FAQs about a2ethics.org Update

What is a2ethics.org?

We are a web-based social network with a geographic center in Ann Arbor, Michigan and SE Michigan. Thus, the commonly used shorthand in our name: a2 for Ann Arbor. We are currently applying for formal 501c3 nonprofit status, which required that we fill out alot of forms for the IRS. These forms were actually quite helpful to us; they helped us think more clearly about what we are and what we fully intend to accomplish over the next few years.

We don't really have a mission, which for us just means that we aren't really missionaries for ethics. We do, however, have a pretty clear purpose and a goal or two.

Our purpose?

We offer news, information, commentary and opinions, contributing original (or more accurately, we write our own stuff) ideas and views on the ethics of everyday life, or everyday ethics, or just plain ethics period.

We use our website as our hub. We are working hard to build a community and a group of regular contributors to our site. We think sensible writing about ethics subjects is good enough. We would very much like to get original essays, satires, parodies, poems and small plays from people who join our site. All of course, with an ethics focus. We are not a screamers' blog. We expect that our community is interested in sharing its ethics experiences and in challenging each other without resorting to bullying and harassment.

Our goals?

First, we see ourselves ultimately as a small, valuable media and performing arts, science and humor organization, shedding light on ethics conundrums in our community. We see ourselves as a community ethics resource. We hope to become civic ethicists and local public ethics correspondents.

Second, we have this idea that we are observing and reporting on our environment, including collecting communiity artifacts and most importantly, featuring the people in our community, all of whom are experts in the ethics of something.

What we want to do then is a bit artistic and bit scientific: we are trying to charge our local atmosphere with ethics matters.

Finally, we also like to think that what we offer on a2ethics.org encourages everyone who is part of our site to talk about ethics and do ethics too.

Is a2ethics.org trying to talk about and with a particular audience?

When we first thought about a2ethics.org, we thought our members would mostly come from their 20s and 30s. So, yes, we are trying to talk about the ethical concerns and issues of this group. We also thought that we would focus on the local area, that is on Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County in Michigan, where we live.

While we like to showcase individuals who are in their 20s and 30s in some of our podcasts and events, we are pretty lax and have been inept at discerning who is in their 20s and 30s when we talk with people about ethics.

So, we have concluded that what we are doing is not age exclusive. We have come to believe that there are too many niche or "nitch" markets out there.

We do know, however, that beyond the ethics naming rights, we don't really want to be a "nitch" market for like-minded people or people who just have the same views about ethics. We want to appeal to people with different views, as hard as this is to do today.

Is a2ethics.org different than other social networks?

Yes and no. We are using a content management system that standardizes the format we use. So, we are not on the cutting edge in a techie sense.

But we are unique in our event planning and in our emphasis on working collaboratively with other local groups. So, for example, we like to combine theatre with ethical discussion as we did earlier in the year when we sponsored, along with the Blackbird Theatre, a local Ann Arbor acting company, a reading of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America." We will do this again in February 2009, when we combine ethics talk with a reading of "Grapes of Wrath," at the Blackbird.

And on Thursday, November 6, 2008, we are pairing up with Greenhills School's "Life of the Mind" lecture series by hosting Katharyn Hanson, the 28 year old co-curator of an exhibit at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute on the looting of Iraq's cultural antiquities during the Iraq war. (www.a2ethics.org/event/list)

Likewise, our podcast series are breaking new ground. We have been taking a random walk in our community over the spring and summer months to talk with people in their 20s and 30s about the ethics of their work. These are available on our "Working Ethics Series Podcasts." We are now doing two additional series. One is on the ethics of teaching. Our first one was at the Ann Arbor Academy, and included a discussion with middle and high school teachers. We are doing a second with elementary school teachers at the beginning of 2009. We are also featuring several nonprofits and their work in our Ethics and Nonprofits series.

Our forums also include ethical reviews of movies, books and other media, not to mention original writing on various themes in the key of ethics.

And, of course, we have plans at a2ethics.org. We look forward to expanding our web offerings and our events to include ethics improv shows, readings of great classic ethics works, local ethics courses and other original programming.

Finally, we hope we are different because we aren't trying to say that we represent an ethical gold standard, or that we are the most ethical people in the world, the mothers of all that is ethical or the gods of the ethical.

Who is behind the Oz curtain at a2ethics.org?

A2ethics.org is funded through a seed grant from the Civic Innovation Fund, a fund held at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.

Because we are becoming a formally recognized nonprofit, we have recently formed a Board of Directors. Our Board will give us broad strategic direction and help us clarify our vision. We will rely on them to put together our financial plan and to help us figure out ways for us to get on a sound financial footing that emphasizes self-sufficiency and autonomy in the future.

Our staff consists of President and Treasurer, Jeanine DeLay, (who while no longer a teacher, has been been involved in applied ethics education for over 25 years, and started ethics courses first at Ann Arbor Greenhills School and then as a lecturer in the Division of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan);and our Web Community Director, Barton Bund (who is also the co-founder and artistic director of Ann Arbor's Blackbird Theatre, an accomplished director, actor and playwright). Our podcasts are recorded by Vince Chmielewski of VCWebdesign, who also maintains our website. Finally, our website technical design is the work of Wayne Eaker of Samutech, LLC.

As we move forward we will try to keep you informed as best as we can. We still have some basics to work on. Please feel free to help out. We look forward to hearing from you. Always feel free to contact us with your ideas and thoughts.

Thanks for your support!