Re: Position in NIPFP, New Delhi, India

mailto:michael_o._patterson@HUD.GOV
Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:47:37 -0500

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Message-ID:  <9902259199.AA919965445@hud.gov>
Date:         Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:47:37 -0500
From: mailto:michael_o._patterson@HUD.GOV
Subject:      Re: Position in NIPFP, New Delhi, India
To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU

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Michael=2E =22Michael O=2E Patterson=22 writes=3A =3E =3E Respect is the center of the circle of community=2E Cooperation is=

its =3E lifeblood=2E This is so true=2C it drives tears into may eyes=2E If the World Bank a= nd its offspawns just realized it=2E YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT IF YOU DON'T PRACTICE IT=2E QUOTING GHANDI- I HOPE THAT'S OK WITH YOU- "YOU MUST BECOME THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD=22

=3E How is this series of messages getting anyone closer to their goals= =3F Anyone=3F It drives home that their staff are arrogrant=2C ingorant affirmative action appointments=2E THE FIRST RULE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IS THAT YOU WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE=2E

=3E An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind=2E Personally I'd think you'd first check out who you are talking with=2C before you utter this intellectually challenged effluent from the read end of a large horned animal usually ridden on by professional cowboys at rodeos=2E IT'S A QUOTE FROM GHANDI=2E I HOPE THAT'S OK WITH YOU=2E

=3E Please=2C let's just let this one go=2E Why=3F Don't bite hand that feeds you=3F HOW ABOUT BECAUSE RESULTS ARE THE ONLY REPORT CARD=3F

The original posting=2C Eberhard=2C was to seek out someone for a position=2C which sounded ok to me=2E However=2C your response offers = the opportunity for a major teaching point=2C for everyone on this list=2E

How many of you have been in meetings=2C where people got up and just vented the poisons in their souls=2C and the entire meeting was poisone= d as a result=3F I don't allow venting at meetings I run=2E It isn't mission-oriented=2E I was tasked to find a cure for that kind of negative behavior=2E Following is a writeup I share on it=2E No endorsement or "sole source status=22 of any contractor or product implied=2E

set me a task=3A a cheap way to deal with the bickering=2C quarreling=2C=

factions=2C and so on=2C that happen in housing=2E I set to my subconscious the question=2C "How can that b= e done=3F=22=2C and forgot about it=2E Asking questions is the most powerful thing you can do=2C because if you're patient and aware=2C you always get an answer=2E At a seminar of the CT Storytelling Center=2C Manitonquat=2C an elder and storyteller of the Wampanoag Nation=2C demonstrated how to do it=2E

Two people work together=2E One agrees to be the speaker=2C the other = the listener=2F drainer=2E The speaker speaks for 5 minutes=2C on whatever is important to them=2C whatever has "juice=22=2C whatever is bothering them=2C whatever comes up=2E The listeners have the more important job=3A they listen to everything said=2C with the body language of total interest=2E Lean forward slightly=2C make eye contact=2C follow what is said=2E The most the listener can say is "hmmm=22=2C or=

=22oh=22=2E After 5=2C or 10 minutes=2C the roles reverse=2E It is best to pick whoever is most "different=22 from=

you=2C people you don't know=2E

I introduced the exercise at a training I did=2E I made the mistake o= f not saving the exercise for the end=2E I couldn't get people to come back=3B=

they were enjoying the exercise too much=2E Why couldn't organizers just share this exercise=

with a few residents=3F Once it catches on=2C well=2C isn't that exactly what we need=3F A cheap me= thod where residents can "drain=22 each other of their resentments=2C at no cost except time=3F I've bee= n to SO MANY meetings in my life where somebody had as their mission venting all the poison from their entire life=2E Venting poisons meetings=2E Also it is grossly disrespectful=2E Draining is b= est done one-on-one=2C or in groups of 3=2E The organizational alignment from a "drained=22 group of peopl= e=2C working on a mission=2C has to be seen and felt to be believed=2E [further info available from his nonprofit=2C StoryStone=2C 173 Merriam Hill Rd=2C Greenville=2C NH 03048=2C 603 878 3201=5D

U=2ES=2E Department of Housing and Urban Development Mission=3A "Helping People Create Communities of Opportunity=22 One Corporate Center=2C 19th Floor Hartford=2C Connecticut 06103-3220 in partnership with Connecticut Housing Finance Authority 999 West St=2E Rocky Hill=2C CT 06067-4005 Housing Authority of the City of Hagerstown 12 S=2E Walnut St=2E Hagerstown=2C MD 21740 and The Caleb Group 400 Humphrey St=2E Swampscott=2C MA 01907

THE BASKETMAKER=3A HELPING PEOPLE CREATE COMMUNITIES OF OPPORTUNITY

A guide for Services & Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinators=2C and leaders working to strengthen their communities

INTRODUCTION TO THE 1999 EDITION

This is a "Partnership Product=22 which owes its existence to an informal association between the Caleb Group=2C the Connecticut State Office of the U=2ES=2E Department of Hou= sing and Urban Development=2C Jessica Short of the Hagerstown=2C MD Housing Authority=3B John Furman of Utica=

=5BNY=5D Community Action=2C Marcy Hudson of the Ithaca=2C NY Housing Authority=3B Ralph Cheyney=2C Bette Myerson= =2C Carol Cehelnik=2C Cheryl Good=2C and Edmund Campion of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority=2C Kathleen=

Arabasz and Marilyn Soper of the Maine State Housing Authority=2C Patricia Kohnke=2C to whom we express particular appreciation=3A Warren Sawyer=2C Ramon Ortiz=2C RSC=2C Dianne Clarke=2C RSC=2C and Holly Braun= er=2C RSC=2C of the Caleb Foundation=3B Jeannie Dewey=2C RSC=2C and Sarena Neyman=2C Hope VI Fellow=3B Janice Monks=2C = RSC=2C of National Church Residences=3B Kim Pietrorazio=2C RSC=2C Konover Residential Corporation=2C and some emplo= yees of Cell-Tech=2C Inc=2C as well as Eve Berry=2C of the Foundation for Community Encouragement=2E Appreciation= is expressed also to Dr=2E Richard Wetherill=2C Empowerment Programs Division=2C Office of Community Development=2C US Department of Agriculture=3B Dave Matthews of the Department of Health and Human Services=2C Linda Chalifoux=2C RSC and Jean Bernstein=2C RSC=2C of Winn Management=3B Lionel Rigler=3B Tony Flaherty and John Mc= Phee of the Tenant Assistance Program=2C Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency=3B Marcy Hudson of the Ithaca Housing Authority=2C Brenda J=2E Gagliardi=2C Karen Dean=2C RSC for SHP Management=2C Cassandra Fitzgerald-Brown of Greater Hartford Realty Management=2C Lynn Ford=2C Yolanda P=3Frez=2C Magaly Mendez=2C Diann Pertillar=2C Joh= n Stanton=2C F=2E Denise Williams=2C Ronald Netter and Kerrie Carr of Independence Resource Centers=2C Inc=2E=3B Karen E=2E= Lee=2C Rodell Burton=2C Yvette Briscoe=2C Veronica Wood=2C Deanna Beaudoin=2C Alice Gregal=2C Margaret Williams=2C=

Mercedes Castro=2C Eileen Morgan=2C Janice Jillson=2C Barbara Bickham=2C Henry Colonna=2C Israel X=2E Cordero-Ojed= a=2C Helen Haynes=2C Joy McCray=2C Donald Freeman=2C Jinnea Blakey=2C Leslie Ciski=2C Jacqueline Molinaro-Thompso= n=2C Marc A=2E Harris=2C William C=2E Pollard=2C Jerold S=2E Nachison=2C Julie Fagan=2C Kenneth Hannon=2C and Chris Gree= r=2E The lead editor was Michael Patterson=2C with assistance from Cheryl Goode=2C and Janice E=2E Jillson=2E Inspir= ation for this work came from the people cited above=2E This guide does not necessarily represent the views or policy of any organization=2C agency=2C or person=2C and is solely intended to offer ideas to support proactive=

community empowerment=2E No endorsement of any contractor or product is implied or stated=2C nor is=

any such contractor presented as a =22sole source=22 of anything=2E Since each community is unique=2C thi= s guide can only offer suggestions and ideas=2E

=22To Help People Create Communities of Opportunity=22 is the mission statement of the U=2ES=2E Department of Housing and Urban Development=2E No one organization can even hope to take on a project like that alone=2E It can only be done through "partnerships=22 and networks of interested people=

and groups working towards common goals that benefit everyone=2E This guide is intended to provide some basic ideas and resources to assist people and groups that want to help create communities of opportunity=2E If you want more detailed information=2C please see the resource listings provided separately=2E Community dynamics information is presented in the resource listings in Creating Community Anywhere=2C by Carolyn R=2E Shaffer=2C especially Chapters 6=2C 14=2C 15=2C 16=2C and 17=2C and The Quickening of America=2C by Lappe and DuBois=2C among other places=2E

It has been said that the best legal solutions are those where no-one is happy=2E Is that any way to run a society=3F Surely we can work together to do better than that=2E Adversarial solutions don't solve very much=2E The new "win- win=22=2C mutual interest paradigm coming into being is a much more enjoyable way to solve problems=2E We live in what Alvin Toffler calls the "Information Age=22=2E We don't have the resources to solve problems wastefully=2C by throwing money at them=2C and demanding uniform content=2C any more=2E Those methods are dying off with the =22Industrial Age=22 that generated them=2E We have no choice but to a= pply intelligence=2C and information=2C and tailor much cheaper=2C more proactive and long-term approaches that work in individual communities=2E We designed to concisely feed the needs of resident services coordinators and other resident leaders=2E It is only as a stimulus to creativity=2C and certainly doesn't have the final word on anything=2E You might only want to look at areas that particularly excite you=2E That's fine=2E Following your fascinations= is good discipline=2E If you want to go further=2C we list books of interest=2E We recommend you go first to your Public Library=2C=

which is an extremely underused community development tool=2E If they don't have the book on their shelf=2C they=

can usually "Inter-Library Loan=22 the book=2E They might or might not charge you postage for this=2E Do look through a book and be sure you like it before you buy it=2E Books can be looked up alphabetically by title and author in Books in Print=2C in larger public libraries and bookstores=2E You can then order them directly from the publisher=2C o= r from a bookstore=2E

Practice random kindnesses and senseless acts of beauty=2E

-Bumper sticker

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS COMMUNITY=3F 4

1=2E A COMMUNITY IS A LARGER SENSE OF SELF 6

2=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS STORIES 8

3=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS LEADERS 10 TIPS FOR LEADERS OF GROUPS 12 QUALITIES OF LEADERS 13 1=2E RAPPORT 13 2=2E DECISIVENESS AND ALIGNMENT 13 3=2E ABILITY TO SEE POSSIBILITIES WHERE OTHERS DON'T=2E = 15 4=2E PERSISTENCE 15 5=2E ABILITY TO INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE OTHERS 16

4=2E A COMMUNITY IS WHAT IT EATS 17

5=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS VISION IN ACTION 21 1=2E Finding and "mapping=22 Individual Strengths 22 2=2E Connecting Individuals=2C Organizations=2C and Institutions= for Community Healing 23 3=2E Form a mutual interest=2C "win-win=22 network for sharing information=2C and economic development=2E 23 4=2E The network forms a community vision and plan=2E 23 5=2E Leveraging Outside Resources to Support Locally Driven Development 24

6=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING 25 A=2E FEEDING INTERESTS 25 B=2E SOME NETWORKING TIPS 27 C=2E COALITION HEALING=2FNETWORKS=2FPARTNERSHIPS 29 D=2E "WIN-WIN=22 NEGOTIATION 30 1=2E Summary 30 2=2E General Principles in Negotiation 30 3=2E A Negotiating Plan 32 4=2E Setting the stage 34 5=2E Opening Lines of Communication 36 6=2E How To Conduct Yourself 39 7=2E Negotiating from Inside a Bureaucracy 41 8=2E What To Do When Negotiations Break Down 43 9=2E Conclusion 44

7=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS CELEBRATIONS AND OTHER SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 46

