Cara Michele Forrest is a member of the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County and also happens to be a blogger whose blog, Chosen Fast,
deals mostly with her advocacy for the homeless.  A link to her blog
was included in her profile on the HPCGC’s member page, but now that
someone has complained to the president of the coalition about her blog
they’ve decided to remove the link.  Cara Michele shares the email
exchange between herself and the Coalition’s president Karen Bridges here, but I’m pasting most of it below for convenience:

—– Original Message —–

From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 4:57 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

The only place that my blog is linked on the HPCGC web site is on
the member list. My blog is my web site for the homeless advocacy that
I’m involved in. Other members have their web sites listed, as well. Is
my web site the only one that is a problem? What was the nature of the
complaint? If you want my web site removed from the member list, then
you can remove it and provide an explanation for why you’ve chosen to
do so.

Please be advised the all correspondence will be blogged.

Michele Forrest
ChosenFast.com

—– Original Message —–

From: Karen Bridges
To: Cara Michele
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:27 PM
Subject: Re:

You are the only individual member who has a personal link on the
HPCGC website, all others are service providers. And yes, your website
is the only one that is causing problems. The HPCGC website is not the
place to share your personal opinions and thoughts, particularly ones
that are contrary to the success of the Coalition. No one’s trying to
stop your advocacy, Michele, but you need to use the proper channels.

kb

—– Original Message —–
From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:56 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

I may be the only individual member who has a web site.  There shouldn’t be a penalty for that.

I am an advocate for the homeless in Greensboro. If telling their
stories and telling the truth about homelessness is “contrary to the
success of the Coalition,” then you have a much bigger problem than my
blog.

Has it occurred to any of you that I’m not the enemy? If you’ve
actually read my blog, then you know that I haven’t written about the
most damaging things that I know. I’m not your enemy. Perhaps you
should stop acting as though I am. I thought that the goal here was to
serve homeless people. Why don’t we stop the pointless posturing and
backside-covering and shananigans? I’m weary of it.

Michele

This case points up an interesting new conundrum for non-profits:
what to do when a member or volunteer has a blog, links to it and then
other constituents find it offensive?  There will always be
disagreement between the various constituencies within a non-profit’s
community but until recently there wasn’t really a platform that
individuals could use to easily get their viewpoint out there in the
public domain for all to see.  Now you have blogs (and wikis and
Facebook profiles, etc.) that individual members can include as part of
their contact info.  What kind of policy, if any, should a non-profit
have to deal with this?

Ed Cone, another Greensboro blogger, posted about Cara Michele’s dust-up
and in his post and in the comments to his post there are some
interesting points made about the appropriateness of Cara’s blog in
this case in particular, but those same points also highlight the
considerations that should be made when thinking about whether or not a
member should be allowed to link to her individual blog.  From Ed’s
post:

Bridges is correct that the Coalition site is not the place for
Michele’s personal opinions and thoughts, and if Michele was using the
Coalition site thusly the HPCGC would have a legitimate complaint.

But such is not the case — Michele merely links to her own site as
part of her personal identification, much as member organizations
include links to their sites.

Ed’s absolutely right.  While the coalition owns its own site and
should police it, if one of their members chooses to link to her blog
as her form of identification then they should honor that.  In his
comments, Ed continues:

It seems to me that there are two issues in play here.

One involves politics within the community dedicated to helping the homeless and fighting homelessness.

The second involves reasonable standards and expectations for links and other details of online publishing.

The second issue is one where common ground might more easily be
found, and one that applies in a far broader context than the HPCGC and
its members.

The politics drove the second subject into public view, but perhaps
the issue of linking can be resolved independently of the political
particulars — and any such resolution can provide a context for
addressing some of the politics as well.

Again, Ed’s correct.  Invariably non-profit’s will have members,
board members, volunteers who don’t see eye to eye and in some cases
literally dislike each other.  The key for those running the non-profit
is to create a level playing field and to treat all constituents fairly
and equitably.  Along those lines the proper approach for the Coalition
would have been to inform the complaining parties that Cara was allowed
to link to her blog because that is part of her contact information and
they are welcome to do the same.

This case is fairly straightforward in that Cara Michele’s blog is
applicable to her role on the Coalition.  It may not have been as
straightforward if her blog had been about her pets, her travel plans,
etc.  Still, as a policy it would probably be best to just say that
blogs are the same as a person’s email address or a company’s website:
it’s a point of contact and if that person wants her blog to be her
point of contact, no matter how inane that blog may be, then that’s her
choice.

Cross posted at Lowder Enterprises, LLC