Making It Easier/Facilitator Bob Jonkman
Notes taken at "Making It Easier"
- Present
- Joan (Zonta), Sydney (Kitchener Public Library), Bill (Trinity United Church), Sylvia (Reception House), Mike (First United Church), Bob (facilitator)
Value Statements
- Equity & Fairness
- Legacy for the Future
- Compassion
- Community of Voices
Which of these apply to you?
- Service Organization
- Clearly all of them!
- Zonta
- All about Equity and Fairness for women
- Community
- Communication
- Same direction as others
- Social Work (Reception House)
- Legacy!
- Equity and Fairness
- But sometimes not everyone agrees on what that is
- Minister (of Trinity)
- Once you do something, it always seems to fall short of the orginal goal
- But keep trying!
- Once you do something, it always seems to fall short of the orginal goal
- Social Work (Library)
- Evolving
- And the library evolves as we evolve
- Evolving
- Tech community
- At first the tech community members would say none of them apply, we're only about tech
- But we have meetings and events, so we're a community of voices
- And we have events where we teach others, so we're trying to leave a legacy for the future
- And many tech organizations advocate for the freedom of users against corporate interests, so that's equity and fairness
- And in the Free Software advocates want to make software and knowledge available to all, so there's compassion too.
Common Needs
- Being known, getting support from other groups
- Sharing information, resources
- Communication _about_ the groups (not everyone knows what we do or what we stand for)
- Programs are collaborative with other likeminded groups
- Space (Meeting, Presentation, and Storage to a lesser degree)
- Funding
- Resources
- Reachout to others
- Issues are siloed, get ourselves out of our silo
- Get positive press
- Mainstream Media is not always "with the program"
- It is *not* true that "any press is good press"
- Involve press appropriately (how?)
- Empathy
- Meeting space
- How to involve groups
- Church (First United) has outreach projects, outside of the congregation
- But you need to know who to talk to
- Need a Community resource to provide contacts
- to find space, to let others know space is available
- At University
- Dinner meetings: Pay for dinner, space is free
- Need After-hours space (after business hours, weekends)
- There is a perception against churches
- Some people don't realize that church spaces are available without needing religious affiliation
- But meeting in a religious setting is still uncomfortable for some
- Space must be Safe, Hospitable, Clean
- Especially for organizations working with vulnerable people
- But think of Airbnb -- seems safe enough
- But there are counterexamples, eg. Uber drivers
- Need appropriate space
- Can't just use any old big open room
- eg. storage of servers, need electricity
- Again, knowing what space is available
- How to disseminate information?
- And keep it accurate?
- There are good organizations in the community
- eg. Google
- other potential business partners
- But businesses are narrowing support, fewer opportunities for partnerships
- Plan how to do without
- Then it's a bonus when you get buy-in from the community
"Only dead fish go with the flow" --Mike Savage
- Groups countering the mainstream don't get mainstream support
- But in many cases our organizations exist precisely to counter the mainstream!
- Can't grow with limited resources
- eg. using someone's house limits the size of meetings
- Encourage sharing resources and information
- (this was originally "Overcome tendency to hoard resources and information", but this wording is more positive)
- Get buy-in from lots of people (the community), then approach politicians.