8=2E A COMMUNITY IS THE WAY IT HANDLES CONFLICT 48

9=2E A COMMUNITY IS UNIQUELY CREATIVE 51

10=2E A COMMUNITY IS ITS CHILDREN 52

11=2E A COMMUNITY IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT TO BE 56 GETTING STARTED=3A Introduction 56 GETTING STARTED 57 I=2E PLAN YOUR STRATEGY [out of an EXCITING VISION of the possible future=5D 58 II=2E PLAN YOUR COMMUNICATIONS 58 III=2E GETTING INFORMATION 58 IV=2E ASSEMBLING YOUR LEADERS 59 V=2E THE GOAL 59 VI=2E EXPANDING CAPACITY 60 VII=2E IDEAS 60

APPENDIX 1 USEFUL BOOKS 65

APPENDIX 2 FUTURE PACING 69

APPENDIX 3 ONE POSSIBLE SURVEY FORMAT 75

APPENDIX 4 Community Healing Memorandum of Understanding 79

Una semilla se sienta en un terreno h=A3medo y caliente=2E S=A3bitamen= te=2C siente una fuerza extra=A4a=2E La fuerza se hace m=A0s fuerte=2C y golpea a trav=3Fs de su ser=2C para ma= ndar un reto=A4o en la oscuridad en b=A3squeda de la luz=2E Con f=3F y confianza en el proceso m=A0s grand= e que ella=2C continua movi=3Fndose a trav=3Fs de la oscuridad hasta que encuentra la luz=2E Luego crece en ambos el terreno y la luz=2C hasta que otra fuerza extra=A4a venga=2E Pasea la fuerza=2C y se encuentra a si = misma produciendo una flor bonita=2E

Todas las grandes cosas comienzan con un sentimiento en el coraz=A2n de=

una persona=2C que persiste en traerla en forma=2E =A8 Qu=3F fuerzas extra=A4as siente tu dentro de ti= =3F

A seed sat basking in the warm damp earth=2E Suddenly=2C it felt a strange force moving through it=2E The force became stronger and stronger=2C resonating throughout its body=2C causing it to excitedly wish to seek the light through the darkness=2E With faith and confidence in a process greater than itself=2C it continued moving through the darkness=2C until it found the light=2E T= hen it grew and matured in the light and the soil=2C until another strange force came=2E The force grew stronger and stronger=2C and produced a beautiful flower=2E All great things started out as a feeling in the heart of one person=2C who persisted at bringing it into form=2E What forces move through your being=3F

WHAT IS COMMUNITY=3F

Thirty spokes arrayed round a hole The wheel's center makes it whole Clay may hold most anything Using emptiness within A room must have its door and window So the life within can flow Profit comes from shaping form Meaning=2C though=2C from force is born -Lao Tsu=2C No=2E 11=2C Tao Te Ching

The basic purpose of this guide is to inspire people to recreate the healthy communities most humans once lived in=2E We don't know what healthy communities ar= e any more=2C we know only the pathology of the average=2E Many of us have at least some idea of what a healthy community is- one where people take care of each other=2C=

one where problems are fixed when they're small=2C not big=2C kind of like the mythical small town of yesteryear=2E Tamarack Song's book Journey to the Ancestral Self talks=

about healthy indigenous communities=2C and M=2E Scott Peck's books also deal with healthy community=2E It starts with the basics=3A what is a community=3F Some say community= is just a place where people live=2C or work=2C just the "bricks and sticks=22=2E In = Chinese Tai Chi Chu'an=2C the exercise "form=22 is empty=3B the person doing it "fills=22 the form=2E= In Japanese Art=2C there's a term for the "space between=22- the white space on this page=2C for example=2C the context for the text=2E A real=2C healthy=2C vibrant community=2C like any other g= eneral system=2C or living organism=2C is much more than the sum of its visible parts=2E You yourself are much more than the sum of your organs=2C bones=2C and so on=2E Communities lack= the clearly defined edges and hierarchies of corporations=2E One must consider both the =22hard=22 and "soft=22 parts=2E It's easier to see their effects- as with all energies and forces=2C like wind=2C or magnetic force=2E They are more nurturing=2E The best way to understan= d them is perhaps to be a part of one=2E Consider the communities you are a part of- communities of place=2C interest=2C ethnic group=2C age=2C and so on=2E Communities of place a= nd interest are the most important=2E

The map is not the territory -Alfred Korzybski

Albert Einstein noted that you can't solve a problem from the level it was created at=2C you must seek a new and higher level of order and alignment=2E The movie Mindwalk noted that we are shifting from the reductionist Newtonian paradigm to a holistic paradigm=2E This is as significant as the shift from the flat earth to the round earth paradigm=2E Instead of separate objects=2C the world=2C and communities within it=2C=

consist of "webs of relationships=22 - like the basket on the cover=2E Relationships mean=

communicating- anything that improves communication automatically improves the health of the system=2E Communities=2C like the wind=2C mean more in what they do=2C not so muc= h in what they are=2C because Action Creates Existence=2E

A community is an organic system=2E You could read the definition of a=

system in a good book on general systems theory=2E Those who study Chaos Theory recognize community immediately as a long-lived standing wave form with phase-locked feedback=2C or a soliton=2E The ancient symbol for the soliton=2C or vortex=2C was the cornucopia=2C the horn of plenty=2C the thanksgiving basket=2E A healthy community is a cornucop= ia=2C it seems to give out more energy than it gets=2C because it is at a higher level of order=2E A healthy community solves most of its own problems=2C and offers benefits most outsiders can't see=2E The following stories from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul=2C=

by Jack Canfield=2C are a great way to share the heart of community healing=3A One at a Time=2C The Royal Knights of Harlem=2C Everybody has a dream=2C Love=3A The One Creative Force=2C Follow your dream=2C Who you are makes a difference=2E

Consider a basket=2E The individual elements aren't very strong=2E However=2C when woven together=2C they form something much stronger=2E An engineer might thi= nk of it as a =22composite=22 of diverse elements=2C where the combination is much stronger than any individual element=2C or even the sum of the strengths of the individua= l elements=2E Community making is metaphorically very much like basketweaving - of connecting diverse elements into a whole that is more than the sum of the strengths of the individual elements=2E This book is dedicated to those persons involve= d in weaving their communities into something that is much more than the sum of its parts- into healthy forms=2E

A community is a system=2E In a system=2C everything is connected=2E = The parts exist ONLY IN RELATING to the whole- cutting a person in half does not create 2 people=2E Because of this=2C small changes can produce far-reaching results=2E A simple thing like treating everyone with respect can have effects far beyond what you can imagine=2E Causes and=

effects don't have to be closely related in time and space=2C either=2E which means that a proposed cure=2C that doesn't consider the entire system=2C and all the root causes of a problem=2C could be worse than the disease=2E Everything you do throws concentric rings=2C and affects th= e entire community=2E When you form a very clear vision of your desired future=2C you don't just affect yourself=2C you affect the entire community=2E Your work towards that goal also affects the entir= e community=2C as well=2E

Anyone can play musical notes=2E Real mastery exists in the spaces between the notes=2E -attributed to a German pianist of the=

last century

1=2E A COMMUNITY IS A LARGER SENSE OF SELF

Healing is just remembering who you are -Marilyn Gordon

Where does your sense of Self stop=3F For a number of Americans=2C the=

sense of Self stops at the skin=2E This is a very peculiar idea=2C one that many peo= ple in the world today would find very strange=2E A community is a group of people who have extended their sense of self beyond their skin=2C where people communicate and work together on goals for their common good=2E Community is for humans what the hive is for bees=2E It might be people who share the same place in space or time=2C or people who share=

the same interests=2E

Strong community "organisms=22 form spontaneously under high stress=2E Recall the bombing of the World Trade Center=2C where numbers of people became their brother's keeper=2C without a thought=2E High stress is a good excuse for people= to drop the pretenses of their false selves=2C and to feel their true selves=2E Wh= en one person is =

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completely aligned on a purpose, s/he experiences ecstasy. When a group of people is completely aligned, or "woven together", the group experiences synergy, in just the same way. The military term for "community" is unit cohesion.

This is part of our culture. Think back to some war movies you've seen, and even movies like The Mighty Ducks, where a group of diverse, clashing individuals moved through the stages of community formation and suddenly "clicked" into something larger - something unbeatable, that could accomplish incredible things. Outstanding sports teams always achieve this state. We believe that outstanding communities at least come close to achieving this state, also. A flock of sandpipers can turn as one unit. How can they do that? They just... do it.

Take care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves. You know the big things aren't being taken care of when the little things aren't taken care of. -U.S. Army maxim

Actually, the above statement is incorrect. The little things ARE the big things- in families, in communities, in nations, and on the planet.

"Community" self is a web of the small, seemingly unimportant things- perhaps little courtesies, or favors, looking out for others, a smile or a wave to people on the street, and all the other things people used to do without thinking. We can have healthy communities back again, and even make them better than they were. In fact, we have no choice but to do so. Community builders, RSC's, FSS coordinators, and others are in the business of sales - we sell win-win ideas. This guide is intended to help you sell community healing in an elegant way.

Respect is the center of the circle of community. Every major community problem can be traced back to a lack of respect, somewhere along the way. Take violence. It is a learned behavior. You can't do it to others till it's been done to you. A community without respect is like an engine with no oil- it will not work well for long.

Cooperation, especially feeding interest, is the lifeblood of the community. A community that doesn't feed interest is a community asking for problems. Grant applications don't come out and say this explicitly, but grants and outside funding can really only be "force multipliers" to local capacity to handle it. A community that hasn't built up a cooperative network, with a record of positive achievements, cannot handle outside funding.

It can be particularly useful to see your community as a living organism, as in D'arcy Thomson's book On Growth and Form, or in Chinese Feng Shui theory. Where is the intake cycle? Is it the money that comes in? Is the money circulated up to 7 times before it leaves, like lungs using oxygen efficiently, or does it come in and leave immediately, as with emphysemic lungs?

"When you plant lettuce, if it doesn't grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it isn't doing well. It may need more fertilizer, water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends, or our family, we blame the other person. If you know how to take care of them, they will grow well like a lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.

One day in Paris, I gave a lecture about not blaming the lettuce. After the talk, I was walking and overheard an 8 year old girl telling her mother, "Mommy, remember to water me. I'm your lettuce." I was so pleased that she had understood my point completely. Then I heard her mother reply, "Yes, my daughter,and I am your lettuce also. So please don't forget to water me, too." Mother and daughter practicing together. It was very beautiful."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

2. A COMMUNITY IS ITS STORIES

Which teacher did you enjoy most in school, the teacher who could spit data out like a computer, or the teacher who told funny and interesting stories? Whose information do you best remember? Storytelling and asking new questions is the most powerful activity we can engage in to empower communities, because storytelling is how new ideas are shared. Asking questions causes the subconscious to search out responses, and meaning, which come up often in the form of stories. Storytelling is a force multiplier, a palette of a thousand colors, and can be applied in all other fields of human activity. "War stories" are the most useful part of any training, because they animate the tools. There is no better sales method than success stories.

We are our paradigms, we are our stories and myths, we live our stories in our lives. Consider most Romance novels. They have slight variations on the myth of Medea [tall dark handsome stranger from afar comes to take her away from it all... and dumps her, too, a story one hears as well]. Romance novels for guys have slight variations on the story, or myth, of Jason [a troublemaker who gets to go out in a vehicle with his drinking buddies, get into fights, maybe get some treasure, and who cares about tomorrow?]. You can improve your community by improving its stories.

Sometimes becoming aware of "stories" makes it much easier to change your behavior. Conrad Salas, formerly a Texas State Legislator of Mexican descent, used to tell his "Mexican Crabs" story. As a boy, he saw a shallow pan of live crabs in a shop. He warned the owner, "Hey mister! Your crabs are going to get away!" The owner replied, "No they're not, they're Mexican crabs. Anytime one tries to climb out, the others all drag him back down." I told that story years ago in a factory I worked in. Workers started calling each other "Mexican crabs" when they did those kinds of things, and they did those things less. A better metaphor is the starfish story. A man on a beach saw another picking up washed-up starfish and throwing them back into the sea. He said, "You can't possibly make a difference! Look at the thousands of starfish on this beach!" The other man threw a starfish into the sea, and said, "Well, it made a difference to that one."

