Planet Common Ground Athens

Promising news from yesterday's meeting in Oconee County:

A new effort is starting to rumble among residents in Oconee and Clarke counties to convert a mostly inactive rail line from Watkinsville to Madison into a haven for cyclists and joggers.

Organizers face an uphill climb in their nascent move to switch rails to trails on the 20-mile stretch of railroad. At least one previous rails-to-trails effort, about nine years ago, failed after backers met resistance from the rail company and local officials.

Still, about two dozen locals showed up to a meeting this week to support the project, and Oconee County Parks and Recreation officials are excited about the idea now, so organizer Scott Nichols said he feels good about the trail's prospects.

Remember when todo el mundo was freaking out about border security? It seems so long ago …

Americans for Legal Immigration reminded us of those bygone days today, announcing its endorsement of Rep. Paul Broun.

"Congressman Broun has consistently stood up against any form of Amnesty disguised as a new guest worker, temporary worker program, or comprehensive immigration reform," William Gheen of ALIPAC said in a press release.

Broun, who wants to build walls on the borders of both Mexico and Canada, also touts an A+ grade from Americans for Better Immigration.

Americans for Al Qaeda Sneaking In Through Mexico to Steal the Election hasn’t weighed in yet.

Full disclosure

Both 10th District candidates’ campaign finance disclosures, filed last Wednesday, keep turning up little nuggets of news gold.

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With major funding support from Bikes Belong, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has produced a new report, Active Transportation for America: The Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking. The report quantifies the national benefits of bicycling and walking for short trips in the U.S. It also outlines future scenarios and potential savings in all these areas if bicycling and walking increase.

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If this man was running for office, I would vote for him. I haven't yet read his newest release, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, but Seth Godin's recent blog entries give a sneak peek of his sage advice on marketing and getting your message out in today's environment.

His post Leadership is the new marketing says it all - focus your efforts on leading a small group of people and take them where they want to go.

Nonprofits and small businesses or organizations alike often fall into the trap of seeking the holy grail of awareness by the general public. This is a waste of time, and a battle you can't win. You will be more successful with a narrow, dedicated and passionate focus. So many organizations talk about lack of name recognition in their community as an obstacle - but it usually isn't the real obstacle. The biggest hurdle is getting specific with the audiences that matter.

One secret of being a large financial institution is that you can take huge risks because you're too big to fail. If you hit craps and lose it all, don't worry, because you'll get bailed out.

One secret of 'small is the new big' thinking is that you won't fail and you can't fail and you don't need to worry about a bailout. Not because you're small in headcount or assets, but because you act small.

A small acting bank would never have invested in tens of thousands of loans that they hadn't looked at. And a small acting startup wouldn't hire dozens of people before they had a business model... and then have to lay off a third of them just because their VC firm showed them a scary PowerPoint.

I've always been frightened by big-firm accounting. The sort of financial legerdemain in which skilled accountants work hard to make the numbers look the way the CEO wants, instead of making them clear. Cash accounting run on a simple bookkeeping system is the small way to do it... even if your company is huge. That's because sooner or later, management has to know what's actually happening as opposed to what they can pretend is happening.

Big-thinking companies lose customers all the time because big-thinking companies isolate the decision makers from the outside world. Angry customers who are leaving don't get heard... that news is heard by the poor shlub reading a script at the call center. 90% of the angry customer mail that people forward to me (I have enough for a lifetime, thanks) is angry because the (former) customer is tired of being ignored.

If you act small and think big, you are too small to fail. You won't need a bailout because your business makes sense each and every day. You won't need a bailout because your flat organization (no matter how large it is) knows about problems long before they're too big to deal with.

The media and the tech blogs glamorize businesses that act big. They write about the big checks VCs hand out and they lionize the organizations that make a splash. The untold story is in the organizations that are close to the customer, close to the product and close to each other. Acting small always pays off.

(Thanks to Howard for the phrase that inspired this post)

We've begun our planning for CiviCRM trainings and meetups for 2009 - and we'd love to get feedback from folks in the community about interests and availability for these events ...

