Mike Connery

DNC Youth Avail Michael Connery

Our own Michael Connery at the DNC Youth Council Avail at DNC08. (sorry if the audio is bad)


Full-Time Future Majority

Here it is, the big announcement I've been alluding to:

Beginning on Monday, I officially enter the ranks of pajama-clad bloggerdom, and will be working full-time at Future Majority through December 2008.

How am I able to do this? This is made possible through a Fellowship with the Center for Independent Media, a new organization that is helping bloggers get on their feet and become sustainable. They'll be providing me with media and journalism training, Lexis Nexis, PR, and a number of other services. You might even see my mug on the TeeVee thanks to them. Appropriate disclaimers and disclosures will go live on the blog's About Us section next week. In fact, that whole section is going to get an overhaul and become much clearer.

What to expect: Content has been spotty of late. This was due to the fact that I've been working overtime to tie up all loose ends and finish some fairly large projects at my day-job with The Opportunity Agenda. Starting Monday, this will no longer be the case as writing here will be my full time job. So there will be more content every day. There will be better researched content. Look for a lot more stories with actual reporting involved. I'll likely be tagging along with some of the Presidential campaigns, reporting from primaries, from conferences (Left and Right), doing more in depth poll analysis and I hope to even take my own personal essays/theories on mixing culture and politics to the next level. I'm also looking at investing in some audio/video equipment to make short videos and record interviews. I hope to be posting that content to the site (this might take a few weeks to ramp up as I play around with it). It should be exciting.

Additionally, I've got some budget to make more tweaks to this site. I hope to revamp the Wiki into a usable format, make some tweaks to the sidebar content, including making the video and news feeds both more comprehensive but also more interactive and a more lively content area (the way HuffPo handles syndicated content is the model we're looking at for those who are interested). I'm also toying with the idea of diaries here on the site. If that's something you think you'd use, please drop a comment voicing your support so I can gauge interest.

So that's it. I'm excited, I hope you're excited. Things are going to get cooking here real soon. This has been 1 of 3 jobs I've worked for the last year (along with writing the book and working at Opportunity Agenda). Despite that, Future Majority has made a name for itself in the blogosphere and among youth organizers. I can't wait to see where we go when I'm able to put 40 hours a week into the site.

About Future Majority

Future Majority is a blog dedicated to covering the involvement of young voters in progressive politics. The site was founded in August of 2006 by Michael Connery, Alex Urevick-Acklesberg, and Josh Koenig.

The site features original reporting on progressive youth organizing, polling analysis, opinion pieces, and guest blogs by leaders in the progressive youth movement.

The site is built on the Drupal open source platform and is hosted by Chapter Three LLC. The site design is by Nica Lorber and the implementation was done by ZivTech.

Our Team

Michael Connery is the author of Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority, a book about the role of the Millennial Generation in progressive politics. In addition to blogging at Future Majority, Michael is an occasional contributor to MyDD, TechPresident, and the Huffington Post's "Off the Bus" blog.

Michael is a Board Member of the Young Voter PAC, an At-Large member of the DNC Youth Council, and sits on the Advisory Board of HeadCount, a non profit that registers young voters at live music events. In 2003, he was the cofounder of a similar organization called Music for America, and served as its Communications Director and Web Editor in 2003 and 2004.

Michael is a participant in the Center for Independent Media New Journalism Program. However, all of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site are solely his own. Future Majority is not a production of the Center and the Center does not endorse or support any of the content of this site.

Sarah Burris is a Heartland blogette, Sarah has worked with numerous campaigns from presidential to city council races. She says she likes the smaller campaigns the best and prefers the Red-States. Recently, she worked for Skyline Public Works where she helped state based youth organizations connect with major funders across the country. Sarah was recently named one of the five Rock the Vote Rock the Trail Reporters and was a recipient of the Democracy for America Netroots Nation scholarship and was named by the New Leader's Council as one of the 40 Emerging Leaders Under 40. She is a founding blogger at Everyday Citizen, a long time writer and researcher for Wiretap Magazine. Sarah's writing focus has been faith based politics, young progressive democracy, and expressing them all through new media. She has guest lectured for several training programs as well as university communications classes and campaigns and elections lectures. She's always happy to talk to fellow young people about elections, organizing, and new media. You may contact her at sarahkatheryn at gmail dot com.

Kevin Bondelli has been working in youth activism and Democratic politics for over 8 years. He serves as the YDA Southwest Region Director from Arizona and as a member of the DNC Youth Council. He has previously served as YDA Convention Credentials Chair, YDA Parliamentarian, YDA Judicial Council Member, YDAZ National Committeeman, and YDAZ Vice-President of Finance. Kevin was Undergraduate Student Government Vice-President of Arizona State University in 2003-2004, where he worked heavily on GLBT issues. Professionally Kevin has been Internet Organizer, Non-Traditional Campaigns Director, and Internet and Technology Strategist for the Arizona Democratic Party. He currently freelances as a web/graphic designer, writer, and internet strategist in Arizona. He also writes on his personal blog and the Young Democrats of America blog.

Craig Berger has been interested in the Millennial Generation and its involvement in politics for several years. During his time at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, he served as President of the Allegheny College Democrats in 2003 and 2004, organizing Democratic students and liberals on campus in support of John Kerry; Craig also was heavily involved in Allegheny Student Government, serving as a chief of staff to the President and the organization's voice on technological issues on campus. Craig has also facilitated discussions on the Millennial Generation with college students at a handful of campuses. Craig is currently employed at a small, public college in Northwestern Pennsylvania in Residence Life. During the upcoming year, Craig will be organizing a series of election-based programs for the school and volunteering for the Obama Campaign. Craig also writes at his personal blog, The Politics of the Common Good. He resides in Erie, PA.

Emeritus

Josh Koenig is an internet technologist, Drupal sensei, outlandish blogger and self-described velvet revolutionary. He helped instigate the DeanSpace project, driving grassroots web technology for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, in mid 2003. He later served as Technical Director for Music For America from its foundation as a 527 through the end of 2004. Josh is currently pioneering the internet-enabled rural lifestyle in the State of Jefferson, spending most days fulfilling his role as a founding partner of Chapter Three LLC, a next-generation internet organizing consultancy (which also hosts Future Majority, natch).

Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg has been working in technology since 1999, and with Drupal since he hooked up with Music for America, a voter education and registration initiative, during the U.S. 2004 presidential campaign. He has helped to create numerous blogs and online communities including Young Philly Politics, a local political blog, Blue Force, a progressive national security site, and Future Majority, which looks at the intersections of youth, culture, and politics. Alex worked at The New School for Social Research in New York City for eight years, where he also received his Bachelors and Masters degrees, both of which focused on psychology, politics, and communications. After he left the New School, Alex worked various jobs in politics and communications, including doing Online Marketing/Internet Outreach for the award winning film The War Tapes, working as the Youth and Cultural Field Organizer for Philadelphians Against Santorum, and managing a City Council race in Philadelphia. In early 2007 Alex decided to pursue Drupal Development full time, and he hasn't looked back since. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, dog, cats, and a salt-water reef tank that scares his wife half to death every time he's away on business (which is fairly frequently).

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