M. Scott Peck evokes Community with the story of the rabbi's gift. A monastery had fallen on hard times. The brothers fought over how to solve their problems. Finally, they decided to ask a nearby rabbi how to solve the problems. The rabbi said, "The Messiah is among you", meaning that as Christians, they had the presence of the Messiah among them. The brothers misunderstood him to mean that one of them was the Messiah. They didn't know which one, though, so they treated each other highly respectfully, as if each one was the Messiah. The brothers treated each other much better, the monastery's whole energy changed, and soon it became renowned for its piety and faith. New candidates flocked to join, and its problems solved themselves.

Art forms like stories long outlast the cultures that generated them, just like shark's teeth long outlast the shark that made them. Art forms are the "teeth" a culture uses to "chew up" experience, into bite-sized chunks of meaning. If you take out a quarter, and look at the back, you will notice a Roman imperial eagle. Where did the Roman empire exist? In the minds of Romans, as stories. When Rome died out in the minds of Romans, it died out. Yet we still use Roman art forms. They are convenient. Listen to the speeches of motivators as diverse as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini- you will notice master storytellers, who invoke well-known stories to explain current events. Tom Peters has said the most valuable people in the country will soon be those who can most quickly get ideas across to other people.

Nothing works better or faster to get new ideas across, or entertains more, than storytelling. I suggested to the big boss at work that training was sharpening the saw, from Steven Covey's retelling of the story of the man too busy sawing to sharpen his tools... and got my point across instantly.

Stories drive behavior. One common bumper sticker in this country is "He who dies with the most toys wins". It must reflect a fairly common belief system, to be so common. We can find a very different kind of belief system in another American culture. The Navajo [Dineh Nation] have a word - "Hoz'h'o" - which means beauty, harmony, joy, happiness, healing, and dozens of other such words rolled up into one. One could define about 1/100 of its meaning as sparkling, harmonious, joyful, healing beauty. For the Navajo, the purpose of life is the creation of Hoz'h'o. This very different core belief system leads to a very different kind of culture. How would American communities change if that were a common belief system?

The Dream drives the Action. What are the dreams of people in your community? All positive accomplishments are borne of dreams. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Scripture is many things to many people, and it's almost always, in any religion, stories. A good RSC, FSS coordinator, or Community Organizer almost has to live a "Mythic Life", as if their life was the life of a hero, or an angel, or some other inspiring image. Be very aware of your stories, they drive everything you do. NSA, the national storytelling association, POB 309, Jonesboro, TN 37659-0309 offers trainings in many parts of the country. Storytelling is a great way to "find your voice". Just try not to have too much fun at it. Books include Just Enough to Make a Story [N. Schimmel. Berkeley, CA: Sister's Choice Press, 1982] and The Family Storytelling Manual Handbook [Riverside, NJ: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1987].

3. A COMMUNITY IS ITS LEADERS

Just do what you can where you are -Mother Theresa

Bloom where you are -Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King

Everything starts with good leadership! One starts by being a leader of self. Leadership starts with the first choice to be a leader. The easiest way to learn leadership is to practice being a leader. We hope that everyone who reads this guide will choose to be a leader. A lot of things don't get done because "somebody else" ought to be doing them. Leaders are the "somebody else" who get those things done. If those tasks aren't being done in your community, it's because there's a shortage of leadership. Finding that leader might be as easy as looking in the mirror. It might also be as easy as realizing that while you can't solve the world's problems by yourself, you can do something, however small. Remember the end of the movie Schindler's List, where Schindler gets the ring with the verse saying if you save one person, you save the world? Leaders take on that one small task, then another, and another.

Good things happen in communities because leaders working with people make them happen. Developing leaders, and leaders of leaders, is the most important task in the field of community development. Getting something done is easy: Choose a goal, and take action. It is easy to become a leader. Decide that's what you want to be. Then pretend to be one. Put on an act. FAKE IT till you make it. If other people wanted to challenge you, they would be leaders themselves. Most people want to be followers, to follow someone else's alignment rather than develop their own alignment. As soon as you have followers, well, what else could you be but a leader? Start by taking control of your own life.

YOU are the expert on your community, nobody outside it, no matter how "expert", knows it as well as you do. Pay attention to what fascinates and excites you. What you concentrate on grows, and this alone will help align you on your true values. Your community is a direct reflection of what people put their attention on. Refocus attention with questions. Good leaders ask new questions - instead of asking, "Why doesn't anybody care about our problems?", a good leader asks "How can we have fun improving our quality of life?" Some people complain that one person can't do anything. Yet it has ALWAYS been one person who got the major changes started. It starts with the first choice to be a leader. The leader you most respect made a decision that put them on the path to your respect. One decision. Decisions are very powerful, aren't they? Leaders make and help others make positive decisions. Leaders know that if they don't take action, perhaps no-one will. If not you, who? If not now, when?

Milton Erickson found a stray horse once, when he was 10 years old. He had no idea whose horse it was. He got on its back, and turned it around. He gave it free rein. When it came to crossings in the road, he let it go whichever way it seemed to want to go. He rode the horse back into its own barn, never having been to the barn himself. The owners were amazed, yet all he did was reinforce the horse's decisions about where it wanted to go. Milton used the story to demonstrate that people and situations had more than enough resources to address their problems, and only needed a little reinforcement. Leadership can be like that.

Leaders empower others to bring desire into reality. They do this by attraction, by leading the way, by "pulling," rather than "pushing." Done right, it may seem effortless. Leaders say, "We can do it." They don't listen to those who say, "You can't do that." "It's impossible." "Do THEY know what you're doing?" Leadership can be demanding work, but the rewards are great. Leaders know that the only poverty is poverty of ideas, and leadership, so they get good ideas and make them happen. Leaders know that most facts aren't much more than crystallized beliefs. No explanation is final. "Beginner's mind" is a much better place to go to for serious solutions, since most "experts" are expert at knowing all the ways things can't be done.

A burning desire to get something done, in alignment with your values, is worth more than any experience or credential.

True leaders see their Self as very much beyond the boundaries of their skin. Tina Forrest, a resident of an assisted housing complex in Port Chester, NY, got disgusted with drug-related gun battles inside her building. She got together with seven other single mothers, they formed a resident patrol, and in time, they ran off all the drug dealers from their community. They had no outside help, no advanced degrees, no experience at doing anything like that.

They just decided what they were going to do, that nothing would stop them, and they did it. They said they "had God on their side." People realized that Ms. Forrest was serious about her mission when she put her own children in jail for drug-related activity. Rita Webb Smith started the effort that ran the drug dealers out of a 10 block area of Harlem. [The Woman Who Took Back Her Streets, Far Hills, NJ:New Horizon Press, 1991] The book The Winnable War, free from 800-578-DISC, tells how others did the same thing.

All great accomplishments started out as ideas in the mind of one person, who persevered at bringing it into form.

Even the Internet started out in the mind of one person, Professor Licklider, at MIT.

TIPS FOR LEADERS OF GROUPS

We must be the change we wish to see in the world. - Ghandi

Sometimes people find themselves in a position of leadership without having done it before. We all have to start somewhere, and even the "experts" started without experience too! Things to keep in mind include:

- Lead by example. Encourage others by your energy and enthusiasm. If you lack either, jump up and down and shout "I'm excited!" until you are. Adopt the body language of a highly enthusiastic person, and you will be enthusiastic.

- Find out also what people want, and help the group set attainable goals.

- Form a clear, exciting mental image of what the organization can do or be. Share your vision with other members, and get their contributions.

- Encourage everyone on the team to contribute. Be committed to assisting others in realizing their potential.

- Be flexible in how the goals are achieved. Know that there is more than one way of accomplishing things and that even mistakes are just "another way of doing things", as well as important parts of learning.

- Focus on the issues or behavior when there are problems, not the person.

Leaders are not managers! Here are some differences:

LEADERS MANAGERS PREVENT problems SOLVE problems Provide vision Provide direction Focus on concept Focus on procedures Promote excellence Promote expedience Seek consensus Seek control Use influence and inspiration Sometimes use coercion

Managers tell the group to swing their machetes faster to cut a path through the jungle. Leaders climb a tree, and notice the group needs to change direction to get to its destination. Leadership means sharing excitement and focus on a shared vision of what is possible, and empowering others to make it happen. Leaders know that to achieve change, they have to model it first.

QUALITIES OF LEADERS

Good leaders have certain points in common:

1. Rapport/Honesty, being trustworthy and competent. 2. Alignment and decisiveness. 3. Ability to see possibilities where others don't. 4. Persistence. 5. Ability to inspire and motivate others.

1. RAPPORT

Listening carefully, and considering others, is a useful part of rapport. Sometimes the worst people problems can be solved just by letting a person talk out and "drain" their resentments. Treat people respectfully and fairly, and other tasks get easier. Bernie Siegel once told a group of doctors that 3 magic words would keep them from being sued. As the doctors sat on the edge of their seats, he said, "Love your patients." It works in more areas than medicine. Going the extra mile, and being competent, is part of rapport. Humor and humility can help, too. Learn to see life from others' eyes, and to do things that benefit them. The Wampanoag Nation storytell Manitonquat notes that RESPECT is the center of the circle of community. M. Scott Peck wrote an entire book on Civility. This energy is powerful. People get more of what they respect. Why is it, then, that the quickest way to get respect on the street is through violence?

2. DECISIVENESS AND ALIGNMENT

"You cannot do good in one part of life while attempting to do wrong in another. Life is an indivisible whole." -Ghandi

Not making a decision is a decision itself. The military teaches officers to make decisions, whether they are right or wrong. They might not be right; so what? so you make new decisions. A plane off course 95% of the time can still make it to its destination with course corrections.

A magnet attracts things to itself because its particles are aligned. Humans get aligned by determining what their true values are, and then living life from that point. Manitonquat says that the heart tells us what to do, and the head tells us how. Aligning head and heart, and focusing on true purpose, is the best way to assure rapport. Also, the more sure of your purpose you are, the less the negative things others do affect you. The more sickeningly, overenthusiastically positive you can be about your goals, the less negativity around you will bother you. Steven Covey and Franklin Quest , and Tony Robbins, have a useful progression crystallizing values into daily task planning

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that can be approximately represented as follows:

- To begin with, consider pure being. Just below that, - Seek a Vision about your life's purpose. Then, - Write a personal mission statement - and make an image of it as well. - Define your personal values- money, family, toys, whatever [I personally value respect above money, which very much affects my decisions] - Write a list of what you would see, hear, and feel. when you are following your mission. This is a calibration tool, a performance measure. - Identify long range objectives - on a timeline - Identify intermediate goals- on a weekly task list - Write a daily task list, collect tools and resources, and just do it.

The above hierarchy is extremely important. Most trainings start at the level of tools, and assume everything else. A few trainings start at the level of long range objectives. People who have "plugged in" to their purpose in life have a lot of energy, and are decisive and aligned. Those who aren't "plugged in" are about as effective as your appliances when they aren't plugged in. People who aren't plugged into their purpose, their Vision, are nowhere near as effective as they could be. They are almost walking dead. A well-run business defines its mission, and then puts together a business plan, in the same way. Think of some great leaders you admire whose behavior was exactly in line with their values, even when it was difficult: Ghandi, the Rev. Martin Luther King, for example. It feels really bad to do things that are out of alignment with your values. Tom Brown, Jr., the Tracker, tells his students you either walk your Vision, or you walk your death. How would you live your life if your next 24 hours was your last? How do you know it isn't your last? What would you do with the gift of another 24 hours? Because each day is just such a gift. That is one way to connect with your Vision.

Healing is just remembering who you really are. In the old days, Native Americans would go into the Wilderness on a Vision Quest, seeking a vision of their life's purpose. They would take that vision and put it on a "Medicine Shield", or Coat of Arms. In a nonliterate society, that was their nameplate, and how people knew them. A Vision must feel right, and be something you would enjoy pouring heart and soul into. You may not be able to go into the Wilderness, but you can still reach deep into yourself for your lifepath. You will know without a doubt when you're on your lifepath, and it will be easy to take on the most daunting obstacles. You can even feel it like an energy, and let your body resonate to the energy of your mission. This is a great technique to deal with frustration, by way.

A useful discussion of how values work is in Chapter 15 of Awaken the Giant Within . Covey's books deal with that, and also Mission Statements. Tad James has a discussion of timelines in his book Timeline Therapy. Alignment exercises for groups, useful for Mission Statement creation, are treated in the book Thoughtstorm .

