Editor’s note: The Feb. 9 Social Media Jam has sold out; so we’ve added a second, overflow session on Tuesday, Feb. 23, also at Tomato Jam Cafe, at 6:30 p.m. To register for that session (which is already halfway booked as of Feb. 3), e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Also, we’ve planned a new session covering different material on Tuesday, March 9.
Social Media Jams, a monthly workshop series offering education in how businesses and people can use blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for fun and profit, launches Feb. 9 at Tomato Jam Cafe. Co-sponsored by the Mountain Xpress, Tomato Jam Cafe and Skyrunner, the Jams offer homegrown social-media expertise in everything from how small businesses can use Twitter to how to use Google Analytics to drive more traffic to your Web site.
"We want to harness local talent and expertise from people already using social media effectively right here in Asheville," said Social Media Jams organizer Jennifer Saylor, who helps lead community initiatives for Xpress. "These workshops are presented by local experts, for local users of all levels."
Leading the first workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 9, is Wendy Lou Gillespie of Creative Imp Works, whose social media clients include Monkeywhale.com, TEDxAsheville and Asheville Vaudeville. Her kickoff workshop will teach small business owners how to use online tools like Twitter and Facebook to grow their business in new ways.
"It's a beginner-friendly introduction for all levels, for anyone looking for new avenues to grow their network and reach new clients," Gillespie said. "Twitter and Facebook aren't difficult, they're for all ages, and they're easy to master when you have a little help with the nuts and bolts."
Tomato Jam Cafe offers a limited food menu for the kickoff Jam, complete with dessert.
"We want to create an easygoing atmosphere for the Jams," Saylor said. "There'll be learning and networking, but there's also good food. Come out, have dinner, and learn something you need to know."
The cost to attend is $15 (dinner not included). An RSVP is required as there is limited seating at the cafe, and space in the workshops is first-come, first-served. Participants should RSVP via e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
As well as RSVP-ing, participants should bring a laptop or Web-enabled device that allows them to access the Internet.
The first of the Social Media Jams takes place Tuesday, Feb. 9 at Tomato Jam Café (379 Biltmore Ave., in Doctor's Park), from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. E-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.
Reports of alleged local druggings that surfaced on Twitter recently have raised complex questions, and the answers are still coming in.
Xpress reader Kimberly Miller first alerted us that two women had recently used the social-networking tool to spread the word that they'd been surreptitiously drugged while drinking at two different local bars. Miller, however, cautioned that the reports were unconfirmed, and both of the women in question say they weren't raped or otherwise abused, just drugged.
Xpress published a brief online report Jan. 24, noting the information that Miller had passed on — and emphasizing that no one was suggesting that the bars' staff had played any role in the alleged druggings. In the aftermath of our report, more allegations and rumors of similar crimes appeared in Twitter messages online.
Some readers (and some Xpress staffers) debated the propriety of Twitter-reported drugging allegations, with questions including: Is it wise to repeat unconfirmed reports of such crimes? Is it fair to name the bar where the alleged crime occurred, due to the potential risk to the establishment's reputation? Do the recent Twitter messages concerning alleged druggings indicate a spike in the local use of so-called "date-rape drugs"? And is such self-reported crime information even useful, since it's unconfirmed?
During the discussion, some answers have emerged. Asheville Police Department spokesperson Melissa Williams wrote in an e-mail that "We haven't had a 'trend'" of reported date-rape druggings. In fact, said Williams, "It may be at least a year (or more) since any such crime was alleged or reported" to the department. She advised anyone, male or female, who thinks they were drugged without their awareness to call the police.
Our VOICE, an Asheville-based group working to prevent sexual abuse, has been tracking reports of drug-facilitated assaults since last February. During that time, the organization has received an average of about one such report per month, according to Anna Sharratt, Our VOICE's prevention, education and outreach coordinator.
But Sharratt doesn't put much stock in those numbers. "Most victims of sexual violence — drug-facilitated or otherwise — do not report the crime to rape crisis centers or law enforcement," she said. "Estimates say that only 20 to 40 percent of victims of sexual assault ever report the crime to the police. We may assume that for every report we receive, there are several other victims who chose not to report." Furthermore, she noted, date-rape drugs (often referred to as "roofies") "diminish a victim's ability to recall memories of the events that ensued after ingesting the drug." As a result, "Many people may not report because they are unsure of their own recollections."
Sharratt urges anyone who suspects they've been drugged to report it in one or more ways. The options include: 1) Filing a report with the police or Sheriff's Office, which might lead to a criminal case. 2) Filing a "blind report" through Our VOICE by calling 255-7576. "You may provide as much or little information about the incident as you wish, but you need not supply your name," she explains. Our VOICE, in turn, will pass that information on to local law enforcement. 3) Fully report the incident to Our VOICE, which will keep the report confidential if requested, and which offers victims counseling, case management and other support. (The group also offers free training to local bars that want to discourage such attacks.)
As to the wisdom of using social-media tools to spread the word about alleged druggings, Sharratt had this to say: "This week's flurry about date-rape-drug incidents at local bars on Twitter has introduced a form of citizen reporting. While this method may prove useful, Our VOICE strongly recommends a formal report to Our VOICE and/or law-enforcement entities."
Miller, who originally alerted Xpress to the drugging reports, added this message in the ongoing Twitter discussion: "Hoping my [Mountain Xpress] tip re: roofies isn't causing a witch hunt or unnecessary panic but raising awareness."
