Host a Community Jobs Forum - Invitation from White House

[OneGrassRoot]

Email just received from Valerie Jarrett:



On Thursday, President Obama is hosting a discussion at the White House to explore every possible avenue for job creation. Small business owners, CEOs, economists, financial experts, and nonprofit groups, as well as Americans who have felt the impact of this economic crisis firsthand, will be there to share ideas.

But you don’t need to be here on Thursday to participate. You can join the discussion by organizing your own jobs forum with your family, friends, and co-workers -- because these conversations can take place in living rooms and conference tables, not just arenas and convention centers.

We’re looking for community leaders like you from all across the country to host discussions from now until December 13th. Your community jobs forum will be a source of insights and ideas that will inform the President’s approach to job creation.

To get started, let us know you’re interested, and we'll send you information that may help you organize a successful jobs forum in your community:

Get Started

In the coming days, we’ll follow up with discussion questions and other materials to help make your event as productive as possible. We’re not able to offer an events center where anyone can find events already happening, so if you haven’t heard of one in your area, start your own and reach out to your network for participants.

After the event, we’ll provide a simple online tool for you to submit job creation ideas and thoughts. Back here at the White House, we’ll compile your feedback and send it to the Oval Office for review.

With all of us working together, we’ll get America working again. Get started organizing a jobs forum in your community today.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Valerie

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement


http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/11/24/host-a-community-discussion-and-be-part-president-s-forum-jobs/?e=19&ref=image


:)

[FirstLight]

1. wow... maybe i should talk to some poeple i know here in my town

I have ideas, but i definately lack the know-how or resources to do it all myself. I should call my friends at the chamber of commerce and see if we can host a forum. there are NO jobs in this town right now...not even seasonal ones!

thanks for the heads up!

[rumpel]

2. I have a whole project

which would employ quite a few people, and have been seeking funding for eons -

I hope the WH can inspire many to act sooner than later.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. kick n/t

[Romulox]

4. Extend the same kind of help to ordinary Americans that you've extended to Wall Street.

Done. No summit needed. :hi:

[Hannah Bell]

5. +10

[OneGrassRoot]

6. There's a big difference, to me:

With the Wall Street bailout, they obviously continued down the same path. One which benefits the most wealthy in our society, to the detriment of the rest of us.

While many of us are very skeptical that we'll actually be heard when The White House asks for our input, it seems that it would be helpful for us all to join together to brainstorm NEW ways of creating jobs and creating incomes that many of us haven't heard of or thought of previously.

It matters not to me that it's The White House initiating this more focused discussion...it feels like something positive we can participate in.

Maybe it'll have a 100th monkey effect.

:hi:

Edited for clarity

[Romulox]

14. The onus is on the neoliberals to explain what was wrong with the "old way"

and to defend this "new way" of their despite its demonstrably disastrous consequences.

The thing you're talking about is a PR stunt. :shrug:

[OneGrassRoot]

16. Wow, you lost me....

but, in all honesty, that isn't hard to do these days. ;)

When I referred to new, I meant new types of jobs...a new economy. Do we want to return to the same cycle which led to where we are? I don't know what they are, which is why such a discussion interests me, so I can learn how others envision a more productive, effective, humane job market.

You mean this White House forum email is a PR stunt?

Perhaps. But if it gets people talking about things that might be productive and helpful, including ways to implement them -- without help from The White House -- I see that as a positive thing.

:hi:

edit for typo

[Romulox]

17. The same people who told us we need a "new" economy counseled us to jettison the "old" economy

with readily observable results...

"You mean this White House forum email is a PR stunt?"

Of course it is.

[OneGrassRoot]

18. If I would have posted the same thing, not from The White House...

just an invitation for people to gather in a coordinated fashion, to brainstorm about jobs, I wonder how that would have been received?

To me, the fact that it came from The White House is irrelevant. Any encouragement for us to come together to brainstorm about a specific problem is a positive -- potentially positive -- thing.

