Though I feel deep kinship with all at EKN and I truly wish them well on the steep climb back to relevancy, the PR efforts for the Nemsov visit were dismal. The only comment that I did hear (from an Estonian) was just the opposite... they were quite surprised that the Nemsov visit was so poorly covered by Canadian media. They had heard nothing and were surprised by this. There should have been a barrage of news coverage for such an important person in Russia and there would have been if the visit had been promoted relentlessly and properly. Though you know the importance of Nemsov, you can not fool yourself into thinking that the Canadian public will be so informed. Though I was not searching for it, I myself heard and saw nothing.

I see the challenge at EKN being that there is a small handful of old guard people doing everything (must be exhausting for them) and EKN can't achieve the full potential if ALL OF THE NEW MEMBERS are not 100% informed and ENGAGED in EKN's work. In today's world of email and SKYPE conferencing, the leadership has no excuse for failing in this regard. EKN will quickly lose a mass of your new members because of lack of engagement if you continue to repeat the old mistakes of the old guard EKN.

You must give all the younger members a chance to do what they were elected to do... if you give them a chance...they may yet pleasantly surprise you and offer up new ideas and new direction and show their potential as future new leaders. This is a hard thing to do, of actually leading and directing the organization, gently reminding these new young volunteers to complete tasks and fighting the urge to do everything yourself. Ample lead time for tasks must be given and guidance.

Another challenge for EKN is leaving things to the last minute. Delegating tasks early to others should also help in this regard.

As for the Nemsov visit, each of the newly voted EKN members should have had a task for the visit. This was a wonderful opportunity to get the EKN young members engaged and excited in EKN's political lobby work, but this did not happen. Please do not miss such an opportunity in the future!

Upward and onward!

Sounds like you have loads of advice! Why don't you try doing instead of complaining.

That's incredible coverage!
Congratulations to the great new EKN team and CEEC! Who knew that change could come so quickly!