Last Saturday, Friends of Community Media held a bingo fundraiser at the entertainment / restaurant – Hamburger Mary’s – and it went well. 60-70 people attended and hundreds of dollars was raised. Richard Thompson organized the event, following in the footsteps of what put KKFI community radio on the air (BINGO) in Kansas City.
The fundraiser was to help launch a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators. This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns. The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.
Friends of Community Media is working to develop a local consensus for improving the quality of local news. In this effort, we are following the example that Freepress.net used to convince the New Jersey legislature to create the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium (NJCIC). This is a 501(c)(3), which recently approved 14 projects funded at $35,000 each to do different things in different parts of New Jersey in conjunction with a professor at one of five leading public universities in New Jersey. We do NOT expect to do exactly that. Instead, we want to ask leaders in government, business, nonprofits, etc., if they are concerned about the quality of local news, and if yes, what might they support to improve this.
Below please find an email similar to what Spencer Graves sent to 22 different politicians at city, county, state and federal levels. In following up by phone on those mails, he spoke with 7 humans and left voice messages for the rest. And he had two follow-up meetings with a legislative assistant for a city councilperson. His next task is to do something similar with local news outlets like the KansasReflector.com and TheBeacon.media.
Spencer would love to hear what you might like to do in this regard. He would happily help you got contact information for anyone you might like to ask about this and draft questions, if you would like that. If we get enough people discussing this with others, we can get substantive action to improve the quality of local information available to people. That, in turn, will encourage more people to vote and vote intelligently, leading to better public policies, according to research Spencer has seen and is cited in his email.
Spencer Graves, Secretary of Friends of Community Media, has written a well-researched and thoughtful article on ideas to improve local journalism and Kansas City Media.
UPDATE: MARY’S REQUIRES EVERYONE ATTENDING TO BRING PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION. YOUR CARD, A PHOTOCOPY, OR READABLE PICTURE WILL WORK.
If you don’t know about our “Hambingo” fundraiser yet, read on:
As many of you know, FCM is fundraising for a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators. This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns. The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.
To this end, FCM is holding a bingo fundraiser at Hamburger Marys’ Midtown KCMO location (3700 Broadway Blvd #110) on 8/21 from 4-6 PM. Prizes will include handmade jewelry, KKFI and FCM t-shirts, and gift cards to local businesses. Come for a hilarious afternoon of drag queens, bingo competition, drinks, burgers, exciting prizes, and extraordinary fun! RSVP on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/493290592005801
NOTE: This event will be very risqué. A drag-queen runs the bingo game, and they will use foul language and make suggestive jokes. If that doesn’t sound fun to you, we suggest that you support FCM by donating on our website, here: https://ourfcm.org/donate.
Questions? Contact Richard Thompson at (913)209-4114 or richthompson209@gmail.com.
