Photo By Pat CarneyI received a communication from the Carney Group trying to put distance between itself and the Northside Marketing Task Force in light of my recent blog posts. If I have made the association between Carney Group and NMTF too close, then it's only right to give Carney Group an opportunity to say their piece...
Here is the email communication, unedited.
Dear Johnny,
I've been following your blog about NMTF and the Northside in general.We were both there for the dust up at JACC. I was the guy taking too many photos.
The Carney Group and Amalgam were hired as a team by Northway/NMTF. We share the same address at Glenwood/Colfax and have produced some very good work for the Task Force. Our two firms, individually and in partnership, have a substantial record of productive and commodious participation in Northside endeavors. I have been involved in the Harrison Neighborhood for years and have been enthusiastic to expand my interests into the rest of the Northside. However, we would like to disassociate ourselves from the NMTF mess you're reporting on, -- and do so for substantive reasons.
We'd be more than happy to present the work we've done for NMTF. Work they have been in receipt of for weeks and which has been reviewed favorably by many community constituents featured in the web site and case statement we produced for them.
Between the time the development site for NMTF was put up for review and writing this letter we finished another site for Anderson Mitchell. The difference in the two sites is the focus of the client, the reasonable expectations, the flow of communication and the willingness to finish the project.
(JNS interjects: Anderson Mitchell has nothing but good things to say about your company, and I have nothing but good things to say about Anderson Mitchell)
We don't dispute NMTF issues you've blogged about. Please don't paint our firms with the same stroke.
We'd like to invite you to visit us at our office where we can show you the work that we've done for the Northside.
Pat Carney
The Carney Group
837 Glenwood Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55405
(612) 746-5889
To Pat; not sure when I'd be able to take you up on that invitation, but one hears the work you've done for NMTF is good work...yet for some reason, there is a logjam in getting things approved and out there in the public eye. From what I hear, the logjam is not on the Carney Group end of the equation, not at all.
This is my persistent beef about the NMTF but not mine aloine; things just aren't happening.
Meanwhile, this blog shows hard-hitting North Minneapolis publicity can take place on a shoestring budget. It's just a matter of ACTUALLY DOING IT.
I'm all for open and constructive dialogue, John. So I say if they want to sit down with you, go for it. But if they were the group that came up with the useless T-shirt with the leaf on the front and "Diversity is nice" on the back...well north Minneapolis didn't get their money's worth from that shirt regardless of who's behind it.
ReplyDelete(And yes, I am aware that the actual slogan is something different, but just as pointless)
T-shirts, baseball caps and street banners were never part of the plan that The Carney Group and Amalgam presented to the NMTF. We also were not interested in duplicating the efforts of Johnny Northside. Our original idea was to develop a public/private partnership.
ReplyDeleteAfter meeting with Northside leadership it was clear to The Carney Group and Amalgam that this part of our plan was unnecessary and unwanted by the entire Northside. It wasn't hard to tell which way the wind blows. The other part of the plan was to develop a mechanism to push good Northside stories to the wider media.
We still see this as an effort needed on the Northside. We have urged the NMTF to take the web site live and pick up this task. Our paid involvement with this project was always going to end when this initiative was up and operating on its own.
Wait a second...
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to figure out what you mean by this thing about "duplicating the efforts of Johnny Northside." You mean a whole discussion about that came up?
Also, I'm interested in this word "we." Like, when you say "we" this, and "we" that, are you speaking for the whole Northside Marketing Task Force? For a majority?