At its July 31, 1998 meeting, members of the Public Interest Task Force decided to fold the Task Force back into the Advocacy Working Group. The Public Interest Task Force recommends to the Advocacy Working Group that it disband its work on developing a major public interest campaign on behalf of balanced copyright and a robust public domain. Asserting that these issues remained important to NINCH's purpose, the Task Force agreed that first they needed to be thoroughly addressed within NINCH's core mission.
Toward that end, the Task Force had developed a number of documents further defining the work of NINCH, focused on solidifying the organization's base of support, and had begun assembling a NINCH brochure to communicate to a broad set of publics NINCH's value, vision, and purpose.
For the best deep background, see the Report on the March 25, 1998 meeting: "NINCH Public Interest Campaign: Options & Strategies," available on the NINCH Members webpage: </ADMIN/MEMBERS.html> [remember username: bronwyn; password: brillig]
The Advocacy Working Group created the Public Interest Task Force following the November 1997 NINCH Copyright Meeting. The Task Force was charged to organize a national campaign promoting the importance of preserving a robust public domain and a balanced copyright regime.
In the process of preparing for the campaign, the Task Force found it necessary to address a number of core issues relating to the constitution and mission of NINCH as a whole. Answering questions from members about how the coalition defined advocacy, what position NINCH would take on copyright reform, and how we could assess the level of overall coalition member support, the task force found it necessary to re-examine the nature, purpose, and intent of a public campaign.
In a June conference call, the Task Force decided that before developing a very ambitious public campaign, it needed to strengthen NINCH's home base. Task force members determined that a modular package of documents would best accomplish this end. Once complete, the package will clearly define NINCH's character, goals, mission and achievements. The task force has already created the following for NINCH:
At its July 31 meeting, the Task Force reviewed the first three of these documents, created a draft Advocacy Policy for Working Group review, reviewed a draft member survey and reviewed an outline of the NINCH brochure.
Reviewing this material in the context of the public campaign and in light of changes in the rapidly evolving legislative environment, the task force reassessed the importance of a specific campaign versus NINCH's broad mandate to advocate for a fully accessible integrated networked cultural heritage. The Task Force decided that it was now time to reconvene with the Advocacy Working Group to either disband the Task Force or to substantially reconceptualize its charge.
The Task Force agreed that the Advocacy Working Group would need meet prior to the October 26, 1998 NINCH Board meeting. Members proposed a September 1998 meeting.
In preparation for that meeting and/or the Board Meeting task force, members agreed to develop materials by the following deadlines:
The task force continues to recognize the need to communicate the message about the importance of networking our cultural heritage. However, more thought needs to be invested in establishing exactly which publics to address and, once that is established, more research is needed to ascertain prevailing attitudes within those groups.
Pat Williams suggested that NINCH contact David Finn of the public relations firm Ruder and Finn, to request assistance in conceptualizing and realizing such a campaign. The task force understands the ambitious nature of such a campaign and recommends that this effort become an activity of the Advocacy Working Group as whole.
NINCH defines advocacy as an educational rather than a political activity. As a coalition of diverse associations and institutions, NINCH will, therefore, not take unilateral positions on legislative matters. By educating our members and others about cultural networking issues, NINCH creates a platform for discussion and action that is consonant with our declared core values. NINCH thus enables its members to actively participate in the evolution of the digital environment and encourages our constituents and the public to become engaged in the issues of networking cultural resources in a digital environment.