimate goal. Winning Elections.

Little did I expect the party would benefit from just the act of setting up the site?
Little did I expect more good would come from setting up the site than may come from the site itself.

If we do it right. If we decide to Learn from the Journey.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative