Some thanks, a bit of holiday cheer, and an update.

by Alex Steed

Published December 17, 2008 @ 09:40PM PT

Hello to you, millennial friends and enthusiasts!

'Tis the season, as they say. I've been home from the trip for a little under a month and I — like you — am gearing up for celebrating the holiday. Because it is an extended season of appreciation, familial love, and all of the things that warm our collective hearts, souls, and consciences during this time of the year, I want to extend my many, many thanks to those who made the tour possible by putting me up, advising, giving, supporting, advising, reading, offering feedback, and anything else that helped me to get along.

So thanks.

Having now talked about the on-the-road experience more than a handful of times, it's been interesting to note that I went out on the road with the intention of finding out where Millennial activists are coming from at a time when, due to a shift in national leadership and economics, not many were sure about where they're going. As a result, many of the conversations I planned to have about how the past has led to the present were focused primarily on imagining and envisioning how the present will ultimately lead into the future.

Upon reflection, especially as a post-Bush reality becomes more conceivable, as does the reality of a major contraction of the U.S. and global economies, I've been trying to be extremely careful with posting and processing my data — anecdotal and rigid — as well as my reflections on what was seen, felt, heard, etc. It was an amazing time to have had an excuse to hold conversations with young people across the country about what's what — I'm excited to have been there, to have talked with them on the front-lines of history, and I want to be cautious so as to not be hyperbolic or too-excited by the high drama of modern history and speculation when reporting my observations

On that note, please expect to see a large batch of my thoughts, interview chunks, follow-up conversations, and everything else imaginable posted on my blog and a series of partner blogs starting on the first week of 2009.

Further, I am working with my network, the one I established on the road, and a handful of new and exciting partners in order to figure out compelling, scalable, and interesting techniques for making 2009 a year of alliance-building and collaboration. If this is something that you're working on as well, please let me know what you're up to and let's figure out how to work together.

And now, a few notes:

• I'll be participating in Mobilize.org's Constitutional Convention: Building Democracy 2.0 Summit, which is set to take place in Philadelphia in January, 2009. All Millennial activists should check it out, especially if you have a project or initiative that you'd like to enter into the grant competition. Time is tight as the deadline for project submissions is the start of next week, so please be sure to take a look soon.
• I wanted to highlight Arielle Walrath, Danny Moldovan, [brand new father] Josh Levy, Kari Dunn Saratovsky, Allison Fine, Ben Rattray, Billy Bicket, Marnie Webb, Justin Massa, Dorothee Royal-Hedinger, Beth Kanter, Rachel Weidlinger, Morley Winograd, Eric Greenberg, Mariah McKay, and Sarah Schacht for their continued support of the MCA Tour. I got help from hundreds of people and organizations, and I'm grateful to everyone. These folks were there throughout, offering rather substantial chunks of intellectual, strategic, connective, monetary, and/or emotional support  and I'm exceedingly grateful for all of it.
• Speaking of Sarah Shacht, it looks like her super-fabulous project Knowledge As Power received a fairly substantial partnership grant through the Ford Foundation. Hooray for Sarah!
• Briefly (and somewhat unrelated but excellent), I was very recently in New York and ran into my friend Hannah. She works for a site called Grandparents.com and they just put together this guide called 100 Free Things To Do With Your Grandkids. I would say that I'd be interested in doing about 90% of the activities, whether or not grandkids or grandparents are involved. It's actually a really, really cool guide (coincidentally, it explains how to tie a tie which a) I don't know how to do and b) I needed Hannah to walk me through) and worth checking out for the recession-fearing fun-seekers out there. I realize that this sounds like a secret, subliminal sponsorship, but it's not. It's just awesome.
• Finally, many thanks to my sponsors, Change.org, The Point, NetSquared, replyforall, and The Case Foundation. Without their support, patience, and understanding, this wouldn't have been possible.

And really - That's it for now.

So have a safe holiday, and a fabulous New Year celebration. I'll be in touch then. In the meantime, thanks for paying attention, and I look forward to connecting soon.