Anyone here feel best qualified to be point man with the FSC?
 

Before we start another round of discussing political action, I thought it would be a good idea to see if anyone here wants the role of being an "official" liason with the Free Speech Coalition?

I can't do it, I want my anonymity, I live in redneck country, if I become publicly known in the media as an adult webmaster I'll probably start getting bullets thru the windows.

And, I have a bit of a history of drug use, so I'm pretty much useless as a political face person.

I'm happy to do the grunt work in the background, writing and fundraising and what have you, but I can't be a public face.

Since that's the case, it might be good if someone who does have political ambitions stepped up and took the role of being our representative to the FSC.

Anybody want the job?

I nominate Greenguy. :)

Greenguy would get my vote too

The motion has been seconded & carried. I gladly accept this position....WHOA! Slow down a bit :D

What am I being nominated for?

From what Bill says, I don't think I want it either :D

Besides, if you threw me up there, I'd recommend that everything have a legit warning page, thus squashing every TGP & gallery maker's business model |couch|

This just popped into my head...it might not be the best idea in the eyes of a lot of you, but XXXJay does already work with the FSC on some things & he is a Link List owner....I'd have to ask him how he felt on a couple of the ideas that we've bounced around in the last few clusterfuck threads, but it's an idea.

What about Tommy? After all, he started this whole mess with the political influence thing :D

I'm really okay with anyone that's high profile, that knows more than one avenue of the biz, and who's willing to take the shit that might get tossed at him. So, Tommy, GG, or any other person from New York (what? I can't help it if NYers are born to argue and perfectly suited for the task at hand).

UW would be a possible dark horse candidate because the pure entertainment value of him pulling a Howard Dean would be priceless

Let's clarify here...are we talking about someone to work point with the FSC or someone to work point for the media/politicians? If we're talking media/politicians I think a female voice would be best...performer, webmaster, whatever...I think it should be a female voice.

I also think XXXJay would be an excellent candidate to work with the FSC...He's already close to their HQ, and beyond the fact that he's a dirty bastard (I know because I've read lots of his editorials and he's so proud of it :D) he's one articulate motherfucker who knows how to form a point and get it across. He'd get my vote to work with the FSC. |thumb

I, myself, have a past that's a bit too colorful. I would have to decline an invitation to meet in public with any politician that I wanted to keep their office :D I'm happy to help in any non-spotlight manner that I can, including cold calling industry peeps who might be able to help us :)

And what is wrong with that? :D

I agree, anyone like Jay, Tommy, GG would get my vote. |thumb

Bill, why does being a liason between us and the FSC require public exposure?

As I understand what we need is someone to simply educate the FSC so they're not in front of the Senate telling them silly stuff like we support an impossible technology such as AVS and that adult webmasters don't label their pages.

I love Jay and I think he could do a good job but he's not around here much so I'm not sure how regular communications would go.

I would recommend someone that's around here often, already is using the labeling at hand and (sorry GG) understands that warning pages are always bypassed. Tommy would be great but I think it's the longest shot :)

Bill - Why not if it's just to educate the FSC there is no public exposure.

Sir Moby - no need to apologize - I know warning pages are being bypassed - been that way since the 1st sites linked to a page of pics :)

But I've become a bit brainwashed with the "Good Faith Effort" theory that was brought up at this seminar - and I know it's only because I've always been a free-site link-list warning-page kinda guy :)

That's a good question SirMoby. It's not so much that it's inevitable that a political point man would have to face exposure, it's just that it's a real risk, and one that we should be aware of.

Political action has it's own wierd mementum that tends to go like this:

Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Minor shitstorm. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Major Shitstorm. 60 Minutes Investigates.

I don't think GG or Tommy or Jay are the best choices, altho they are natural choices. We tend to naturally suggest them here because we trust and respect them, each in their own ways.

But, they are our big guns, and it would probably be better to hold them in reserve. Unless they want the job, then we should roll with them.

The ideal person would have political ambitions, would want to work with or in the sponsor companies and other adult organizations and become well known, would be articulate and good looking, a fair writer, and especially, especially, be able to listen.

The ideal person probably doesn't exist, actually.

I bring it up because I know I don't want the job, I'm not suitable for it. But somebody here might want the job. So I thought it might be worth starting to talk about at least.