3. ABILITY TO SEE POSSIBILITIES WHERE OTHERS DON'T.

One must see the invisible to do the impossible, i.e. see possibilities that others don't. This means letting your mind get creative, and trying new ways of thinking. Animals who have lived their entire lives in cages fear getting out of their cages. People have the same problem- sometimes you have to walk into the center of your fears to get the job done. Creative thinking is a lot of fun! The books A Whack on the Side of the Head [Roger von Oech, Westminster, MD: Random House, 1983] and Playful Perception [H.L. Leff, Burlington, VT: Waterfront Books, 1984] are helpful. Developing your "eyes" in this area is easy. What would your ideal community be like? What would you see, hear, and feel? Now write down a wish list of 102 things that you want in your community. You don't get what you don't ask for. You start by asking. Which one excites you most? How could you do anything, however small, to make that happen?

Another important part of this is understanding people's interests, needs, and goals, and figuring out how to match them up in new ways. Really big, inspiring goals often cause people to put aside their differences, and really pitch in. People do this without thinking in crises, as the bombing at the World Trade Center showed. Why wait for a crisis, though? Why not work with others to get a really neat goal that excites everybody even more than a crisis would?

You can also make a difference in your area by seeing possibilities where no-one else does. For example, propaganda, and most mass market news, are generally written to 4 emotions: fear, hate, hope, and curiosity. Your local newspaper may have all sorts of articles on gang activity, and vandalism, but not be offering solutions. You could help your newspaper focus on hope, by writing the editor, and asking the paper to put out a guide for people to set up low-cost summer youth programs, with contact names and addresses, sources for craft material, and so on. Help them refocus their attention on positive things.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts; an aligned group has extra energy sometimes called "synergy", that often makes the impossible task possible and even enjoyable. The more fun you can put into what you're doing, the easier it gets. Kids do this naturally. A very important part of this is learning to delegate; always delegate pain, it may not be pain to someone else. If you were soaking wet from your thighs to your waist, you would have a problem, wouldn't you? Yet babies handle this problem several times a day - they let someone else take care of it. Delegation is part of helping others grow.

4. PERSISTENCE

Calvin Coolidge said that the one thing all successful people have is persistence. If what you're doing isn't working, try anything else. You could make your vision clearer. Work on some totally unrelated task to give your mind time to come up with a more creative idea. The waters of Niagara Falls are cutting through the rock by several feet per year. The waters use sand grains, one at a time, to do the cutting. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It also continues, step by step by step. People respect persistence, and even if you fail, you will attract people to future projects. Besides, failure and mistakes don't exist, there is only learning. The main difference between the wise and foolish person is that the wise person learns from mistakes. You must make mistakes to grow. If you don't know where to start, jump in and make lots of mistakes with good intentions. You'll learn a lot, and be able to set much better goals. If you are a person who has enemies, nothing frustrates enemies like persistence, too.

5. ABILITY TO INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE OTHERS

Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best way to inspire people, along with alignment and persistence, is success stories. Chicken Soup for the Soul, by Jack Canfield, has some great stories that describe the heart of leadership and community healing. We are and live our stories, that is how ideas are shared. Think about the stories that have inspired you, and listen carefully to motivational speaking, so you can do it too. The best motivational speaker in the world had to start just where you are right now.

6. USEFUL BOOKS IF YOU WANT MORE:

*Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment William C. Byham. Ballantine Books, 1994. Principle Centered Leadership [Steven Covey, Fireside, 1991] Leadership is an Art, Leadership Jazz [Max Depree, Dell, 1989] On Becoming a Leader [Warren Bennis, Addison-Wesley, 1989] On Leadership [John W. Gardner, The Free Press, 1990] The Deming Management Method [Mary Walton, Perigee, 1988] Designing Social Systems in a Changing World [Bela H. Banathy, Plenum Press, 1996

People do not notice the best leaders. The next best are honored and praised. The next are feared; the worst class of leaders are hated. When the best leader's work is done, people say, "We did it ourselves!" -Lao Tzu

Leadership is doing. Books like the above make a lot more sense AFTER you've started leading things, too. The more practice you get, the more effortless it becomes.

4. A COMMUNITY IS WHAT IT EATS

Food affects behavior. For example, cultures that produce epic poetry consume dairy products. Junk food is well-named. Try a simple test: eat junk food for a month, and see if you don't get a little jumpy, with distinct deterioration in your anger management and thinking skills. Now imagine what it must be like for someone raised on junk food, in a violent environment. You'll notice a new question: no longer do you ask why there is so much violence, you now ask why there is so little violence.

How do you change a hardened criminal into a useful citizen? Take away his candy bars. This is not a joke, it's part of a quiet change in the diet of incarcerated persons in many parts of the country. It's the result of a groundbreaking study of what happened when the diet of 276 teenage boys in a Virginia detention center was altered to exclude the huge amounts of white sugar they'd been eating. After fruit juices replaced colas, and carrots replaced cookies, antisocial behavior dropped 48% Thefts fell 77%, and assaults dropped 82% Staff members who provided the information didn't know there was a study underway. While everyone is responsible for their own behavior, crime may well have a biochemical basis. A study of 318 Ohio convicts found 252 of them were malnourished. Those who remained on a new, healthy diet after leaving jail had few problems with the law. And, in Pierce County, Washington, adult offenders fed nutritionally wholesome food as part of an experimental program returned to crime 1/3 as often as the fellows who'd continued on the standard jailhouse fare.

Alexander Schauss' book Diet, Crime, and Delinquency, states that malnutrition is the prime cause of criminal behavior. The Myth of Health in America (Fry, 1976) cites statistics like the following: only 1.5% of the U.S. population can be considered healthy. The U.S. is 89th among nations in death rate. Cancer is the number one cause of disease-related death of children.

Perhaps the most interesting part of America's chronic borderline malnutrition is increasingly mineral deficient food, which comes from mineral deficient soil. Consider what happens to pregnant women when they need a nutrient: they get cravings. But isn't this true for everyone? What exactly are the "munchies"? One reason Americans tend to be obese is that if the body doesn't get the nutrition it needs, it craves more food. If the only food available is empty calories, well, that's what is eaten. One could consider what role such cravings have in substance addiction, too. By comparison, Stone Age Nomadics courses recommend 2/3 cup a day of wild foods, as any more makes one feel stuffed.

America has the good fortune to have access to many diverse ideas. One of those is traditional Indian [Ayurvedic] and Oriental medicine. In Ayurvedic medicine, there are 3 major classes of foods. They are:

Rajasic: fresh flesh, high unsaturated fats, unrefined grains &c.: this is a high protein diet intended for warriors and laborers who need physical strength and stamina.

Sattvic: this is essentially a Vegan diet. There are no animal products. It includes fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, roots, nuts and seeds. It is intended for persons interested in more mental or spiritual pursuits.

Tamasic: this class of food is considered undesirable. This includes any deep fried food, foods with saturated fats, preservatives, or poisons, and any stale, mouldy, or otherwise decayed food, overly sweet and acidic food, and so on. Tamasic diet was believed to lead to a deterioration in conscience and morality, violent and other socially undesirable behavior, and breakdown of immune systems as degenerative diseases.

Oriental medicine would regard Tamasic foods as undesirable, also. You could watch the evening news, and the accompanying commercials. You could realize that Heart Disease, which is caused mostly by diet, kills more Americans than firearms, cars, and several other causes put together. You could note the interesting rise in immune deficiency diseases, and perhaps draw your own conclusions. Alcohol and drugs are involved with over 3/4 of all crimes. We will never be able to address domestic abuse, for example, without first addressing alcohol abuse.

The following was adapted, expanded, and modified from an article in TAP Connections Vol. 12 No. 3, Summer 1996, published by MHFA-TAP, One Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108-4805. Used with permission.

Behind most broken homes and hearts in America, you find broken bottles. - Tony Flaherty

The community illness of alcoholism is the cause of a lot of neighborhood crime, and violence in our homes. Many who make speeches about "drugs" stay silent on the most accessible drug of all: alcohol. Professor John J. DiIulio, Director of the Brookings Center for Public Management, documented the density of beer and liquor outlets in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods with chilling observations, in the Spring 1996 Brookings [Institute] Review. The ready availability of beer and hard liquor is a major factor in the troubled homes, disorderly neighborhoods, and dangerous streets of the inner city. Alcohol is generally in the 80-95% range for involvement with assault and sex-related crimes, serious youth crime, family violence towards both spouse and children, homicide victims and perpetrators, persistent aggression, and emergency room admissions. No social disorder is so disruptive itself, and so generative of other other disorders and problems, as public drinking.

A 1993 feature in U.S. News and World Report noted that for inner-city children, unchecked public drinking is a strong statement that 'nobody cares'. R. N. Nash and L.A. Rebhun, in their book, Alcohol and Homicide, note that the high concentration of liquor outlets in inner-city neighborhoods is an advertisement for the powerlessness of those who live in these areas. Middle-class Americans would not tolerate such density of liquor stores. Inner-city Americans wouldn't either, if they had a choice.

Broken bottles are worse for community order and safety than "broken windows". Alcohol drains dreams, social capital, lives, and all that makes life worthwhile. It fills emergency rooms, and keeps police officers busy. In William Skogan's classic study of community breakdown in American cities, residents in all 40 neighborhoods ranked public drinking first among all disorders. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's article in the April, 1995 issue of Esquire, profiles alcohol prominently in this story of Eric Morse, who was dropped to his death from a 14th story window at the Ida B. Wells projects on Chicago's South Side. This is nothing new: the artist Hogarth did a number of drawings of the effects of gin consumption in Britain, in the last century.

One common problem in these neighborhoods is people who drink and loiter around liquor stores for hours on end. They get drunk, urinate against buildings, drop cigs and beer cans, and generally make life miserable for anyone nearby. Drug dealers and prostitutes often use the same properties.

One course of action is to go to hearings concerning renewal of liquor permits. Some community leaders document saturation in neighborhoods, owner histories, police calls, and even map alcohol-related crimes that can be associated with stores, to fight permit renewal. Friendlier owners can "up-scale" their clientele by moving to 6 packs and more expensive wines, by making their establishments "police friendly" with a section of the counter for writing reports, and perhaps coffee.

The Fifth District Community Prosecution Pilot Project in Washington, D.C. has a team of a prosecutor, police, the community, and store owners to identify the "regulars" who are trouble makers. The prosecutor writes up a "Barring Notice" that bars the specific person from the premises. The police officer serves the notice, with the owner and prosecutor as witnesses. The beat officer can put a copy of the barring notice in her/his beat book. If the officer sees the person on the property, an arrest can be made for trespass. Reports suggest it is working in DC.

Still, that is a reactive approach. Addictive behavior is a good thing- what's bad or good is what it's focused on. Fr. Thomas O'Brien, director of Daytop, the NY Drug Rehab outfit, associates addiction with a craving for the energies one gets in a healthy community. Alcoholics Anonymous works for one reason: they create a community where people take care of each other.

Getting good food in some areas is difficult. One solution is to form cooperative groceries. This not only provides better food at lower prices, it also puts money in people's pockets, as well as offering them an opportunity to take more control of their lives. We believe that the following folks may be a helpful resource. There are other such cooperatives nationwide, you might try Encyclopedia of Associations in your Public Library.

Northeast Cooperatives, 49 Bennett Dr. POB 8188 Brattleboro, VT 05304-8188 1-800-334-9939, x358

Co-Op America, 2100 M. St. NW Suite 403 WDC 20037 203 872 5307

Co-Op Resource Center, 1442A Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709 510 538 0454

Co-op Quarterly covers Cooperative Finance & Economic Development, Food Cooperatives, Cooperative Management & Board Governance Issues. This publication is free of charge to cooperatives and interested individuals, from: Center for Cooperatives, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 916-752-2408

Co-op America's National Green Pages covers business services, food products, restaurants, crafts/art. Available from: Co-op America, 1612 K Street NW, #600, Washington, DC 202-872-5307

What other cooperative ventures could you set up? Could you even use the cooperative concept [www.nbia.org] to set up a Business Incubator? Food-based microenterprises are perhaps the most common kind.

5. A COMMUNITY IS ITS VISION IN ACTION [

The Dream drives the Action. -Thomas Berry

John Kretzmann once asked Bernice Johnson, a 75 year old Bronx resident, what "went wrong" in the Bronx. Her answer blew him away, it really touched his heart and sent him in a new direction in his life. She said, "We're in a prison, John. We're in a prison of other people's ideas of who we are. Before I say one word, they think they know all about me, because I come from the Bronx."