We're considering three different types of events for the calendar:

• Advanced User Training - We held several 2-day sessions this year - focused on the skills needed to configure, customize and use CiviCRM advanced features. These sessions were well received - so we're planning on doing several more in 2009. Fees for these sessions are based on operating expenses.
• User Group Meetings - Half or full-day meetups where folks can share experiences and learnings, network, and discuss the future of the platform.
• Developer Camps - These 1 or 2 day sessions are "learn by doing" events where developers can work together with core team members on specific projects

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Athens had its 12,000th early voter Tuesday, election supervisor Gail Schrader reported, meaning that more than a fifth of Athens’ 56,000 registered voters – up 12,000 from last year – have already cast ballots.

No word on how many of those voters were illegal immigrant terrorists with fake IDs provided by ACORN to steal the election.

A significant proportion, however, are African-American.

Almost 700,000 people have voted early statewide, according to the latest figures from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. In a state that’s 29 percent black and a smaller percentage of blacks than whites generally turn out, 35 percent of early voters were black. Fifty-six percent were women, another key Democratic constituency. And Dekalb County, a Dem stronghold, had the largest number of early voters with 68,000.

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The Millennials, or Generation Y, want to make a difference. As Tactical Philanthropy's post, Millennials as Social Citizens, observes,

"USA Today reports that they volunteer more than any previous generation, and the Wall Street Journal reports today that corporations are finding that one of the best ways to attract them as employees is to offer them paid time off to volunteer."

They also like to stay connected to their community. As GigaOM's post, Go Mobile Young Millennials, Go Mobile, notes,

"[A] report from In-Stat points out that millennials, the generation aged 8 to 27, use their mobile phones to access their social networks wherever they are."

When you combine young people, a desire to make a difference, cell phones, and community you have the elements of the Do Something Challenge. For almost two months, Do Something, an organization that helps young people make a difference, has been hosting the Do Something Challenge. To participate in the Challenge, young people recruit friends from their community to receive volunteer opportunities via text on their cell phone.

Participants who register 50 or more people will receive prizes based on the number of people they recruit.

• 50 Recruits: 20 SWAG Sets with Do Something pens, folders and notebooks.
• 100 Recruits: 20 SWAG Sets and 20 Do Something reusable ecobags.
• 250 Recruits: 20 SWAG Sets, 20 ecobags, 20 t-shirts, and a $100 pizza party.
• 1000 Recruits: 20 SWAG Sets, 20 ecobags, 20 t-shirts, a $100 pizza party, and 2 plane tickets to New York City for Do Something Boot Camp.

If you, or someone you know wants to take the Challenge, the deadline is November 1st. For more information, go to www.dosomething.org/challenge

Hat tip to Creativity in Public Relations for their post Volunteering Via Mobile: Dialing Up New Ways To Help.

Cross-posted from The Extraordinaries blog.

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Forging Ahead, hosted on the Social Edge website, just became THE must read nonprofit blog. The quick synopsis of the blog:

Kjerstin Erickson was 20 when she launched FORGE. She didn’t have a business plan. She didn’t have a revenue model. She didn’t have connections. And she didn’t have a penny. But she now works in three refugee camps in Zambia, helping 60,000 refugees build better lives. This is her story.

My small personal connection is that Kjerstin was successful in winning the grant from my One Post Challenge last year. But I don’t know Kjerstin or FORGE otherwise.

So the story today: FORGE, like many nonprofits is seeing the impact of the financial crisis first hand. And in reaction, Kjerstin is embracing radical transparency. The Forging Ahead post from October 17 is titled “We’re in trouble…”:

So, conventional wisdom says that a nonprofit should never put all of its cards on the table - that showing your weaknesses is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. In order to be strong, you must appear strong, or so the saying goes. If you reveal your vulnerabilities, people won’t have faith in you and won’t want to invest in you.

Well for FORGE, it’s time to send conventional wisdom to hell. The truth is that though our programs have never been stronger, our bank accounts have never been lower. We’re in trouble… and I can’t sit back and act as if everything is okay. For the first time in 5 years, I’m kept up at night not by how to improve FORGE’s impact but by how to avoid laying off 150 of the world’s most vulnerable people and shutting our doors. It terrifies me.