I think the ideal person does exist, we just have to look hard. Do you have a more detailed description of what you expect of this individual?

Regards,

Mike B

I am sorry guys

I would love to do it but I am to busy with the twins
I barely get any work done

I really like Bill for the idea Sir Moby and Raw Alex also
and would be happy to help who ever you guys pick

I am really gifted in debating/arguing this sort of stuff
(at least I think so)

Bill, I am sure we could find a way to keep you under the radar

The ideal person should not be self-serving.

Don't get me wrong, as a newbie, JayXXX is my super idol but.... did you see his last Top Bucks spotlight interview. Don't know if that |pokefun| "made a deal with satan" stuff is where we want to go exactly.

HA hahahahahahahahahahahaha, hohohohohohho, heheheeheh

First let's define the role of the "Official Liaison To The FSC". If we can agree on that then we can focus the qualifications and start to nail down the right person.

Bill, what exactly do you think this person should do?

My vision is that this person would have 3 major responsibilities.

1. Understand the current technology issues with labeling, AVS, etc .... that are in use and can actually be used to help keep minors out without infringing on Free Speech and keeping an eye on International issues.

2. Listen well enough to understand all or at least most webmaster's concerns and know the difference between their own beliefs and the majorities beliefs.

3. Educate and communicate the above information to the FSC to ensure that they have the knowledge to stay on track, speak accurately on issues and move in the right direction.

The "issues" points you're emphasizing in your list, SirMoby, are a part of the task that a FSC pointman would face, but I'm thinking those requirements are the easy part.

The FSC is an older style organization. They do most of their business in face to face meetings and phone calls.

So, the ideal point man would be able to attend meetings. I guess that means they should live in california. Or at least be able to go to some of the conventions and meet with the FSC folks there, because I gather that the FSC hopes to have a presence at the conventions.

(I think maybe we should start calling this job the "FSC Contact" - point man is a military term - all politics is 'slow war' but we should soften it a bit...)

The ideal FSC Contact would be good on the phone and in email. The job would involve stuff like talking to sponsors, content producers, other board owners, other organizations, and by talking I mean mostly listening and occasionally making suggestions and asking leading questions.

Talking to sponsors would be a critical part of the role.

The ideal FSC contact would be able to run boardtracker campaigns to keep an eye on the topic of the FSC and other political issues.

The ideal FSC contact would be willing to post on other boards, become a bit of a personality on other boards, because we would need the co-operation of the other communities to get anything real happening, and to do any serious fund raising.

The FSC contact doesn't have to do all these things, actually. Really, their most important job would be to attend some meetings and do phone work with the existing FSC organization. Their second most important job would be working the other boards.

I could do some - a lot, I suppose - of the 'secretarial' type stuff, and I'm willing to do that, or at least try to do it. Or some of it.

Ultimately, the FSC Contact would have to be paid, something, somehow. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, to sum up:

1. The FSC Contact needs to be able to attend some meetings in California.

2. The FSC Contact needs to be able to become something of a board personality.

3. The FSC Contact needs to be able to do well on the phone.

I like the summary that Bill created; I would add that we want the point person that can have credibility with the webmasters and have an understanding of the issues we face, so they should have been involved (at one time) in the internet side of the business. So having an already established board personality would go a long way to accomplishing that.

Ps. I vote for point man, it is the army brat in me. :D

My partner Spike is an excellent liasion. We are FSC members, have a long history of being proactive in political and financial issues that impact our industry. ( I was part of a lobby group that defeated a porn tax in California among other issues, like Acacia for example)

We have an excellent relationship with Tom Hymes and would be happy to help coordinate communication.

Let's meet Spike and hear his views. I'd love to chat with him and I don't think we have a lot of time to start educating the FSC.

With all due respect the FSC will always need to be educated on the issues so that they can be more proactive on our behalf. That is the purpose of the trade organization.

I will be happy to have Spike jump in here to share his views.

I smell another Radio Show conference call using Home Grown's phone lines :D

Well all you ever have to do is ask my friend and we are there!

Spike has certainly shown in the past to be good at this sort of thing, and homegrown certainly does bridge the gap between the walmarts and the indies.

Alex