President Obama made big news among the community engagement field when yesterday he announced the creation of the White House Office of Public Engagement. This is actually a re-tasking of the already-existing Office of Public Liaison, augmenting and building its role.

The idea is to have a dedicated office at the highest level of government that is in charge of connecting people and their concerns with policy. If ever there were a tangible example of what happens when someone who sees himself as a “community organizer” becomes president, this is it. Indeed, President Obama mentions this in his introductory video:

No ssoner had the news spread among colleagues in the engagement field, than the comments began to fly. I was saddened to see that most of the ones I saw, initially, seemed like sour grapes. People pored over the roster of leaders of the office, asking, “who are these people?” The subtext of many notes was, “why wasn’t I chosen?”

Others chose the moment to express doubt that the office would be devoted to “real” engagement and would not “empower” people, but would instead be just PR.

While much of the commentary is cloaked in polite-sounding academic jargon, it really seems to be quite bitter.

A bright spot is Sandy Heierbacher, founder of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, who asks a useful question:

How can we – as individuals, as leaders in public engagement work, as an organization, as a network – contribute to this effort?  How can we add value to what’s happening?  How can we get involved in meaningful ways?

It’s positive questions like this that I find myself wanting to spend time on.