Hartsville is one of the relatively few communities in the country that has a community journalism web site. This site is called hartsvilletoday and was the brainchild of Doug Fisher of the University of South Carolina School. He received a quick let's do it from Graham Osteen, who was then publisher of the HARTSVILLE MESSENGER and funding from the Knight Foundation and the J-Lab at the University of Maryland.
The key purpose of the site is for participants, who can be anyone who signs up, to help tell the many stories that emanate from a community like Hartsville, SC. Some days the site includes news about a break in at a local restaurant or about Toastmasters speaking at the All-Member Lunch of the Chamber of Commerce or about the local Dixie youth team and their progress in the all-star competition. In the past week or two there have been lengthy exchanges among animal lovers that are bringing to light organizations that many never knew were around for the 'love' of animals as well as what are considered problems with the local animal shelter.
In the past this site has been used to report on community conversations that were started to get local input on what's needed to bring Hartsville to the next level of quality of life. One result of those community conversations was the initiation of a current project called "Selling Hartsville," which has the logo-slogan Hartsville, The Art of Good Living. (This slogan was created with the consulting assistance of Carolina Marketing of Charlotte.)
The HVTD website has also proved to be a major showcase for the community as photos can be uploaded to the site. Several people have highlighted special places in the Hartsville community as well as their own pets, gardens and other hobbies.
And, the site has lots of characteristics of other interactive-people sites with disagreements as well as congratulations -- often a rather vibrant community interchange.
In nearly every meeting that I attend with Hartsville people working to ensure a growing, vibrant, diverse, thriving community, the question and issue of inadequate communication is on the table. The HVTD website has been helping us bridge this issue and has the potential to be a major medium in community communication. Doug Fisher recently reported that more than 1000 people have registered and that is a start. We are hoping that increasingly more people will find that this community journalism site, an opportunity for anyone to tell Hartsville stories, will generate more and more contributors and readers. It is really an amazing tool for various aspects of community communication -- one of the major building blocks of community building.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
So, whose job is it to build community and communities?
Lots of answers and one answer -- all of us.
But, now let's go to the lots of answers option. This noon while having a sandwich I was perusing the CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY, and in the 'New Books' column was a review of "Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives." This book is by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek and published by Josey-Bass. The paragraph in the review that caught my attention for this blog posting is: "Rather than being driven by the opportunity to create an innovative enterprise, a life entrepreneur is driven by the chance to create a life of significance."
In Hartsville, everyday, I work with and come in contact with people who have this drive in life. The book itself apparently describes 55 stories of people who are giving back in their communities in innovative, constructive and positive ways. Minutes ago a woman left my office who was sharing her passion of developing a children's park in a convenient, accessible place within the Hartsville community. She has a vision for a park that would be accessible to all children that would allow those who don't always have a place to play a place where they can be part of the fun with all the children. She has done a great deal of research and is bring a passion to make it happen despite not having any personal stake. Her whole reason for the hours she i8s spending is summarized in "It needs to be done!"
There is another person who is involved in a wide variety of happenings within the Hartsville community. He is a one-person liaison to several areas of the community that do not always have people at the table. He often is at the table. He is nearly always there to do his part of the work. A retired military man, he has been back in his (this) community working to make a better community for everyone and your can make that EVERYONE. Blogs are not supposed to be long, so I will stop with two examples and just remark that those who have had successful lives in younger days and want to enrich the next part of their lives can choose active involvement in the community and often find great satisfaction in this new role.
Richard Harwood of The Harwood Institute talks about the public good and as the book reviewer in the CHRONICLE quotes authors Gergen and Vanourek, "It is no longer enough to work for a pyacheck; there is a growing belief that a good life requires work in pursuit of something meaningful and lasting."
So, we get back to the question of whose job is it to help build a community. Maybe it is someone like you, who understands there is a need to work for a public good.
