Community building as part of the effort to win in Afghanistan

STONES INTO SCHOOLS is Greg Mortenson's continuing tale of promoting peace with books not bombs in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is literally hot off the presses and out of the recording studio. I have been captured by this book, a follow up to THREE CUPS OF TEA. Mortenson's story is riveting and even though the timeline is sometimes complicated, the story is fundamental. Mortenson is talking about how change can be most effectively implemented and his basic lesson, repeated throughout the book, is that personal relationships are crucial and listening is probably the most important skill that a change agent brings to the table. (Btw -- Mortenson would never use a word like change agent.)

Mortenson, who works through his NGO (non governmental organization) called the Central Asia Institute, has found his ideas from THREE CUPS OF TEA becoming required reading for US Military officers. He has also found over the past couple of years that the military is quickly coming to understand the importance of "understanding" after eight years of stalemate in Afghanistan. On page 253 of this book, Mortenson also makes a short case for the liberal arts (one of the strengths of Coker College where I teach in the Communication Department) and I thought I would share that in this note: Mortenson is observing the ideas now being discussed by top ranking combat leaders and this is the quote: "Equally important, however, is the effort on the part of soldiers -- especially officers -- to master the cultural nuances of the countries in which they are deployed by embracing fields of study that include anthropology, history, sociology, language and politics. The aim is to enhance security by fostering relationships and building a sense of trust at the grassroots level with community leaders, village elders, and tribal authorities." Those ologies are part of the liberal arts foundation and I imagine I will be sharing Motenson's thoughts with some of my advisees who wonder why they have to take subjects not directly in their major.

For the idea of Community Thinking, however, there is also a major lesson. If we are going to build a collaborative, constructive problem solving technique in our communities those who are in sections and positions of leadership probably need to look a little deeper into the communities they are hoping to build.

Turkey Trot is fun start to Thanksgiving Day

It looked like the runners and walkers at the Hartsville YMCA Turkey Trot of 2009 were one of the largest crowds since the race began in 1992. It was foggy but fun. This is one of those "homecoming" events that is like a big reunion.

The YMCA staff and volunteers have been working this race on Thanksgiving and those of us who participate say THANKS to these volunteers and the Hartsville police who also provide on route protection. Thanks!

One of the runners in today[s race was Clyde Weaver. Clyde has been running for a long time, long before running became cool. And he has kept at it. He said the heart is ticking great but the legs are beginning to go -- maybe because he has been on the go for 86 years, many of them as an elementary school principal. He finished the 3.1 mile course in 64 minutes -- my running hero.

Classical Music in Hartsville

Quick Observation --

Last week in Hartsville, S.C. there was enough classical music to program an entire evening on National Public Radio. On Tuesday evening the Faculty Recital by Dr. Jun Matsuo and Professor Serena Hill; then a Community Concert piano recital on Thursday evening by Tian Ying and then on Sunday evening the Coker Singers, joined by professional soloists and a Chamber Orchestra performed REQUIEM by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart under the direction of Dr. Will Carswell, professor of music at Coker College.

Hartsville is a small city that we bill as Hartsville, The Art of Good Living where we suggest that you can always "expect pleasant surprises." On many fronts, we think there is a great deal of evidence that will show most people this is not hype or puffery, Hartsville has a great doing going on in many areas from arts to sports, to shopping, to just plain community.

It is small city America and those of us who have discovered this place, our place, remind ourselves to be Thankful in this season of Thanksgiving.

Talented Singers from Hartsville performing in Lake City

This morning I came across a Google Alert about Hartsville that announces the Hartsville Chamber Ensemble performing in Lake City. We know they will be in for a professional, enjoyable performance in Lake City.

New Mayor takes oath of office

Mayor Mel Pennington took the oath of office on Tuesday, November 10 following a glowing tribute to outgoing Mayor David McFarland, who took over as Mayor of Hartsville when Mayor Holt became Family Court Judge Michael Holt. There were a great many people at the early part of the City Council meeting this evening as a large group of family and friends also attended the meeting as Wanda James was sworn in as a new city council member.

Strong communities need leaders who can build strong coalitions that are required to navigate solutions to problems in our complex municipal/government environs.

The video in this blog is of City Attorney Marty Driggers giving the oath of office to Mel Pennington, new Mayor of Hartsville.

Congratulations Mayor Mel

Tuesday night, November 10, 2009, Mel Pennington will take the oath of office as Mayor of Hartsville. He has a vision and is formulating plans and approaches for his process of helping lead this small South Carolina city. The thinking he we need an active leader to take Hartsville to the next level. Congratulations Mr. Mayor.

Trick or Treat at Byerly Park

Just reading the "ezine newsletter" from the City of Hartsville and they have a Trick or Treat event scheduled for this evening at Byerly Park from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Also in that newsletter is a very short news piece that reminds us that nearly $80 million has recently been invested in and around downtown Hartsville. There continues to be news about things going on downtown, like the pending opening of a new restaurant Bow Thai, which should happen early next week.

And, we have the election for Mayor and three city council members coming up on November 3 in Hartsville. Had a coffee last night on Mayoral candidate Mel Pennington, who has been holding a series of meetings at the Midnight Rooster to take about city issues. And, this past Tuesday there was a Forum at Second Baptist Church for the City Council candidates to talk about their ideas for the city. Only one of the three races for City Council is contested this year.

While on updates, the citizen journalism website that is owned by THE MESSENGER crashed a few weeks ago but it is back UP AND RUNNING thanks to a great deal of hard work from a Media General web guru and the founder of the site, Doug Fisher. The HVTD.com site is where you get your Hartsville news quicker and well worth a visit.

Mayor's Candidate Forum Interesting Event

A good sized crowd was on had for the Mayor's Candidate Forum on the campus of Coker College in Hartsville on Tuesday evening. Candidates Pam Sansbury and Mel Pennington presented some of their views about moving Hartsville forward in these down economic times. The Forum showed two good candidates for Mayor and also highlighted some of the issues that face the city as it hopes to continue moving forward. There is a link here to the Jim Faile news coverage of the Forum that appears this morning in both THE MESSENGER and MORNING NEWS. The video clip that is included here is just to give readers a flavor of the scene. Dr. Jim Lemke of Coker College moderated the Forum.

Hartsville Musem feels pain of vandalism

It is never easy to figure out why some people are so absolutely STUPID. Why would anyone with any kind of thought process find it amusing to destroy. The people who help preserve Hartsville’s past are trying to figure that out. Thom went into the Hartsville Museum on Saturday and found that the “Byerly Baby” statue had been horribly vandalized. Today, when you go by the garden between the Museum and the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce you will notice the head missing from the statue, which used to frolic in the Rose Garden at The Byerly Hospital.

In this blog the subject is community building and community thinking and one thing we all understand is that our community is strong because of the links to our past. Those at the Hartsville Museum are protectors of this past and they feel, as I am certain do a great many people in the community, a sense of betrayal by the senseless vandalism. These kind of senseless acts bring out the not-nice side of some of us, wishing that we might be able to use those who do things like this as punching bags for an hour or two or three or… In my case, I am thinking of a Twilight Zone type of retribution that has the spirits of the Byerly babies haunting the person’s nights so that every time they close their eyes for sleep another macabre scream shocks them awake. I know, too much thinking about retribution takes away from the continued building that needs to be accomplished.

The trip over to the Museum did uncover a great deal of activity that is ongoing in the efforts of protecting and promoting our past. Penny Anthony said orders are coming in for a book the Museum has published called Postcards from the Hartsville Museum Collection. The books will be available in November and they are selling for $22.95.

Kathy Dunlap, Director of the Hartsville Museum, also noted that progress is now being made on the annex the Museum is developing across Fifth Street from the Museum. The Hartsville Design and Review Board has signed off on the plans for the new façade and the Museum is going forward with the renovation of this space in two Phases. Fundraising has provided enough funds to get Phase One off the ground and the Museum personnel are confident that they will also be able to raise the funds for Phase Two in the near future. Their renovation plans for the buildings took a hit with the economic downturn and this news that things are again moving forward is good news for the community.