Kretzmann puts it this way. In his University Department, there are alcoholics, one drug addict, people who can't hold marriages together, and at least one certifiably insane person. Yet that Department is a world class department! Why? Because they WORK FROM THEIR STRENGTHS. Why is any community any different?

Most efforts to address inner city and other community problems have concentrated on weaknesses, the "map" everyone "knows", of unemployment, gangs, crime, welfare, illiteracy, and so on. The most insidious part of this "map" is that people begin to believe it, for what we concentrate on grows... Leaders get resources from outside in this system by denying their community's strengths, by emphasizing lack. Traditional community development looks at problems and needs: crime, gangs, broken families, unemployment, illiteracy, lead poisoning, &c. Solutions generated for this very negative "story" are patchwork solutions and services, encouraging dependency on outsiders.

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Residents become "special needs" and service consumers that only outside resources can "fix".

Yet weaknesses are only a small part of the truth. Kretzmann's book, Building Communities from the Inside Out, inspired by Bernice, is a book of success stories by people who looked instead at the strengths of troubled communities, and wove them together. Even the most troubled neighborhoods have individuals and organizations with resources that can be used more effectively. Kretzmann's group surveyed one troubled Chicago neighborhood- the fewest number of gifts, of strengths, that anyone reported was THIRTY. That same group found 400 community associations in that neighborhood, everything from church choirs to bowling leagues to Boy Scout troops. They estimated that this was half the total. A full 75%, SEVENTY-FIVE percent, of those groups were willing to do more in their communities- and no-one had ever asked them before. This is a tidal wave of human energy, just waiting to be harnessed.

The key to healing communities is locating and "mapping" local resources, building relationships and connecting them, and harnessing them to heal the system they form. Then and only then should outside resources be used. Another way we've heard this said is that residents of healthy communities are not only services consumers, but also services providers. Another way of saying this is to clearly define "Uses of Funds", first, and defining "Sources of Funds" only at the end. Without this internal capacity, outside resources can't be effectively used. It's very much like weaving a basket, metaphorically... Cooperation has always been more important than competition. Take a football game, that's competition, right? Absolutely not. There was a lot of cooperation in building the stadium, in training the players, in publicity, in the fans showing up, in televising the game... the competition part must be about 1/20 or less of the cooperation necessary so the game can occur.

Proactive community leaders mobilize residents and groups to have fun fixing their own problems. These efforts usually start with one or two local people trying new things. Building Communities tells how to start regenerating the community, using resources already present. There are 5 steps:

1. Finding and "mapping" individual and group interests, and strengths: skills, gifts, and resources.

2. Matching interests with resources, and building relationships between individuals, citizen's associations, and local institutions, in a "wiring diagram", or "map", showing them connected.

3. Using the "map" to form a mutual interest, "win-win" network for sharing information and economic development.

4. The network forms a community vision and plan.

5. Leveraging activities, investment, and resources from outside the community to do bigger things locally.

1. Finding and "mapping" Individual Strengths

Every single person in the community has strengths, abilities, and gifts, as well as needs and deficiencies. A community's strength reflects how individual strengths are woven together.

A. The first step in strengthening communities is finding resident strengths. The usual "needs survey" lists needs, not strengths, treating people as service consumers, not service providers, and is useless for community healing. Building Communities has a survey to find strengths, in 4 parts:

Individual Skills - skills like construction, food preparation, child care, supervision, and so on.

Community Skills - experience in field trips, block clubs, neighborhood organization, and so on.

Enterprising Skills - interest in starting or running a business.

Followup information - address, and so on.

B. Next is identifying community associations and organizations. Newspapers, directories, talking to people in parks and churches, and surveying local residents and leaders, all work. NEVER do surveys by mailing or dropping them off, you won't get a response. ALWAYS do surveys face-to-face, with the interviewer checking off responses. You will learn what questions you didn't know to ask, and begin the process of community healing just by eliciting information. Impersonal surveys at a distance are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

2. Connecting Individuals, Organizations, and Institutions for Community Healing

Key leaders in organizations and institutions like schools, libraries, hospitals, are interviewed, and their strengths and resources "mapped". Their strengths include:

A. Personnel - skills and interests of group members

B. Space and Facilities - meeting rooms, kitchens, parking lots, stages

C. Materials and Equipment - computers, copy machines, tools, vans

D. Economic Power - purchase of supplies, materials, and services

Putting the surveys together results in a "map", or "wiring diagram". It is only a map, not a network, until the relationships between people, local associations and business are formed.

3. Form a mutual interest, "win-win" network for sharing information, and economic development.

One connects strengths and interests in the "map", and the network, the live system, comes to life. Building Communities has examples of how community members formed their network to do community building/healing tasks no group could do by itself. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of organizations are provided, for those seeking further information. Just connecting existing institutions and activities developed new markets and possibilities. Capturing local savings, and expanding the availability of capital and credit for community building, is possible. Neighborhoods in the book were able to do much more with what they had.

4. The network forms a community vision and plan.

How does one start? Easy. Choose a goal, and take action. Following is one path, for both individuals and organizations. It's easier to help others crystallize the community vision after you've done a personal mission statement. You could think about Vision Statement questions, adapted from Deming Management at Work, by Mary Walton.

What is our purpose, and who are our customers? What do we want to become, and how are we going to get there? How will we know when we're making progress? What are our main activities? Which are most in need of improvement? How can awards and recognition help us get to our goals?

1. Then write a Mission Statement for your purpose, which is very different from defining goals. You might list your values, in order, to help define your Mission Statement. 2. Pick some long range goals that feel exciting. 3. Pick one of those goals that can be visibly achieved in 1 year. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO. 4. Break down the goal into a timetable and specific tasks, with tasks assigned to a specific person. 5. Evaluate regularly to see how effective you are.

Great achievements start out as little tasks. Great oaks from little acorns grow. Creating a Community Vision and Plan is important. It is exactly what a business does with its Mission Statement and Business Plan. For example, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a community group in Roxbury, MA, got several small but significant victories as they worked to stop illegal trash dumping, and involving young people in community healing. This helped them get the power of eminent domain from the city, and with it they "took over" their neighborhood. The story is told in Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood, by Peter Medoff.

5. Leveraging Outside Resources to Support Locally Driven Development

When community strengths are identified, coordinated, and mobilized, inside a common vision, the community has the capacity to handle leveraged resources from outside. Community leaders can approach outsiders as partners or investors in the community to promote their community agenda. Baskets can't hold anything until they are woven, yet once woven, they are very strong...

6. A COMMUNITY IS ITS COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING

The hive is for bees what community is for humans. It's like being in a band- the music is best when you hear both yourself and all the other instruments, working together. Win-win networking is the only way to heal the community system. A system is a group of related parts. A relationship is only as good as the communication, so anything you do to improve communication improves the system. Focus and alignment on a purpose results in extra energy, ecstasy for individuals, and synergy for groups. The community is a direct reflection of what people focus their attention on. A. FEEDING INTERESTS

The heart of community healing is feeding interests, or "bridging" interest and resources. This is a great area to see possibilities where no-one else does. There is an old tale of someone who visited hell. He found that people had 6' long spoons, couldn't eat with them, and so fought with them. He went to heaven- where they had the same spoons, and were feeding each other. Which kind of community do you want to live in? Healing it starts with feeding others' interests, at a pace they can handle. Manitonquat, the Wampanoag Nation elder and storyteller, says the purpose of life is "Give-Away"- to take in all the awareness and beauty one can, and then to pass it out freely to all who will receive.

I found out a co-worker's high school age son was interested in electronics and robotics. I bought every used textbook and book on those I could find, cheaply, which was a lot of fun for me, since I love finding good books. His mother reimbursed me for cost, so it didn't even cost me anything. He ended up with a wall of books, which he mentioned in his college applications as his "technical library". His grades and SAT's were average, but his mother told me his "technical library", and his writeup on the electronics projects I commissioned from him, got him accepted at all 7 engineering colleges he applied to. I never expected anything like that to happen. Isn't it interesting that I could have fun doing something I enjoyed, and make a big difference in someone else's life without even realizing it?

One neighborhood cited in Building Communities went on a "Community Treasure Hunt", asking people what they loved doing, what they wanted to contribute to the community. They were amazed and astonished at the resources they found, and learned that there were far more positives than they ever thought possible. It was fun, too. The neighborhood started by asking 2 questions- who are the strangers in our neighborhood? and how do we reconnect them? Communities have incredible resources and gifts, once one starts looking for them. Institutions are good at diagnosing faults - substance abuse, criminal behavior, being too old or too young. Only a community can identify and reinforce strengths.

The networking metaphor is nicely shown in the following story:

A hungry traveller arrived in the village. No-one would feed him, as he had no money. The traveller cheerfully offered to make Stone Soup, and share it with everyone in the village. He had a magic stone, that when boiled in water, made a delicious soup by itself. He described Stone Soup in such mouth-watering terms someone loaned him a kettle. He built a fire under it, and began simmering. People were curious, and came around to see what was going on.

As he cooked, he tasted the soup, and commented that a bit of salt, or a carrot, would help the flavor. People ran off to get salt, and carrots, and even started bringing other things. Soon, everyone had contributed something to the soup. The soup began smelling very good. "Bring your bowls", said the traveller, "the Stone Soup is ready". The whole village dined well, and everyone agreed it was the best Stone Soup they'd ever tasted. When everyone had eaten their fill, the traveller reached into the pot, pulled out his magic stone, cleaned it, and put it back in his pocket.

Sometimes other cultures offer useful ideas. The Cherokee ran self-sufficient "Peace Villages" in areas they controlled until the 1830's. These villages seemed to have also been a kind of college town, homeless shelter, and "skunkworks" to exchange creative ideas. Also, any person accused of a crime could seek refuge in one. After a year and a day, they were free to go- from these very spiritual communities, which had healed whatever had caused these people to commit crimes. The tradition was strong; Europeans accused of crimes and escaped slaves were allowed refuge. Since refuge cities were self-supporting, they were of course much cheaper to run than prisons, [free vs. $40,000/year/inmate, in Connecticut] and their graduates fit better into society. The Hawaiians, and Chinese during the Ming and Sung dynasties, had an equivalent concept of a City of Refuge, and the Bible mentions 6 refuge cities, 3 on either side of the Jordan River. We will have a healthy society when Peace Village-like communities are so common that the average person doesn't give them a second thought.

How could you have fun taking small steps to help create a better community where you live? Communities are a rich tapestry of individual actions. One personal note of appreciation is worth a ton of junk mail - the personal connection, which you have, is worth more than credentials, in your community. Also, people tend to follow the current. Each action you take is a model for others to follow. If you've ever been in some Canadian cities, you know you just somehow can't litter, because the streets are so clean. If you start doing really neat things, other people may well get the idea also. What you put your attention on affects other people. Your attention is one of your most powerful tools. Be sure to focus it on what you want...

It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses. -Dag Hammarskjold, former Secretary of the United Nations

B. SOME NETWORKING TIPS

* Networking means helping people - being an unpaid consultant. * Every person you meet has useful resources - if you listen. * Networking means giving without expecting return - no score is kept. * ALWAYS show appreciation and gratitude. ALWAYS. * Networking demands trustworthiness. * Networking means feeding interest. * Networking means thinking "win-win", seeking ways to benefit as many people as possible.

Networking maxim: The only way to get more than you give is to give more than you get.

1. Try to be aware of all persons in any agency and organization who are interested in community building/healing, as they can provide invaluable information. They show up in the most unexpected jobs, we can't hope to provide a chart. Each city is unique. Never assume people in one section of an agency or organization pass information to other sections, or to other agencies. Networking is a 2 way street, if you know of a resource they might find useful, share it with them if you can. Your knowledge and experience are valuable, too. I get 99% of my useful information from unofficial channels like this.

Service agencies, like Connecticut's Department of Social Services, State housing agencies, like Connecticut's CT Housing Finance Authority, community-based service organizations like Homeless shelters, and almost any other organization involved in the community, including even some corporations, and public libraries, usually have at least one person on staff with an interest in community building/healing. Agencies are not faceless monoliths, they are made up of people with different interests. The person interested in community building/healing is the person to talk to, they know how to find some of the resources you're interested in, especially local resources and contacts. They may be in a department that does nothing with community building/healing; remember that burning interest counts for much more than job title. One way to locate these people is to ask the person at the head of the organization who the most enthusiastic volunteer is. Another way is to ask who keeps the mailing lists, who maintains information files to respond to client interests, who the person who enthusiastically cooperates with outside agencies is.