But, now let's go to the lots of answers option. This noon while having a sandwich I was perusing the CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY, and in the 'New Books' column was a review of "Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives." This book is by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek and published by Josey-Bass. The paragraph in the review that caught my attention for this blog posting is: "Rather than being driven by the opportunity to create an innovative enterprise, a life entrepreneur is driven by the chance to create a life of significance."
In Hartsville, everyday, I work with and come in contact with people who have this drive in life. The book itself apparently describes 55 stories of people who are giving back in their communities in innovative, constructive and positive ways. Minutes ago a woman left my office who was sharing her passion of developing a children's park in a convenient, accessible place within the Hartsville community. She has a vision for a park that would be accessible to all children that would allow those who don't always have a place to play a place where they can be part of the fun with all the children. She has done a great deal of research and is bring a passion to make it happen despite not having any personal stake. Her whole reason for the hours she i8s spending is summarized in "It needs to be done!"
There is another person who is involved in a wide variety of happenings within the Hartsville community. He is a one-person liaison to several areas of the community that do not always have people at the table. He often is at the table. He is nearly always there to do his part of the work. A retired military man, he has been back in his (this) community working to make a better community for everyone and your can make that EVERYONE. Blogs are not supposed to be long, so I will stop with two examples and just remark that those who have had successful lives in younger days and want to enrich the next part of their lives can choose active involvement in the community and often find great satisfaction in this new role.
Richard Harwood of The Harwood Institute talks about the public good and as the book reviewer in the CHRONICLE quotes authors Gergen and Vanourek, "It is no longer enough to work for a pyacheck; there is a growing belief that a good life requires work in pursuit of something meaningful and lasting."
So, we get back to the question of whose job is it to help build a community. Maybe it is someone like you, who understands there is a need to work for a public good.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Traditons, friendships and community
Got to celebrate a half-century birthday with a friend last night. His friend had set up a Dutch dinner to celebrate the milestone of 50 years. It was a crowded dinner. Bill was the common denominator and it was sort of minor-amazing to notice how quickly this disparate group formed a common experience around Bill's half century birthday. This was a fun event with all the normal things that accompany someone hitting the top of the hill (50). There were the requisite jokes about forgetting (wish they were as funny as they used to be), about body functions, about those good old days of childhood along with laughter toward the leisure suits and shaggy hair cuts of youth. There was also a great Thai meal (Ann's Restaurant in Florence) and a guilt inducing piece of birthday cake. And, this morning I am thinking about Aristotle and community building.
Aristotle discussed the discourse used in ceremonies (epideictic) and last night's 50th birthday party was such a great example of how this type of discourse brings people together and helps them in bond in that common experience I mentioned above. Common experiences are also those happenings that lay foundations for friendships or for something a little less intense, productive acquaintances. Common experiences in the form of events, ceremonies, planned get togethers, etc. give people an opportunity to expand their personal spheres and perhaps make new connections.
And, that is the bridge that leads to community building. It takes a lot of cooperation, collaboration, cohesion and connection to sustain any type of community. Whimsical celebrations like over-the-hill birthday parties are important to strengthening smaller communities like the family or the church family and other common experiences focused on special events can and do help people cross the barriers of their personal defenses, meet new people, reengage with old friends and perhaps spark a new encounter that may possibly lead to strengthening, sustaining or expanding a community.
Some may think that is putting a lot more into a 50-year-old's birthday party than might actually be there but I am thinking that we might not pay as much attention to these type events as we should if we want to be part of building stronger communities at all levels of our lives.
So, Happy Birthday, Bill and, Dorothy, thanks for all the work in bring so many people together. And, Catherine, Joyce, Carolyn, Ken and Patty, I really enjoyed sharing some time with you guys.
Aristotle discussed the discourse used in ceremonies (epideictic) and last night's 50th birthday party was such a great example of how this type of discourse brings people together and helps them in bond in that common experience I mentioned above. Common experiences are also those happenings that lay foundations for friendships or for something a little less intense, productive acquaintances. Common experiences in the form of events, ceremonies, planned get togethers, etc. give people an opportunity to expand their personal spheres and perhaps make new connections.