Economic Discussion at SCANPO Round Table

Did you know that the total employment in the United States has dropped between June 2000 and August 2009. This means that even though the population in the United States has grown, we have fewer jobs today than we had in 2000. So, according to Dr. Donald Schunk, the Research Economist at the BB&T Center for Economic and Community Development at Coastal Carolina University, the continuing recovery is very likely to be felt as a "jobless recovery." For non-profit organizations and others in South Carolina this slow recovery could feel like no recovery.

The next part of the meeting was a panel discussion of selected non-profit organizations discussing what they have tried to do to withstand the ravages of the current economy. This session shared some of those things we like to call "best practices" among organizations.

A key idea for me from this panel discussion was the overall agreement among the panelists that keeping their stakeholders at every level informed of what was happening and what was being considered, was one of the most useful strategies. As a communicator, I see most crisis situations as needing some form of strategic communication and the panelists put an exclamation point on my belief. John Singerling, chief operating officer of Palmetto Health Richland, told the audience that he was about to start a speaking tour that will have him in meetings with all of the thousands of employees in his organization. He stressed the need for total transparency in these times and he noted that these face-to-face meetings helped ensure the necessary transparency. Also on this panel were Mac Bennett, CEO of the United Way of the Midlands, Dr. Elizabeth Flemming, president of Converse College and Ken Trogdon, CEO of Welvista.

SCANPO President Mason Hardy and his staff did a good job of putting together a strong, relevant Executive Round Table.

New Carolina (Tm) Opens for Business

There is a multi-page advertisement in today's STATE Newspaper that provides an introduction to an organization called the S. C. Council on Competitiveness and their economic development campaign they are calling NEW CAROLINA.

From a community building and community thinking perspective, this NEW CAROLINA campaign is both exciting and interesting. One of the major reasons for excitement is the composition of the board of this council. There are surprises. Some of the surprises come from the diverse backgrounds of the movers and shakers that have signed on to be part of this New Carolina movement. One of the surprises is the theme of this movement -- NEW CAROLINA. One thing that is not very popular in South Carolina is significant change and the organization is calling for a significant new perspective on our State.

Several years ago, 2004 or 2005, I had the opportunity of being interviewed by one of the graduate students working with Michael Porter of Harvard University on the study of South Carolina's competitiveness. The unveiling in the STATE today lays out some of the key strategy that has been developed from that study. The points coming from Michael Porter's study are exciting, especially if those in the leadership positions can begin to make this cluster concept take hold in the minds and actions of South Carolinians. I know there was a meeting of economic development directors from around the S. C. in Greenville this past weekend. I wonder if they were briefed on the unveiling of the NEW CAROLINA program? They are among the people who can help craft new attitudes because many of them are already part of public/private partnerships with clear missions.

Here is some of what the website says about the mission of this new organization:
South Carolina must re-learn to compete. We must become a New Carolina.

South Carolina's Council on Competitiveness is a public-private partnership working with partners to increase per capita income and drive the movement towards a New Carolina – a South Carolina with a brighter future and a competitive, winning economy.

We have a clear, measurable definition of success. Steadily raise the average income of South Carolinians, which is now just 82% of the national average. Our focus is on Harvard Professor Michael Porter’s strategy to:

* Play to the strengths of our core industries: find, birth, build and celebrate clusters
* Change the economic environment through innovation in business and education
* Connect the dots across efforts and start conversations around positive change

There are some key players from the Pee Dee who have been ground-floor leaders in this new initiative and they include Harris DeLoach, President of Sonoco, and Darla Moore, who has been very active the past few years working to make South Carolina more competitive. It is Moore's name that graces the entrance ways of the University of South Carolina award-winning business school.

Community thinkers and community builders in South Carolina need to pay some close attention to how they might get on board this NEW CAROLINA movement.

"Tomorrow's Philanthropy Today "

was the theme of the Executive Round Table, an initiative of the South Carolian Association of Non Profit Organizations (SCANPO) that was sponsored by Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. in Greenville, SC on October 15 and 16.

The Executive Round Table had been cancelled in 2008 as the crippled economy made it difficult for any organization to think about much more than its own existence. The 2009 Executive Round Table had 80 people registered. Mason Hardy, President and CEO of SCANPO said this was the largest crowd that has participated in this invitation-only event. There was a great deal of interesting information shared among the participants and, as most can imagine, the primary topic of concern was the economy.

Dr. Donald Schunk
Dr. Schunk is a Research Economist at Coastal Carolina University and though he wanted to deliver a Good News/Bad News presentation on the state of the economy, the ultimate conclusion is that while technically he agrees the recession is over, realistically it is going to be another year and, perhaps two, before it feels like it is over for most people.

Here are a couple of interesting bullet points from this presentation:
** This is very likely to be a jobless recovery.
** The government stimulus probably kept us from a more severe recession or even depression but, as an economist, he is ambivalent on the governmental actions
** South Carolina has the second highest level of home ownership in the United States and he said, I believe, that West Virginia is first. The mobile home was one of the reasons given.
** His discussion on job creation was very interesting because it showed just how devastating the job losses have been in this current recession. That was important information for this audience because many of the non-profit organizations in the room depend on contributions from individuals for their life blood of funds.
** A portion of the good news of his presentation was that the Dow had gone over 10,000 but he tempered that good news with the caution that the market might not yet be in a steady upward climb. This was of importance to many in the audience, like the Foundations, whose finances have taken hits in the 23 to 33 percent range over the past couple of years and some upward movement of the Dow feels very good.

Will end this blog here to keep it readable and post more about the Round Table in subsequent notes.

Hartsville Interfaith Ministeries Food Bank Near Empty

The following notice came from HARTSVILLE MATTERS an hour or two ago on October 13. The news is that the emergency food bank at the Hartsville Interfaith Ministry office is near empty:

Our Hartsville
Friends: We just received this information from faithful volunteer of HIM, Linda Yount: "I worked at HIM this morning and Linda Watford would like to tell you how barren the Food Bank is. The shelves are pretty empty. They really need everythi...ng......canned fruit, beans, soups, canned meats, etc. You could hardly go wrong if you take anything. Many thanks!!" Please
share this information with your family, friends, coworkers and church
members. Hartsville Interfaith Ministries is located off 4th Street:
210 Swift Creek Rd Hartsville, SC 29550 (843) 857-9003

Hartsville not yet on the list

So, when you begin an initiative like Selling Hartsville, what would be one of your greatest wishes -- maybe to be listed among the ten coolest small towns (cities) in America? This morning, the lead story on the Yahoo web site is about those cities and towns and it seems that maybe reading about those who have earned that designation might even give some ideas for coming closer here in Hartsville. We certainly have many of the ingredients mentioned in some of the short write ups.

Last week, with some others from Hartsville, I had the opportunity to travel to Wilson, NC, to see some of the things they have going on in their city, home of a Coker College rival - Barton College. Wilson is significantly larger in population than Hartsville -- they are about 50,000 -- close to what we might be if you included what I like to call the retail trade zone. Wilson has a vitality that is obvious, challenges that are also obvious and a vision of service and excellence that seems to permeate the town. The major purpose for the trip was to see what they call "Project Greenlight." This program has the city of Wilson providing free WiFi throughout their downtown area while serving all of their citizens with the opportunity of purchasing cable television, internet and even phone services from the city. They are seeing income and they expect to very soon have enough customers for another dependable revenue stream for the city. We certainly know that we need some new revenue streams for our small city and this trip helped to provide a benchmarking opportunity. Wilson like Hartsville has been designated an All America City. They have received the designation several times and that is probably another target for which we should be aiming -- sooner rather than later == I hope.

One of the things that Wilson is most proud of and you can find these around their city -- Whirligigs -- they even have a festival for these metal-art creations.

The Past -- without there is no future

This morning I was reading Rich Harwood's blog, which always has in-depth insights to community building coming from a personal perspective. He is writing about Yom Kippur, a time to look back and reflect on how you are doing in your individual quest.

Rich linked his thoughts about the individual's look back with a community looking back. He was talking about the importance of forgiving yourself and not wallowing in the misery of memory of things gone wrong and on being blinded by the notion that things were always better -- then. His message is an important one because it is to make choices and make judgments about the past and use those choices and judgments to move forward into the future.

When I think of community building from a neighborhood, from a city, from a company or a college, I know that if we all can learn from but then let go of our past, we can more efficiently and quickly build our future.

