Postscript for Park & Rec

Few things are more disturbing for a commentator than to learn that a phrase meant to be simply provocative turns out offensive. So it was with “too busy to attend” in last week’s comment about two Northwest Park & Rec commissioners who were not at the 11/17 meeting. Commissioner Terry Johnston, shown at right, did explain that Ted Morris was called away for a state parks meeting, but to my knowledge said nothing about Richard Sturgill, who--I soon learned – had suffered a heart attack the previous weekend. Naturally, he and his family are angry even though I did not name Richard as absent.

“Too busy to attend” at the time was not meant as a pejorative. The phrase was meant to express that many concerned people are not able to attend some meetings as in, “The mother with three children busy with homework and a husband resting before the night shift at the refinery is too busy to attend a meeting.” My purpose was to convey that the commissioners and their consultants should find ways to inform those affected about the commission’s activity. (Of course, now I realize that wasn’t how the message was received.)

I certainly didn’t want to offend Mr. Sturgill or his family. At the first Park & Rec brainstorming meeting at Semiahmoo, he greeted me, then a stranger, warmly. At subsequent meetings, I have looked forward to seeing him.

Along with feeling remorse, I’ve been pondering how concerned citizens of the community can be informed about significant meetings when they are, indeed, too busy to attend. Such processes need more people to be watchdogs as well as participants.

An analysis of the Obama campaign pointed out that its success was in the use of technology and old-fashioned grass roots organization. Few meetings in Birch Bay – and most other communities – are well attended. In many cases, those attending have a personal interest rather than concern for the community as a whole.

What if the presidents of the various homeowner associations informally chose interested members to attend meetings and report to their constituents via e-mail? Along with Park & Rec, I am thinking that the Steering Committee and its various sub-committees, the fire district, the school board, BBWARM and even water and sewer could benefit from more active community involvement. That is, involvement by more members of the community; I applaud those who have faithfully attended innumerable meetings over many years. Representatives of the Steering Committee were originally elected by neighborhood, but only some of the chosen representatives attend regularly.

Participation is a duty of citizenship – isn’t it?

ak

It's time for you to join the 21st Century

To: The Commissioners of the Northwest Park & Rec District:

Reading from e-mails sent by Alan Friedlob and Kathy Berg, who were unable to attend the meeting on November 17 at Birch Bay Bible Community Church, I argued for the restoration of Bay Horizon Park.

Bay Horizon won six stickers, one behind a trail connecting Birch Bay and Blaine. Another runner-up, a Saltwater Recreation Center at the end of the Semiahmoo Spit, also gained six stickers.

I could certainly be comfortable with those three priorities – which got a total of 19 votes of the 30 people attending the meeting. But my argument is not with the product of the three community meetings that altogether attracted a bare one percent of the District’s population. Rather, my argument is about the process that attracted so few participants. You are going to need many more people to approve of, work for whichever projects you select and, eventually, vote for the next levy.

I know the value of putting paper on the wall and making lists. About 25 years ago, I publicized the work of Michael Doyle and David Strauss, authors of the book that started that stuff, “How to Make Meetings Work.” In return for work trying to get their ideas about the importance of neutral facilitation and other factors for success into magazines, I received training that changed the ways I encouraged clients to relate to editors. For my internship, I facilitated meetings of a group of Berkeley professors attempting to save endangered plant species. But, as you may have sensed last evening, I am not very good at being neutral.

My argument isn’t that the 131 people who attended your three meetings aren’t good people, but that you need to find ways to involve more people in what you are trying to do. Too many people, particularly people who can benefit from Park and Rec, are too busy to attend meetings -- witness that two of your four commissioners were absent last evening.

In short, I think consultant Paul George’s techniques are stuck in the last century, before the Internet and all its permutations.

A lot of 20th Century folks were stunned by how Barack Obama was able to raise more money from more people than any candidate in history. A key step was attracting youth from Face Book. (Obama is going to have Saturday radio broadcasts, like previous presidents, and he’s going to put his talk on Face Book.)

What if you pulled together a variety of robust e-mail lists, such as those maintained by Kathy Berg and the Birch Bay and Blaine Chambers of Commerce to bring people to your web site? You might even put up Face Book-type programs to stimulate more interaction. There are many possibilities.

This isn’t about budget; it’s about smarts.


ak

What is the Future of the Middle East?

Mr. President, in the next four to eight years you will face five challenges, the worst of which is Iran. Thus said the diminutive diplomatic correspondent Robin Wright in reference to her letter to the next president from her new book "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East".

Wright outlined her concerns in October as part of the President's Distinguished Lecture Series, a decades-old Western Washington University tradition. Raising one finger at a time, she ticked off the foremost global challenges: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine/Israel and Iran. Of these, Iraq will be the easiest, Iran the most daunting.

Wright states that the good news about Iran is that the multinational resolutions are moving forward, albeit slowly. The bad news far outweighs the good.

The downside in Iran includes Tehran not budging from its position on nuclear power; the military making deeper incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan; Hezbollah re-arming and strengthening; and the leadership striving to become the super-power of the region. Over all these issues loom the Supreme Law and the Supreme Leader, the structure and power paralleling, and trumping, the elected government and secular law.

For her views on the other four trouble spots, see "Dreams and Shadows".

Wright recognizes that oil is the reason the United States is committed to the Middle East. We must develop alternative energy sources, she says, and that does not mean drilling in Alaska. “If we don’t wean ourselves from oil, we’ll be in real trouble."

Wright defines herself as the ultimate pessimist, not debating whether the glass is half full or half empty, but asking, “Is there really any water in the glass at all?” She ponders why anyone would want the job of president of the United States and concludes her letter to the next one with, “I wish you lots of luck, because you’re going to need it.”

[“Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East,” by Robin Wright. Penquin Press. For more on Wright and her views, see Anthropology Professor Kathleen Young moderate a talk show with Wright, using questions posted to the internet at http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/wright/]

rah

Fly the Flag – for Unity!

In knocking on doors for Obama in our Precinct 109, we concluded that all those who have flags on their porches are voting for McCain. We stopped knocking on those doors.

As we thought and talked about this, we realized that patriotism belongs to all Americans and – although the flag has become a symbol of military action that is largely associated with Republicans – love of country is a much larger subject.

Then we saw that one of our neighbors who is voting for Obama had a small flag in front of her cottage, and the C-Shop is flying a row of flags. The proprietors, Patrick and Patricia Alesse, are Obama supporters.

After the first and second Obama signs that we put up on our vacant Birch Bay Drive lot were stolen, we cemented in four signs with small U.S. flags on top. They stayed for a month. Then last week they began disappearing. Yesterday there was only one.

It’s time to stop thinking like partisans. We prefer to think that the folks taking those signs are also Obama supporters who want to make a statement in front of their homes or put the signs in safe keeping for their grandchildren to sell to a museum or on e-Bay.

Just as Barack Obama says there should be no red states or blue states but United States, we say that as an expression of unity, regardless of who wins this election, we should all fly the Stars and Stripes.



Yesterday we nailed up a small flag near the entrance to our home.

“Yes we can!”

ak