August Update: Get Connected! Happy Hours on Voter ID and BWCA, Classes & More

We have some exciting events coming up this month and next –  Get Connected! happy hour meetings with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the League of Women Voters;  low-cost classes on Using Facebook to Promote Your Businessand Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Best Online Practices for Small Businesses, plus a Social Media Clinic, and lots of free Newsroom Cafe workshops. Scroll down for details, and our editors’ reports.

Get Connected! is the Twin Cities Media Alliance’s series of meetings highlightingorganizations working for change in the areas of Education, Transportation, Work, Immigrant Communities, Health and the Environment. At each meeting, you’ll have a chance to find out about the organization, how you can get involved, and how you can use social media to work more effectively on the issues that you care about. Each meeting also includes an opportunity to socialize and network over food and drink. Get Connected events are free, but registration is requested.

Cause Sprits and Soundbar, located at Lake & Lyndale in South Minneapolis, is the place to be for back-to-back happy hour Get Connected! meetings in August.

We’ll be partnering with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy at Cause on Tuesday, August 21st from 5 to 7 p.m. Do you know that by the time an environmental decision is opened for comments, it’s often too late? Learn about threats to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) and actions you can take to help shift policy decisions. Marcos Lopez-Carlson of the Twin Cities Media Alliance will then give a presentation on new media tools you can be use to advocate more effectively about environmental issues. Light refreshments will be served, and beer, wine and cocktails will be available at happy hour prices. To register, follow this link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4043353780.

Please join us for these and other New Normal 2012: Get Connected! community meetings, scheduled through October.

To find Jay, just look for the laptop with the Freaky Deeky sticker. To find Mary, just look for the laptop with the sticker that says “I heart the First Amendment.” 

Staff reports: 

Community Engagement Coordinator Bruce Johansen reports: 

Downtown Saint Paul’s Amsterdam Bar & Hall was one place you might have found Bruce Johansen, Marcos Lopez-Carlson, and Clarence White, our community engagement team, in July. Over broodjes (little Dutch sandwiches), frites (Belgian style fries with an array of tasty dipping sauces), and cold beverages, the team joined forces with Physicians for a

National Health Program Minnesota and Health Care for All Minnesota for a lively New Normal 2012: Get Connected! community meeting. Twitter as a tool for connecting with others, sharing health care stories, and organizing more effectively for health care reform was a focus of Marcos and other presenters.

July also took the team to the Hopkins Center for the Arts, where some 50 people turned out to “get connected” with Transit for Livable Communities. Folks received an update on the Southwest light rail line and learned about new tools Facebook offers for citizen wanting to organize for expanded regional transit options. The next evening found the team in South Minneapolis at Open Arms of Minneapolis for a late afternoon Get Connected! community meeting with Metro Independent Business Alliance members and supporters. While attendees enjoyed a terrific spread provided by Open Arms, a panel consisting of Metro IBA’s executive director, two members, and Marcos, exchanged ideas about how independent businesses can benefit from smart use of Pinterest, Twitter, Foursquare, and other new media tools.

Our month concluded with an election circle discussion about the housing foreclosure crisis, held at the original Green Mill Restaurant & Bar in Saint Paul. The St. Paul Fair Lending Coalition facilitated the event, and invited homeowners who fear foreclosure, to share their stories with us.

Arts Editor Jay Gabler reports:

This month we’ve been taking a closer look at our Web traffic, and we’ve noticed especially high interest in our picks: previews of events we think you’d enjoy. We’re planning to expand our picks and offer even more previews of under-the-radar arts and culture events—events showcasing Minnesota’s diverse communities, events you’re not always likely to hear about in the mainstream media. To make our picks as diverse and interesting as possible, we need your help! What interesting events are happening in your communities? Adding events to our calendar is free and easy—just click here for instructions, and to see our full calendar. You can even write a pick yourself; just write to me with your pitch!

Editor Mary Turck reports:

I got a call today that began, “I want you to tell my story.” That’s really what we do — we help people connect through stories. Sometimes that means helping people to register on the site — about 50 new users in July — and tell their stories in articles or blog posts or community event listings. Sometimes it’s connecting a writer with someone who wants to tell about their problems with a landlord, or their passion for community gardens. Sometimes it’s looking for the stories people tell through their videos or in public forums and giving those stories a wider circulation through re-publishing them. We help people connect with one another by telling their stories. We told about special education students and City View/Minnesota School of Science (a story that got national attention from Diane Ravitch and from Huffington Post), about keeping Muslim traditions alive in a new country, about thefts from community gardens — and much more. In July, we told hundreds of stories, and our readers connected with us and with each other through reading, through comments, through Facebook, and through face-to-face conversations.