Major New York Clinton conference talks about communities

Eric Green a community psychologist has been at a global initiative conference in New York sponsored by the Clinton Foundation. He is blogging from this conference and his most recent blog is "getting to the HOW business." Apparently, even on a global basis, it is often much easier to describe the challenges and problems within communities than it is to come up with solutions that work. If you read his blog you will see how this is working among those who are looking for solutions to many of the world's tough problems. Making me think at the same time of work that Eve Puffer, a community psychologist, who works with the Duke Global Health Initiative has been doing in Kenya. She spent the summer implementing a research project to see if there is way to bring the strength of the social sciences to helping solve the HIV/Aids problem among young girls in one village. Getting to the How is a difficult challenge.

I was just reading the daily summary from the CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY and came across a story of a many engaged in a friendly rivalry to see how much blood he can donate. We talk here about community building and it takes people contributing in all sorts of ways to build our communities. Here is an example of someone literally bleeding for the betterment of his neighbors. This really is sort of a fun story and should, I hope, make others think about doing their share in the fight for an adequate blood supply. Lots of surgery cannot happen without blood being on hand:



September 08, 2009
Long Island Man Moves Toward Blood-Donation Record

Every year since 1951, a Long Island man has donated blood — and today he’s scheduled to do it again, bringing his lifetime total donation to 40 gallons, reports Newsday.

Al Fischer, a 75-year-old printer in Massapequa, N.Y., has given 319 pints of blood. Mr. Fischer’s total puts him second in line behind the American who has given more blood, Maurice Wood, 83, a St. Louis retiree, according to the New York Blood Center. “He’s about six or seven pints ahead of me,” said Mr. Fischer, who adds that the pair are engaged in a friendly rivalry.

Mr. Fischer racked up his total by giving blood every eight weeks, notes Harvey Schaffler, executive director of Long Island Blood Services. “He’s a one-man army, who has helped almost a thousand people,” he says.

Small Town Events provide big city experience

Often I get accused of being a cheerleader for this great small town. It is an accusation I take as a praise. Hartsville is a small city but as I so often say, how many small Southern cities have thing to offer like you find here. Cases in point:

This past Sunday in Hartsville --

Triathlons sponsored and hosted by the Hartsville YMCA -- two at once so that both those who do them for real competition and those who do them for an experience can enjoy. Learn more on hartsvilletoday.com or at the Hartsville YMCA. Jana Longfellow, a REAL cheerleader for Hartsville has photos from the event.

Gospel in the Park on Sunday afternoon with lots of gospel groups. There are photos on Facebook from this event, which is another way for Hartsvillians and others to have a great time.

Coming up in Hartsville

Tuesday, September 8 -- Jack Riggs - novelist -- speaking and signing books with a free performance at 7 p.m. in Davidson Hall on the Coker College campus.

Piano Concert featuring Las Vegas Pianist David Osborne to benefit the Coker College Scholarship Fund and the Prestwood County Club Renovation Fund at the Watson Theater on the Coker College campus on Wednesday, September 16.

Hartsville Good Living Marketplace and Hartsville Idol on Saturday September 12 in downtown Hartsville.

College Soccer, Hartsville men on September 12 as they try to extend their undefeated streak against Mt. Olive College.

The Johnson Family Art Exhibition at Black Creek Arts Council, which also has a vareity of classes being scheduled throughout the Fall.

This is only a short list of the multiple events reaching multiple interests taking place in the city that likes to be billed as The Art of Good Living where you can always "Expect Pleasant Surprises."

Looking outward often key to growth

This blog often talks about work being accomplished by THE HARWOOD INSTITUTE in formulating models and discussions of community building. One of the tools the Institute is now making available to community organizations is an ebook about how important it is to look outward toward your community rather than spending so much looking inward at your own organization. In these economic times many non-profit organizations spend significant time and resources looking at their own internal programs, systems and culture as a strategy for continuing to serve. There is a good chance that all this inward looking is causing many organizations to take their eyes off the mission of how to serve the mission, which is generally aimed toward making the major difference outside the organization. Rich Harwood studies this material and he has compiled it into a booklet with the funding of the Kettering Foundation. Those who are looking for strategies of how to maintain and even expand their organization in these tight financial times might be well served to download this report. This report was recently reviewed in Nigeria and that is part of a message distributed today by The Harwood Institute. Here is a section of that message:

"Org First " Around the Globe
REVIEW OF ORGANIZATION-FIRST APPROACH REPORT IN MAJOR NIGERIAN NEWSPAPER

Recently, the Nigerian Tribune - the nation's oldest newspaper - ran Folorunsho Moshood's review of The Organization-First Approach Report.

In the review, Moshood writes, "The book, which is an evidence-based research work that exposes the reader to why and how CSOs (civil society organizations) turn inward toward themselves instead of turning outward toward the communities they are meant to serve."

Moshood's review explores each of the chapters of the report and argues that leaders must be willing to face the truth of their actions.

Leasdership is a key to community building

This summer I have run across a few books and articles on leadership that have been enlightening and there have been other phone conferences and blogs that have continued to underline LEADERSHIP as a crucial element to community building.

The first-year anniversary of the GoodLiving Marketplace will be celebrated in Hartsville in the next few weeks. Nancy Myers was looking for a way to make a difference and combined her thoughts with Judi Elvington, who is director of Hartsville Downtown Development, and the Saturday morning, monthly marketplace has been a great success. Nancy's leadership and an individual effort, motivated from her desire to make a difference and her willingness to take on the job. When you talk with her she will mention others who were instrumental but without her vision and willingness to take on the project it would still be, at best, a dream.

As this is written the people who have organized HARTSVILLEIDOL are doing auditions at Black Creek Arts Council. Believe this is the third week and the finalists from this afternoon will compete tonight for the chance to be among the finalists for the HartsvilleIdol designation. The word is the competition is stiff with lots of talent coming out to be part of this event. Again, individuals had an idea, they shared the idea and got the right push and this is another event making Hartsville a special place. Leadership is the crucial ingredient.

One of the authors I have read this summer is Ken Blanchard, who has made a career of leadership study and training. He has a book, written with Mark Miller, that he calls THE SECRET - WHAT GREAT LEADERS KNOW -- AND DO. A major element of that secret is summed up in the acronym - SERVE. If interested you will find it a quick nugget-filled read. SERVE stands for 'See the future;' 'Engage and Develop Others;' 'Reinvent Continuously;'Value Results and Relationships; 'Embody the Values.'

The leadership needed to help build community is most often of the "Servant Leadership" variety.

Know what to starve and what to feed

The Current edition of NON PROFIT QUARTERLY contains an interesting article about leading in community building environments by a person named Bill Traynor, executive director of the Lawrence(MA) Community Works.

As I read this article I was struck by a core message of effectiveness and efficiency that discussed knowing how to feed those activities that help your organization and community move forward and starve those activities that gobble up your time, talent and treasure but leave you where you were when you started. Traynor is discussing techniques of what he called network leadership and the framing he uses for the discussion is a superior lesson on leadership in today's community building environments. I am hoping that I will be able to link to this article, "Vertigo" so that those interested will be able to gather the wisdom he is sharing. If not, you should get the current issue of NON-PROFIT QUARTERLY because the article is important for community builders.

As he ended the article, the author talked about the importance of having a supportive network who can congratulate you when you succeed and who can help you back on track when things go awry. "Increasingly we struggle together and are intentional about supporting one another—through forgiveness and truth telling—so that we can continue to build connected environments that feed the world by feeding the best of what it is to be human," is the way Traynor concludes the article.

It is worth the read!

Resources for Community Building Thinking

The non-profit often gets overlooked when discussions of the economy, the future and the well-being of the communities of our country is discussed. No one should ignore this industry, which continues to be the "doing good" sector even as resources get more and more strapped in our current fiscal woes. One of the resources that many people in the non-profit world look too is the NON PROFIT QUARTERLY, a forum for very high level discussions of all facets of this non-profit field. Ruth McCambridge, editor, does a nice job of covering what is in the new issue. This issue has a story on one of the major questions facing both for profit and nonprofit, is bigger better? Here is what the editor says about this lead story:


Paul Light has suggested that there are four possible scenarios for the future of our sector -- one of these being an "arbitrary winnowing" which would "result in a rebalancing [of] the sector towards larger, richer and fewer [nonprofit] organizations." Dr. Light said nothing in his NPQ article about the private sector but I have noticed a disturbing macro trend worth paying attention to if you are at all interested in retaining a modicum of local ownership and control over the organizations that so richly populate our communities.

