I've been saying for some time that we need to get the word out about this community, and I've been slowly compiling a rather large list of websites, blogs and organizations with whom we could link and network.

Unfortunately finding the time to begin contacting them all seems daunting. And Jim, thank you for the kick that helped get my ass in gear. Stupid me, foiled from beginning just because the giant looks too big. Point is, I realize, that we need to just begin somewhere. I was so downhearted when Sal's health took a turn for the worse, because Sal and Wayne are wonderful people, yes, but I think I was also a little worried about how we'd promote our site. He had just volunteered to be our manager in charge of PR, when he found himself too ill and overwhelmed with other local projects to carry on here.

I miss you, Sal! Please forgive me for the selfish reasons, because there are deeply personal reasons as well. You are a father whom I admire greatly and am glad to know, even if just via the net. If you read this still, please know that you have been an inspiration and let Wayne and your lovely daughter know they are thought of fondly here.

He was the one in NYC with all the connections (And a family interview on MTV no less), but really, it hits me that we need to start in some way, even small ways. So tonight I've contacted three organizations and I will continue to contact at least one per day if possible until we've got a good network of organizations out there who know about us.

I'm open to suggestions, by the way. We should be looking for reputable sites with similar values and a similar or sympathetic member base/ audience as well as the potential to give GayFatherhood.com some more global coverage.

I figure we can start with links. Long ago I contacted many many online organizations who were willing to link to us, but I haven't done this in some time, and there are some big names out there that we should look at.

Next we could think of some promotion via interviews and articles, so keep your mind and eyes open for possibilities. They can be Family, News, Legal or even religious organizations. Use your imagination. What sites do you like to visit? Suggest them here in this thread, please!

Tonight I wrote to PFLAG, Families Joined by Love and HRC. Next I'll try Soul Force, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Colage, and Family Pride.org, just to name a few.

Again, your suggestions are much sought after here, as well as in general posting to this site and making our community an active, attractive one to gay dads looking for others to talk to about the unique and not so unique aspects of being both father and gay.

As an example of the sort of thing I am starting with, here was tonight's email to HRC's webmaster:

quote:

First of all, thank you for all the good work you do at HRC!

My name is David J. Bauman and I am the founding father of a global online community and resource for gay dads called GayFatherhood.com. We have been in existence on the web since January 2002 when we started as an MSN group. We have since evolved onto our own domain and continue to expand and grow. In November we hope to make several changes to make the group more helpful to gay fathers around the world.

We have had a link to HRC in our links section for some time now, and I wanted to inquire if you would be willing and able to assist us in reaching other gay dads by listing a link to our site, perhaps somewhere in your parenting section. Many of the fathers on our site are divorced fathers, others are fathers by adoption, a few recent ones are co-parents and parents from surrogacy. All of our dads have in common their love for their children and a desire to raise them in a better world. That's why we value organizations like HRC who strive to make the world a better place for GLBT people and their children.

Our URL is http://gayfatherhood.com, and we'd be very honored to be listed by you as a resource for gay fathers looking to receive support from others like themselves.

Our purposes are:
1. To be a meeting place where Gay Fathers can share their joys and concerns.
2. To encourage each other in living full and healthy lives.
3. To assist other gay parents in raising loving children of self respect and integrity.

Please visit our site at http://gayfatherhood.com and consider adding it as a link on HRC.

My sincere thanks,
David J. Bauman
GayFatherhood.com

Our first reply back came from Laurie at Families Joined by Love. When the new link pages are done we will have a more permanent link there. I also hope to have some sort of discussion regarding their site on the boards shortly.

As we get a bit more activity here, what would you think about having a guest host (promoted) from time to time in the chat room?

Hi Guys,

I, personally, enjoy the site...Alot...I enjoy reading and responding when I can. I think you guys have done a wonderful job bringing the site online. I believe you all have a genuine concern for the integrity and welfare of the site. However, I do have a concern. We seem not to be an overall, active site. We have lots of members...But we're all busy with families/work/relationships/etc. It's hard to have an active, robust site. Many guys sign on...but do they maintain a relationship with us.

How do we attract new members and keep them active and interested, and keep coming back to the site to interact?

How do we make sure none of our members are neglected by non-response when a comment is posted by them?

Just some thoughts.

Jeff

And some good thoughts too. I think part of my sensitivity lately has to do with the fact that while Smokey, Vince and I have talked about these issues a lot, we've all had busy schedules, and we just haven't talked about it a lot on the site.

I was talking to Smokey last night about how on msn I used to pic a topic of the week, we would schedual chat times and all of that, plus email out a weekly update. I honestly have let a lot of that slide with my long working days lately.

Even on msn, I don't think we would have been as active, if we hadn't done those things.

How about I start a separate thread here about what members would like to see, as dado said, and also for your own suggestions.