The Domino Chick

Volunteers?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2004

I'd like to take a break from our irregularly scheduled geek programming to mention something that I think is important - for US citizens. For everyone outside the US, please bear with me.

You may have noticed in the news lately that there is a major shortage of pollworkers for this coming Tuesday's presidential election. According to USA Today, there is a shortage of half a million pollworkers right now. This shortage is bound to cause long lines, frustration, and potentially, ballot problems or delayed results in the election.

You probably don't know this, but I am a volunteer pollworker. I take a day off during regular elections, primaries, and, if necessary, special elections to work at my local polling place. And I'd like to ask you and your friends and family to join me.

It's not difficult - you need to learn the processes and procedures so that the election rules are upheld, but they're not complicated. You might be surprised by all the checks and balances that happen in an individual polling place to make sure all voters and ballots are properly accounted for. Don't get me wrong - the hours are long, the pay is negligible, and dealing with grumpy voters who have been in line for an hour can be challenging. But you get the satisfaction of knowing that you've directly participated in and helped others with the electoral process - and I can tell you, it's immensely satisfying.

This election promises to have one of the highest turnouts in recent history, and we need more pollworkers to help make sure it goes smoothly. I know we're all busy - I'm so busy it took me a minute to remember what city I'm in right now - but I think that taking one day out of my busy schedule to help make sure something as important as a presidential election runs smoothly is something I can make time for.

This site has a direct link to each state's official web site. Information on volunteering as a pollworker is usually on the Secretary of State's page, or on the County Clerk's page. It's not too late to volunteer - training sessions where I live are going on right up until the day before the election. No matter what your political affiliation or opinion, please take a look at your schedule and see if you can help. The integrity of the electoral process depends on volunteer citizens.

And if you can't volunteer, please be nice to your volunteer pollworkers on election day. :-)

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Posted by: Kathleen McGivney at: 05:57:04 PM
Location: Chicago, IL

Gnomedex mini-review

Friday, October 8th, 2004

Though I've been back from Gnomedex for a few days, I've been at a customer site all week with no internet access (the horror!) so I don't really have time to write a lengthy review at the moment. Some highlights:

Chatting with Steve Gillmor about what's wrong with Notes in the dinner line. I love Notes, so I'm a bit biased, but I'm always interested to hear people's opinions on it.

Seeing how happy my friends Chris and Ponzi are together.

My friend Wil's AWESOME reading. If you can keep the attention of 200+ geeks who have laptops and wifi right in front of them, you're doing a fantastic job.

Hanging out with my travel buddy, Joz.

Having dinner with the guys behind My Yahoo. They showed us some neat stuff, which I'll be implementing here soon.

The lake. Lake Tahoe is amazingly beautiful.

That's it for now - more later. I'll be in New York next week. The life of a road warrior is never dull.

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Posted by: Kathleen McGivney at: 09:35:18 AM
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Gnomedex

Friday, October 1st, 2004

I'm currently at Gnomedex in Lake Tahoe - that's right, even when I take personal days I'm doing geeky things. I'm listening to Steve Wozniak's keynote and joining all the other people in blogging the event. The only problem I'm having is that the blog template I use doesn't allow posting via web or phone, and I'm using a friend's laptop, which of course doesn't have a Notes client on it. (It's true! I fraternize with people who don't use Notes! Oh, the humanity.) As a workaround, I sent this post to my friendly blog host, Chris, and he's posting it for me. This functionality, in my opinion, is all that's standing in the way of making this template one of the most powerful blog tools I've used. It's far more customizable and flexible than any other blog software I've used, and as an added bonus, I can work offline with it. But only if I bring my laptop. Don't worry, it'll be here tomorrow.

Bonus: I just created a KM/now photoblog, at Buzznet. Enjoy!

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Posted by: Kathleen McGivney at: 10:53:55 PM
Location: On the Road