I had a coffee meeting with a board member of a national nonprofit. She has an aim at redirecting the website. Her own descriptive was "horrible." Yikes.
Through her I met someone who has a background in policy on the state and federal level. This person will be coordinating the effort to update the website. While she is learning hopefully this will be a great opportunity to learn new skills of website development. At my previous employer I edited a little section every now and then but it mainly involved textual information.
During the meeting she mentioned there's a conference in September that would be great for me as a public speaking engagement. It would involve presenting on the implications of social media for an aging population. It's interesting that sometimes I don't realize my level of understanding of something until asked to teach someone brand new. I am definitely a novice, per my age group, in social media. The label of expert is very different as applied to a much older audience.
Message point: As the audience becomes less familiar with the information the message must be crafted more from a "freshman" approach.
I think that's one of the communications barriers with the Single Payer movement. It's been going on for so long, i.e. legilsation introduced way back to the 1970's, that those who are educated use advanced language and understand complex organizational structures, i.e. health insurance companies and legislative bodies. At the end of the day, though, this message must resonate also with those who don't live and breathe healthcare policy.
Asking someone who has put substantial energy into crafting a message to dilute it's content strikes them as odd and sometimes offensive.
