IABC Café

I am not going away.  This blog is.

Or maybe it is more accurate to say that my blog is undergoing a name change and the Café is undergoing an identity change.

When the Café was created, it was subtitled, “a gathering place for professional communicators.”  Warren Bickford, ABC, the IABC Chair (and huge Starbucks fan), was the chief barista and others served as guest baristas.  In the last two years, the chair and I have been baristas, and this year the Café has been my responsibility.

We are going to return to the original concept, but with a twist.  Now if you go to http://cafe.x.iabc.com/, you will be able to access a number of posts, written by members of the IABC Executive Board and the Senior staff.  You will always see a featured post, which will change frequently as well as a tab for a recent featured post and one for recent staff and board posts.  On the right hand side of the page, you will see a listing of all the board and staff posts.

I, too, will have a blog that will be part of the Café, http://juliefreeman.x.iabc.com/ where I will continue to expand on issues of interest and importance to me.

I hope you will take a look at the new Café.  You undoubtedly already know what a Power Blogger, our Chair Barb Gibson has become.  You will find that other board and senior staff have interesting insights and observations as well.

We think the Café is just another way that we can keep in touch with members and other communicators.  I hope you will all feel free to comment.  It will be yet another way for you to “Be Heard.”

Much has been said about Obama’s speech Tuesday night, but I would also like to acknowledge John McCain’s concession speech.  It was gracious and dignified.   It was just right.

What I liked best about it was the statement he made about his loss.  He said, “The responsibility is mine.”

Not many leaders are willing to publicly admit they are responsible for their organization’s failures. Wouldn’t it be nice if a few mortgage bankers would take some responsibility for their poor judgment?

A good friend of my son’s (and me) had the good fortune to be in Grant Park on election night.  He wrote the following account of what he saw and what he felt.  It is a few days after the election, but I find myself re-reading it frequently. It is interesting to get an eye-witness view of the happenings in Grant Park and to hear how a Gen X’er feels about the election results.  But mainly, I find it inspiring. I thought I would share it with you:

“I have never been much of a sap for the national anthem.  I remember going to Valencia, Spain for summer school and hearing it played after the US lost in embarrassing fashion to Iran in the World Cup.  It was the first time I had ever felt emotional hearing it, simply because I felt so far from home.  We often hear the song invoked in the most routine circumstances, or in naked political attempts to appeal to one’s sense of patriotism for a vote.  As we approached the celebration, people were singing the Star Spangled Banner emphatically, like they meant every word of it.  The song sent chills up my spine as I sang along.
 
“As we waited patiently for Obama’s speech, we took in the scene around us.  Loudspeakers blared Stevie Wonder, people took pictures next to a 12-foot painting of Obama looking wistfully into the distance.  White people, black people, Hispanics, and other races that I vaguely recognized conversed and patted each other on the back.
 
“The speech was incredible.  Obama has a gift for words and sentiments that are powerfully effective, even in the relatively sterile environment of one’s living room.  But standing in front of a large screen with 250,000 strangers and hearing his first words “Hello Chicago!”, I suddenly felt like I was in the most important place in the world.  It had finally sunk in - the whole world just watched us make history, electing an intelligent, compassionate black man who happens to be a Chicagoan like me.
 
“Hearing him speak brought the last 16 months of the election back to square one, the desire to make America and the world a better place.  No more debates, no more cable news, no more made-for-TV events, no more Sarah Palin.  Though politicians are required to make such statements of hope and possibility, you could look around at the scene I’ve described and get the sense that 2008 was different.  This was not a career politician reaching the pinnacle of his trade - it’s Barack Freaking Obama.  It’s our generation’s John F. Kennedy. 
 
“My 31 years on this planet have been a relative disappointment with respect to national milestones.  Other than the breakup of the Soviet bloc, we have had so few magic moments that history would recognize as a progressive turning point.  Our progress has come in tiny, unnoticeable footsteps, and the impediments have been formidable.  Right now, it feels like anything possible, like we could be on the cusp of a national renaissance.  Surely, that honeymoon feeling will wear off, and Obama’s team will find itself doing the routine business of governing, doing so in the midst of two wars and a major recession.  But they are also in a position to make a difference in ways that George Bush neglected, to inspire people in ways that Clinton never did, and to send a whole generation forward feeling they have a stake in the future. 
 
“People my age often lament that they “missed the 60s” - civil rights, rock ‘n roll, MLK, the Kennedys.  Perhaps our kids will feel like they missed these times.  I realize that I am exaggerating when I say this - it will take much more than one inexperienced, charismatic leader to change the world - but it is on this occasion that I feel such potential for the clouds to develop into such a perfect storm.
 
“I’ve wondered in the past (and recently) what it would be like for the Cubs to finally win a World Series, or what it would be like if Chicago got the Olympics in 2016.  Right now, those seem trivial.  It will never get any better than this.”
 
Dan Costanzo