2. ALWAYS send a thank you note, even if just a postcard or e-mail, to any person who helps you with more than the bare minimum of effort. They have to justify how they spend their time, and often must choose who to help. Maintaining useful information in this area is usually unrewarded, the people who do it do it out of their hearts, at a cost to themselves. Help them help you make your job easier.

3. Newspapers have community affairs editors. Some of the articles they produce give an incredible amount of information on local community healing efforts. Perhaps you could talk a community affairs editor into sharing an article file, as a quick way to get a list of interested people in the area the paper covers. They have other things. The Hartford Courant, for example, produces a directory of all minority organizations in Hartford, many of which are involved in community healing in some form or another. Perhaps your paper does too. Be sure to ask your United Way helpline for a listing of community healing organizations. Even if they don't have it, if you ask, they are more likely to develop a list.

4. Always be on the lookout for resources looking for a home, that you could "bridge" to a need. For example, Schools of Social Work, Urban Planning, &c. have supplies of graduate students who need projects. Perhaps you'd like to help guide them to help your community healing efforts. Any organization doing proactive crime prevention or drug elimination is by definition interested in community healing, whether they know it or not, because that is the only way to proactively address those problems. Many other apparently single-task focused organizations are also involved in community healing, though they may not know it. Perhaps you could help them expand their vision.

5. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials [NAHRO], in Washington, DC, has a list of organizations involved in housing and community development nationwide. Sometimes organizations take on the task of cataloging such organizations statewide for the Community Reinvestment Act. In Connecticut, Tyler, Cooper, and Alcorn, in Hartford, did this task.

6. Figure out who keeps mailing lists of people interested in community healing. HUD state offices, Public Housing Authorities, city and state government community development officials, specialized contractors, non-profit grass roots organizations, and industry groups or special interest umbrella groups may have them. See if they'll let you add your material to one of their mailings, if you have something they might like spreading.

7. In larger cities, there is usually a United Way affiliated Information Clearinghouse which keeps lists of service agencies and organizations. This can be a great source of referral information and mailing lists. In Connecticut, this is Infoline; in Western Massachusetts, it is known as First Call. There are a great many potential allies in your community you haven't even thought about yet. Just try not to have too much fun locating them!

C. COALITION BUILDING/NETWORKS/PARTNERSHIPS

We've noticed that a number of tasks in communities are being increasingly done by unofficial, virtual coalitions or partnerships. People just don't want to wait for somebody else to get their needs handled, and do it themselves. This book is itself a product of collaboration by several people who had no bond other than an interest

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in producing a good product for clients. The following organizations offer resources in this field. We believe that this sort of group will become increasingly important in the years to come.

ORGANIZATIONS

School & Main The Health Institute, New England Medical Center 750 Washington St. NEMCH 328 Boston, MA 02111 617 636 9151

AHEC/Community Partners 24 S. Prospect St. Amherst, MA 01002 413 253 4283

Study Circles Resource Ctr POB 203, Rt 169 Pomfret, CT 06258 203 928 2616

American Self-Help Clearinghouse St. Clares-Riverside Med. Ctr Denville, NJ 07834 201 625 7101 National Self-Help Clearinghouse 25 mailto:@. 43rd St. NYC 10036

Ctr for Org. and Comty Devel 377 Hills South Univ. of Mass. Amherst, MA 01003 413 55 2038

Ctr for Living Democracy RR 1 Black Fox Rd Brattleboro, VT 05301 802 254 1234

Living Democracy Learning Center 2400 Olympic Blvd Suite 3300 Walnut Creek, CA 94595 510 945 1882

D. "WIN-WIN" NEGOTIATION This was adapted and modified from Appendix G, HUD Notice H95-64.

1. Summary

Negotiation is how people with issues in common resolve their differing perspectives and interests. It is also how relationships keep going. "Win-Win" negotiation is negotiation where both sides come out ahead. It is a lot more fun than adversarial negotiation. Anyone can learn negotiation skills.

You already know something about negotiation, since most of life consists of negotiating. (What movie do you want to see? Where should we go on our vacation? Who's going to do the dishes? Who's going to work on this project?)

2. General Principles in Negotiation

a. Problems are unique, so solutions must also be unique. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." There is no standard path to guaranteed negotiating success. Keep your goals in mind and let yourself get there creatively.

b. Negotiation is either WIN-WIN or lose-lose. Win-win negotiation means finding a solution which serves all stakeholders better than any of them could get on our own. This requires finding actions that benefit one person more than they cost the other. Win-lose negotiation doesn't work. In those situations, split the difference, and move on to more useful work.

c. Progress on little things leads to progress on big things. Keep looking for places where we have shared interests, shared objectives, or similar views. Negotiate a small solution to make progress, if you can't negotiate a big solution all at once.

d. "When a negotiation is over, everyone has to feel like a winner. Negotiation is agreement. People don't agree to lose. They only agree to win. So the negotiation must give each participant something that participant values. Otherwise that participant has no reason to say Yes.

e. Negotiate transactions that look good later, whether two hours, two days, or two years later. You may out-trade or deceive someone in a negotiating session, but sooner or later the victim will realize he's been cheated. When that occurs,

* you have generated enormous and needless bad will (people never forget when they feel they've been cheated, and they take it personally)

* the other party will freely break the agreement ("Heck, they cheated first, I'm just getting even!")

The only deals that last are those that make sense when explained to a tough critic.

f. Share the misery. Others will need to do something they don't want to do. So you have to do something you don't want to do. What can people do that costs them less than they gain from the solution?

g. Before you can get to Yes, you have to establish your No. When I get what I want just by asking, I have no reason to negotiate. I simply demand, louder and louder. When negotiating, be careful where you pick your ground, but if you say No to something, mean it. Change your mind after you've said No only if you get new information. That's not backing down, that's being sensible.

h. Stay flexible - avoid ultimatums and threats. Ultimatums are dangerous weapons -- if you produce one and it is ignored, you have to follow through. If you do not, you have zero credibility. Ultimatums are dangerous because they challenge egos and crystallize positions. Resist being cornered into an ultimatum. Learn to use words like 'consider,' 'recommend,' 'examine'. ("If we cannot work out an arrangement, then we will have to consider our legal alternatives.") Ambiguity can be a useful tool, though Americans have trouble with it because they are addicted to immediate closure in everything.

i. Allies appear in unlikely places. Judge participants by their behavior, not their uniform. Lawyers often say, "The client is the real enemy." Consultants learn not to take their clients' pronouncements on faith. Not everyone in your own organization, or other similarly situated organizations, will necessarily be on your team.

Start without judgements, from the idea that no one is automatically an enemy or ally. Everyone is neutral. Treat them all the same way. Then observe which people behave like part of the solution, and which like part of the problem. Also, you can never really know another person's motives. Always assume that other people have high motives, and act surprised if they behave otherwise. People often reflect other people's expectations of them.

j. Organizations are not monolithic. The larger the organization, the more schizophrenic it is likely to be. Be alert for conflicting signals from the organization. Respond to those which further your objective; ignore those that obstruct progress, raise the tension, or distract attention from the crucial issues. What you concentrate on grows.

k. Define what success means before you start, so you can know when to stop negotiating. Keep negotiating until you have a transaction which is within your definition of Success, and then, ease off. Don't concede everything that remains, but why blow a successful deal in pursuit of a marginal but not crucial feature? You're not trying to score the most points, you're trying to negotiate an agreement to solve a problem. "A good solution is better than a bad solution, but a bad solution is better than no solution." The worst problem in sales is people who don't quit when the sale is made. If you keep talking, you may blow the sale...

3. A Negotiating Plan

a. Figure out what's wrong. Identify everything in the current situation that is not what you want. Distinguish between symptoms and opinions ("Energy costs are too high") and root causes ("We have twenty-year-old single pane windows with cracked caulking"). What would you see, hear, and feel if the situation were perfect? What's missing?

b. Figure out what you want. This starts with something as easy as writing down a list of cures to the problems you have identified. Once you have done that, rank your priorities and then subdivide them into two categories:

Must Haves [Absolute Necessities] Nice to have [Luxuries]

Express priorities as positive results rather than specific actions ("I want to feel better" rather than "I want two aspirins"). Often, a solution you didn't know about may get you your goal than the one you did know. State your priorities as conditions rather than specific actions ("The property's deferred maintenance has to be cured," rather than, "You have to contribute new capital"). Combine priorities and simplify your descriptions where possible. Simple objectives are easier to communicate, and have greater force.

Be wary of overgeneralizing: "Restoring the property to decent safe and sanitary housing" is laudable. It is not specific, and no-one knows how to do this. Imagine a magic elf who can carry out any command, no matter how amazing, so long as it is described precisely, but who has no conception of adjectives. Have you instructed the elf to the point where it can act?

c. Figure out everyone's "or-else", their unilateral alternative. If there's no deal, what is the best you can get by yourselves? That is your "or-else". Everyone has an or- else. The strength of each negotiating position is equal to the attractiveness of its "or- else".

What is your "or-else"? What's the best you can do without anyone's cooperation? You must know this- never accept a transaction that is worse than this level. What are the other participants' or-elses? They should never accept a settlement which is worse than this. If by some accident they appear to do so, the deal will later fall apart.

d. Define your 'zone of agreement' by figuring out everyone's or-else.

Agreements are possible when the negotiated solution is better than each participant's or-else. The area between everyone's or-else is the potential zone of agreement. It can be large or small. The zone of agreement changes over time as negotiating positions shift. Be aware of changes in other participants' or-elses, because they will change negotiation.

e. Figure out what you can give. This is as important as deciding what you want. Negotiation is give and take. You are trying to induce people to give you things, so you must offer them things they want. There are two types:

Things that help solve the problem. Things that reward others for helping you solve the problem.

f. Figure out what other people want -- and what they can give. You must know what each other participant wants, and what they can contribute. [They may not even have thought about this.] There are three ways to do this:

. Ask directly. Most people will tell you the truth. If direct questions don't work, reverse it: "If I were in your shoes, I'd want this. Do you want that? Why or why not?" Ask indirectly- of others in a similar situation what they would want if they were in this situation. . Ask yourself- Put yourself in the other person's place, and figure out what you would want.

When the three answers start to agree with one another, you've probably found something that will work.

g. Open lines of communication to all interested parties. You can't negotiate with a rock. You have to find ways of getting people to talk with one another. See Section 5, too.

h. Focus on the ultimate solution, and turn enemies into allies. When the lifeboat is sinking, time spent arguing over who made the hole is pointless. Set aside your differences and concentrate on bailing. Recriminations and resentment never got anyone to the negotiating table, and they are the fastest way to get people to leave it. Vent yourself of all resentment before you ever get to the negotiation table. Nothing poisons negotiations faster than mutual venting.

i. Keep putting out deniable positions until a solution comes into view. Negotiating is like brainstorming or problem-solving: the more ideas, the more chance of finding a solution. Keep thinking of things. To give ideas a chance, they have to be presented so people can chew on them without fearing that any movement will be seen as a concession and pounced upon. So, if you want to negotiate:

* Keep out lawyers who are acting as advocates. * Ask for meetings of principals only. * Offer confidence by stating, for example, "Everything here is off the record," or, "Anything we discuss is just an idea until we each have a chance to go home and think about it." * Create a natural interrupt, such as "We know you will have to get approval for anything we discuss. So all we're seeking is your personal commitment to take the idea back and explain it (or recommend it)."

4. Setting the stage

a. You need answers to four crucial questions:

1. What's wrong. 2. What you want and can give. 3. What others want, and what they can give. 4. How you can work with others, and have fun creating positive results that benefit all.

Some principles for pursuing them:

b. Identify the players. Figure out whose cooperation you need, and then figure out who can say Yes for each group. Waste no effort on people who can't help or hinder you. Once you have identified an important player, find the person in the organization who can negotiate the deal. If an owner is a partnership, who is the general partner? If there are multiple general partners, which one controls? If that general partner is a corporation, who is the controlling person? Has that controlling person delegated decision-making authority?

