Dr. Ernesto Sirolli presents the experiences that underpin his work and provide direction for those of you looking to make a change in the world. The video is about 30 minutes and well worth the investment.

I’m thrilled to announce another online project that I’m a part of called OurUA – it is a web community for our physical community. The citizens of Upper Arlington have struggled over recent years to find a way to engage each other in meaningful and productive conversations about our community and our dreams, our struggles and our successes.

The site offers the opportunity of supplying original content through blog posts as well as a discussion forum open to anyone who chooses to participate. My hope is that participation grows so that we have a good diversity of voices, coming together and finding connections with each other.

As a face-to-face component of this project 40 UA residents, volunteers and workers came together to learn about the Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter. A core group rose out of this group (of which I’m also involved) who will support UA in being a community where all voices are encouraged, heard with respect and kindness, and our passions and visions meet in shared responsibility for our community’s future.

Both of these projects will be discussed on WUAR – http://upperarlingtonradio.com/ at 10am Friday, May 1, 2009.

This month’s WOSU commentary.

{CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO}

Last week President Obama called for citizens to step up and volunteer. He announced an expansion of the Corporation for National and Community Service as a way to promote these efforts. With millions of people out of work our national happiness index has nose-dived right along side our ability to try and buy happiness.

I wonder, can you volunteer your way out of this recession – and your own depression?

What did people do before the era of the mega-mall, back when we were still called “citizens” as opposed to “consumers”? Many people found volunteerism to be a worthwhile pursuit; and this sentiment is alive and well today.

In fact, Central Ohio boasts one of the top rates of volunteerism in the nation. So what does it take to be a volunteer?

Becoming a volunteer today is easier than ever. Online social networking sites make finding volunteer opportunities simple; however, if you can’t find one that suits you then make your own opportunity. Reach out to your friends and take on an issue not already being dealt with. Just invite a bunch of people over for a potluck or something with the intent of brainstorming some solutions.

How do you have impact? Come up with solutions that focus on the positive, that have an implementation plan and are viable and sustainable. Avoid solutions that rely heavily on someone else to do the work. It’s better to assume those people already have too much work to do; but you, you’ve got time on your hands – so use it!

Sharing your time and skills with a community of people doesn’t have to be as heavy as feeding the hungry, it could just as easily be about creating social opportunities for professionals or sharing your interests and knowledge with others.

Of course that social activity might include feeding the hungry – there’s plenty of room for crossover.

Use volunteering as a way to network within your community and to make positive changes that will benefit the greater good. Just like interviewing for a new job, volunteerism has the best outcome when you focus on the positive and how you are going to benefit others. Also, just like interviewing, you have the opportunity to make a good impression on others.

That good impression just might lead you back to paying work.

Your volunteerism could include using skills you have grown over the years and this is a way to keep those skills fresh. Your volunteerism may also offer you the opportunity to learn new skills; skills that you never had the time to learn in the past. Before you know it you may even have a new career direction.

So instead of sitting at home in a funk looking at the want ads for the 1000th time get out and volunteer! It may just be your first step back towards financial freedom. At the very least it will increase your personal happiness index. These days everyone could use a little more of that!

I was given the opportunity to meet with a large government agency today who is interested in figuring out how they might build a better community, in part, through the use of social media technologies. The conversation was particularly interesting because of the many different experiences and opinions that existed in the participants. Interestingly the other reason this meeting was exceptional was the fact that the organization currently denies access to pretty much any and all social media tools on their network. A lesson learned here is to bring my own laptop and connect through the tethered Blackberry.

If you happened to be at the meeting you might like an easier way to check out some of the links I had hoped to show off here is a list. Take a look and feel free to post any questions you might have about how they relate to the topic. Sorry for not making a pretty powerpoint and posting it to slide-share, you’ll have to deal with bullet points instead.

Blogging (e.g. WordPress, Blogspot)
http://andrew-miller.com

Wiki (e.g. Wikipedia, Wikispaces)
http://www.hurricanewiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Media Sharing (e.g. Flickr, Youtube)
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=comfest&w=all

Social Sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=columbus

Collaboration versus Ownership
http://columbusunderground.com

Outposts and Active Voice
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=18005416576

Open Knowledge Systems and Mashups
http://www.cota.com/index.asp

Social Media Café Background
http://columbussocialmediacafe.org/

Ganther’s Place
http://ganthersplace.wordpress.com/

twitter: @ganthersplace

Independents’ Day
http://www.thisisindependent.com/

Motorcycle Parking
http://Scooterparking.wordpress.com

Hurricane Information Center
http://www.hurricanes08.org/

Foreclosure Website
http://stlmortgagecrisis.wordpress.com/

Video the Vote
http://videothevote.org/

NBC Storm Twitter
http://search.twitter.com

@NBCSquire on Twitter

• Donate food or money to a local food bank or shelter. One way of increasing your affect is to host a party (something you may already plan on doing) with your friends. Ask them to bring a donation instead of drinks/food for the party itself. Take a moment or two at the party to talk about why you asked for donations as a way to educate your guests.
• Take it one step further and get a group of friends to all go and volunteer at a poverty relief organization. Some of the shelters give you the opportunity to make dinner for the residents and then share in that dinner with the residents. This is a perspective changing engagement that I recommend.
• Setup a food drive at your work, school, church or community organization.