And, that is the bridge that leads to community building. It takes a lot of cooperation, collaboration, cohesion and connection to sustain any type of community. Whimsical celebrations like over-the-hill birthday parties are important to strengthening smaller communities like the family or the church family and other common experiences focused on special events can and do help people cross the barriers of their personal defenses, meet new people, reengage with old friends and perhaps spark a new encounter that may possibly lead to strengthening, sustaining or expanding a community.
Some may think that is putting a lot more into a 50-year-old's birthday party than might actually be there but I am thinking that we might not pay as much attention to these type events as we should if we want to be part of building stronger communities at all levels of our lives.
So, Happy Birthday, Bill and, Dorothy, thanks for all the work in bring so many people together. And, Catherine, Joyce, Carolyn, Ken and Patty, I really enjoyed sharing some time with you guys.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Talking Together
Earlier this afternoon I had a phone conversation with a man named Scott London who is doing some consulting work with The Harwood Foundation that is involved with helping determine the elements involved in the dynamics of positive change in communities.
We were in a meeting in Alexandria, VA, that he was helping to facilitate that was discussing how people involved in community change go about this work. One of the things that he and I spoke of previously were the community conversations that were hosted by The Byerly Foundation in Hartsville over the period of about 13 months. In a very real way, these conversations led to the initiative that we are now calling Selling Hartsville that has resulted in the umbrella brand slogan of "Hartsville - The Art of Good Living." We covered a variety of issues in our phone conversation but he mentioned a couple of key points that continue to roll around in my thinking. How do you go from engagement to action? That is a key question and one we continue to wrestle with as we actively move to "launch" the Selling Hartsville campaign. One thing I hope I shared with him is that one key ingredient for moving from engagement to action is getting someone to commit to action. There are a good many people involved in the Selling Hartsville project and Johnna Shirley, whose full time position is with Mutual Savings and Loan of Hartsville, is chair of the marketing task force. Johnna is one of those who understands the importance of taking action and knows how to implement. Coincidentally, she came by the office just about as the phone call with Scott London was ending. We discussed some of the many things that need to be planned for the launch of Selling Hartsville. We also commiserated over the idea of how we continue to move from engagement to action. It takes a lot of people performing a lot of different roles who focus on a goal to make things happen.
And, that gets us into another major topic Scott and I discussed -- the question of where the focus needs to be -- one the process or on the outcome. He is doing a good deal of research on that question. But, as we discussed process, we got into how decisions might be made. The process of Selling Hartsville is currently what I would call a consensus process. We have three task forces that are working as part of the larger Selling Hartsville Task Force. All participants in the three task forces can also be on the major task force -- many are. Those involved are the ones working to make the right decisions.
As noted earlier, before all of this started, we began with community conversation dialogues. Scott mentioned he has a recent blog about dialogues and I am including one short paragraph of a very enlightening discussion of the role of dialogue.
"The process of dialogue is more important than ever today for a number of reasons. For one thing, the confrontation between different cultural traditions and worldviews requires some process by which people can communicate across differences. For another, the fragmentation of society into a myriad of subcultures based on profession, status, race, ethnicity, political loyalty, etc., make it necessary that people find a pathway to common ground. A third reason is that traditional authority structures are falling away."
