Announcements & Questions from Robin

Congratulations All!!!

We’re one quarter into the BJP year already. Congratulations to those who have finished three pages, and congratulations to those who (like me) are a bit behind, but still totally committed to completing all 12 pages!!!! Good work, everybody!

Are you an active BJP member?

How many of the original 242 are still active? I guess we could get an idea if everyone who reads this (and is active) would write a comment to this post mentioning that you’re active. Please sign your comment with your first name and last initial (same as on the Participating Members list at the bottom of the side bar).

By the way, there is one person who notified me (by email) that she was dropping out. So our official membership is now 241.

How can we reach those members who are not internet users?

76% of our members are signed on to write posts to this blog. A few of these have never written posts or comments. That means about 25% are out of touch with us, as far as I know. A few have emailed me with concerns that they “haven’t heard from me” or asking to whom they should report each month, but most are completely out of touch.

I would like to get in touch with everyone who isn’t signed up to write posts. But I have so little time right now. I’m wondering if we might be able to form a state-by-state information tree using email. What do you think? If you’d be willing to be THE contact person in your state, country or area, will you please let me know by email?

Attention! Unofficial participants

We have several unofficial participants, who didn’t learn about the BJP until after membership closed on May 31st. I’d like to add another side bar with their names and links to their blogs, if they have one.

So, if you are unofficially participating and reading this, please email me or leave a comment to this post giving your first name, last initial, state/country, and blog/website if you have one.

Flickr

As many of you know, thanks to Jacqui, we now have our own Flickr group page here. I think it’s grand! If you click on Group Photo Pool you can see all of them, with each person’s grouped together. Already it is obvious that each person has their own individual style, their own voice. This makes me extremely happy to see, because it is exactly what I hoped would happen.

So I’d like to encourage all of you to sign up and upload your photos. It only took me about ½ hour to get an account established, make a profile, upload my photos, and drag/drop them into the BJP Flickr group. Even if you have a blog and post your pictures, I think it’s fabulous to be able to see the finished pages all together on one site… like an exhibition of our work!

By the way, I added a link to our Fickr site in the side bar of the BJP blog, so you can always find it!

Pictures of our work on this BJP Blog

At the beginning of the BJP we decided not to show pictures of our work on this blog until September… until after the first quarter. We’re now at that point.

I think it’s been working really well for those who have a blog of their own to put pictures on their own blog and post a link here. I hope all of us with personal blogs will continue to do that. However, if you don’t have your own blog, I think it would be great if you would post in-progress and/or completed pictures here. I hope everyone’s ok with that.

Still having problems with Labels/Topics

1. Please assign a label/topic to your posts. Do this in the bottom right hand side of the posting window. Try to use a topic already on the list. Click “show all” to view the list; click on any topic on the list to make it apply to your post.

2. If you add a new label, please make it SHORT – 15 characters maximum! (Long labels made the down arrow on the drop-down box disappear, so that we can’t select a post topic to view.)

3. If you post a link to your blog showing BJP activity, please label it with the MONTH. So, if it's a picture or information about your September BJP page, please use the word September as the label for your post.

Are the two discussion groups still active?

I could post a link to them in a side bar box… If you like that idea, someone who is active, please give me the link by email.

Away for next 3 weeks...

This is just to notify you that I'll be in the midwest (visiting Mom in MN, and teaching in WI) from Sept. 1-15, and then gone on a motorcycle trip for the next week. I'll get on line when I can, but may not respond quickly to comments or email messages. Please be patient with me...

Thanks to all!

I am so completely satisfied with all that we are… our camaraderie and support, our individual and shared creativity, the obvious enjoyment of our process and results.... There are no words to express how grateful I am to be in the company of all you good and talented people! Thank you and bless you!

Robin A., BJP Coordinator