Announcing the GOOD Energy Issue Party

Mark your calendar for Thursday, February 24.

We're trying something new here at GOOD, and we need you all to get involved. One of the frustrations of putting out a magazine is that we send it to our subscribers and to newsstands, and then that's pretty much it. We'll post the stories online, we'll get a few comments and emails, and the occasional, traditionally posted "Letter to the Editor" (and bless you folks who send those!), but the issue is out, and we move on.

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We think we can do better.

So now, after releasing the Energy Issue, which hopefully helped you learn some basics about this incredible thing that makes our entire world work, we want you all to get together and keep learning.

Introducing the GOOD Energy Issue Party: the very first distributed, coordinated global meetup of the GOOD community.

We envision GOOD meetups as informal, fun gatherings organized by GOOD community members, for the GOOD community members. They should be a great way to meet other people who give a damn near you, to chat about things that matter, throw ideas around, and learn some things. In this case, to better understand energy, and to have a good time doing so.

Here's how it'll work. The very fine folks at Meetup.com ("Use the internet to get off the internet") have this new platform called Meetup Everywhere. It's a simple way for communities like ours to, well, meetup everywhere. It's free, easy to use, and will help us connect in person and take part in something bigger.

On Thursday, February 24, all around the country (maybe the world?), we'll gather together to meet fellow members of the GOOD crowd and talk energy. We need your help to make it work. We want events all across the country and, while we'll help you in every way that we can, we can't be everywhere to make these happen. The ball is in your court!

February 24 is four weeks from yesterday, so we've got to act fast. If you're in or around New York City, I'll be organizing a meetup somewhere in the city. (Will update soon with details.) But if you're not, we'd love you forever if you make an event happen yourself.

Here's absolutely everything you need to know about organizing or finding a GOOD Energy Issue Party near you.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

We started a global GOOD Meetup Everywhere page. From here anyone can organize a local GOOD Energy Party meetup, attend an existing event, or even step up and "claim" an event as organizer (if there isn't one already).

If there isn't a GOOD Energy Issue Party in your town yet, click on "Schedule a Meetup near you" to put one on the map. To join a local meetup already formed, search for your town and click "I'm interested" when you find one. That will let others know that you'll be there on February 24.

If your GOOD Energy Issue Party doesn't have an organizer yet, consider stepping up. We'll praise you for your efforts on GOOD and, more importantly, love you forever. Once there's an organizer, they can set the location, change the time, and refine exactly what the party will look like.

WHAT TO DO AT YOUR MEETUP

We don't want to dictate anything specific from the top down. Get creative. Think of a way that you as a group can better understand energy. And have fun at the same time.

[Updated 2/2/2011] But that said, we do have a few ideas for things to do and we'll be posting them on GOOD's Environment page all next week so check back regularly. Here are a couple:

• Super simple idea: Host an Energy 101 teach-in, using our Energy Issue as a guide.
• Pretty simple idea: Screen a phenomenal Mr. Wizard episode about electricity.
• Slighty more involved idea: Build batteries out of pocket change and lemon juice.

For those of you joining the New York City meetup, we'll have a sort of teach-in happy hour: building batteries and drinking beers. Have other great ideas? Email them to me (jervey[at]goodinc[dot]com) and we'll put them in a post and add them to the list.