This seemed a particularly appropriate topic for this blog because dialogue is one of the things that is helping us move forward in Hartsville and, in truth, the lack of dialogue is one of those things that is slowing the momentum. Hmmm
We were in a meeting in Alexandria, VA, that he was helping to facilitate that was discussing how people involved in community change go about this work. One of the things that he and I spoke of previously were the community conversations that were hosted by The Byerly Foundation in Hartsville over the period of about 13 months. In a very real way, these conversations led to the initiative that we are now calling Selling Hartsville that has resulted in the umbrella brand slogan of "Hartsville - The Art of Good Living." We covered a variety of issues in our phone conversation but he mentioned a couple of key points that continue to roll around in my thinking. How do you go from engagement to action? That is a key question and one we continue to wrestle with as we actively move to "launch" the Selling Hartsville campaign. One thing I hope I shared with him is that one key ingredient for moving from engagement to action is getting someone to commit to action. There are a good many people involved in the Selling Hartsville project and Johnna Shirley, whose full time position is with Mutual Savings and Loan of Hartsville, is chair of the marketing task force. Johnna is one of those who understands the importance of taking action and knows how to implement. Coincidentally, she came by the office just about as the phone call with Scott London was ending. We discussed some of the many things that need to be planned for the launch of Selling Hartsville. We also commiserated over the idea of how we continue to move from engagement to action. It takes a lot of people performing a lot of different roles who focus on a goal to make things happen.
And, that gets us into another major topic Scott and I discussed -- the question of where the focus needs to be -- one the process or on the outcome. He is doing a good deal of research on that question. But, as we discussed process, we got into how decisions might be made. The process of Selling Hartsville is currently what I would call a consensus process. We have three task forces that are working as part of the larger Selling Hartsville Task Force. All participants in the three task forces can also be on the major task force -- many are. Those involved are the ones working to make the right decisions.
As noted earlier, before all of this started, we began with community conversation dialogues. Scott mentioned he has a recent blog about dialogues and I am including one short paragraph of a very enlightening discussion of the role of dialogue.
"The process of dialogue is more important than ever today for a number of reasons. For one thing, the confrontation between different cultural traditions and worldviews requires some process by which people can communicate across differences. For another, the fragmentation of society into a myriad of subcultures based on profession, status, race, ethnicity, political loyalty, etc., make it necessary that people find a pathway to common ground. A third reason is that traditional authority structures are falling away."
This seemed a particularly appropriate topic for this blog because dialogue is one of the things that is helping us move forward in Hartsville and, in truth, the lack of dialogue is one of those things that is slowing the momentum. Hmmm
Friday, July 11, 2008
Hartsville - The Art of Good Living
In the middle of the week - A Thursday evening in Hartsville
- The Chamber of Commerce has a crowded Business After Hours at Raceway Chrysler despite a heavy downpour.
- A juried exhibit of local photographers (nearly 100) opens to the public with venues at the Hartsville Library and at the gallery of the Sponsoring organization, the Black Creek Arts Council
- Darlington County Head Start and Jacob's Ladder hosted an African Dance Concert perfomed by the children in the program under the direction of Elsie Mufuka, a May graduate of Coker College with a degree in dance and communication.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Education is one key to building and sustaining a community
One of the goals of The Byerly Foundation has been to find ways to help make our public schools among the best anywhere. This Foundation has spent a good bit of money over the past 12 years on various public education projects and will spend more in the coming years. We have a surprisingly effective school system for those students who are willing, eager and able to engage in the curriculum. For example, we have a former next-door neighbor who just earned her MD at the Medical University of South Carolina, after already achieving a masters degree in education and about five years of teaching math at various high schools in SC and Georgia. In a few weeks my daughter will be awarded her Ph.D. Both of these girls were products of the Darlington County Schools though my daughter did get two years at the SCGSSM. My youngest is a language arts teacher in a Title One school in Greenville. The parents who have her teaching their children are among the luckiest in the country. She is a product of the Darlington County Schools.
In the midst of a project to make prospective residents aware of how Hartsville represents "The Art of Good Living," we are identifying those things that need improvement as well as those things that make this such a great community. Schools in our area are doing an amazing job with many of our students yet, a number of our students are not getting what they need.
We do have gaps in the Hartsville Schools. You can see those gaps if you can understand the drop out rate or the graduation rate at the high school level. You can see those gaps in other ways and many parents from around the country will recognize these gaps, because, unfortunately, they exist around the nation.
