Last Saturday I doorknocked with my city council person and afterward we headed to my patio for a few cold ones. It was great! These kinds of sessions really help me cement relationships as well as get the kind of insights I would never get elsewhere. It was just me and Sandy, a few Schell's, a clear afternoon and a picnic table. We talked about a number of things - like about how to incorporate the young and restless, while making sure that wisdom travels with passion.

Just before she parted I brought up Zanby and our local DFL meetups. In October our DFL Senate District (which supports DFL Meetups here in southeast Minneapolis) will begin a new "Focus on the Precinct" program. Our precinct is actually a ways from our meetup venue. So she was puzzled why we would would showcase our precinct, but hold the meetup in the usual spot. She convinced me that we need venue flexibility - not just in the way we build Zanby to let members easily browse and select meeting places, but in the way we present the idea of the "venue". We'll select a location that's convenient to our precinct focus.

But in Zanby, we'll be defining a venue very broadly. It is simply a place where people gather (hence our name). It can be under a shade tree or at a coffee shop. And it can be one place one meeting and another place some other time. In fact, we'll be pursuing two other venue concepts - the virutal venue, where the meetings can be held online with a conference ware, and the instant venue, or the MOB equivalent of meetup. So three cheers for Sandy and the usefulness of having another's perspective on our Zanby design!

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