folks, i fear that i haven't done a good job articulating my position on the outreach project. first, i think that via a number of avenues -- individual recruitment, word of mouth, successful conferences, media coverage, etc -- word of air has gotten out. within a few short years, the organization has grown in leaps and bounds. fantastic. this is a result of all of our, and many others', work. for the most part, however, air membership it seems to me is composed of scholars who self-identify themselves as internet scholars or new media scholars, etc. nothing wrong with that of course but i think it's safe to say that we have done a great job getting the word out to them. when i ran for office, i ran on a platform that stressed further inclusion of scholars and scholarship working on a number of avenues collected (in)conveniently under cultural diversity. i'm not sure what the final results were (were they ever posted to air-exec?) but i do know that i had some strong support. i don't translate that into votes for david cause we like him, but rather votes for my platform, which suggested that we begin defining ourselves in many ways, including a more diverse spectrum (in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class) of scholarship. my involvement into this discussion is not one fed by ego but rather one driven by a very tame intellectual ideology, one that suggests that cultural markers should be proactively made visible. that is all i'm suggesting. there are dozens of directions air can go into -- coupling with industry, becoming more technical, etc -- and this is one i'm suggesting. the reason i think this suggestion is legit is that it appears to be the one i was elected to represent. with that in mind (and knowing that the following paragraph won't satisfy everyone but may make for some interesting conversation), what about this for the second paragraph: The purpose of this working group is to recommend an "external relations" plan that considers how we might raise awareness of AoIR in the world, and assesses what "worlds" to reach. WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN FINDING, HEARING FROM, AND WORKING WITH SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN RESEARCH AND TEACHING THAT EXPLORES THE MANY CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ELEMENTS -- RACE, ETHNICITY, GENDER, SEXUALITY, CLASS, AND DISABILITY -- THAT INTERSECT WITH THE NET AND NET USE. The goal is not to target particular people or institutions, but to assess where there are internet researchers are not aware of, or not participating in, AoIR and to develop a strategy for letting those sectors know that we exist and welcome their participation. david