how all this works
How does all this work? Well, to be honest, we're still figuring that out!
But we know that since we are a non-profit working on fluoride science literacy, people are going to have questions about everything we do. So we're gonna try our best to give you all the details about how we operate.
So far, here is how we've been doing things and how we think we'll grow:
1. FluorideExposed.org is a non-profit charitable project
with a mission of science learning and a startup attitudeWe are a project of the Charitable Partnership Fund (CPF), a 501(c)(3) organization based in Portland, Oregon. We operate under CPF's charitable incubator program, which is CPF's platform for non-profit startups. CPF gives us a place to nurture and develop Fluoride Exposed into a full-fledged philanthropic organization. We are also a startup within a startup. Fluoride Exposed is part of a series of non-profit projects from Digital Resources for Community and Science (DRCS). What is DRCS? When we are ready to be an independent non-profit and leave the nest of CPF's incubator, DRCS is what we're going to call the larger non-profit that will house FluorideExposed.org ... amongst other cool do-gooder internet projects. Stay tuned for how this all develops!
2. Effie Greathouse, Ph.D. and Kylie Menagh-Johnson, MPH*
research, write, and design the website.Effie and Kylie work together to ... come up with topics ... brainstorm ideas to research ... do that research ... and write/design. We read online moms groups. We talk to our friends. We read comments sections. We talk to folks with questions and different perspectives. We do a shit ton** of reading and researching of the science. We brainstorm some more.
And then we develop our concepts. Effie normally starts the writing and planning and designing, and then Kylie comes in and makes it way better. Then we read even more, then write, write, write, design, design, design, pass back and forth for edits, get feedback from friends and colleagues, edit some more – and voilà! cool science 4 u!
So far, we've done a bunch of graphic design***, layout, and even some markup ourselves. But we have also engaged the services of a graphic designer for selected icons and we do have some coders to help out, and at some point, we might try out working with an infographic designer or data visualization freelancer. We're toying with the idea of hiring students in our fields to help research, write, and design, too. Some night when we've got a deadline and Effie's hand is all twitchy from too much time tweaking the latest bacteria icon in Gimp, or Kylie just can't edit or proofread another word, we might try out one of these new-fangled services to get help – Fiver, or Jobcombinator, or some such.
We're not quite sure how and when, but we want to be up front that while we've created all of Fluoride Exposed's website content and design ourselves so far, we might get more assistance from experts in web design or other helpers**** in the future.
(*A.k.a. the science moms behind Fluoride Exposed.
Read our bios in WHO WE ARE.)
** Pardon our french! But there is no other word or phrase that can appropriately convey how much reading and research we do – all so that we can bring you the best science.
*** We even designed our logo ourselves. And we tell you all about our logo in our mini section on Fluoride, fluorine, chemistry, and the Fluoride Exposed logo.
**** Volunteers? Any web design and dev volunteers, anyone?
Get in touch at hello@fluorideexposed.org !
3. We are governed by a committee authorized by CPF
so we do this non-profit stuff right!Our committee members are:
That's right. The science moms run the website, and we lead up the committee. See WHO WE ARE for more info about Effie and Kylie.
Mel brings the grassroots non-profit experience to our committee. He's no slouch in science either. Mel has two master's degrees, one in Nutrition Policy, and one in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. Mel led Upstream Public Health, a Portland non-profit dedicated to public health and environmental sustainability, for over 10 years, as their Executive Director. He has championed healthier food in schools, dental programs in childcare centers, and youth tobacco prevention initiatives. Mel is currently an independent public health policy consultant, as well as a father of two young children.
Emily brings the foundation side of non-profit experience to our committee. She also brings expertise in public health and the important field of social work – she has a dual masters in both of those disciplines. In her day job, she is a Senior Program Officer at the Arcora Foundation (formerly Washington Dental Service Foundation), where she champions healthy teeth – and our project! Arcora is a current grant funder, thanks to Emily's belief in what we're doing.
Another one of her main accomplishments at Arcora was in her work on helping pregnant women get dental care. Dental care for moms-to-be not only helps prevent cavities for mom but also helps prevent cavities for babies. Says Emily, "Did you know that mothers can pass along cavity causing bacteria to their babies?" Important work getting babies and moms dental care to keep their teeth free of decay! Emily is also mom to a young son happily growing up drinking fluoridated water in Seattle.
What roles do Mel and Emily play in Fluoride Exposed? Their number one job is to provide us with good non-profit governance, planning, and financial oversight. They make sure we don't take off to Mexico and spend all the grant money on margaritas. They make sure we work on becoming sustainable in our funding, and don't spend all our time with our noses in books at the science library.
Do they have input on the content? Absolutely. These two know a lot about public health, the science behind fluoridation, and the science behind teeth. So we tap them for references, and we invite their comments on what we write, and we consider those comments.* This is common practice in science. Getting critical reviews of your work from colleagues is core to science. So we're going to take advantage of every opportunity we have to get our work at Fluoride Exposed reviewed by colleagues who have in-depth knowledge and experience with the subjects we explore.
But us science moms, Effie and Kylie – we're the ones writing and developing Fluoride Exposed's content, and we make the final call on edits.
And Effie and Kylie feel the same way about our edits as we do about our kids – fiercely protective!
(You can ask Effie's Ph.D. advisor and Kylie's Master's advisor all about it!)
So ... so far, that's our process. But none of that process would actually get done if we didn't have financial supporters ... so what's up next? A rundown of who supports us! (Hint: our supporters include readers like you!)
*Well, in theory, we consider their comments. But as of this writing, so far the only substantive comments from Emily have been:
1) "I'm not so sure about all the swearing."
We didn't actually seriously consider that comment at all.
Hell no :)
And...
2) "You're going to talk about fluoride at some point, right?"
She said this while looking at our first draft of the Safer & Healthier Foods public health achievement which contains no information about, ya know, fluoride.
We responded, "Hells yeah! But first, what do you think of these pictures of turn-of-the-century iceboxes?"
Next WHO SUPPORTS US
Or go back to WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE AND WHY