In yesterday's New York Times was an article about how small businesses are faring in this downturn. Here is a shocking statistic: from the second quarter of 2007 through the third quarter of 2008, businesses with fewer than 20 employees have accounted for 53% of all job losses in the private sector -- even though those companies employ only 20% of the employees.

One observer comments that this is just the market "being cleansed of unneeded goods and services." Though far from an economist, I might suggest that this phenomenon may be more a question of available capital and a function of a further monopolization of our markets by large business concerns. Slate.com runs a story about CIT Group, the number one lender to these very small firms under the Small Business Administration's 7(a) program. The 7(a) program typically makes loans to small businesses that have exhausted other options. Close to bankruptcy itself, it is under consideration for a bailout -- a step supported by Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League, who has traditionally opposed providing bailout funds for large financial institutions. "If my tax dollars are going to be used to rescue banks and other financial institutions," says Chapman, "CIT is the kind of firm I want to see saved." But Slate reports that the "thinking within the administration . . . is that because its collapse would have little or no effect on the larger financial system, bailing out CIT may not be worth the time or the money."

Chapman is concerned that small business is largely overlooked in the federal government's credit programs, pointing out that America's Recovery Capital Loan program (part of the ARRA) will make only $225 million in loans to small business, where CIT made more than three times that in 2008 alone.
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I worry that there is an insufficient understanding within this administration about the value of small, locally controlled organizations to civic life and I, for one object, as much on behalf of local owned business as locally controlled nonprofits. We are in danger of losing the essential character of the nation in this trend.

So when the administration proposes working hand in hand with large philanthropic institutions to craft collaborative approaches to "social innovation," and if that conversation remains less than fully transparent to date, excuse us if we wince a little at the more downside potential of that, particularly when the groups mentioned as models are very large, well connected and well funded.

If you are not familiar with this publication and you find the above relevant to some of your thinking in community building and non profits, you will find this publication a treasure trove of discussion over the long term.

Some quick observations of Hartsville in July

1 -- Great exhibit of photographs of Hartsville or by Hartsville area photographers at the Black Creek Arts Council. And there is lots of activity with the kids art camp this week.

2 -- Really good to see some dilapidated houses disappearing in the Washington Street area. I have noticed three new empty lots and they have been a long time coming but sure are welcome. City is taking down some of those dangerous, falling-down buildings.

3 -- Good number of people appeared to be giving blood this afternoon (7/13) at the Presbyterian Church and it appears there is another bloodmobile at Heritage Bank tomorrow.

4 -- Even when the temperatures are not in the 90s it feels hot and steam in July yet even in the heat volunteers come out to help build Habitat for Humanity homes.

Coordinating Council is important for collaboration, communication, cooperation

The Darlington County Coordinating Council is a loose organization of representatives from many of the social service type of agencies that serve the people of Darlington County. The Council meets monthly in Hartsville or Darlington. And, very importantly, the group has a web presence at darcocc.org.

Last week, July 9, the group had its meeting in Hartsville with about 17 people in attendance -- a relatively light crowd but some pretty heavy discussion. One of the key issues that arose was what appears to be an increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Pee Dee. Kathy J. W. Smith of DHEC was doing the monthly organization presentation and she distributed some 2006 statistics on Teen Pregnancy. That handout started some intense discussion around the table and was one of the issues used as the reason for a need of more collaboration among agencies and service providers. The statistics on the page were provisional data for 2006 but they said that Darlington County has a 41.4 teen pregnancy rate, that is calculated per 1000 female population for the specific age group. For comparison, the overall South Carolina rate is 29.6.

SERVICES SUMMIT is September 10, 2009
One of the major announcements at this meeting was that the Services Summit for the county will be at Lakeview Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on September 10. This is an opportunity for service providers to get to know even more about each other's services and provide opportunities for people to meet one another to make coordination of service activities more realistic.

(Interest of full disclosure -- The Byerly Foundation has provided a multi-year grant for the Darlington County Coordinating Council to lay a solid foundation for improved communication among the various service providers. I am the executive director of The Foundation.)

REPRESENTATIVE JAY LUCAS TO COORDINATE
Representative Jay Lucas is going to be the Legislative Delegation's connection to the Coordinating Council. Many of the issues that arise from social service agencies are issues that are governed by state law and all of the issues affect people. In communities where a state legislative delegation takes an active interest in what is happening with social service providers it seems the social services are both more effective and more efficient. In fact, this group had a great deal of impetus a few years ago from State Senator Gerald Malloy, who gave one of the key notes at the first Summit.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Darlington County Coordinating Council is August 13, 2009 at the McLeod Medical Center - Resource Center in Darlington. Anyone wanting more information on this group can go to the web site, call Kathy Baxley, executive director of the Darlington County Free Medical Clinic, Dr. Nick Nicholson at the Darlington County Community Action Agency or Todd Shifflett at Care South.

Why do people work to make a difference?

There have been studies done of what motivates people to become what The Harwood Institute calls public innovators. I am sure there are many organizations and colleges studying the motivations of volunteering and volunteerism. On the citizen journalism website called hartsvilletoday we have an interesting answer for ONE person on why she gives so much. I have provided the link but just in case you don't want to go there, here is a copy of what she said. It feels like there is a lot here that will be of interest to lots of people:


This is who I am
Submitted by NM on Sun, 07/12/2009 - 16:19. Arts, Entertainment, Reviews

My husband and I returned from church today and we finished our “Sunday Brunch”. But while I was eating I kept thinking of everyone’s comments about my energy, strength and drive for the Good Living Marketplace – and why is “she” driving herself so hard. Well, this is what I’ve decided. I would like to share my heart with you.

Do you have a friend, neighbor or acquaintance that needs help or just a smile? Do you offer your assistance? Do you bake a pie with your last ounce of flour and take it to your friend to make them feel better? When you see someone hurting do you reach out and give that person a hug? Do you say to people, if you need something or anything please call me and really mean it? Do you have friends that are suffering with some horrible disease and you wish that you could just reach in and pull that disease out and make them well again? Do you take a friend flowers or send a card just to say “Hi”?

You see, Hartsville is my friend and I want to do what I can to help her get through a very bad time. Hartsville is like so many other small towns in the United States - aching, throbbing, and hurting. But Hartsville is just not a name of a small town. It’s a small town overflowing with wonderful loving & caring people. Do you shun away, go somewhere else or do you bake that pie and stay in Hartsville. I’ve lived in several other states but I’m finally able to say that I’ve found “home”. So I’m baking those pies and staying in Hartsville “just because”.

I’ve saved the strongest statement for last. God gives me my energy and strength. We work very hard together and it is a beautiful relationship. God has given my family extra strength and energy during some very difficult years and I know He will continue. My drive for life and for the Good Living Marketplace comes from “doing” the questions in paragraph two.

Now you know what’s in my heart, and where I get my energy, strength and drive.

This is who I am.

I find it really cool that a person would share that personal motivation and I am hoping her personal motivations will also get more people to think about being involved.

People on the ground make the difference

Earlier today I was reading a "Facebook" post by Mark Hanenchen, executive director of the Darlington County Habitat for Humanity. He was observing how thankful he is for people who give up weekends in the heat to help others by working on Habitat homes. He also noted how the ethos of a caring community is one of the major attractions for others to come to live and be part of that community. Hartsville does have a lot of people who care and who put their caring into action. Our goal has to be to get even more people who care involved to ensure we can solve the problems, or what we have called in the Selling Hartsville discussions, "fix the holes."

Butler Heritage is Community Heritage

It was one of the largest crowds at a Butler Heritage Foundation dinner that graced the Thornwell Elementary cafeteria on Thursday evening.

