Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Glad to see everybody here and in a good mood. We have a big week coming up. Week number seven. Do we have any lingering questions or commentary about issue number 6?

We lost Lu San.

Well, we didn’t lose him. He’s just not here at the moment. And if it’s not too obviously self-indulgent, I have a suggestion for myself that I’d like to know has your agreement. I would like to do an interview from my garden, if that’s okay. It’ll probably be baseball. I know exactly who I would like to invite and maybe it would make for an interesting interview, sitting in a peaceful garden, away from the crowds. And yeah, probably baseball. I like baseball.

How much space are you planning to take up?

Well, I just thought I would follow the way things are done and use a little bit of two or three pages.

Is this interview going to be our main story this week? I thought we have a new guy and we were thinking the logical thing was to go along with him as we help him get set up for a stay with our community.

We all thought that was pretty interesting. You know, fresh set of eyes, what our community looks like to an outsider.

Yeah. I mean, we have readers and we do need to think of their interests as much as our own.

So, you don’t like the idea of me interviewing the Babe from my garden?

No, G, you run the place. None of us would be here if you didn’t want this stuff. In fact, between you and Arthur, the rest of us are just bit players. We know this and we are good with it. We all love putting together our journal. I think we’re just saying that things are seeming a little self-indulgent lately.

Yeah, some people are mumbling like we have lost our focus.

If we ever had any focus.

No, the main idea, the main idea was to tell stories from our community. This is what Arthur is always complaining about. He doesn’t like being a part of these public meetings and blogs and reporting from locations. He just wanted to write the stories.

Thank you, Joy. I don’t want it to sound like any type of ultimatum. I’m here to do my job just like the rest of you. I’m okay.

You really don’t like being in these stories, do you, Arthur?

Well, if we’re going to talk about it, I kind of feel like I’m a distraction. I mean, I write stories about human beings and therefore my main characters will be those human bodies that we look at. I’m just saying that if my body is one of the bodies in the picture, it colors the situation. It’s inherently true that my subjects would react to me if I were there if not me being the focus of the attention instead of who I’m writing about. I am just saying that if I can just write the story as if I am not there and only they are, we have clearer focus and the availability of deeper purpose. People can see more if it doesn’t seem that the writer is of equal importance in the room.

That was pretty well said, Arthur.

Cheers.

So what we’re arguing about is the honesty of the story.

Sure. Maybe the difference between writing or journalistic writing and blogging is the profound existence of the blogger. The blogger is a part of their writing inherently. But a writer can disappear and leave only the subject of the writing behind. I’m not saying either art form is or isn’t legitimate and we can have great bloggers just like we can have great writers. I’m just saying that I think that’s a difference that I notice and my particular preference is perhaps to be a writer and not to be a blogger.

We have talked about this. I admit that I was drawn to Arthur a bit because of his celebrity. We all knew that he was a community writer. But in my mind, I couldn’t stop seeing the person. I’m the one who got us into blogging and a lot of the things that Arthur has taken an interest in. I understand this is my influence and I also understand that Arthur is a lot more comfortable at a distance. I think he liked it better when he could have small intimate conversations rather than participate in scandals.

There is a silence in the room here. Nobody is even chewing.

Does this affect editorial policy, Arthur.

No, G, nothing has to change. We have a beautiful journal and we have plenty to write about. I’m just saying that I want to concentrate on writing the stories rather than being in them, if that makes sense. I just want to do the work without feeling any particular attention on myself. It’s too much spotlight. I’m tired of being on stage.

You would rather the actors pick up the slack for you.

I don’t mind my job. I love my job. I just hate celebrity.

He says it makes everybody a tourist and everybody hates tourists.

Excellent. Excellent. I guess we are looking for some quality. Standard lineup for this week?

Practical English is looking to make massive changes to the program. Are we obligated to talk about this?

I had an idea about that. It’s a very small idea but it has to do with this blog. The idea is that we to say who at least is the person responsible for these individual posts. We are not utilizing the category attribute and just flinging information online. I think exactly like not saying who is talking in these meetings and letting people figure out doesn’t always work. I think it’s confusing. I’m not saying that leaving the speaker out of these dialogues is inherently wrong. It seems to be a style point and if you read, you know. But, I think it would be interesting if we stated who the blogger was for the information we send out.

