Author Archive
Convening - Less Art than Science
Spend a couple Google-minutes and look up “convening.” After the requisite bad matches and charlatans, Google, Bing or your search engine of choice gets you to some worthwhile information. I did this recently to reassure myself of what I know to be the basics of convening, something SCOPE works hard to be good at.
First [...]
Money and Community
After a meeting the other day, I talked with a woman about what she’d heard and how it relates to her work in her neighborhood. The meeting was called by government and focused on developing the community. I said something about how money is not the building block of a thriving community – communities start [...]
Engagement and the Digital Divide
We are trying to be savvy regarding social media approaches to connecting people. It has power and potential to cross boundaries in ways that other media does not and at a volume and speed unlike anything before. We want to push to the front of the line regarding the possible connection between innovation and civic [...]
Reflection - Projection - Inquiry
It’s the end of the year. It’s that one time when reflection is frequent and broad. We all know that reflection is vital to each of us throughout the year and it also matters to the organizations we engage as well as our neighbors, families and the community. It just seems like [...]
Jobs and Civic Engagement
There has been a long-standing claim that in those communities where residents are civically engaged there is a better life as measured by many things including more employment – jobs – economy. It strikes me now that with the national and local economy suffering and with so many people out of work, the impact on [...]
Lime Lake - First and Second Investors
I took Euline Myrick to the Tiki Hut at O’Leary’s last week. We talked about a meeting that Euline invited me to attend the previous week at the Newtown Rec. Center. This meeting, half-celebration and half “next steps,” was the culmination of several years of work aimed at turning a retention pond into a community [...]
Are we thinking “out-of-the-box”?
How many times a week do you hear someone refer to “out-of-the-box” thinking? It is not unusual for me to hear or say these words very frequently. This may be another of those phrases that has lost its meaning from overuse. At a meeting this week I noticed that this phrase may be familiar but [...]
I care about this and thought you might too
I am sure that you are distressed over the recent violence at the Hollywood 20, just as I am. I hope that there might be some attempt to think about the appropriate community response that will diminish the likelihood that the environment will worsen and that violence will escalate.
I care about this and thought you [...]
Inauguration Post
This is the inauguration of the SCOPE Blog. It is intended to be a window on what SCOPE staff and those inspired to respond are thinking regarding our community, current “hot” topics and the emergence of community. To be sure, we have not done this before and will likely stumble through the beginning phases with [...]