This was a continuation of the week long Butler Heritage Foundation celebration that takes place the last days of June and first days of July every year. This is a celebration of the Butler High School impact on all who attended and the community of which the school was a major part. Butler was the all-Black high school in Hartsville until integration closed the doors back in the late 1970s. The Butler Heritage Foundation has a mission to keep those memories alive to remind everyone of the enormous contributions of the school to the life of Hartsville. There is a new community center under construction on the Butler campus and a secondary reason for the celebrations is to continue the important job of fund raising to make this project a reality for the community. The Byerly Foundation has contributed more than $350 for the reconstruction of the community center where the administration building used to be. Currently, the Boys and Girls Club is housed in the Gym wing of this school.

The Butler High Heritage Glee Club opened the dinner on Thursday night and that is the video that is part of this post.

Rufus Bess, an educator in Minnesota and graduate of Butler High, was the evening's keynote speaker. He spoke of the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities and the foundation he was given at Butler that helped him to a nine-year National Football League career and so far 17 years of teaching students at the high school level.

The heritage that was on display in the faces of those in the audience is the foundation on which community is built. In a city like Hartsville, this type of heritage is one of our major strengths as it shows the SENSE OF PLACE of people for their home community. The sense of pride in Butler and in Hartsville was evidence in the remarks of all who spoke.

Hartsville United Way -- A community builder

When it comes to building community, one of the interesting strategies is to find a way to get people within the community to commit physically to the improvement of the community -- voluntarily. The United Way provides this opportunity.

Today, the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce held an "All Member Breakfast" event at Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center to hear from the T. C. Sawyer, executive director of the Hartsville United Way. The update on the role of the United Way in this community was timely. Mr. Sawyer told the group the national United Way is hoping that local United Ways will help focus communities on the major problems identified within the community. He told the group that in Hartsville the three major areas his Board has identified include Education, Health and jobs.

In the past we have known the United Way as a community chest of resources but the strategies of the United Way are evolving around the country as these groups identify themselves more as those organizations that can bring disparate groups from the community together to focus on solutions. The funds they provide come from contributions of people in the community who like the idea of having one organization looking at the community and determining where donor dollars can most effectively be spent.

Expect to be hearing more from the Hartsville United Way!

Tools for Community Building and Thinking

In these comments the Harwood Institute often gets mentioned because of the work they have accomplished in structuring tools for community building and community growth. The last Public Innovators' Lab they held had 60 participants. One participant from a United Way Metro group did a recap of his experience at the lab that the Harwood Institute had shared with their lists. If you are interested in community building, you will be interested in this person's observations from the Innovators Lab.

In Hartsville and the Hartsville area we have our work cut out for us as we try to find the "sweet spots" that can bring people together to build community. We have many people with strong interests and commitments and they work hard. The next step in the growth of our community is increased collaboration, cooperation and cohesion.

New book by Jim Collins discusses how the mighty fall

HOW THE MIGHTY FALL AND WHY SOME COMPANIES NEVER GIVE IN, Jim Collins, 2009

First, this book is not directly about the crash of so many mighty companies over the past few months. The author, who is recognized for such books as GOOD TO GREAT and BUILT TO LAST has been doing research with his team for the past three years studying what causes some of the great companies to fall. Second, why discuss this book in a community thinking or community building blog? It is my belief that communities are organization not unlike some of those that are studied by the Collins team and that we can learn a great deal from the thinking there academics and researches develop. My thinking about the success of communities or the decline of communities has taken some forward steps with the Collins book.

As an aside, I knew I was going to enjoy this book when the author began with a quote from one of his mentors, Bill Lazier. Early in his career, Collins was told by Lazier one of the keys to effective teaching. Lazier said, "don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions." One of my continuing goals in teaching is to figure out the 'good questions.'

This book is probably worth several blogs and for this first one, I am going to take the easy way out and give a synopsis of the overview of the material that is covered on the book jacket. It would be Collins' contention that decline can be avoided, that decline can be detected and that decline can be reversed.

According to this book, the Collins researchers came up with the following "five step-wise stages of decline."
1 -- Hubris Born of Success 2 -- Undisciplined pursuit of More
3 -- Denial of Risk and Peril 4 -- Grasping for Salvation
5 -- Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death (page 24)

A reason I am a fan of this book is a statement that Collins makes on page 25, which is very much a philosophy of leadership or management or the combination of both. It is a statement that we have more control of the destiny of our organizations than we often want to admit. It is a statement that says people within an organization can make a difference. "Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover. While you can't come back from Stage 5, you can tumble into the grim depths of Stage 4 and climb out. Most companies eventually fail and we cannot deny this fact. Yet our research indicates that organization decline is largely self-inflicted and recovery largely within our own control." Page 25

This is a relatively short book of 123 regular pages with seven extensive appendices and extensive notes.

Saturday Mornings in Hartsville

Last Saturday morning, June 5, there was the Good Living Marketplace in downtown Hartsville and the feature on that beautiful morning was a tribute to veterans at the site where the new Hartsville veterans memorial will be installed in a few months. This was the anniversary of D-Day and there were a good number of veterans at the ceremony along with others. In this video you will see Mayor Michael Holt and his children as Warner DeHart, Darlington County Veterans Affairs Officers, talks a little bit about the dangers of D Day.



And, then this morning, June 12, just seconds after 8 a.m. there was the start of the YMCA Lickety Split 5K. This quick video shows the start as the runner approach the first turn onto Fourth Street. Great of the YMCA to host these runs and amazing to see the numbers of people who put fitness high on their living list.

Gas prices -- symptom or sin

(This is a stretch for a community thinking blog - but)

Walking this morning and happened to glance a sign at a station/store that said gas was now $2.47 a gallon for my type. Yesterday, same station, it was $2.39. Wonder how the supply/demand curve changed overnight for that increase to take place?

Anyway the current run up in gasoline prices, Again, is aggravating and I also believe it is dangerous. There are lots of trial balloons being launched to convince the American people we are beginning to see the end of the recession. I hope we are. But, the businesses that see an opportunity to cash in in the chaos of economic troubles may find ways to make the predictions of an end of the recession more fiction than fact. My problem here is that there is less money available to average American house holds. In fact, the headlines in this morning's paper indicate the American families have lost $1.3 trillion in wealth during this economic downturn. That is money that has disappeared -- it is not money that has been stored waiting for a change in circumstances -- it is money we no longer have. And, when certain staple items begin to not just creep up in price but soar in price (as gasoline has been doing the past three weeks)we are again faced with depleted resources. Faced with less available money how can we expect consumers to help spend the way out of this recession?

Big banks have been recognized for their greed, though they do seem to be getting off without much downside. Major car companies have been embarrassed for their lousy management, though that management has been rewarded with taxpayer funds. So, what is the profit picture of the major oil companies, most of which have no national allegiance whatsoever? They are making more money than ever with plans to continue making more than ever without a care as to ultimate effects. I know there are many who will say -- that is the capitalistic way and that is the way we want it -- free markets are self regulating. That may be -- but we know full well that the markets are not free. Every couple of days when the prices of gas go up by nearly the exact hundredth of a cent at stations around the country (supposedly supplied by competing companies)we have to understand we are not operating in a free market environment.

It seems to me that many companies have been using these times of economic uncertainty as an opportunity to raise prices, cut costs, decrease service and blame every entity but themselves for the economic mess. It seems to me that if we are going to build communities it is going to take all of our organizations, all of our sectors of community and all of us individually to identify a common good that is at least as important as our individual bottom lines. It appears to me that if some new kind of paradigm is not accepted, and implemented pretty quickly, the recovery for which we are hoping might be years instead of months in arriving.

Now, I wonder how I could get all that from gas prices up eight cents over night?

A day or two ago this blog mentioned the idea of social capital. Darlington County does have a lot of people working in various areas to help improve the quality of life at all levels. One of the often unknown resources that has been developed is called the Darlington County Coordinating Council, whose chair this year is Todd Shifflet. The council has a meeting coming up next week in Darlington and one of its major functions is to provide a continuing platform for organized communication among human service agencies and groups so that maximum use can be made of the resources available. The council's web site does a good job of pointing out the scope of services available in our community. It would be worth a visit!

