Tag Archives: organizations

Causes and Friends

Who Cares?

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One of my old jokes was, “There’s a lot of apathy in our society but who cares?” I’m the first to admit it’s both funny and it’s not. I’ll also confess that I’ve been making the joke long enough that I stopped thinking about whether or not it’s actually true. Granted, it seems like people are less interested and less engaged, but is it due to apathy?

Last fall I self-appointed myself as a volunteer promoter and advocate for the “Pirate Specials Program” developed for our middle and high school students in M.S.A.D. 4. One aspect I’d like to share with you is the extreme lack of apathy I’ve encountered. I started out with a belief that it would perhaps be challenging to get members of the community to agree to participate. What I found instead was enthusiasm and pent-up energy. Most of the folks I talked to wanted to sign on before I’d delivered half my pitch. Sometimes there were logistical challenges such as scheduling, but I considered it my role to make things as easy as possible for those who wanted to volunteer.

Of course I’m still campaigning, but it has been rewarding to see people want to get involved with our schools and our kids. As far as I know, no one’s been avoiding me and I now find myself re-thinking my old joke. Maybe there’s not as much apathy as we think there is. 

Coincidentally, I was introduced to a Ted Talk entitled “The Antidote to Apathy” by David Meslin who calls himself a “professional rabble rouser.”   His formal bio describes him as “Multi-partisan and fiercely optimistic, Dave Meslin embraces ideas and projects that cut across traditional boundaries between grassroots politics, electoral politics and the arts community. In his work, in Toronto and globally, he attempts to weave elements of these communities together. (His business card reads “Dave Meslin: community choreographer,” which feels about right.)”

The video is only eight minutes long so I’m not going to make this post a spoiler. Yes, Meslin talks about Canada, but I think you’ll agree there are plenty of similarities in the United States. This definitely should be required watching for anyone who’s involved with a civic organization, political party, school, church… if you’ve found yourself complaining about people not getting involved in things that matter, watch this.

Causes and Friends

Supporting a Good Friend and a Good Cause!

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shrinerI’m pleased to be considered a sponsor of good cause (Springfield Massachusetts Shriners Hospital) being organized by a good friend (Susan Austin). Susan and her committee are organizing a “Trivia Night” to be held on Saturday, September 14, 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm at the Son’s of Erin at 22 Williams Street in Westfield, Massachusetts. My role and sponsorship feels pretty minimal, so I thought I’d help by giving Sue and her efforts some publicity.

If you’re from that area, you might put the event on your calendar and plan to attend… if not, you can still help. The committee has pledged that 100% of the proceeds will benefit Shriners Hospital. You can send a donation to

Susan Austin
Hairport
148 Elm Street
Westfield MA 01085

Make the check payable to Springfield Shriners Hospital. I suspect it’s also not too late to be a sponsor. In additional to financial support they are looking for raffle prizes. If you’d like to help, call Sue at 413-537-5480 and tell her Mr. Boomsma sent you. (But don’t believe any stories she tells you about me when we were kids!)

 

Classes and Courses, Personal Growth

Speakeasy Opportunity!

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We have a few people interested in starting an informal group of people who’d like to hone their public speaking skills… no dues, no structure… just an occasional get together that allows us to “practice” speaking in front of a non-threatening group and receive constructive feedback. We’re betting some of the presentations will be pretty interesting too! We’re finishing up a public speaking class on Tuesday April 17th and those who think they might be interested in something like this are invited/encouraged to attend the class. We’ll start at 6:30 PM at the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative Center on Morton Avenue. Prepared speeches aren’t required, but if you bring one we’ll listen! Any questions, send me an email or give me a call at 343-1842

Teaching

Don’t Blame The Teacher!

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Here’s a link to an interesting article in the Bangor Daily News:

Moving Beyond ‘Blame The Teacher’

Much as I enjoyed the article, I also ended up frustrated because–try as I might–I could not post a comment! Reading the comments already there made me want to add:

One caution is that we not move from blaming the teachers to blaming the parents. To do so would be to miss the point of the article. You can bet that the schools cited here did far more than is reported in this article. Ultimately, the ENTIRE system was affected. The article perhaps didn’t go quite far enough in describing this. One sentence that needs changing:

“In education as in industry, progress toward quality will require collaboration among administrators, teachers and their unions, the parents and the students themselves.”

Of course Demings wasn’t the only “guru” promoting this thinking, but there was a simple elegance to his approach. The approach forced us to stop finding people to blame and look at the systems those people are working under. Very often those systems punish the very behavior and outcomes being sought and reward the undesired ones.

I was a practicing systems organization development consultant during those years and can attest to the success of the approach. Organizations with red bottom lines were in crisis and desperate for a fix. Those who saw beyond blaming often achieved incredible turnarounds. The need to make a profit can be incredibly motivating.

We might start wondering when we face a similar crisis and the need to teach and develop our kids becomes similarly motivating.