AnnArbor.com Meeting

Dusty Diary biked to AA this morning to attend a training meeting for new AnnArbor.com contributors, of which she is one. The boildown: About 100 community members from many walks of life will be contributing to AnnArbor.com's blog section. There will be 8 categories of posts: Neighborhoods, Passions and Pursuits, Food and Drink, Locovores, Parenting, Books, Shopping, and "The Deuce," which is a youth-oriented section.

"This looks like an Ann Arbor crowd," exulted one organizer at the meeting. Dusty D surreptitiously darted her eyes around and felt like an Ypsilanti spy. We had to do introductions. Among the other folks there were Nicola Rooney from Nicola's Books, Gene Alloway (nice and interesting man in my experience) from Motte & Bailey's old-book store (neat!), local herbalist Linda Feldt, and some people covering the Old West Side and the Parenting beats.

Dusty D received a pen. "The T-shirts went fast [to the previous training group]," one organizer remarked. Dang. The T-shirts presumably had the acorn logo of AnnArbor.com and its motto, "you what when where & why" [meant to evoke the journalistic questions "who, what..." you get it]. "The logo was designed by New York-based SS+K, which has a longstanding partnership with our parent company, Advance Publications. Their work on the logo was informed by extensive consumer research in Ann Arbor, along with feedback from us and from people in the community." [read the comments].

So Dusty D will be spinning her yarns about hoboes, junkyards, and consumptives--this time with an Ann Arbor slant--and looking for a niche somewhere between "Locovore" and "Parenting" in which to fit her forlorn tales. This is a big opportunity for DD, and I spent most of today simply thinking about it. What I want my voice to say, how to best serve the site, and what to cover to allure readers. The site goes live on Monday, and I'll post an update when it does. Dusty D plans to do the best job I can for AnnArbor.com's readers. My greatest hope would be to transport them for a few minutes into other times, in an enchanted realm of history. Dusty D is grateful to AnnArbor.com for the chance to do so.