One of the goals of The Foundation is to help our Hartsville schools find ways to eliminate gaps that can be identified by economics or race. That is not an easy job but they tell me that the city of Madison, Wisconsin, achieved that goal with a single-minded, laser focus over a multi-year period. We are looking for ways to help and one area of current investigation is early childhood-pre school. We are thinking that quality pre-school programs for economically disadvantaged children could be one of the keys to later success. We hear that the FPG Institute on the campus of the University of North Carolina is one of the groups who has had some long-term success. We are talking with them.
Right now, when I discuss the education question with people I stress the idea that we have a lot of fantastic success stories to tell but we generally ignore them and repeat the distressing stories. Children in Hartsville are experiencing amazing success in college, in their careers and in their classrooms. It would really enhance the ability to sell this community if we would tell more of those stories while working with the educators to see what can be done to ensure those who have to climb a more vertical educational slope have some additional tools to reach the summit.
In the midst of a project to make prospective residents aware of how Hartsville represents "The Art of Good Living," we are identifying those things that need improvement as well as those things that make this such a great community. Schools in our area are doing an amazing job with many of our students yet, a number of our students are not getting what they need.
We do have gaps in the Hartsville Schools. You can see those gaps if you can understand the drop out rate or the graduation rate at the high school level. You can see those gaps in other ways and many parents from around the country will recognize these gaps, because, unfortunately, they exist around the nation.
One of the goals of The Foundation is to help our Hartsville schools find ways to eliminate gaps that can be identified by economics or race. That is not an easy job but they tell me that the city of Madison, Wisconsin, achieved that goal with a single-minded, laser focus over a multi-year period. We are looking for ways to help and one area of current investigation is early childhood-pre school. We are thinking that quality pre-school programs for economically disadvantaged children could be one of the keys to later success. We hear that the FPG Institute on the campus of the University of North Carolina is one of the groups who has had some long-term success. We are talking with them.
Right now, when I discuss the education question with people I stress the idea that we have a lot of fantastic success stories to tell but we generally ignore them and repeat the distressing stories. Children in Hartsville are experiencing amazing success in college, in their careers and in their classrooms. It would really enhance the ability to sell this community if we would tell more of those stories while working with the educators to see what can be done to ensure those who have to climb a more vertical educational slope have some additional tools to reach the summit.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Patriotism - My discussion
Richard Harwood's blog this week discusses the bombast being exchanged between the McCain and Obama camps on patriotism. www.theharwoodinstitute.org/ht/d/Blogger/pid/185
I consider myself pretty darn patriotic. And, sometimes people find this a wee bit amusing. Why they laugh do I snap off a salute following the playing of the National Anthem? The looks I get as I stand at Attention while the song is played are sometimes amused, often bemused and maybe even a little on the pleasantly condescending side ("He's old, sometimes they do that.") I am older but for some reason this has been a consistent force in my life. Growing up, it was not only the outer stuff, I believed I lived in the GREATEST country in the world. I believed that my country would and maybe could do no wrong but right or wrong this was my country. Then, I watched people getting beaten by police for staging demonstrations against a war they thought was wrong. Then, I saw news clips of other Americans being plastered with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs for marching and singing and demanding their share of the American dream. Then, I watched as my Marines were killed in a country whose borders were no where near America's and whose political health meant next to nothing for the peace and security of the United States. Yet we fought because we were sent there to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. And, then, there was this photo of a bus being overturned in a town called Lamar, South Carolina, and, though I was an officer of Marines, I cried because guys in my platoon were from that state and others nearby and now their brothers and their sisters were quite literally coming under attack in their own home towns.