You are entitled to ask anyone who sits at the negotiating table whether that person (that human being) can negotiate a deal. Anyone who sits at the table with you is entitled to ask you the same thing. If you're sitting at the table with someone who has no authority to negotiate, you're wasting your time. Find it out early.

c. Build your Uses of Funds first. A hen is only an egg's device for making another egg. Money is important only for what we can buy with it. Sources matter only because they make it possible to achieve Uses of Funds. Uses are what you need. So always have your Uses of Funds front and center. Compromise it at your peril. Your job as a negotiator is to beg, borrow, or scrounge Sources to meet Uses. If you start with Sources and then build up Uses, you will always aim too low.

d. Research the other participants' situations. Spend most of your research time analyzing the situation from the other person's point of view. This is enlightening because it will teach you what he needs, what he can give, where his weaknesses are, and what the consequences are, for actions (or inactions) you or others may take.

Other participants may have limitations on what they can do. There is a gigantic difference between "I won't do this" and "I can't do this," especially because, in some cases, other participants can help remove the obstacle. Often these barriers are not obvious; you discover them only if you ask.

e. Ask the other side how they will make their decision. Most people will tell you. This is enormously valuable, because if you know how they will make a decision, you can identify what they will value ... and not value. Conversely, be prepared to state how you will make your decision. This will help them facilitate their decision.

Never assume that other people value anything the way you do. They often do not, and the solutions proposed can be remarkable. If everyone had the same values, negotiation wouldn't be possible, would it?

f. Always look for "force multipliers": things which cost you little and benefit others greatly. Whenever you find a value-additive action, make it part of the solution. By increasing what others gain from the negotiation, you increase their willingness to make concessions that you care about.

Find out "pinch points": what is painful for the other participants. Often participants assume that small value items are easy to achieve when they might not be. Pinch points are often not obvious; they are usually best conveyed verbally rather than in writing (though sometimes written descriptions are necessary and appropriate). Look for situations where benefits greatly outweigh costs and pains. Wherever possible, avoid elements with high cost or high pain.

g. Ask people to imagine success independent of the cost. Solutions are devices to create results. You must know what results you want, or you won't know a solution even if you stumble over it. When you first start, ask: "It's one year [or 5 years] from now and the entire problem has been solved. Two questions:

(1) What things went into the solution? (2) What would you be willing to contribute if that occurred?

Throughout the negotiation, keep asking yourself (and others), "What does Success look like?" Why would anybody negotiate without knowing the answer to that question? You want exciting goals that you "move toward", not unpleasant goals that you "move away from".

h. Assume anything is possible. Always state that something is possible if something else happens. Don't say, "We can't do that because we've never done it." Say instead, "We've never done that before, so to do it, we have to justify it by showing how unique the situation is." Seeing the impossible as possible allows people to concentrate on removing obstacles. That is basic problem-solving.

i. Know your own rules. You have to know what is forbidden, what is permissible, what is negotiable. Otherwise "everything not mandatory is forbidden." Know your statutes, regulations, and handbooks. Always presume that others know the rules too, but if they behave as if ignorant, always take time out to explain the rules. Ignorance, stupidity, and lack of awareness cause far more problems than evil intentions. What you concentrate on grows, always assume the other side has the highest of intentions.

j. Tap organizational memory. Know useful precedents -know what you or others have done, and why, and whether it worked or not. Walk around your office asking other people, "I've got a problem of this type. Have you ever seen one of these? What'd you do? What happened? Why?" Spend 4-5 times as much time preparing as negotiating. Preparation pays off. "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

5. Opening Lines of Communication

a. Remember the five stages of Sales. Concentrate on moving each participant one stage per encounter. (Sometimes you can move a participant more than one stage, but count as a Success any encounter which moves a participant one stage along.)

Attention. You must get other participants' attention. Show them what they will gain from a negotiated solution. Interest. The participants have to be interested in hearing what you have to say. Be pleasant to listen to. Avoid posturing, bluster, threats, or rote recitations. Human beings engage with other human beings; you have to become one to get their interest. Desire. The participant has to want to find the solution. Explain the benefits of a solution, or the burdens of having no solution. Commitment. The participant has to be emotionally committed to achieving the solution. This cannot be forced; it follows only when desire has been raised. Action. Many participants are committed to a solution but forget to act as required. Persistence, good humor, and tenacity are other needed here. So is demonstrating that you are acting out your part of the agreement.

b. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Put the issues out on the table. Explain what you are after, why you want it, why a solution is in the best interests of the other parties. State what you can and cannot do. Be aggressively positive.

What do you have to gain by deceit? It's the strategy of the weakling: "I can't tell you the truth because my position would be weaker." If you are ever caught in a fib, your credibility is damaged, possibly ruined, and your negotiating position is seriously undermined, because now everything that you say must first be verified to make sure you are not fibbing here as well. A reputation for integrity and honest brokerage is a huge asset in negotiations. Develop that reputation and never compromise it.

c. State what you want as a goal, not as a threat. Spill the beans up front. Put all issues on the table right away. Holding back a key point like Lieutenant Columbo ("Oh, just one more thing) is a breach of protocol. The other parties have already made their mental tradeoffs in arriving at their settlement, just as if you carefully weighed the piece of meat and had the grocer ring up the price, then asked for a couple more slices.

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Remember closure -- reaching a finish. If you are repeatedly going back for 'just one more thing,' others become reluctant to offer concessions because they learn they have to keep a reserve against this death by a thousand cuts. Make it easy for the other side to give you what you want, and reward and thank them as much as you can when you get what you want.

d. Assume the other side has the highest of motives- adopt a constructive tone. Adopting the attitude that another participant is a thief, a louse, a scoundrel or a menace to society may be what you feel, but is an obstacle to a negotiated settlement. This one little point poisons so many divorce negotiations, doesn't it? Behave as if the other participants are your best friends who, for some inexplicable reason, have been seized by temporary madness or have been given the most egregiously incorrect summary of the situation. Your approach is that, if only you can explain things to them, it will be possible to negotiate a solution better than anything ever seen before. If nothing else, you can enjoy the surprised looks on their faces. As Lyndon Johnson said, in his inimitable Texas drawl, 'Come, let us reason together.'

e. Set a good example: behave the way you want the others to. Start by unilaterally making some commitments -- and then honor those commitments. What kinds of commitments can you make?

To continue the dialogue. To report any relevant information you learn. To return telephone calls promptly. To do what you promised to do, when you promised to do it.

None of these commitments costs anything, yet by their action they create a climate in which negotiation is possible. Take the simplest, returning a phone call. If you promise to call someone in two days with an answer, and the two days are about to lapse and for some reason you still do not know, make the phone call anyhow. Then say, "I haven't done what I said I would do, but I haven't forgotten you. Here's the obstacle I've encountered and here's when I hope to be able to get it done." You will be amazed at the goodwill you build that way.

f. Listen to the other participants' ideas and motivations. When another participant is explaining, pay close attention. Identify what is being said AND the assumptions and goals that generate it. Take notes. This respect alone will have an effect.

Step 1. Focus on the goal first and the solution second. ("If I understand you correctly, you want to solve the property's short-term cash problem. You think that deferring replacement reserve funding is the best way to achieve it.")

Step 2. This allows you to disagree with the solution without blocking the objective. ("I agree that replacement reserve deferral would let you bring down accounts payable, but we have major appliance and window replacement coming up in the next six months.")

Step 3. You can then explain why you are reluctant to agree to the proposal in a way which invites the other participant to solve it. ("If we waive replacement reserve, what are we going to do this summer when the air conditioners all start blowing out?")

Agree with as much as you can before you start to disagree.

g. Summarize what you have heard; get others to summarize what they have heard. Many disagreements are caused by simple misunderstanding. Take the time to summarize, especially after the end of the meeting, what was said, what agreements were reached, and what points are still not agreed to. Remember the book on male/female communication, "I know you think you understand what I said, but what you heard is not what I meant."

h. Be super-patient and keep trying to open communications. Persistence is remarkably effective.

i. Develop systems to send 'deniable' signals. This is crucial in any multi-party negotiation. No one ever negotiated a transaction around a twenty-person table; back channels must be developed. There are a variety of ways to do this:

Instruct outside professionals to carry certain messages as if speaking for themselves. Develop a personal relationship with someone outside and have an ear-to-ear phone conversation. Informal corridor chat before or after a meeting. . Having someone else within your own organization convey the message.

This is neither game-playing nor deception; it's the essential art of allowing overtures without risking loss of face when they are rejected. Ambiguity and chaos can help you.

6. How To Conduct Yourself

a. Always tell the truth. Be as clear as you can, as forthright as you can. If you don't know the answer, say so. If you know but can't tell, say so. If you cannot make a decision, say so. If you can only make a recommendation, but usually have your recommendations accepted, say so.

b. Encourage others to talk. When someone presents a proposal, ask them why they think it's in your interest. They know why it's in their best interest, and they wouldn't offer something unless it was. But make them explain to you why they think you should take it.

c. Concentrate on and draw out the positive. If you suspect that someone is making an offer which is not genuine, or which may not be in your interest, rather than reject it out of hand, draw it out. ("I must be having trouble understanding, because I can't figure out why that is in my best interest. Please explain it to me.")

If a proposal is based on something which is new to you or inconsistent with your experience, don't simply accept it, even if the person claiming it is acting as if it's self- evident. Express ignorance and request education. (Remember, there's a huge difference between ignorance and stupidity.) ("Gee, I didn't know the limited partnership rules prevented the general partner from loaning money to the property. Could you explain to me why that is?")

d. Try to "change polarity" on things that don't favor you- to use things that seem to be against you. If you are asked to accept something you think may be false, do so - - then when you summarize your views, restate it. ("Well, if as you say the general partners are prohibited from lending money, we'll have to find another source.") You may be able to turn it around so that, if it is proven false, you can use it to help you. ("Of course, if it turns out that you legally can lend money, we will expect you to change your position.") If you catch someone in a lie, respond as if they'd made an honest mistake, something like "Gosh, that is inconsistent with our knowledge, what causes you to believe that? We believe, based on our facts, that the real situation is different."

e. Be aggressively positive: don't lead with your chin. Every negotiating position has weaknesses; you are not required to advertise them. Never assume that the other side automatically knows where your weaknesses are -- the other side often "plays its cards" badly. Let them demonstrate their knowledge before you retreat. If the other side says "Government regulations require that we do this", you can ask "Which ones? If they are regulations, they are on paper, can we get a copy?"

f. Radiate confidence. No one can make you say Yes to something you don't want to. People can try to change your cost/benefit analysis -- they can try making your No more painful -- but that Yes still belongs to you. Remember, one negotiates only with equals, so the mere act of engaging you in a negotiation is an acknowledgment that you have standing and a certain leverage. Figure out what your leverage is, and then conduct yourself as if you have leverage.

g. Build personal relationships with the other participants' negotiators. Someone being on the other side of the table does not change who that person is. Jobs are uniforms we put on and take off. Often people change their job orientation (public to private sector, principal to advisor, and so on); they bring those memories and perspectives to any current situation.

Most of the time, other participants are also seeking a 'fair deal' or a 'reasonable result' or a 'sound solution.' They just have different perspectives about what that means. Building personal relationships makes it possible to communicate constructively, without rigidity and without anger.

h. Avoid anger. It almost never helps you. You can be outraged or frustrated -- that is normal in a negotiation. But do not let that turn into personal anger, not matter how much you may feel it. Blow off steam before or after the meeting, not during it.

i. Be nicest to the people you like the least. Everyone responds better to a friendly face than an unfriendly one. While it is easy to be friendly with people you like, doing so with others requires a conscious effort. Thus, when negotiating with somebody you dislike, before doing (or not doing) something, step back and ask yourself, "How would I do this if I was negotiating with my best friend?" Then do it that way. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' Also, sometimes the person you dislike most can turn out to be your best ally. You won't know if you aren't nice to them. If you have to, dump out your resentments and negative emotions, and fill your mind with exciting, positive thoughts before each negotiation. Doing so will shift the energy of the entire process.

j. Reward behaviors you like. People respond to positive reinforcement. If you want to motivate someone, give small rewards. ("Each time you fax me a draft of the document, I'll call you back with my comments within 24 hours.") In very short order you'll be getting the responses and behaviors you want -- if you do what you promise you will do. Napoleon created many new medals for his soldiers, saying, "Men are ruled by toys." They were- they would risk their lives repeatedly for a bit of ribbon and metal. Benjamin Disraeli said about flattery that he "laid it on with a trowel". Do they get a lot of what they want in life? In surveys of what employees most want in a job, appreciation often tops the list. What does appreciation cost, really? How many people do you know who punish the other person when they get what they want, and demand more?