Public capital is a key building block to community

Public Capital
Public capital are those organizations within a community that can come together to help expand the riches of a community, help build community where it can do some good and help rebuild when opportunities have become challenges. One reason we are focused on the Selling Hartsville strategy for Hartsville is the need to continue expanding the public capital or what also might be called the social capital that will enable Hartsville to be an even better community tomorrow than it is today.
OPPORTUNITIES TO CHALLENGES
We have some opportunities that have become challenges. Hartsville has been home to one of the most successful publicly traded companies based in the southeastern United States for more than 109 years. That company is S-o-n-o-c-o. At one point in history this company brought in executives to help manage, run and lead the various operations. At that point in history, most of those people chose Hartsville for their home. That is no longer the case and the opportunity of being headquarters for a multi-billion dollar company has become the current challenge to find ways of again making Hartsville the community of choice. In Hartsville, we have been fortunate to have many people working on this challenge but we need many more to take up the cause or Hartsville could become a shell of the small city many of us enjoy calling home.
HARWOOD IN DETROIT
In this posting today is a video by Rich Harwood, whose Public Innovators' Laboratory is in Detroit the first three days of this week. I am including a short video he did today because while we are not yet where Detroit is, we have to act now so we don't get there before we understand that is where we are. I don't expect anyone to enjoy Rich's observations but I hope they will ignite some of your own thinking about how we might continue amassing public capital in Hartsville so we begin to look at more opportunities than challenges.

Authentic Hope is one of the foundations of building community

Rich Harwood talks a good deal about hope as a building block for communities. In fact,he has The Harwood Institute's Public Innovators' Laboratory in Detroit this week focusing on ways to build communities. Detroit, where the city's number one corporate citizen, declared bankruptcy on Monday. For The Harwood Institute, taking the Innovator Laboratory to a city on the brink is certainly taking lab work to the real world.

Rich Harwood was in Hartsville, and he evens mentions Hartsville in his newest essay, Redeeming Hope. But the reason for posting these thoughts on Harwood and Hope is Hartsville. You see in this blog continued talk about the Selling Hartsville initiative. I hope if you go to some of the links from this posting, you will quickly notice that the Selling Hartsville initiative is not an exercise taking place in a vaccuum. It is an effort to help those of us who live in this community sell hope to each other that our great place to live will become an even better place to live tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Harwood talks about authentic HOPE and it is good to open conversation on what it means to have authentic HOPE for Hartsville and what proof we might have that our hope has turned into actions that have created results fulfilling our hopes, dreams and visions.

Task Force hears about things in Hartsville

Last Wednesday the Marketing Task Force of the Selling Hartsville initiative had about 14 people present for a meeting to discuss the things that are happening in Hartsville. While the tone of the meeting was somewhat dampened by the gloom of very tight city budgets, there was some pretty encouraging news coming out; some of which had been announced and some that happens when dots are connected.

The big news from the city manager was the approval of a new Hotel facility for downtown Hartsville. This new facility will anchor the downtown area with a four-story hotel on the corner of Carolina, Fourth and whatever name Railroad Avenue takes in its new environment.

Part of the other good news is that the street paving on that small new part of the road is complete and by the next day the road was open to through traffic. That is finally good news for the new owners of Gardners, who had been losing business because access from Fourth Street was cut off while the paving was completed.

One of the group's members who deals with real estate told another member that closings had picked up and that real estate was selling in the city. While that was an informal conversation, it was also among the good news.

Johnna Shirley is the chair of this task force and her continuing leadership is also good news. The task force met a couple of months ago at Hartsville High School to discuss potential plans for enhancing the looks of the school. Dr. Burry, the principal, told the group he was hoping that the architects who are working on the new gym will also be presenting some informal ideas about ways to enhance the looks of the exterior of the campus. Last summer there was a concerted effort to launch the Selling Hartsville initiative. That was the time the overall economy also decided to collapse. Some people questioned the timing but I continue to note the timing might not have been better. Why?

Well, in addition to tight budgets the city manager also said that both hospitality tax and accommodations tax revenue is off inside the city. We have had a great deal going on throughout Hartsville since last summer. Imagine what those revenue streams might have been like without the Selling Hartsville initiative!

Remember, Selling Hartsville is multi-audience initiative with one major audience those of us who live, work and enjoy or small city. We have to make a concerted effort to check Hartsville first when we are making purchases and deciding on a night on the town. We also need to encourage our neighbors to do the same.

As the task force continues to meet it is focusing attention on those areas of the city that need improving. The city manager mentioned the street scape of several years ago with bricks now coming out of the street. I had thought that about 18 months ago there were crews working nights in Hartsville repairing many of those areas. But, as the city manager noted, some improvements that were made 10 to 15 to 20 years ago might need attention as they get older. Heck, if you ride on some of our city streets you will notice needs. The point of the task force in its present configuration is to look out for what it is calling the "holes" in the product we call Hartsville and then making suggestions or calling for action plans to address those holes so that we have product people want to buy.

What happens when we stop getting better and stop growing?
-- We have fewer people paying the taxes need to run a great city
-- There are fewer people attending our churches
-- There are fewer people to attract other people
-- There are fewer people taking part in Habitat, in the Taste in buying Red Fox Club tickets, etc.
-- You can add your own ideas of what happens

If you are reading this, you are probably already one of the people who see Hartsville as a great place to live and play, raise a family, and/or retire. So, when the call goes out to stay involved or become involved you may feel it is preaching to the proverbial choir. Okay, maybe, but we ask that you continue to sing the praises of this small city and send on the call to others to stay involved.

FOR FUN -- June 6 will be the Good Living Marketplace on Cargill Way in downtown Hartsville with a special veterans recognition in line with the 60th anniversary of D-day -- the start of taking back the continent of Europe in World War II.

Hartsville, the art of good living where you can always "expect pleasant surprises."

It wasn't about white men or even Latina women;Judge Sotomayor was right in 2001

When thinking about building community is seems to me we need to be grasping to see the bigger picture, which seems to be a major goal in our current "got-ya" culture. First, if all the enemies can find is one word in a speech eight years ago for a judge who has been writing judicial opinions for a couple of decades the turmoil is less than a tempest in the proverbial teapot.

But, let's think about the bigger picture as related to the gripe that Judge Sottomayor said a decision that included a Latina woman would be better than a decision that just included white men. Where is the controversy? How is that racist?

In my community thinking and community building activities and in my professional life there have been several instances that stand out to me about the need for the diversity that the Judge really was discussing in her speech.

#1 -- On the school board we were often told the reason for so few minority teachers and so few minority administrators was that there were just none available and non applying for jobs in our district. It was amazing when a minority was hired as the assistant superintendent for human resources how quickly there was a pool of applicants that represented the diversity of the county.

#2 -- Working in corporate America is was often said the reason for no women at the top was there were not capable female executive candidates. What a difference it made when a female became head of human resources and a new perspective was involved
in searching for candidates.

#3 -- Have been wondering since the mid 1970s what difference it would have made if city council had invited some community members to the planning sessions that put a municipal swimming pool within a hundred yards of a cemetery. Council always wondered why the pool never got more use. Many members of the minority community who lived in that neighborhood did not feel it was respectful to have the cemetery and pool right next to each other.

People like to simple answers and people like to put others in instant classifications so they don't have to think. If you are going to build a community at what we call the local level or the national level, you have to get around to thinking instead of knee-jerk reacting, which destroys but never builds.

Resistance to Change a Powerful Force

Often, I find myself thinking about change and how hard it is to make change happen personally and in the greater community. And, as I was doing some of that type of thinking today I happened on a blog by Jim Moulton from the Knowledge Works Foundation that was discussing the new technology for books and how change does not come easily. That led to another blog post in Fast Company that was written in 2007 called "Change or Die," that has some great thinking and writing on this subject of how to make change happen. Both of those blogs came immediately after reading an article in the STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW that was a Question and Answer interview piece with Judith Rodin, head of the Rockefeller Foundation. That interview did a lot of talking about the grants her Foundation is making to fund innovation (a fancy word for change) in all different kinds of settings.

To keep this posting short enough, I will only elaborate on a couple of ideas discussed in the Rodin interview because they seem like tools that many people could use at various levels to help move the discussion of change and innovation forward.