Kjerstin continued on October 20 with “How we got into this crunch”:

In my last post, I talked about the financial hardship that FORGE is currently going through and the emotional strain that comes with determining how to best move forward. The first question that everyone has been asking is “why?” - why are we struggling to meet our baseline budget of $400,000, when there are trillions of dollars out there in the world. Sparing you the obvious answers, I’ll use this post to elucidate the 4 main lessons about things we’ve done wrong and things that have worked against us:

The rest of the post includes lines like, “Unfortunately, along with the positive change in outcomes, we lost a huge amount of guaranteed revenue every year.”, “[we] have been disappointed in how little traffic we’ve been able to drive to [our website]” and “On average, people have been giving about 25% of what they’ve given in the past!  Yeah…that’s really bad.”

I wish FORGE the best and I’m impressed with the guts it takes to write blog posts like these ones. This approach may very well attract new donors to FORGE (because they aren’t just saying how desperate their cause is, they are making a case for why their RESULTS are at risk, but can be sustain via new funding). Or it might scare people away. Either way, it is a fascinating real world drama of a social media savvy, impact focused nonprofit trying to deal with the financial crisis.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting plenty of emails asking for more money for various political campaigns.

That's because the systems in place are good at asking for money, and that's what they measure. They're willing to burn out permission, person by person, just to squeeze out the last few bucks.

What a shame. What a waste.

Businesses do this all the time. So do non-profits. They get in a habit of doing one thing (pay, pay, pay!) and they forget that this has a real cost. Ask enough times and people will shut you out. And once they shut you out, you're out forever.

My local radio station is once again drilling us with their pledge drive. Hey, if five days are good, why not twenty or fifty? Sooner or later, you just move on.

If I ran a campaign, I would immediately stop asking for money. I'd ask for ideas for what to do if I got elected. I'd ask for a house party to listen in on a conference call. I'd ask for names of possible voters or I'd look for volunteers to drive to the polls. I'd get petitions signed or ask people to prioritize six ideas for the rest of the campaign or for things to work on after I got elected.

Attention can be worth more than money. Enthusiasm is priceless.

The Oconee County Advisory Committee on Recreational Affairs will be holding a meeting on Greenways, Rails to Trails and connectivity between parks, schools and neighborhoods. Guest speaker will be Mike Wharton from Athens-Clarke leisure Services and John Devine from the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center. The meeting will be held at the Oconee County Civic Center on October 21 at 6:00pm (just before the SPLOST public hearing).

In Philadelphia, charity discontent with the United Way for changing how it doles out money has turned ugly.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, last week the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, the YMCA of Philadelphia and Vicinity, and seven other groups bought a full-page ad in the newspaper to ask donors to make contributions directly to them.

The organizations have historically received funds from the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, but under a new plan United Ways nationwide have shifted their priorities, leaving some long-time partners out in the cold.

United Ways now focus on specific problems, such as fighting poverty, improving Americans’ health, and keeping kids in school, and reward charities that demonstrate progress in achieving those aims.

Mike Burns, a nonprofit consultant, writes that he thinks the United Way change “is a good move on United Way’s part but I feel empathy for the ‘losers.’” On his blog, Nonprofit Board Crisis, he writes, “Maybe the ‘losers’ should form another United Way-esque organization and test what the public wants most.”

Indeed, according to a Chronicle article, several United Way beneficiaries have joined a rival fund-raising campaign run by America’s Charities.

And despite the changes, United Ways across the country raised $4.2-billion last year, a 2.4-percent increase over 2006, but not enough to outpace the 4.1 percent rate of inflation, reports The Chronicle.

(A short-term pass or subscription is required to read The Chronicle articles.)

What do you think? Should the United Way have changed its priorities? Should the disgruntled charities have run the advertisement?

— Ian Wilhelm

Good morning, all.

Looks like the Chambliss home may be dropping their Esquire magazine subscription soon.

