On Friday, the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) and Associated Grantmakers (AGM) are holding a joint conference on the theme of "Grantmakers and Grantees for the Common Good" in Framingham, Massachusetts.
MNN has recruited me to be its official twitterer (or should I say "tweeter?") for the event, an assignment that I relish. They are actually talking about setting up a screen in the ballroom where the plenary events will take place, so that the attendees can follow my microblogging in real time!
If you'd like to follow my Twitter reportage (or should I say "twitterage?") of the conference, you can easily find me at http://twitter.com/deborah909.
I also look upon this as a good opportunity to make use of the new Twitter list feature, and have established a list specifically for this conference, which you'll find at http://twitter.com/deborah909/mnn-agm-conf-2009. If you're also planning to tweet about the conference, please be sure to let me know your Twitter handle, so that I can add you to the list.
While I'm at it, I'd like to point out that it is truly admirable for the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network to commission an official twitterer for its conference. Of course, it makes sense for a relatively young statewide nonprofit association to experiment with social media, so some folks might call this a no-brainer. However, for a long time, the cultures of nonprofits in Massachusetts have been imbued with a bunker mentality.
I have some running jokes about this. One is that Massachusetts is officially the Bay State but would be more aptly named the Silo State. The other is that the unofficial motto of every nonprofit organization in Massachusetts was, "don't tell anyone what we're doing...because, if you do, they might find out what we're doing."
The good news is that a couple of years ago the Massachusetts nonprofit culture hit a tipping point, and new things started to happen in terms of collaboration and flow of information. The founding of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network is both an effect and a cause of this important and positive cultural shift. I can't help applauding both the folks who advocated for MNN's founding and the MNN team members who decided it was time to add social media to their outreach strategy. And of course, I'm flattered and delighted to be part of the plan.