CROWDSOURCING
It turns out that a major funding focus for the Rockefeller Foundation is innovation. One of the areas in which they have been putting money is called crowdsourcing. They got into this with a for-profit company called InnoCentive. According to the article, Innocentive uses web-based platforms to bring bring together people who have never and will probably never meet to work on solving specific problems. According to the article, this process is used "to gather solutions to problems that have confounded people working in just one place, such as an R&D Department at a pharmaceutical company."

COLLABORATIVE COMPETITIONS
Collaborative Competitions are a subset of the Crowdsourcing idea and the example int he article comes from an organization called Changemakers. One of the major differences is that the web-based platforms Changemakers use have the capacity of showing everyone's thinking so that people are able to build on other people's ideas when they are thinking about big problems -- "looking for ways to help impoverished communities gain access to sanitation and drinking water," as one example. As I read these ideas I wonder how such a crowdsourcing application might be initiated to help our Pee Dee area work on the multi-county problem of dilapidated structures that are blighting so many neighborhoods in our small towns and cities.

User Driven Innovation
This is considered the second major innovation technique discussed in the article and the concept, as structured by a design firm called IDEO, is that those who are most successful with innovations are the ones who allow the people who are going to be implementing or using the product/service/idea to have "a real voice in the development process." I find this intriguing because I know it is an idea that has been discussed by my daughter as she is working on an HIV/Aids research project in Kenya.

There are a lot of ideas out there and there are tools that can be developed for using these tools in the problem solving process. But, as all of these articles touch, there has to be some real recognition of the need for change.

"We'll show them!"

The credit card companies may be using the above headline as their new marketing slogan. Pulled a flier from one of my credit card issuers from the mail box yesterday. Essentially the card said we are raising prices for your credit card in order to maintain profitability on your account. We are not offering you any more service. We have nothing additional to provide you for these additional charges, we just need to charge you more. This is one of those companies who got a piece of the bailout -- from taxpayer funds. The timing was not bad either, coming the same week as the President signed new legislation trying to reign in the multiple abuses these companies have foisted on their customers. One of the elements of this letter that is interesting is how similar the letter in my mail box was to another I saw earlier in the week from another irate credit card customer of another provider. He had even gotten through on the number and the person answering told him very nicely, just as the letter stated, 'Sir, you have a choice, you don't have to continue being our customer, we don't mind.' It is interesting how two completely separate companies can put out pretty much the same letter to customers in the same week saying 'continue with us or don't your choice we really don't care. Back in the civics classes from eighth grade there were these words they explained like monopoly and restraint of trade and price fixing that seem now to have very concrete meanings for what then might have been abstract concepts. Coincidence the wording is nearly the same from two different companies? Coincidence that the letters come the same week the government is trying to regulate surprise rate hikes and usurious penalties? How do you build community when the major motivation of many of the most important institutions appears to be, "We'll show you!?" This is not a free-market system with this much coincidence. Guess they are learning from the oil companies, who all appear to raise their prices by the exact same pennies or dimes or quarters at exactly the same time on exactly the same day all over this highly diverse country.

Some exciting discussions in Hartsville

Generally, mayor and city council positions do not generate a great deal of discussion. Someone might say, "I wonder who is going to run?" but then the discussion usually trails off to sports, food or something else. Since it was announced that Mayor Holt is going to be a Family Court judge and not in the running for Mayor, there has been a noticeable increase in discussion about who might be interested in becoming the next mayor.

From a community building, community thinking point of view that is a great discussion to be hearing. Hartsville is (and maybe has been) in a precarious position as a community. Like all municipalities there is a severe pressure on city finances with a budget that is not keeping up with expectations. Unlike ALL municipalities, Hartsville is and has been declining in population, which is not a healthy trend. Also unlike some municipalities there is a significant number of people within the city who have a vision of making Hartsville one of the best places anywhere in which to live. There is that group, many of whom have worked hard for years helping to make things happen, who believe Hartsville offers "something" as a community they do not see or hear about in lots of other communities. So, it is with more than a little excitement that I view these discussions about who might want to run for Mayor.

One of the most exciting parts of the discussion are the names of younger citizens that are emerging from this discussion. Some have been involved in working on committees and working with organizations like the Chamber and Downtown Development to help make the city better and now want to get more deeply involved. Some are newer to the idea of politics but have the feeling they can be among those who can make a difference. There is also discussion about others who have worked hard inside the city for much of their career who now know they can put that experience to use in moving the city forward. The whole idea of people having a vision for this great community we call Hartsville is exciting. The comprehensive plan that was adopted months ago supplies one of the few visions for Hartsville that has been articulated. It will be great hearing from those considering running for Mayor what they see for our community. It will be interesting hearing the growth philosophies or what we call in the grant making business "theories of change" that the people thinking of running for Mayor will be identifying. One thing I discuss, maybe ad nauseum in my observations of Hartsville, is a quote from a former boss and former Chairman of Sonoco -- "When you stop getting better, you stop being good." We have to find ways to continue moving forward, even in times of tough budgets.

We need to find ways to get people to buy into the vision of a forward-looking community that will be inclusive as we strive to become a 21st century living community that has people waiting in line for the opportunity of living and raising famlies in this community. We identify this community as "Hartsville - The Art of Good Living" and we call on residents and visitors alike to "Expect Pleasant Surprises." We need leaders who will continue to work to bring together all of the community capital with which we are blessed to make Hartsville one of the best places in the world in which to live. For some it is now -- but not for everyone.

Filing for the next city election is not until August but it sure feels good to hear the energizing discussion taking place already.

Community Leadership resoruces

While doing some research on leadership instructor and author John C. Maxwell, I came across the Community Leadership Organization. Maxwell was the opening speaker at their Leadership Conference in Long Beach, Calif. One of Maxwell's goals for this decade was to help lead leaders and that meant to help create leaders. He formed a company called Equip to train leaders across the world who would then train other leaders. His initial goal was to train one million and he hit that goal in 2006 and according to reports from his organization, they are over two million at this point. That is one reason Maxwell is considered a top authority on leadership in the world. The Community Leadership Organization also looks like a good resource for information on community building.

Patience and Persistence two Community Building Tools

New Vision Development CDC demonstrated the power of positive persistence and positive patience this noon time as they hosted the kick off luncheon for the New Vision Development Cafe at the New Vision Community Center on Bethlehem Road in the north section of Hartsville.

Pastor Calvin Daniels is a visionary leader who has been persistent in his quest to improve the quality of life among those who don't have as much in the vast area of his church's reach in what is also known as the Byrdtown Section of Darlington County. Pastor Daniels also heads New Hopewell Baptist Church and New Vision is a non-profit Community Development Corporation that Pastor Daniels and others developed years ago to try bringing new ideas and new sources of funding to the quality of life quest.

Okay, where is the patience and persistence? This morning the members of the New Vision CDC had the grand opening for their new cafeteria, which, beginning next week will become an eat-in restaurant in this northern part of Darlington County. Severalyears ago The Byerly Foundation provided New Vision with a grant to help enhance the kitchen area of the Community Center in hopes of helping it quality for Kids Cafe, a program of Harvest Hope. The CDC was able to install the new hood by then they were hit by a variety of delays that required other significant upgrades. They persisted and with some grant funds that they obtained with some assistance from Senator Gerald Malloy, they were able to accomplish the upgrades, quality for the Kids Cafe and also envision using this modern kitchen as a way to help sustain a variety of other projects ongoing in this Community Center. Non profit groups trying to do good have steep mountains to climb. They are about the business of doing good but doing good is often expensive in terms of both time and treasure. Doing good often takes much longer than many people would like or that many people have the patience to sustain. Congratulations to New Vision for having the patience and most importantly the persistence. You will be hearing more from this group as they find new and different ways to continue improving life in this rural area of Darlington County. Darlington County Superintendent of Education Rainey Knight was among those who were at this special opening luncheon. One of the missions of New Vision has been to help the children of this area understand the need to get a strong education so they can help continue improving the quality of life.

Patience and persistence -- two important community building tools that are not always in adequate supply. Dr. Calvin Daniels can help other groups understand how to put these virtues to work to accomplish more than most would ever dream.

Photo shows Pastor Calvin Daniels talking with Henry Counts of the Harvest Hope Kids Cafe and in the foreground are LaShonda and Mia, also with Harvest Hope.