It is really, really, really hard to inject anything productive here these days.

But thanks for the reply. :)

[Romulox]

19. Similarly negatively. Can I remind you of the absolute intellectual clarity with which

(not to mention speed!) with which our government decided that private banks must have trillions of taxpayer dollars?

How ludicrous and disproportionate this so-called "jobs forum" looks when compared with the response to the banking crisis!

[OneGrassRoot]

22. I'm not trying to be argumentative at all. I'm trying to get BEYOND even mentioning Obama....

or his administration in this interaction. Because people coming together to brainstorm doesn't have to have ANYTHING to do with them. :)

Why can't we -- as a citizenry -- come together in various ways to brainstorm ways out of this mess? There's a lot of discussion here, for example, which is great, but there is rarely a FOCUSED discussion with the intent of solving a problem.

Forget The White House. Forget that I posted something they suggested.

Why can't coming together to brainstorm -- rather than just shoot the shit and be keyboard warriors -- be a positive thing?

That's where I'm getting lost with your replies. Take the Obama Administration out of the equation. Can't we do something proactive or at least try on our own?

[anigbrowl]

7. and how, specifically, do you suggest doing this?

[Romulox]

12. Is the phrase "same kind" throwing you off? It means the same kind...

That means the government should start guaranteeing regular people's investments against loss, for one--start buying underwater houses and propping up people's 401ks. :hi:

[anigbrowl]

You're aware of the increases in FDIC guarantees, yes?

And the tax credits offered to homebuyers? And the increases in SBA funding? I get that your point is 'throw money at it' but you seem oblivious to the fact that quite a lot of money is already being directed towards this purpose. How much money do you think should go towards buying underwater houses, for example, and how many houses do you expect this would stabilize?

[Romulox]

27. It's hard to imagine the phrase "same kind" being so troublesome...

$700 billion would be a great start though, if I must be so tediously explicit with you. :hi:

[Fire1]

8. Now is the time for folks to step up and REMIND him about

revising NAFTA and EXTENDED corporations. That's going to be my contribution to the "discussion."

[omega minimo]

9. I like it.

:thumbsup:

[hermetic]

10. Thanks for the info

If any of your friends in Atlanta start or become involved in one of these, could you let me know?

:hi:

[OneGrassRoot]

11. I will...

When I get more information, I'll share whatever they provide, including contacts from other areas.


:hi:

[AllentownJake]

13. Is this going to be like the Health Care forum I hosted in January

No thanks.

[OneGrassRoot]

15. I don't know, but I'll pass along whatever I find out....

for those who may want to take a chance on doing something productive, as you've done many times in the past for candidates and causes.

:hi:

[AllentownJake]

21. Still am

just don't trust this guy anymore.

[OneGrassRoot]

23. I didn't post this to be about Obama at all...

Please see my other reply. :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7124082&mesg_id=7136941

[optimator]

20. is this like that journal tube on Lost

where they all go into one giant unread garbage pile...
I have already heard great ideas on creating jobs, but repubs would call us "commies" so they will never be listened to.

[OneGrassRoot]

24. But what if we keep the friggin tube.....

and not pass it off to another to implement? What if part of the brainstorming includes ways to implement things on our own, without help from government or even the banking industry?

I know it's far-fetched but, geesh, I don't want to give up.

Two heads are better than one. I'm sure there are many brilliant ideas many of us have never even heard about. Maybe one person has the skill/idea and another has the means, miraculously, to implement it.

[dembotoz]

25. perhaps we need to use du resources more and better.

I tried to start a job forum in my home state that died with more of a whimper than a thud.
Maybe we ought to promote and use the carrer advice forum to a greater extent.

[OneGrassRoot]

26. I was thinking the same thing....

:hi:

[dysfunctional press]

28. single-payer health care.

without things like workman's comp costs and health insurance to worry about, many small businesses would have more money available to expand and/or hire more workers.