Y2K Task Force Credits Strength to Member Diversity

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In addition to providing information to the broader community, Ulrich said, the task force plans to break down into subgroups to assess individual neighborhood needs and talk to neighbors one-to-one.

'We're concerned about the elderly and disenfranchised, people who are shut in at home and could run into food and water problems, or experience problems with medical equipment due to embedded chips,' Ulrich said, explaining that neighbors are the best people to know and care about such individuals.

He said he plans to work as a task force representative in his own neighborhood. 'The worst time to get to know your neighbor is in a disaster situation. We should know our neighbors (beforehand),' he said, noting that the task force has given him great opportunity to do so. 'If nothing happens regarding the Y2K problem, I'll still have had a chance to meet fifty to a hundred really interesting people. In fact, I've met more people in the past six months than in the past ten years. I'm more a part of the community now than in the past ten years. I don't see what could be wrong with that.'

In fact, Michelle Robbins sees the organization's community spirit as one of its great strengths. 'A lot of groups don't hold as strongly to seeing this as an opportunity to come together as a community -- to know neighbors, to know who's vulnerable, to become more resilient,' she said. 'I know a lot about the activist community. This provides an opportunity to know others.'

One of those Robbins would have been unlikely to know outside the task force is Rachmat Martin, a vice president of a Silicon Valley telecommunications firm. Martin said he was urged by a friend to attend task force meetings but at first resisted because of time constraints. 'I think I was typical of mainstream America. I figured I was too busy to deal with this Y2K thing -- that it was just a computer issue.'

Out of respect for his friend and his own curiosity, Martin finally attended a meeting. Struck by the quality of the group and reading material they provided, he soon came to see Y2K as a problem with potentially serious consequences and became involved.

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