The Old Codger
In Response to the Old Codger…
First, let me start by saying how much I wish I was responding to the article previous to ‘The Last Media Forum’ (http://valacosa.livejournal.com/138900.html) by Imprint’s Michael Davenport. If that were the case I would be able to talk to you about all the horrible things my mother did to my mashed potatoes. After making smooth and creamy deliciousness with spuds straight from the garden, she would throw in some spinach and/or cabbage. In my gut-wrenching flashbacks, I can never remember what it actually was, aside from greenish and gross. It was like finding Shangri-La and having an infant sneeze violently all over it. Apparently this dish finds its roots in German culture. We are not even German.
But, alas, I AM responding to ‘The Last Media Forum’.
If you have not yet read the article, I suggest you do. It is rather quick and painless. There are many sentiments in the article which I am sure we could all agree with. I admit that I am not entirely sure how I am viewed in comparison to the other candidates as far as my answers are concerned. I am a philosophy student and I am fully aware how abstractly I speak at times. If you want clarification, please ask and I will try my best to rephrase things. In the Media Forum, as well as in the interview I had with Imprint, I tried my best to communicate what I think is a fairly important aspect of how I see things. To me, the question, ‘Who will do it?’ is not entirely satisfactory. It implies that work is work is work. It suggests that FedS is necessarily a place where effort is great and results are minimal. I do not think this has to be the case.
If I were a man who made ice cream, I can imagine two extremes. I might make a flavour that is wretched which I name ‘Sweatspots and Hairballs’. When you ask me ‘Who will eat it?’ then I may be at a loss for words. But, say, I make the most universally wonderful flavour by the name of ‘Orlando Depp,’ then your asking of ‘Who will eat it?’ seems silly.
Sadly, student politics are not like creating ice cream flavours and the ideas I put forward are necessarily more grey than this example, being IRL and all.
That having been said, I think there are some correlations. I feel as though I have long since abandoned the idea of trying to take FedS as is and telling students they should care. Since students are not just lazy and apathetic, it must be something wrong with FedS that makes students not want to actively participate. I have decided these things are the inefficiency, the impracticality, and the ineffectiveness of the organization. By combating these things which hinder FedS’ relevance you help students regain faith. When students have faith in an entity, they are willing to participate. Putting effort into a vacuum is not very rewarding, but if FedS can convince its students that it is not a vacuum then there will be more outside effort.
In relation to the idea about digests and summaries of information concerning FedS meetings, activities, and bylaws, policies and procedures, the effort is distributed amongst constituents. By having a digest to contribute to, strong advocates for student issues are likely to be compelled to write the small abstracts necessary to explain what it is that is happening in certain council meetings or some other events. The executive, being strong advocates, should find the use of this as well. Once this distribution of information is seen to be a viable means of gathering and distributing information, then other advocates, councilors, senators, and the like, will see it fit to participate as well. As more and more people contribute, the whole matter could take on a Web 2.0 aspect of collaborative effort and larger projects, such as the writing of a simple version of FedS by-laws could come to fruition.
I realize that this is optimistic, and the project will require incentives to contribute to at first. I feel as though a little faith and some small contributions from important figures can do well to have this project come out of the gates smoothly and set it on a road to exponential growth. So, in the end, the project is meant to be a framework on which constituents of FedS can attach things as they see fit. Initially seeded by executives and strong advocates, the usefulness of simplified information will become apparent and other constituents with stakes in FedS will partake, with the project becoming a very lively entity itself. So, to answer the question, ‘Who will do it?’, I think the truest answer is ‘We all will.’