This civic media enthusiast is joining our team to help us grow a connected and collaborative national Documenters Network.
By Caroline Olsen
Max Resnik (Photo: Jesus Ward)
The network of Documenters programs around the country is growing, and with it, so is our team. We are excited to welcome Max Resnik as our first-ever Documenters Network Manager!
Max joined us earlier this year and has already helped us create new curriculum and systems for group learning for the growing Documenters Network. Now, we are excited that he will be joining us full-time to help us bring the network to life!
Here’s more about Max.
Tell us about your work with City Bureau up to this point and what originally drew you to the organization.
I started working with City Bureau part-time a couple of months ago to support the development of the growing Documenters network, and when the opportunity came to create this Network Manager role, I was very excited to be able to jump into it. I've been a huge City Bureau fan since I first learned about it at journalism school in 2017. The program that I did at CUNY is focused on community journalism and reporting that meets people’s information needs. I also learned a lot from the Center for Community Media. I've worked at community media centers, documentary film hubs, journalism and news nonprofit tech startups, at local hubs with decades of history of being neighborhood- and community-first, and then also organizations that are looking to create new systems for folks to get the news and information that they need. I saw what City Bureau was doing, and wanted to have more of that in my life!
Can you tell us more about the Documenters Network itself and share what your new role will bring to the organization?
Documenters is a growing national network of community members and civic and news organizations all over the country who host unabashedly local programs. Community members are invited in and equipped with tools and skills to document local public meetings, with the goal of creating and sharing locally relevant news and information.
One of the things that I love most about local meetings is that, unlike statewide or national meetings, there's a lot more opportunity for nuance and for people to bring their own experiences as residents and neighbors to the discussions. On the national scale, if you're looking at people who are opposed to your point of view on topics like schooling or transportation, it can be really easy to just write people off. But locally, these are folks who live in your neighborhood, whose kids are friends with your kids, who went to the same schools, who are shopping at the same grocery stores, who are participating in your community. And it necessitates people collaborating with each other to build systems that work locally.
When you blow it up to the network level, we have all of these different cities where local community members and local program staff can connect with each other. They can share ideas, compare projects and conduct research, and it’s inherently collaborative. What were previously disconnected local programs are now connected through City Bureau as a hub of learning. I'm excited to both connect people in Chicago to community members in other cities, as well as to bring the learnings and experiences of all of our affiliate partners around the country back to the folks in Chicago.
As a place-based organization, tell us a little more about the places you call home.
My first home is Burlington, Vermont. Burlington is a big city by Vermont standards, but it's very small and very neighborhood-y in comparison to most other cities. I grew up knowing my neighbors and being connected through the Front Porch Forum. Burlington was a super supportive place to grow up. Since moving to New York City, where I've been living in Brooklyn for nine years, I try to create and connect with spaces that remind me of home while still being able to appreciate all of the global and national connectedness that living in New York provides.
About a month after I first moved here, the entire city shut down when Hurricane Sandy rolled through. Gaps in local and neighborhood news and information were immediately apparent, and I knew I wanted to be involved in work that could repair those information systems. More recently, during the pandemic, I’ve been inspired by participating in local mutual aid groups and see so many opportunities to bring those experiences into organizing the Documenters Network.
And I’m excited to visit Chicago more! I'm excited to get a chance to see the city through the eyes of local Documenters, and to be able to learn from their knowledge and experience of the city.
What else do you want people in our networks to know about you?
I’m here for you! I'm a new person at this beloved program. One of the things that makes Documenters so special is what all of the folks who are participating in the program bring to it. The more opportunities that there are for me to be able to hear from current and new Documenters, the better we’ll be able to build and develop programs for those needs.
Reach out to Max at max@citybureau.org.
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