Dear Sisters and Brothers, Consoeurs et Confrères,

Premièrement, je suis désolé que je ne peux pas vous parlez en Français au niveau d'une propre parole d'élection. J'ai beaucoup d'enthousiasme pour les Néo-Démocrates Branchés en Québec et le reste de Franco-Canada. Je suis commis de faire plus a pròpos de membership, bilinguisme, et quoi de plus que je peux faire pour favorisez la presence des NDB parmi les Francophones.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ravi Joshi. I'm an active NDP member from Guelph, Ontario and have been active as a New Democrats Online admin for the past year. My blog ravijo.net has been active on the blogroll for 2 years now.

Last year I ran under a pretty ambitious proposal: overhaul and re-launch the entire bloggingdippers.org website under a new, expanded and wide ranging brand and mandate. Admittedly that took some time to accomplish along side a provincial election and the looming federal election. Nevertheless I would like to think that my work has been instrumental in moving the website forward under that plan, and I would like to think I've included our other administrators and editors in that process. My site idea is now our site. I was part of a wonderful team of people who oversaw and approved the new theme, the new brand, functionality and mandate. My role has been to work on the technical and branding aspects, and I would like to thank my fellow admins and editors for making such a strong team.

We've made some considerable steps in the right direction, made contact and new networks within the party and it's provincial sections, and expanded membership and participation. I would like to propose three new areas where we can improve in the coming year. These will be my proposals along side ongoing work to keep the technological side of NDO improving, up-to-date, and running smoothly.

Outreach

Our participation is not as diverse or wide ranging as most of us want. I think we are lacking participation and representation based on gender, sexuality, ethnicity, language, etc. That's not to say we have NO representation--- but it's fair to say it's an area to grow. I would like to work by bringing people to the blogging/online world who do not come to it naturally. For example could we produce literature and go to each provincial section's Women's committee meetings to encourage and orient folks to blogging? Similarly, we should examine barriers to Québec bloggers, and French bloggers in general.

Financial and legal sustainability

Currently NDO operates off my donations, and the good nature of many volunteers. We will most likely remain a volunteer organization, but with our objectives being what they are, we need to address the financial matters of our community in a serious way. After discussing what Robert posted elsewhere, I realized there might be some serious issues around legality and election laws. Therefore I won't commit to becoming anything in particular, or commit ourselves to serious fundraising without looking more thoroughly at the financing laws. I will commit to moving this organization closer to financial sustainability, so we can operate with clear heads, and grow our support base, rather than base our operation on the participation of a few people.

Event Coverage

We have several by-elections, a looming general election, and a national convention on our doorstep. We all have obligations and commitments to our local campaigns (at least we all should by now), and we can't stretch ourselves too thin. Nevertheless all of these represent the chance for us to mobilize and cover events and topics with the analysis and perspective of the wonderful and committed people we are. Can we use YouTube, and Flickr more effectively? Can we precede these events by working, and developing a relationship with the Federal party and Provincial sections?

I believe our work has only begun, and I'm committed to seeing us through on the ideas and enthusiasm that we share together. Thanks for your interest, and I hope I can count on your support!

Get out to vote!