I promised to pass along “Esquire Endorses America,” where the editors tap their favorites in every single congressional election across the nation, as soon as it popped up online. Enjoy it here.

Also as part of the online issue, the magazine tapped both The 10 Best Members of Congress as well as The 10 Worst Members of Congress Nothing scientific, but a fun list to debate. The only Georgia lawmaker to make the cut on either list? Saxby Chambliss.

Here’s what the magazine had to say about the senior senator. See if you can guess which list he made:

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Beth Gavrilles from Athens Grow Green emailed me a response to my concerns over their endorsement process, and, as always, I appreciate it ...

I’m responding as a member of the AGGC elections committee. It’s true that Ed’s questionnaire responses were a lot shorter and less detailed than Red’s, but as we mentioned on the Web site we also considered information from the candidates’ Web sites and other public statements. As you know, our central issue is growth management and our decision was chiefly based on the different philosophies of the candidates on this issue. We believe that strong growth management policies are necessary to protect the environment, and based on a number of his statements, we felt that Red’s approach is too hands off. This is a fundamental issue for us, and although we were favorably impressed with a lot of what Red said, we just couldn’t get past that.

However, we do post everything and include the links to the candidates’ Web sites with the idea being that anyone who’s interested doesn’t need to take our word for it but can read and decide for him- or herself. We tried to be clear about why we made the decision we did.

I also want to add that we like and respect Red, and we support his work with OneAthens. It was not an easy decision for us.

And, again, I've always admired the work of AGG, and Beth is a loyal reader of this blog and good people all the way around.

Time ran an inspiring interview with Nelson Mandela, written by Richard Stengel, author of Mandela's biography Long Walk to Freedom. You need to read the whole article to appreciate its context, but here's a summary of his eight lessons in leadership.

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
2. Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. Quitting is leading too

 

“Do your part” is the new kid on the words that work list, and here it is in action over at the Southwest Florida Water Management District website.

In the District 6 Athens-Clarke Commission race, Ed Robinson got the nod today from the Athens Grow Green Coalition, a local environmental group.

“Ed has been involved in local environmental protection efforts for many years, serving on the Community Tree Council and promoting the protection of the ACC greenbelt,” Grow Green said. “Environmental issues are a prominent aspect of his platform, including a stronger tree protection ordinance, expanded controls on mass grading, strengthening the transit system, reducing emissions from the ACC government’s vehicle fleet and facilities, and improving water conservation rates.”

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I was at the annual conference of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits late last week. Here are a few things I learned there.

1. Nonprofits are very excited about Web 2.0, but also completely freaked out by the idea of people saying bad things about them online.

I tweeted (used Twitter) from the conference, along with a handful of other people. Check out our coverage of the conference. Several people who had never heard of Twitter were fascinated by the idea, but also alarmed at the prospect that someone might actually tweet that a speaker was boring. While they know that everyone would say the same thing to each other in person, or in private text messages or email later, or in the conference evaluation survey, the thought of it going out live in real time in a more public forum really bothered several people.

I heard a similar fear about blogging. The questions were not about how best to use the tool to market a nonprofit’s activities or mission (which is what I’ll be talking about during next week’s webinar on nonprofit blogging), but more like “What if someone says something really awful about us in the comments?” and “What if someone puts something mean about our blog on their own blog?”

2. Nonprofits are very concerned about copyright and privacy issues.

Several speakers suggested using Flickr for group photo sharing and to easily integrate rotating photography into a nonprofit website. In just about every case, again, the first question was not about how to use the tool most effectively, but rather “Won’t we need model releases from everyone in every photo?” and “Won’t people steal our photos?”

3. Nonprofits find the array of Web 2.0 options overwhelming - before they’ve even tried to use them.

Even though people were genuinely excited about the potential they saw for using the tools in their own organizations, especially after seeing some great examples of what others were doing from Katya Andresen, Angela Connor and John Kenyon, that excitement quickly turned into anxiety about trying to figure out what would work best for their particular situations.

