It's a selfish response to an increasing set of demands with less and less discretionary time. When working with a group of folks, we want to be able to send them all the same message with a click of the mouse. We want websites where we transact business on-line or search for what we need. We want the information to be out there on-line where we can instantly access exactly what we need to know when we want to know it. This is rapidly becoming the state of mind for our nation.
Organizational capacity is the compatriot of technological capacity.
It's not just the money we so often hear about influencing political decisions. It is also presence, responsiveness, and what you can deliver. The problem is we're often invited to an important event in D.C. with only three days notice, and they wonder why we can't drop everything and come right over. It is not only meetings but other opportunities where a lack of organizational resources put us at a disadvantage. Given this and other kinds of subtle discrimination against small rural organizations I believe that rural mental health interests may need to join other disenfranchised minority groups in seeking help through the judicial system.