“What is the most important thing that GraniteGrok has brought to NH”?
So, at Groktober Fest held last October, I got Jeff Chidester, Carla Gericke, and Jim Kofalt to answer that question. I also added a couple more folks. Here is Mike Rogers’s answer to that question. In his typical British brevity, he got right to the point and gave a minimalist response:
- “Reporting, opinion, event coverage, and Constitutional Government and the less, the better!“
Ah yes, the engineer’s definition of excellence – a sufficient number of words to get the job done but no more than what is required. Less is better and Mike got it right.
As I said in the video, if anyone knows what GraniteGrok is about, Mike should know being Grokster #3 or #4 – about 16 years of time.
And with having passed the baton to Steve, I know that the ‘Grok will stay true to that quote as its mission. He also got his second point absolutely correct:
Fundraise so that Steve can lead GraniteGrok and become our first full-time paid person (as I went into semi-retirement mode – family medical issues).
I hope that, over the next 18 years, we will continue to uphold his words. As I have said before, who else is doing what we do (and what comes naturally)? Many have tried in the past, and we have outlasted them all (and some were very well financed, to boot); it shows what ordinary people can do when motivated to do so over the long haul.
Again, as a reminder, I announced my semi-retirement from GraniteGrok due to the heightened needs of my family. And yes, again, I was surprised as the words came out of my mouth (surprising to me – I didn’t even know I was going to do it!) from the ‘Grok I had founded 18 years ago due to family issues that HAD to take priority. And in doing so, I turned everything over to Steve, knowing that it would be in the best of hands – I was not disappointed.
Sidenote: And that is the reason why I am taking this opportunity to ask you to donate to GraniteGrok. We are all volunteers, but with Steve’s full-time job gone away, this is the opportunity to keep him and all the time he puts in with his wit, wisdom, and dry humor full-time in a paying position. We were lucky with his old job – nooks and crannies of time always showed up, and he spent it spinning up post after post. However, if he has to look for another full-time job, there’s no guarantee that he’d have the same amount of time for you all to enjoy.
So now that things have calmed down, I can resume making a political PIA of myself to those that need it (yes, a warning). So I’m continuing to put up some of the “Groktober” videos and the interview I did with Ken Eyring and Tom Murray.
One left to do!