What this tells me is that it isn’t enough for trainers like me to talk about the benefits and how-to’s of Web 2.0; we also need to address the very practical and real fears that come with this major shift in how nonprofits relate to their supporters online.

And here is something I was reminded about . . . It is SO GREAT to meet people face-to-face who you have only known online previously, and to catch up with great friends you don’t get to see often enough. Two cases in point:

- Meeting Leandra Ganko and Elizabeth Turnbull in person

Leandra, a web designer, connected with me through a mutual contact on LinkedIn several months ago and Elizabeth, a fundraising specialist, has been reading my blog for awhile. They have worked on nonprofit projects together here in North Carolina and I was on their “must meet at the conference” list. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them both in person and I hope I can find a project for the three of us to work on together in the coming year.

- Catching up Katya Andresen and Claire Meyerhoff

Katya is not only one of my favorite bloggers and an inspiration to all of us in nonprofit marketing, but she’s also a great friend. And even though media maven Claire Meyerhoff lives in NC and we email constantly, I don’t get to see her in person nearly enough either. Here we are getting ready to watch the presidential debate together the night before the conference got started.

While I’m certainly a huge advocate of online training, by all means, get to a conference when you can. There’s nothing like spending time with people face to face!

Want to reprint this post? Feel free to reprint headlines and excerpts with a link back to the post’s permalink. To reprint the entire post, contact me first.

Training for Nonprofits: See Kivi’s Upcoming Webinar Schedule. Affordable, real-world training for do-it-yourself nonprofit marketers.

News from ABH:

A bicycle rider was severely injured Friday evening when he ran into the back of a pickup, Athens-Clarke police said.

The Gainesville man was riding south on Lumpkin Street about 5 p.m. Friday when a truck made a left turn with a green light from Baxter Street to the northbound lane of Lumpkin, police said.

The driver saw the rider and tried to accelerate out of the way, while the rider tried to stop, but the bicycle collided with the truck's rear driver's side fender, according to police.

The rider suffered a head injury and a severe leg injury and still was in intensive care in St. Mary's Hospital on Saturday, Athens-Clarke police Sgt. Frank Smith said.

Police issued no citations in the collision, pending the outcome of an investigation.

We hope for a full & speedy recovery for this guy.

Wear a helmet out there, and ride defensively, especially on game weekends. I rode through downtown yesterday after the game- the traffic volume was ridiculous, and driver manners were somewhat...lacking.

UPDATE (10/20)
There was also a pedestrian hit and run late Saturday night.

First Annual Athens Bike Swap

Saturday, October 25, 2008
11am - 2pm
Tifosi Optics Headquarters
1051 Industrial Blvd. Watkinsville, GA

Pro teams will be unloading bikes, components, clothing and accessories for unheard of deals and the three bike shops in the Athens area will all be present with their killer deals. Come check it out and bring cash--you won't want to miss these deals!

Equipment from Louis Garneau, Specialized, Shimano, Cane Creek, Hincapie, SRAM, Shimano, Easton, Sidi, Profile Design, Zero Gravity, Kestrel, Thompson, and more.

1/2 mile from the start of the Jittery Joe's Fall Classic Century

I've been reading a lot of comments lately on the Clarke County School District's rezoning plan, which would limit elementary school students to attending the school within their attendance zone. As a CCSD teacher and parent, I understand the emotions involved, and realize this is a touchy subject. I would implore all of you with concerns to find an "old-timer" who remembers how the district changed after school choice was implemented in 1995.

For years, more than a century of Athens history was buried beneath trash, shrubs, briars and trees in Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.

ATLANTA - An Atlanta grocery store known as "Disco Kroger" is reopening after a $5.5 million transformation into an gourmet foodie's paradise.

From "City in a garden gets an orchard" in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago Park District Supt. Tim Mitchell said it was the "first-ever public fruit tree orchard planted in a large urban setting." The orchard was a donation from Absolut vodka under the direction of the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, a San Diego-based charity that aims to plant 18 billion fruit trees across the world.

See this past blog entry, "Urban Orchards" from January.

More about the resilient city later...

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