So, I still consider myself a patriot and I still love my country. Quite honestly, it doesn't need to be the "grandest on earth" as long as it is my country. My country -- the home of the free -- all citizens with the same rights, the same freedoms, the ability with effort (some needing more than others) to make it. My country, where you can express, in very graphic terms if need be, your disgust with the government in power and not worry they will send you to jail. My country, where you have an expectation of privacy and protection of the law from the law. My country, where you can enlist in the military to help physically defend our land and/or ideals or My country, where you can get others who feel like you and protest in large groups against the government's desire to use that military to invade other lands.
Okay -- Patriots
but how loud someone might sing the Star Spangled Banner, or how many flag decals might be on someone's car or how loud someone might claim to be a patriot does not make a patriot. What is a person doing for his/her country? What is that person doing to help strengthen her/his country? What is that person doing to strengthen her/his community because that strengthens the country too? Patriotism is not symbolism it is action.
I consider myself pretty darn patriotic. And, sometimes people find this a wee bit amusing. Why they laugh do I snap off a salute following the playing of the National Anthem? The looks I get as I stand at Attention while the song is played are sometimes amused, often bemused and maybe even a little on the pleasantly condescending side ("He's old, sometimes they do that.") I am older but for some reason this has been a consistent force in my life. Growing up, it was not only the outer stuff, I believed I lived in the GREATEST country in the world. I believed that my country would and maybe could do no wrong but right or wrong this was my country. Then, I watched people getting beaten by police for staging demonstrations against a war they thought was wrong. Then, I saw news clips of other Americans being plastered with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs for marching and singing and demanding their share of the American dream. Then, I watched as my Marines were killed in a country whose borders were no where near America's and whose political health meant next to nothing for the peace and security of the United States. Yet we fought because we were sent there to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. And, then, there was this photo of a bus being overturned in a town called Lamar, South Carolina, and, though I was an officer of Marines, I cried because guys in my platoon were from that state and others nearby and now their brothers and their sisters were quite literally coming under attack in their own home towns.
So, I still consider myself a patriot and I still love my country. Quite honestly, it doesn't need to be the "grandest on earth" as long as it is my country. My country -- the home of the free -- all citizens with the same rights, the same freedoms, the ability with effort (some needing more than others) to make it. My country, where you can express, in very graphic terms if need be, your disgust with the government in power and not worry they will send you to jail. My country, where you have an expectation of privacy and protection of the law from the law. My country, where you can enlist in the military to help physically defend our land and/or ideals or My country, where you can get others who feel like you and protest in large groups against the government's desire to use that military to invade other lands.
Okay -- Patriots
- Marines and other military people willing to die to keep this country.
- Mothers, friends, those who are concerned willing to stand up and use that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly to protest when they think, feel and know the country is wrong.
- Those people who vote in every election
- Those people who pay their taxes
- Those people willing to give of themselves to right perceived wrongs
but how loud someone might sing the Star Spangled Banner, or how many flag decals might be on someone's car or how loud someone might claim to be a patriot does not make a patriot. What is a person doing for his/her country? What is that person doing to help strengthen her/his country? What is that person doing to strengthen her/his community because that strengthens the country too? Patriotism is not symbolism it is action.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
This is what is supposed to happen
http://www.hvtd.com/?q=node/4487
Saturday night there was a Rhythm and Blues Block Party in downtown Hartsville. It was a fun event and a lot of Hartsvillians who would have had a good time had they availed themselves of the opportunity. Some proof of that is offered in the above positive feedback that was sent to the city of Hartsville web site from a couple on a weekend visit to Hartsville.
We are looking to sell Hartsville - The Art of Good Living and the feedback from a couple who were taking a short weekend away from home shows the possibilities.
Saturday night there was a Rhythm and Blues Block Party in downtown Hartsville. It was a fun event and a lot of Hartsvillians who would have had a good time had they availed themselves of the opportunity. Some proof of that is offered in the above positive feedback that was sent to the city of Hartsville web site from a couple on a weekend visit to Hartsville.
We are looking to sell Hartsville - The Art of Good Living and the feedback from a couple who were taking a short weekend away from home shows the possibilities.
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