I got this note from the township today:

New Chief Technology Officer to be Appointed at Lower Merion Township

Lower Merion Township Manager Doug Cleland announced today that he is appointing Wendy Reich, an accomplished and experienced technology management professional with a strong technical background, to be the Township's new Chief Technology Officer, pending confirmation by the Township Board of Commissioners on November 19.

Reich will report directly to Cleland, and will be responsible for the strategic visioning, implementation, and operational oversight of all Township information technology (IT) systems and staff. As head of the Information Services Department, Reich will be responsible for strategic planning of information systems supporting municipal operations, working with all Township departments to understand their information technology needs, developing and implementing solutions, and supporting all systems and software.

Reich was formerly the Director of Information Technology at VisionQuest, a $45 million national youth services organization providing residential and community-based services for at-risk youth. She was responsible for the overall direction and operations of the technology department supporting over 600 users at over 25 locations in seven states.

"We are very lucky to have Wendy Reich emerge from a rich crop of candidates for the CTO position," said Cleland. "She will bring to the Township a varied and deep set of technical skills and the experiences of a proven manager."

She replaces Mary Graham-Zak, who resigned in September for a career opportunity in the non-profit sector, after serving as the Township's CTO for the past 15 years.

Reich is a graduate of West Chester University, and had been with VisionQuest in Downingtown for 18 years.

Assuming confirmation, her first day as the new Chief Technology Officer will be November 26, 2012.

When I saw this, I remember thinking to myself "Wow, 18 years is a long time to be at any company, especially in the technology field". So I fired up Google and LinkedIn to see if there might have been a typo. According to her LinkedIn profile, I found this work history instead:

• Lead Technology Strategist at iTechnologyCubed, LLC, April 2012 – Present (8 months)
• Director of Information Technology at VisionQuest National LTD, Inc., October 2007 – April 2012 (4 years 7 months)
• Senior Programmer/Analyst at VisionQuest National, LTD, May 2001 – September 2007 (6 years 5 months)

I guess I can understand not listing the position at iTechnologyCubed in the announcement, since Wendy's work (and position) at VisionQuest obviously stood out more. But the time she spent at VisionQuest comes out to about 12 years. Nowhere near the 18 mentioned in the announcement. Personally, I'm inclined to think that this is just a typo that made it past the editor.

11-11-12 Veterans' Day Service at the Radnor Township War Memorial, located on South Wayne Avenue in Wayne, PA. Participants include The American Legion Anthony Wayne Post 418; Bateman Gallagher Post 668; Valley Forge Military Academy & College; Bill Maddon; LTC Herb Armstrong, Chaplin of Anthony Wayne Post 418; Marty Costello, American Legion District Commander of Delaware County. Taps played by Cadet Ryan Niessner. Speaker: Donn Miller, Chair of the History Department at the Haverford School in Haverford, PA. Master of Ceremonies: William Smith, Commander Post 418. Produced by John F. Haines, Sr. email:

Who doesn't love gingerbread houses? We think they are like the sand castles of winter! That being said, we decided it was time to reintroduce the Main Line to a simple pleasure of the holidays, so in addition to Santa for all (grown-ups even if you are naughty vs. nice, you can visit with Santa this year!!) we are going to be holiday culinary creative and put on a gingerbread house contest!
www.firstfridaymainline.com

Gingerbread Contest for Dec 7th FFML:“Gingerbread House” Contest Rules

You are encouraged to make your own
“house” completely from scratch

Kits are permitted if you choose.

Your “house” need not be made of gingerbread

Decorate your creation with anything you like – the ingredients need to be edible.

Be creative, house can be any structure, real or imagined

Impatient? You can read the legal threat over here!

Sometimes people don't like what is written about them online. That's fine. Sometimes people feel they have been harmed and attempt to take legal action against the person who wronged them. That's okay, too. What's not okay is when you have misplaced anger, and threaten to sue the webmaster of the website that somebody posted on, along with the civic group that operates said website. And that's exactly what Susan Rose, a teacher at Penn Valley Elementary School did to myself and the Save Ardmore Coalition today.

The complaint arises from a comment made nearly 2 years ago on this thread by a user on this website known as xf14ae. So why was this whambanger of a legal letter sent not to xf14ae (it takes like 30 seconds to create an an account here and send a Private Message to a user. Hardly rocket science.) but instead to myself as well as the civic group? I'll get into that later.