While all of those are very substantial ways to help the less fortunate in your community these are not necessarily steps which will affect poverty in the long run. In an effort to do that you will have to consider changing some very basic aspects of your own life. Here are some suggestions:

• If you own a business allow workers to organize and find ways to provide healthcare options for your workers. Healthcare related issues make up the bulk of the downward spiral for the poor, working poor and soon to be poor “middle class”.
• Speaking of healthcare issues much of this is related to the inability of low wage earners to afford or have access to healthier foods. Working with groups such as the Four Seasons City Farm here in Columbus Ohio can help to teach families and individuals in low income areas how to provide some level of healthy food for themselves with the added benefit of creating positive community activity.
• Make time to engage with the poor in your community. Instead of just working with organizations actually reach out and make the low income/working class/etc. part of your community something you activily participate in instead of just being a drive through or area to avoid.
• When considering purchases support local businesses always, put off making purchases if you have to in order to support local business and local food systems. Explain your support to these business’ is related to your desire to increase employment options and raise wages for workers in your community.
• Make donations of time and money to local groups who provide a mix of positive community activities that are free and available to people of all walks of life. The ability to enjoy creative, educational and relaxing recreation is something often reserved for the middle class and upper class of our society. The resulting stress increases the societal problems faced by those living in lower class situations.
• Support politicians and organizations who are focused on pay equity, healthcare equity and education equity programs. Learn how justice and equality across cultures and classes makes everyone in society more satisfied, safer and healthier.

Finally I want to remind you that wealth is not a financial position, it is a state of being. What do you need to be wealthy? My answer is a healthy community which nurishes me and provides me with a happy and healthy life.

Web development organization Sierra Bravo came up with the idea for an event to benefit Minneapolis area non-profits that was a huge success. Title the F1 Challenge they brought together web developers tasked with the mission of (re)development of 11 area non-profit’s web presences in a 24 hour period. Pretty cool huh! Being on the board of several non-profits myself and knowing how difficult it is for most organizations to put up a good online representation of themselves I can’t get over how great this idea is.

Jody Dzuranin and Alison Colman first brought this to my attention as an event they’d like to help put on. Obviously I was immediately on-board. Last night we had an initial planning meeting with members of the Fuse Factory and CSMC (as well as others) coming together to get the ball rolling. So how can you help? Here’s what we need:

• Location – I’ve contacted Tech Columbus so if you have an in there feel free to help out. Otherwise there are certainly tons of possibilities for this. We need workspace and good solid online connectivity. This will be a weekend event.
• Developers – We need web developers/designers, either professionals or very capable students/individuals. The more developers we can commit the more non-profits we can benefit. Similarly this means more networking between cool individuals.
• Sponsors – We’ll want to provide food, etc. for participants and that means either collecting a fee from participants which may have a negative effect or finding sponsors who can benefit from participation as well.
• Volunteers – You can never have too many volunteers. If you want to help with planning or with the event itself please contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the group.

If you’ve followed my blog a bit you’ll see some strong similarities between this event that my friend Mike and his collaborative artist group Couchfire Collective helped to bring to life and my Convergence Columbus idea. In fact Mike and I had some discussions about how this event might essentially grow into my idea of Convergence Columbus albeit with a different moniker. Whatever happens I’m excited to be a part of it.

With that in mind I’d like to invite everyone out to the Independent’s Day festival this weekend at Gay St and Pearl Alley (just off High). If you’re interested I’ll be hosting a talk from 12pm-1pm at the Interactive/Idea Convention Vault about building local community through online tools. I have worked on several initiatives which have done just this and will gladly talk about some of those, but I would love for this to be an open discussion where we can all learn from each others experiences; so please come out and share.

Beyond just my discussion there will be food, drink, music, art and lots of workshops on tap – check the schedule here. The event is all volunteer driven so if you have some time please consider volunteering for an hour or so on Saturday. I really hope to see you all there!

This is the revolution we are living through and we have much to learn as the turn around occurs. Keep watching and keep participating. Thanks for putting this event on Jeff!

Something that impressed me was a statement she made about me. “Andrew, I’d call you an activist – not necessarily in the political activist form, even though you have those tendancies as well; I’d call you an activist because whatever you’re working on you are willing to analyze the effort and take the initiative to make improvements.”

Something I deal with on a regular basis is the internal questioning of both myself and my environment – what could be better? I don’t always find that answer, sometimes I find the answer but it is too big for me to handle alone and, on the best occasions, I find solutions that I can affect. In the earlier cases I see an opportunity to engage others to find the solution or work towards that solution.

Whatever the situation I believe firmly in taking action – now is the time to do instead of waiting for others to do. I find comfort in so many people of my generation reacting similarly to their situations. We are a DIY generation, not the first to be this way but the most recent to revive that ideal.

Today on WOSU commentator Chris Tucker read his opinion piece titled Crises and Change which deals directly with this idea [Listen Here]. I recommend that you take a listen and hope that you to become inspired to stop waiting on action and instead take action on your own.

As for me, I’ll continue being the activist my supervisor described and I’ll continue looking for that next opportunity to take action on.

Moving forward we (as someone involved in several NFPs) must engage our community as members of the community; make friends – hug and kiss and argue and break up and become best friends again sort of thing. Only then do we start asking for funds. Hell, by that point our friends may already be accomplishing what we thought we would have to pay someone for!

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