Zeitgeist Priorities Stewardship Algorithms

Spoiler Alert: RantWoman will post what emerges from Business Meeting as her whole Meeting's discernment about FCNL legislative priorities. RantWoman is unclear what other calls may emerge such as speaking in MfB or offering edits on this blog to capture the nuggets here

RantWoman is having mental hiccups: RantWoman has read the draft of the statement to be brought to Meeting for Business.  RantWoman does not remember anyone saying the word regulation, but does remember herself several times using the phrase "transparency accountability." RantWoman really does not need to further her reputation for hyper-fussiness about vocabulary and all around capacity to be insufferable, but there is a GIANT difference between "restore regulation" and promote transparency and accountability."  [and NO, the room probably does NOT want to hear reflections on this point simmering in RantWoman's head with respect to the ADA, inclusion for people with disabilities... ]

RantWoman, could you PLEASE try to stay somewhere on the same planet as the rest of the room?

Or how about chill out? If an hour in Adult Ed is the time people have this year for seasoning priorities, an hour it is?

Or of you must rant and ramble, could you maybe do it timely so other people have time to interact before deadlines?

Um, no actually. And on top of that, Rantwoman gets stuck sometimes on some point in a meeting. Also RantWoman spends a lot of time aboard the King County Metro limousine service and therefore has time for thinking about the points she is stuck on.

Recently RantWoman was in a room full of Friends seasoning what our Meeting wants to say about FCNL legislative priorities. Toward the end of the session, after the rest of the room had already nudged our word clouds into the suggested  limit of 7 priorities, a Friend suggested something about "tracking with the cultural zeitgeist of the day" or some variant of the phrase.

Most of the room in unison: "What's that."

RantWoman to herself: "Ummm, how are we going to fit that into something relevant to legislative priority? BUT  be still my soul. Someone else who says things the rest of the room finds incomprehensible! And PS we are located near a large university. It's probably good if SOMEONE around this place can use the word
'Zeitgeist' occasionally."

But after a spell seasoning things during worship with attention to the city bus, a slightly different version of below emerged from RantWoman's keyboard:

1. Friends, The most important thought after which if you need to hit
delete...: I forget which of the priorities we came up with today I
MIGHT try to work in something from Friend M's comment at the end of
Adult Religious Ed today, but I could consider an offer to word smith if Friends can
bear with ...

I could think of ways to connect "the cultural zeitgeist of the
day with the FCNL we seek that is something about full development of
each person's potential.

Presently the cultural zeitgeist of the day includes populist
nationalism, (buzzword alert) weaponization of information, lots of forces undermining trust various directions,  and the likes of Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Xi Zimping,(sp)
Duterte. Also a CREEPY video from Twitter of a whole bunch of local tv
anchors going on about "....bad "not good for our democracy..." In
other words, the cultural zeitgeist of the day includes some ugly
possibilities so then the task for writing a priorities document is to
somehow want to stand in the way of ugly possibilities. Like I said,
Not sure I could find a way to add that thought to what we did and not
sure I want to commit time even if Friends would be willing to cope
with a little word smithing.

Anyway Friend,  thank you for the intriguing phrasing.Most of the
room  just blurted out "What's that?" Still around a meeting with as
many University connections as ours, I do not think it is terrible if
unusual vocabulary pops up now and then. Plus thinking about it gave
me something to do while getting around on the bus.

2. NOT immediate action I have time right now to do, Friend M, do you
have time to go read the FCNL policy statement. I am interested in
when it was written and what if anything it says about computers,
privacy, algorithms that perpetuate institutionalized racism, net
neutrality...Another Friend's comment about rural development and the internet.
...  I do not know whether we could fit something related to these
topics into the priority about transparency and accountability or into
something about stewardship and knowing the limitations of technology.

In some ways, since Seattle is such a tech hub, I kind of wish our
group could TRY to say something as part of the priorities, but if
that can't work, it can't work.

Probably we should just leave what the whole group did  this round of
priorities with the group we had today, but  for the future...  One of
these days I will read the policy statement myself. One of  these
days.

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading and no particular
apologies: it is classic RantWoman goes to a meeting gets stuck on
something, has multiple bus rides to think about, and then comes up
with something there would not have been time to deal with in the
group.

But again thank you all for reading. RantWoman thinks it is unlikely anything concise particularly about the technology thread can come together for this cycles of priorities. RantWoman is also aware that her Meeting includes Friends who RantWoman imagines have many different perspectives on the topics cited by RantWoman. Still, RantWoman thinks there is something worth seasoning....

In light and faithfulness.

RantWoman