So I heard about the whole YN partnership with Nike’s “Let Me Play” campaign and I immediately thought to myself “Woot! What an awesome opportunity for YN!” and “Wow, maybe I’ll be able to really get into this campaign.”

Had I actually known what this partnership was going to result in, I probably would have felt differently.

My first introduction to the campaign was through an e-mail that I received as a YN CitiJo. The e-mail asked for applications for five blogging positions, and the applications were to be sent to YN staff member GillieBean. The first part of the e-mail is below:

quote:

Who We Are

YouthNoise is a nonprofit social networking site that provides a space for young activists to write, connect, learn and act to create positive change in the world. We empower young people everywhere to catapult their passion and idealism into movements to sustain the planet.

YouthNoise is partnering with the Nike Let Me Play campaign, a global initiative dedicated to supporting community-based sports programs and providing athletic opportunities for youth. Let Me Play will engage young people (ages 17 to 24) in ways to use athletics to support worthwhile causes.

Position Overview

We are looking for five Let Me Play bloggers who are passionate about both sports and social change to be the voice of this campaign. Maybe you can’t get enough of rugby or dancing or even Wii tennis. Or maybe you’re a walking sports encyclopedia who has a life-size cardboard cutout of Dirk Nowitzki and can rattle off batting averages for every Red Sox player in the last ten years. If you get excited about using sports for social good and you are a talented and entertaining writer, we want to hear from you. Two bloggers will be assigned specifically to cover content of interest to the Los Angeles and New York geographic areas, but all bloggers can work from any location in the United States. Bloggers will be paid a monthly stipend of $500.

Let Me Play bloggers will be responsible for posting relevant, creative and youth-friendly content on a daily basis. Each blogger will have his or her own space on the YouthNoise site to create a personalized, lively blog that will generate community feedback and involvement. Bloggers will also serve as community managers for their blogs and will follow them with stalkerish obsession.

I was interested in the position, so I applied. I got an e-mail back saying that they had received approximately 300 applications, and that I had not been selected. I figured they had found five YNers who were more talented than myself and dealt with it. I was looking forward to seeing who was chosen and what they would come up with.

Come to find out that only three of the bloggers are within the campaign’s self-proclaimed target of 17-24 (two of the bloggers are 27 years old)…four of the bloggers joined YN on June 25, 2008 (clearly after they had received the position) and the other blogger was none other than GillieBean herself. I find it a bit hard to swallow that YN did not show any preference to individuals who were already members of the site (many of whom, even excluding myself, have voluntarily spent hours upon hours working for this site out of sheer dedication to its purpose)…and especially that the person who received the applications chose herself to fill one of the five positions.

Then there was the Human Race. I thought it sounded pretty awesome. I don’t really have the lungs for running, but I thought it would be cool to participate as far as I could. My city was not one of the 25 worldwide destinations (which I didn’t care about), so I thought I could get some friends to participate with me and race from home…until I found out that I would have to purchase a $29 (or $59!) Nike gadget to officially be able to participate. I would much rather write a $29 check to my favorite charity than buy some gizmo that I will use once…

I really tried to be open minded about this campaign…but as I am watching it all play out, it seems pretty fishy to me.

(By the way, I know I am always welcome to send my thoughts and opinions to any of the YN staff members…but I prefer posting on the boards because I feel that it encourages feedback from other members as well.)

I really don't know why I bother to voice my opinions anymore, knowing that they will just be responded to in a nice little post by a staff member or intern that will trivialize my concerns in order to seemingly solve the situation...but YN (or what YN used to be) gave me a voice, and now it's pretty difficult to shut me up.

Meagan:

Thanks for writing with your concerns. I'll do my best to explain the situation here fully from my position as the director of the Play City campaign.

As you said, earlier this year we were approached by Nike to work with them on a campaign to elevate the concept of using sport for social good and help young people across the country to start projects to improve their communities through sport. After spending months talking with Nike, we felt pretty good about their commitment to social change and developed a strategy to achieve goals that fulfilled both YouthNoise's and Nike's mission.

Part of our strategy was to start a discussion around groups and individuals using sport for social good--think of it as a multimedia newspaper about the concept--and hired a team of 3 full-time employees to run the program. Gillian Dicker (GillieBean) was hired as a staff member to coordinate the content on the site (blogs, multimedia features, etc.) and while she writes an occasional blog post, she does it only as part of her regular job responsibilities.

In any case, we wrote the job description you quoted and cast the net very wide in trying to find the best bloggers we could for the Play City program from across the country (focusing on Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York City). We posted the notice to Craigslist, college career boards and sent it to YN CitiJos like you. While that ad was running, we realized that we would only be able to hire four bloggers, instead of the five we had originally anticipated.

We had an overwhelming response, but reviewed every candidate and hired the four best bloggers we could find, one from each of those cities. In our hiring, we chose to hire bloggers based exclusively on skill and did not exclude anyone from the applicant pool based on their age and/or prior membership on YouthNoise. Some may question that decision, but it's the one we made in the best interests of the program.

As for the Human Race, that's something totally separate from YouthNoise that Nike's Corporate Responsibility department is coordinating. We agree that it's unfortunate that anyone outside the cities where Nike's holding a live race (LA, Austin, Chicago, and NYC in the US) needs to have a Nike+ system in order to participate, but that wasn't our decision. While we support the goals of the Human Race (giving money to great nonprofit organizations), there'll be plenty of YN staffers running on the streets of San Francisco and cutting checks directly to those organizations too.

At the same time, we are proud of the developing Play City community:

• We held a Training Camp in Los Angeles two weeks ago for 50 college students, and those students have started 8 new social ventures in LA--from a Shoeless 5K race to raise money for and awareness of homelessness to a running club in the Koreatown area of LA to a project matching college athletes with young girls for mentorship. These projects will become more prominent on the site in the coming weeks, but there's some great pictures of the event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ynplaycity/sets/72157606697221173/.
  
• Our blogs are showcasing great sport for good events and sport-related activism across the nation everyday -- from the Save Trestles campaign in Los Angeles to the Olympics to the prominence of sexism in our culture. Take a look and comment to tell us what you think: http://www.youthnoise.com/playcity/blog

I thank you for your comments and hope that this (exceedingly long) e-mail gives you some explanation, even if you disagree with some of the decisions we have made. I'd be happy to talk further if there are questions that remain; please feel free to e-mail me directly at trey@youthnoise.org or call me at 415-375-3089.

-- Trey Csar, Play City Director

It's nice to know that YN is speechless when it comes to this injustice that they, themselves, committed.

Yn is just like the rest of the world despite it "trying" not to be, so screwed up.