For just over a year, Local Edge Radio has established itself as a regional progressive talk show on the AM dial at 880 The Revolution. Now the show is moving into a new chapter, expanding from its once-a-week Friday-afternoon slot to every weekday afternoon.
Blake Butler, who co-hosts the show with Lesley Groetsch, says the two won't have any problem filling the show on a Monday through Friday schedule. "So far, we haven't gotten to the point where we've run out of things to talk about," he says.
The switch comes partly as a result of the January announcement from radio network Air America that is was declaring bankruptcy. Most of the syndicated shows on 880 The Revolution are produced by the Dial Global network, but one, the Ron Reagan Show that airs at 6 p.m., was produced by Air America and was cut as a result of the bankruptcy. A bit of shuffling of other programming made room for Local Edge to move into the weekday-afternoon slot.
"There's a lot of reasons this is a huge positive for local progressive radio," Groetsch says. Those include the chance to bring in more guests and live-music acts, and to provide more continuity to news and conversations on the radio that previously were limited by a seven-day gap between broadcasts. And, Groetsch continues, it will be easier to highlight events that land earlier in the week.
"Local Edge Radio has an incredible community here, and they're very receptive to what we're doing on Friday," Butler says. "Now, more folks can be part of the show."
The switch takes place on Monday, Feb. 15, with the show airing from 3 to 6 p.m., putting it directly across from another local talk program: AM 570's Take a Stand! with Matt Mittan, which draws a large conservative and libertarian listenership. And that means literally directly across from it — 880 and 570 are both Clear Channel Asheville stations, and the two shows will air simultaneously in studios separated only by a wall and soundproof window.
With the show's hosts able to see one another during the broadcast, Clear Channel Asheville program director Brian Hall says the two shows will likely be swapping some guests as well as stepping up their competition. "Being able to see each other and say 'What are they doing?' — it's going to make you step up your game," he says.
In a case that could have implications for the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners invocation, on Jan. 28 a federal judge found that the use of a sectarian prayer to open a public meeting violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"The Court concludes that the invocation Policy, as implemented, has resulted in Government-sponsored prayers that advance a specific faith or belief and have the effect of affiliating the Government with that particular faith or belief," U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty wrote in the ruling.
The plaintiffs in the case, two Forsyth County residents represented by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Winston-Salem chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, declared the ruling a victory in an announcement from the ACLU.
"I am very happy with the Court's ruling today because this court order preserves freedom of conscience for people of all different beliefs, whether they are in the majority or the minority, by requiring our government to remain neutral in matters of religion," Constance Blackmon, one of the plaintiffs, said of the ruling.
Since 1989, the Buncombe commissioners have opened their meetings with a prayer, almost always of the Christian variety. In December, after a magistrate ruled in the plaintiffs' favor in the Forsyth case, Buncombe County legal staff informed the board that the county's prayer policy is almost identical to Forsyth's, and could leave Buncombe vulnerable if the lawsuit went against the commissioners there.
While a leaked memo from Buncombe County Attorney Michael Frue originally indicated that the county might switch to a moment of silence, this was not the case. The commissioners stated they would take up the matter at their Jan. 5 meeting, but reversed course and decided over the holidays, via a series of phone calls between individual commissioners, to keep the policy as it is until the Forsyth case was decided.
The ruling hasn't yet caused the county to reconsider its own prayer, Frue tells Xpress. "I haven't had a chance to advise [the board] on the ruling yet, or discuss it," Frue says. "The prayer's not really an official policy; it's more of a custom, but it is something we'll need to discuss." The city of Asheville is also reviewing its prayer policy.
UNC-Asheville officials showed off a new $2.9 million building on Jan. 28 that will serve as home for Chancellor Anne Ponder, as well as a public space for the university to hold special events and woo potential donors.
University Board of Trustees Chairman Jim Buckner said the building will help the university "win new friends and new funds" in an economic climate that requires the university to step up its fundraising activities. The new 6,333-square-foot building, with about two-thirds of its space devoted to public use, is "a dream come true," Buckner said.
The two-story house replaces UNCA's former home for its chancellor on Macon Avenue, a house that served that purpose since 1966. The university sold the home in 2007 for $600,000 and used that money, as well as private donations from about 150 people, to build the new structure.
The house sits on 2 acres of a 50-acre parcel of land across W.T. Weaver Boulevard from the main UNCA campus and close to the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station. Buckner noted that every campus in the UNC system is required to provide a residence for its chancellor, and that UNCA had long wanted an on-campus residence.
Buckner said the university wanted a facility that fit with the campus and "reflects who we are as Asheville and Western North Carolina." Its style includes Arts and Crafts and Tudor elements, and features the work of local builders, craftspeople, artists and designers.
Stained-glass panels glow in the ceiling of the building's great room. There's a sunroom and a study. The house includes an elevator and a large kitchen. There are paintings by artists including Luke Allsbrook, Tucker Cooke, Scott Lowry and Peter Gentling of Asheville, as well as others such as Robert Johnson of Celo. One room features the photography of Hugh Morton, the late former owner of Grandfather Mountain. Fine woodworking, such as cabinetry and wood-framed mirrors, can be seen in the kitchen, bathrooms and library, and there are ceramic and glass pieces, as well.
The building also includes sustainable features, including radiant floor heating and eight 300-foot-deep wells to provide geo-thermal heating and cooling.
Ken Gaylord Architects/Black Hawk Construction of Hendersonville served as architect and contractor on the project.
Buckner said the chancellor plans to move in during the first week of February.
Go to http://www.mountainx.com/gallery to view a photo gallery of the house, and visit http://www.mountainx.com to view a video tour.