So here's the letter I got:

Susan Rose's Legal Threat to myself and The Save Ardmore Coalition

Pretty brutal, isn't it? I love how Eric Cohen seems to think that I'm some kind of evil mastermind or something. I'm flattered, but really, I'm just a guy who lives in Ardmore, likes beer, and has been known to wear furry Russian hats when it gets cold out.

Now, let's get to Susan Rose's list of demands:

1) She wants me to take down multiple posts that other people have written, effectively censoring multiple individuals, without even giving them a chance to respond. That's a really horrible idea. If would mean that if someone doesn't like what is written here, a single complaint could cause that content to removed.

2) She wants me to monitor every single post on this website, magically know what content about her is false, and remove said content. This is impossible, because my crystal ball is broken--I simply do not have a way to know what is said about Susan Rose may be true and what said about her may be false. What about private messages between users? Am I expected to monitor those, too? The very thought is downright creepy and Orwellian. Am I expected to run every single post made on this website by Susan Rose for her approval before it is made public? I should hope not. In fact, this sounds a lot like prior restraint, which isn't exactly... constitutional.

3) She wants me to apologize for something somebody else said. Um, what? Did you even READ that thread? I made one post in it, and I didn't even mention your name. Why do you want me to apologize for something I didn't do?

4) She wants the Save Ardmore Coalition to apologize for something that somebody else said. Seriously, lady? And you're a teacher?

I've been thinking about #3 and #4 for awhile. Why would she want myself (who had limited participation in that thread and never even uttered her name) to take responsibility for something that somebody else wrote? Why would she want the entire organization to do the same? Why did she not reach out to the poster--either privately or on the thread--and ask for a retraction? It seems really odd that she is trying to involve us in what amounts to a dispute with another individual.

So, what now? I've already posted the letter for public scrutiny, and I invite comments on the issue, public or private. I've also submitted it to the database at The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse for public archival. I am also discussing the issue with others in the Save Ardmore Coalition, since she did decide to threaten the group.

As a side note, it's worth mentioning that as of this writing, the thread in question had laid dormant for over a year, and was practically forgotten. Susan Rose's actions however, are likely to cause the thread to become a lot more active again as people start asking questions about this sort of behavior from her. This is also known as The Streisand Effect, where an attempt to suppress information only causes it to be further spread around.

One more time, just to be clear: I do not know if ANY of the stuff mentioned about Susan Rose on that thread was true. I did not write those posts. Other people did. If you have an issue with that Susan, you should speak to them. Threatening me with legal action is not acceptable, nor is threatening an entire civic group. I will not be bullied.

The First Amendment seems to be rather subjective in the eyes of some. So as many know, Tredyffrin Blogger Pattye Benson has had some problems expressing her opinion in Tredyffrin. Which is rather odd considering what a nice and thoughtful person she is. (I will post all the pertinent posts from Pattye's blog Community Matters at bottom)

We'll start with a video (check out Pattye in her own words around 15:44):

11-07-12 Radnor Township Special Board of Commissioners Public Hearing #1. On the Agenda: (1) Pledge of Allegiance. (2) 2013 Preliminary Budget Discussion. (3) Board of Commissioner Comment. (4) Public Comment. (5) Adjournment. Produced by John F. Haines Sr. email:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/economy-set-better-times-whether-000103120.html

"Economy Set for Better Times Whether Obama or Romney Wins"

Rich Miller and Steve Matthews

Bloomberg – 18 hours ago 

Mitt Romney says Barack Obama's policies will consign the U.S. to an extended period of sluggish economic growth, at best. The president says his Republican challenger's plans will sow the seeds of another mammoth recession. Both are wrong.

After the unpleasantness of our week with Sandy (which is still ongoing for so many), the Save Ardmore Coalition gathered along with members of the community and State Senator Daylin Leach and Lower Merion Township Commissioner Cheryl Gelber to dedicate the mural in Ardmore - which is located on the wall of Suburban Office Equipment adjacent to the township building.

Local YMCAs invite those without power to use their showers

Published: Thursday, November 01, 2012

Nova Bank, headquartered in Berwyn, with a branch next to the Wynnewood Shopping Center, was closed Friday by the FDIC.  It had $432 million in deposit liabilities.  The FDIC was unable to find a buyer.   Net cost to the insurance fund estimated to be $91 million.  

Meanwhile, Federal Realty wants to attract yet another bank to the Shopping Center.  

Why did a  small bank based on the Main Line fail at a time when the economy is supposedly recovering?