Potential
The weather has turned in the Northwest. The day after Web of Change finished, a cold wind blew through Victoria (where I was temporarily marooned after the Web of Change conference). For those of you unfamiliar with Web of Change, well, it’s a conference for people using technology to further missions of organizations and socially-oriented companies. Hosted at Hollyhock, it’s part soul-replenishing retreat and part hardcore skills and strategy enhancement. It helps that some of the smartest people in the world come to it, too.
Which is why I, after the last nine months of pain, struggle, and personal tragedy, decided at the last minute to fling myself towards Hollyhock on Cortes Island.
This year hasn’t been easy. While it started off with a bang, a $75,000 partnership grant with PSN funded through the Ford Foundation, news coverage, and was quickly followed by first place in Mobilize.org’s Democracy 2.0 grant competition, I’d be blind-sided by February 1st.
My father had a stroke, then another, followed by a two-month coma and his passing at 60. The grant money had arrived just before legislative session, so I’d scrambled to hire a contractor---someone with a good reputation--who ultimately failed to complete work despite my best efforts. My great uncle died. My cat died. One thing after another just wouldn’t go right and by mid summer, I was feeling really worn down, I went into the doctors and got some bad news---I’ll be fine, I’m OK, but it’s going to take a while till my energy is back up to it’s normal levels.
So, when another traumatic-out-of-my-control-thing happened the Monday before Web of Change, I decided I had to find a way up there. I needed to feel whole again, refreshed, validated. I’ve chosen a challenging line of work and life happens sometimes; it’s my job to find a way to get back up after being knocked down, to do that for me, and to do that for Knowledge As Power. At this point, I knew I needed help getting back up. So I booked myself on a seaplane to Cortes Island.
On the morning of my flight, I found my car had been smashed-and-grabbed. I called the cops. I called for a tow. I got a friend to watch the car. And then I got on the seaplane.
Over the course of days, I made new, exceptionally smart, friends. I learned how to run Knowledge As Power better. I shared my research, strategies, and work---and got a really good reaction. I tromped through forrest trails and hoola-hooped for morning cardio.
Now back in Seattle, I feel re-engaged in KAP’s work and I’m excited that we’re working on the relaunch, have a 150-government data accessibility survey well underway, and are nearing completion on our free civics curriculum packet. Seattle City Council is opening up it’s data, as I’d been requesting of it. We’re working to expand to Seattle as we relaunch in Washington State. And a long essay I’d been writing for O’Reilly Book’s Open Government anthology is being published in January.
It’s a long way back back to myself and back to fulfilling Knowledge As Power’s mission of helping individuals become informed and effective in the legislative process. This has been a trying year, but there’s a lot of potential, too.
With a lot of gratitude, thank you to everyone who’s stuck Knowledge As Power and is making our work possible.
Best,
Sarah Schacht
Executive Director
Knowledge As Power
Thursday, October 1, 2009