This would also leave room for extra long or additional words that don’t make it for some reason into the utopian.

Yeah, people think that Arthur is the only one writing this blog and he’s not. I think it would make a difference if people understood who was writing these public posts.

Can we retrofit that?

15 minutes.

Okay, but let’s get this out in the open at least. What exactly is this blog?

Well, it’s a part of what we do. It’s sort of the fourth wall breaking part or the place where we speak to the audience directly or intimately. It seems to be a part or even an advertiser for the Utopian. It’s hard to say. Do you think we should all be contributing here?

Yes, everybody should contribute. But could we please make a standard management decision never to publish anything until Ed has a look at it.

Thank you.

Ok. Let’s go ahead and do the work and say who the contributor is on these blogs. After that, let’s let the process dictate the results and see what we need along the way.

There is one possibility though. There is a mechanical difference between writing for the Utopian and just blogging or writing freely. It has to do with the amount of space and words that we use. The Utopian is very restrictive in its format. There are only so many columns available to cover a story. I think actually, this is a little bit what Arthur is complaining about. He used to be able to develop a story however the story wanted to develop but now his writing has to be exactly within the format of the utopian. It’s not horrible but we lose a lot of story.

Yeah, like all of the description.

I noticed that too. We get this big buildup like something’s going to happen and then it’s just over with nothing but three stars to tell us that something happened. This is exactly not writing. This is avoiding writing.

Please don’t think that we are against the Utopian. It’s just a matter of fundamental organization and, really, we wanted a paper journal. We wanted a journal that could be printed and people could read it, say on Saturdays. So no matter what, we are still producing our words which means the Utopian is a legitimate piece of content.

I hate that word.

3 hours of pleasant reading.

The end of the day, yeah. 3 hours of pleasant reading.

Well, ladies and gentleman, I’ve invited the Babe to visit my garden and he’s coming by later today. The idea was to talk about hitting and life and whatever else he had to say. Do you mind if I cover this story?

No.

Not at all.

Can’t wait to read it.

Thank you. And thank you for helping keep my ego in check.

We were all pretty proud of you going out on the field to pick up balls at 3rd. It was a little cringy in the field and, you know, you were a bit overmatched. But that one home run was pretty epic. And this guy Brooks can really play.

Thank you again. I promise you, I’m not that delicate. What else is interesting?

We are a couple of weeks from the solstice. And this week, we are visiting our neighbors for a two-day baseball tournament. We are riding up on Wednesday starting at noon and riding back Thursday evening.

How many people are coming?

So far the number seems to be about 3,500 of us.

Excellent.

One point of order. If we consider everything we have, there is quite a bit of material to keep track of this week. We have the new guy, we have this bicycle trip, G has an interview from his garden and we have all of the usual columns. Are we spreading ourselves kind of thin?

Who wants to pick up the new guy?

I’ll do it.

Marla, are you sure about this?

I’ll do it. I’ll do it with Ralph. We want to be helpful.

Okay, we’ll take a look at it. Arthur and Joy, you guys are covering the baseball and the bike ride?

It’s my favorite day of the year.

Okay, we will work something out about the blogging and as far as my interview goes, what if we print everything here and use whatever we want to use in the Utopian?

No, no. We all thought that way. It’s not how we do it.

But we could.

We could, but it would create a conflict. Eventually, the Utopian is a standalone paper. It may serve the function as being an advertiser but it’s supposed to be a 16-page paper that can be printed and enjoyed. It’s not supposed to be a byproduct.

There’s an argument…

We know. Just write the interview directly for the Utopian. After this, if we need to write articles for the Green Project or for Practical English or, we can do it. And maybe even if we wish this blog to replace Google docs generally in the future, we can open up those doors. In the meantime, the deal is 15 issues. For better for bad, we just have to do our job and worry about getting creative when it’s time.

Discipline in our thinking. Maybe that’s what makes us a great team. Thank you for that. And thank you for caring. It’s appreciated.

So, really no Lu San?

He’s around. Let’s see what happens. And that’s it? All is good? Questions? Commentary? Are we ready to go?

There is general murmuring of consent. It’s an optimistic mood. It’s good to be a part of an organization that functions. Now all we have to do is produce another newspaper.