Centerfield

Actually, just to clarify, you don't have to install Yahoo! Messenger on your computer, because the group that we will be using has a chat room that is web-based. The only downloading and installation required is a very quick download the first time you use the chat room, and that only requires you to agree to the download and installation.

You do, however, need a Yahoo! ID to join a group, which you can get for free if you do not already have one. That involves submitting a simple online form that is relatively painless. (If you have a Yahoo! email account but have never used the groups or messenger features, you already have an ID; it is just your name before the @ symbol in your email address.)

Yeah, my PC did the little download when we had our meeting Saturday morning. It literally took a couple seconds.

I'm guessing Fridays are out if only to allow us the illusion of having a real life. Who wants to admit they have nothing better to do on a Friday night?

Sunday night might work. Or perhaps Saturday morning. All the political shows are on Sunday, so that might be a logical time for us to contribute to the national debate.

I'm married. I don't need to go out on Friday nights.

Perhaps Sunday nights would be best, particulary given the void now that ESPN football is off the air until next season.

For a name, something like the name of your thread might be good:

Centrist National Voice Chat

Or something simpler like:

Moderate/Centrist Townhall

We may also want to contact some other blogs and see if they'd be willing to link to this thread, where we can all get involved in discussing the particulars.

"Perhaps Sunday nights would be best, particulary given the void now that ESPN football is off the air until next season."

I share your pain and am glad to see you have your priorities in order.

I think Sunday nights would make the most sense, because that's kinda the point of the week where I'm always wondering exactly what I should be doing but I never have an answer.

Also, along these lines, I was tossing around the idea of having a national centrist meeting myself. However, instead of just the CC, why not all centrist-affiliated groups and bloggers? It seems to me there are enough good centrsits out there to have a good turnout. We could get a hotel ballroom or something, have a conference, make use of the swimming pool.

As you can probably tell, I tend to think big, so please give me a nice reality check if I'm way off base.

But I think something like this could be organized in conjunciton with the Independance Party of Minnesota (and maybe be held in Minnesota? Eh? Nice central location) and we could invite politicians from both parties, governors, state representatives, maybe even US representatives or (gasp!) a few of the better senators.

As for the topic at hand, I'd be in favor of a simple title for the voice chat. I like Centrist Townhall. It's not as utilitarian as Centrist Voice Chat, but it's also simple and short.

Art,

We have been in discussions about co-sponsoring a conference in New York later this year to discuss a centrist agenda on economic issues. I'll let you know when we have more information.

I like Centrist Townhall too. We discussed during our meeting the fact that there is already a website called Townhall, and that it's a conservative site, which might cause confusion.

I think if we make the name simple, though, and include the word "centrist" right at the front, it becomes pretty clear what we're doing. People already have a pretty strong association with the word "townhall" -- a meeting of regular folks to discuss issues. "Centrist Townhall" pretty much captures the concept, I would say.

As for your other suggestion, Art, I think the concept for the online meeting is to involve as many other blogs or other centrist groups as we can -- to try to get centrists as a whole to "own" this thing, rather than the Centrist Coalition specifically. We discussed having it sponsored by (or featured at) a different centrist weblog each week. That might be a way of drawing attention to some of the really excellent centrist blogs out there.

Basically, the host blog posts something on the day of the meeting letting folks know the particulars, and the rest of our blogs do a trackback to that post.

Now, you also mentioned an actual, in-person conference. We've had some initial discussions on that possibility too. And it would be the same kind of thing -- try to involve centrists from all organizations, blogs, etc. This was suggested by John Avlon, and he already has some leads on finding space, getting speakers, etc.