Photo shows some of the New Vision CDC volunteers as they work in the kitchen to prepare for the grand opening luncheon.

Photo shows some of the people celebrating the grand opening of the New Vision Cafeteria.

Community in the news

Congratulations to Hartsville Mayor Michael Holt on his appointment to a S. C. Family Court judgeship. This will cause him to be a one-term mayor but the citizens of our State will be well served to have his values and his commitment to community and family on the Family Court bench.

City Council Meeting

Have not been to many city council meetings since I stopped being a reporter many years ago. City business can be tedious but it remains important business especially here here where we have a city that services about 22,000 people with a base of citizens of about 7,000 people.

Big news on May 12 --

Council passed the ordinance selling a three acre plot on what is called in the VISTA in downtown Hartsville to a group getting ready to put up a modern Hampton Inn to join the Fairfield Inn serving visitors to Hartsville. This is big news because lots of visitors to our small city are forced to stay in Florence and that means both accommodation and hospitality taxes generally go out of the city.

A police Corporal became a police Sergeant in a pinning ceremony in front of Council and what I believe was Sergeant Peavy's (hope I have his name right) squad. The new Sergeant's father, a former police chief, and Lt. Ruddick did the honors of pinning on the Sergeant chevrons.

Lots of budget type ordinances up for first reading and in these times of economic hardships, budgets are not very much fun to read or discuss. Budgeting in tough times is a real skill -- finding ways to continue making the organization better while having fewer resources to make things happen. I think part of that skill is having a vision for better -- did not hear any discussion of that type of vision.

This meeting was held at the Lawton Park Pavilion and it was a nice setting with the sun going down over the lake. Lawton Park was also nice as there were people walking for exercise, reading and talking for pleasure, playing tennis, fishing and children on the playground -- a great small city tableau as the meeting was winding down.

PBS.org is looking for comments about community communication needs.This blog is what I posted with them.

If you are getting someone to work on this question Doug Fisher of the University of South Carolina would be one specialist I would recommend. He implemented a community journalism story telling site for Hartsville, SC and it is, right now, an important link to the information system in our small city. While the site might sometimes deteriorate into a chat room you will see, if you study it, that it is the place those of us in this small city go for breaking news. A community needs a place where information can be gathered and shared. Community newspapers are finding it much more difficult to fill that role when their bottom line is controlled outside the community.

A community needs a place where the tough questions can be asked of those running the community. Those in charge never enjoy answering the questions but when the questions are asked and answers required the community becomes a better place. A community needs ways to point out the good things going on and applaud those who are making things happen. This used to be the role of the community newspaper but most communities don't seem themselves as reflected in their local papers as they once did. Communities need to feel their place in the world is up to par with others and the fact of convergence and multi-platform reporting is undeniable. Heck, I can blog and include photos, videos and sound and if I can do that for my own communications a community needs a platform that will enhance the overall information and communication flow that is flexible from needs of both the news generators and the news consumers. And, communities need places where the pulse of the community on issues can be gathered quickly. Generally, there was no single place in the community where that could happen. There is now that ability with the multi-platform capabilities and response-feedback mechanisms in much of today's communication technology. Our community points to the lack of communication as a flaw and it feels to me like this is a flaw that can be fixed.

I was glad to be able to express some of the needs of communication within a community with the pbs idea lab.

Community building is a daily activity

And you cannot always know what effect your small, or large, contribution might be toward community building. Ed Guest provided some agreement to a comment on a recent blog about the volunteers who make a difference for Hartsville. He did note that maybe such a blog was preaching to the choir and I think he is right. Probably those who don't find Hartsville an active community also have no reason to read a blog like this. But, I got to thinking that one of the things that does make us difference in this small city is the size of that "choir" that volunteers for so many different activities in Hartsville. Because we have so many things happening and, in truth, so many different things we can find some "sweet spots" for lots of people. Rich Harwood, when talking about public innovation, stresses the need for sweet spots -- those places where the needs in a community overlap with the interests of people (leaders) who can help meet those needs or overcome those challenges.

This past weekend was one of those great examples:
a canoe and kayak festival/competition
a community marketplace
an arts fund raiser that lent itself to food and frivolity
a softball conference tournament at Byerly Park
a Community Players production of "Deathtrap."
Hartsville High Prom
Coker College graduation
Church singing programs
an AAU/YMCA multiple team and multiple gym basketball tournament
a downtown sidewalk sale
Master Gardeners' Plant Sale (master volunteers)
And I know there is more that is missing from this list

Sometimes people wonder what it is they can do. Lots of people found a sweet spot in some of the above activities.

And, this week Rich Harwood had an interesting example of citizenship that he calls The School Bus incident.

The whole point is that we get better when we build and when lots of people get together to build together. This ethos is one of the things making Hartsville a special community.

Volunteers Make Major Activities Happen in Hartsville South Carolina

This weekend has been packed with things going on in Hartsville, South Carolina and every time I reflect on so much happening, something else pops into view that some might not have known was going on.

For example, I forgot about the singing group that was going to be at Emmanuel Baptist Church on Saturday night. I think they are called Tenth Avenue. The Hartsville Advent Christian Church is having Homecoming on Sunday and they will have the Tim McCLendon Trio as the featured group.

The Morning News had a page of pictures of a couple of things going on Saturday in Hartsville including the Butts and Blue Jean event sponsored by Black Creek Arts, the Kayak and Canoe festival on Prestwood Lake and Black Creek sponsored by the Darlington County Tourism, the Good Living Marketplace sponsored by the Hartsville Downtown Development Association, and on the Sports Page a note that the Florence-Darlington Tech Stingers are still alive in the softball conference tournament at Byerly Park.

There are still more than a dozen events not mentioned in this post but the idea of this post is to remark on the number of people needed to make all these events work. Sure, there may be one or two people who get a little compensation from a job to help out but the backbone of this type of activity is the Volunteer. I must have talked to 20 people on Friday who just casually mentioned that in addition to the things they were doing they were also working at this event or another event or another event over the weekend. It is always amazing the number of people willing to give of their time and their talent to help make their communities greater places to live and raise families. A strength of Hartsville is the legacy of volunteerism that has been part of this community -- probably even before the small city was incorporated.

Thanks for all those who were working and volunteering for all the events this weekend. Your efforts keep the pride flowing.

Community Building and the first 100 Days

Rich Harwood of the Harwood Institute has developed what he calls a citizenship test of the first 100 Days of the Obama presidency. Rich's writing gives everyone interested in community building more food for thought. You might want to read this blog and maybe take this citizenship test.

Communication Power in Community Building

There is a story that every time a carpenter sees a problem he goes for the hammer. So, every time a communicator sees a problem or an opportunity the she or he generally says, 'how can we get the word out.' In fact, that is something I teach regularly in my Coker College communication classes. Often, those who don't see communication as all that important don't put as much stock into that strategy.

But, today's MESSENGER in Hartsville shows some of the power of communicating to set a mood and a tone and provide, I think, momentum. We like our slogan, "Hartsville, The Art of Good Living," and we like to follow that with the urging to "Expect Pleasant Surprises." Today's paper is demonstrating both of those ideas while showing some of the power of communication.

** The top headline
"$150 million in development"
**adjacent headline
Hampton Inn & Suites coming to Vista area
** Next headline
Delayed apartment complex back on track

And those headlines are joined above the fold by a sports ear that says the HHS baseball team has at least a second place in the conference and a reminder that the 'Anything Butt BBQ Contest' is coming.

Those headlines, at least in one reader, generate some powerful positive emotions. Those are projects that have been discussed for some time and it is great to read they are coming to reality.

But, while on the idea of the positive emotions, the Art of Good Living and Pleasant Surprises as you go below the fold on today's newspaper you see the headline of the Black Creek Kayak/Canoe Festival set for next weekend.

Hartsville is a unique community with a great deal happening nearly all the time. The power of communication, we hope, will bring more people in to help continue this tradition of generating pleasant surprises in all areas of life in this small South Carolina city.

Rich Harwood, The Harwood Institute, has some community building tools that include an assessment of the community he calls Community Rhythms. With communication like we are reading in today's paper we can feel the Rhythm of growth, the Rhythm of Hope.

There is much more -- but for another blog.