7. Negotiating from Inside a Bureaucracy [even services coordinators get to deal with bureaucracies]

a. Know your own rules. Know the statutes, regulations, and relevant handbooks and policy letters. Understand clearly what you are allowed to do and what not. Most of the time, the other participants will have spent more time than you studying the rules, so make sure you know them clearly.

b. Make sure your supervisor concurs with your perception of the limits of your authority. Never crawl out on a limb without checking first with the man who holds the saw. If you are planning to negotiate some issues, or to decline to negotiate some issues, make sure your supervisor knows about them ahead of time.

Meet with your supervisor and go over what you think might come up. Establish the limits of your authority. ("What will you accept? What can I give up?") A good way to do this is to pretend to be the owner and quiz your supervisor on various things. ("If the owner offers to give something in exchange for something else, would we accept that?") Always ask your supervisor, "If things come up for which we did not prepare, what can I negotiate? Do you want me to call you into the meeting (get you on the call), or do I have authority to handle it?"

c. Protect yourself by briefing all possible supervisors. No position, no matter how strongly held, can survive if it is outflanked. Never let your supervisor be surprised. Before any important contact (letter transmittal, telephone call, meeting), brief your supervisor about:

. The issues . The positions you are taking . What you may be compelled to say . The other person's probable counter arguments, and why you think they should be rejected . The other person's possible actions

People will go over your head without your consent for two reasons:

1. They think they can influence your supervisor. 2. They think they can fast-talk your supervisor, who knows only a small fraction of the issues, into making a commitment without checking with you first.

Either way, you can protect yourself by making sure your supervisor knows what might happen, and how to react to it if it does.

d. Brief your supervisor fully, even the weak points. Supervisors usually defend their staff, unless they find themselves in a bad position because their staff didn't do the job. If there are weak points, whether in the record, the fact pattern, or otherwise, let your supervisor know before the confrontation. Brief your boss fully, even down to the embarrassing stuff. ("Maybe I shouldn't have said this last time, but I did, so now we have to cope with it.")

e. Exploit your weaknesses. If another participant has much to gain from a negotiation, and has resources available, use them. For instance, if someone wants something from you, that is just slightly beyond what you can give, let them do as much legwork as they can. Let them know you are under severe resource constraints. Let them do the writeup, say. If something is a great idea, but you just can't do it by yourself, say so. Tell the people who want it you would welcome their involvement, and give them whatever information they need to do the job well. Even if they make gross mistakes, they will learn something, and you rewarded a positive effort.

But then make the participant accountable for the quality of its work. ("If I find that you've written it up other than we agreed upon, then the entire deal is off." "If it's done improperly, it will go to the bottom of my In box until I can devote the time to figuring out how to correct it.")

f. Extend yourself as a person without committing the organization. Handbook or no, regulations or no, you always have one right: your recommendation, for or against. Whenever you're beyond your personal decision-making authority, you can always say, "I have no control over whether this gets approved, but I will recommend this if you'll bring it forward." That is all any sensible person would want. A statement such as, "Of course I will submit anything you propose, but unless it includes this feature, I will have to recommend rejection," is enormously potent. If you make such a personal commitment, honor it.

People who think you are genuinely wrong will usually ask you if they can involve your supervisor. This is not a hostile action and should generally not be treated as such.

g. Use your supervisor to underscore important messages. Every supervisor knows that the same statement carries more weight if said by someone higher in the organization. Develop a relationship with your supervisor so that, as appropriate, s/he can call/write/meet with someone on the outside for the purpose of re-emphasizing an essential element, a non-negotiable condition, or some other aspect.

h. Make sure the record supports your action. No one remembers the successful negotiations; the record is examined only if something went wrong. Anything which has not worked out will be claimed to have been avoidable. Protect yourself against needless after-the-fact criticism by having a context for any decision you make.

8. What To Do When Negotiations Break Down

a. Other participants are people too, their emotions need time to adjust. There are five stages of grief:

. Denial. ("That's impossible! There must be some mistake! This can't be happening to me!') . Anger. ("Whose fault is this! Who can I punish for allowing it to happen?") . Bargaining. ("I'm sure you mean this applies to someone else, not me.") . Depression. ("It's hopeless, why do anything?") . Acceptance. ("All right, now how do we solve the problem? What are we going to do?")

People focus on solutions (Acceptance) only after they have exhausted the four preceding states, and each one takes time to work through. Sometimes you will encounter a participant who is in an earlier emotional stage and cannot immediately let go of it. When that occurs, the best thing to do is to cut off the contact and arrange to contact again some time later.

b. When you hit an immovable object, go sideways for a while. Sometimes an obstacle arises which appears insoluble -- a position that seems cast in concrete, a prohibition that seems to have no exceptions. When this occurs, rather than let negotiations grind to a halt, pick up some other issue on which progress can be made. Sometimes the simple act of whittling down the list of problems creates more opportunities to solve the few that remain. It also increases the desire of other parties to find solutions.

c. When you are threatened, assume that it is part of a plan and figure out what happens after the threat is carried out. Often a threatener, convinced that threats will force retreat, has not thought about the consequences of following through on the threat. Acknowledge that the threat could be acted upon, and ask the threatener to explain what it will do then. ("Yes, you could sue us. But then we would have to defend the suit, and possibly start foreclosure, and it would take years to resolve. In any case, how does that fix the property's cash flow problem?")

Many things which hurt one participant are of no intrinsic value to the others. These are force drainers. They make things worse for everyone and make agreement that much harder to reach. Most threats involve force drainers; they are usually expressed when the other side is frustrated and feels that there is no constructive negotiation going on. Don't match threat for threat. Brinkmanship never worked for anyone.

d. Never let the negotiations break off. The longer silence lasts, the more it feels like an end to the negotiation. If, for some reason, the negotiations have apparently stalled, find some mechanisms to reopen dialogue. Either use a deniable approach, or make contact yourself on a matter only peripherally related. ("I know we haven't settled the Previous Participation issue, but I have this replacement reserve withdrawal request which I'm processing and need some clarification ...")

e. Recognize that you are expendable; the solution matters. In some situations a change of negotiator is a worthwhile sacrifice. If you find yourself making no progress, arrange for someone else to do a bit of contacting while you retreat to the background. People will freely express their frustration to a newcomer in a way that lets them verbalize it and put it behind them, and negotiations can often resume.

9. Conclusion: You can get there from here. It just takes practice.

. Negotiation is not win-lose. Share the misery, share the benefits.

. Analyze as much as you can, especially from the other participants' perspectives.

. Figure out your "or-else" unilateral alternative.

. Determine the zone of agreement by figuring out everyone's 'or else' alternative.

. Ask the other participants as many questions as you can, especially about their motivations and decision criteria.

. Establish your No before seeking your Yes.

. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Honor your commitments.

. Build personal relationships with the other participants' negotiators. Always keep the lines of communication open.

. Negotiation can often be fun. Try not to enjoy it too much.

If you find it difficult to use this tool, possibly the following might be of interest. About 2

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years ago, the Connecticut Association of Resident Services Coordinators in Housing set me a task: a cheap way to deal with the bickering, quarreling, factions, and so on, that happen in housing. I set to my subconscious the question, "How can that be done?", and forgot about it. Asking questions is the most powerful thing you can do, because if you're patient and aware, you always get an answer. At a seminar of the CT Storytelling Center, Manitonquat, an elder and storyteller of the Wampanoag Nation, demonstrated how to do it.

Two people work together. One agrees to be the speaker, the other the listener/ drainer. The speaker speaks for 5 minutes, on whatever is important to them, whatever has "juice", whatever is bothering them, whatever comes up. The listeners have the more important job: they listen to everything said, with the body language of total interest. Lean forward slightly, make eye contact, follow what is said. The most the listener can say is "hmmm", or "oh". After 5, or 10 minutes, the roles reverse. It is best to pick whoever is most "different" from you, people you don't know.

I introduced the exercise at a Social Services Coordinator training I did. I made the mistake of not saving the exercise for the end. I couldn't get people to come back; they were enjoying the exercise too much. Why couldn't organizers just share this exercise with a few residents? Once it catches on, well, isn't that exactly what we need? A cheap method where residents can "drain" each other of their resentments, at no cost except time? I've been to SO MANY meetings in my life where somebody had as their mission venting all the poison from their entire life. Venting poisons meetings. Also it is grossly disrespectful. Draining is best done one-on-one, or in groups of 3. The organizational alignment from a "drained" group of people, working on a mission, has to be seen and felt to be believed.

7. A COMMUNITY IS ITS CELEBRATIONS & SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

A relationship does not involve communication; a relationship IS communication. A system IS ITS COMMUNICATION. Where there is no communication, there is no system, no community. In 1994, I got tired of dealing with property managers and social services providers who knew nothing about each other. So I invited all he could find of each, in the Greater Hartford area, to a "Long Spoon" meeting, to get to know each other. Some 45 people showed up. They sat in a circle, and were invited to speak for 4 minutes on who they were, what they did, and their "wishes" for what they needed. Every person there made at least 2 new useful contacts, and there were still people excitedly talking in the room 2 hours after the meeting was supposed to end. All it took was a room, and some letters of invitation...

Traditional community reinforcers worldwide included activities like folk dancing and storytelling. You might want to spend some time thinking about how to reinforce the sense of community in your area, with simple things like that. You could deepen the bonds of community with friends and family by celebrating birthdays, or seasonal or religious holidays. You could even create your own traditions. If you are part of an organized group, you could have celebrations, retreats, and other get-togethers that recognize group transitions and anniversaries. This might include recognizing joint achievements, learning from mistakes, just playing, and refining your group vision and goals. Even Chaos Theory notes the need for systems to have "intermittent" relaxation, to keep the system strong.

Australian aborigines recognize two broad classes of time: what we call normal waking consciousness, called "whitefella time", and Sacred time, or the "Dreamtime". Linear, "whitefella time" is deadening without the balance of circular, cyclical time. The Lipan Apache name for linear time can be translated "Land of the Living Dead". Originally, celebrations were sacred, occurring in sacred space and time, and vivifying, or re- creative, not merely recreational. Holiday doesn't have the oomph of its original meaning, Holy Day, does it? Western culture has forgotten the value of sacred time.

Some might consider celebrations frills and extras. The rite of passage to manhood for adolescent boys, in New Guinea, was abandoned in the 1970's, for just this reason. It only took 2 years for street gangs to form. In nature, restful inner processing is absolutely necessary after every active outward production. This is as necessary for a community as sleep is for an individual. Do you remember the scene in Crocodile Dundee II where Mick asks the gang what they did last night, and the previous night, and so on? Communities are what they do. If they do nothing together, they are little more than laboratory rat cages for people.

Perhaps we unconsciously create crises to experience community because we've given up these positive community activities. Individuals doing that get a "Secondary Gain"- their problems have a secondary reward, like a person who is always sick because that is the only way they can get attention. We don't have a similar term for community problems. Maybe we need one. Our communities certainly present a number of challenging growth opportunities for any leader willing to take action.

In my own community, I was on the volunteer committee that built a "Citizen's Park". Land was donated to the town, about 1/2 acre. We have extensive stone walls, sunny and shady rock gardens for plantings, a "maze" of river stone in the ground, stones set up roughly along the lines of the rocks in "dry-style" Japanese gardens, and stone benches. We expect to have a gazebo, stone lanterns, and several other nice design elements when it is done. Someone tore down the old houses on the site for the chestnut beams in them, and donations took care of the dumpster. The house foundations, rock walls, were taken down, and reassembled as stone walls by volunteers. A volunteer landscape architecture student prepared plans. A backhoe/front end loaded was lent, and a volunteer used it. Topsoil and plantings were donated. Some people are already talking about using this park for weddings.

8. A COMMUNITY IS THE WAY IT HANDLES CONFLICT

Conflicts are a natural part of group interaction, something to welcome. Leaders look forward to conflicts as an opportunity for the group to grow. Friction is how diamonds are polished.

There are many different ways of handling conflict . Koichi Tohei commanded a Japanese military unit in China during WWII. He decided the most responsible thing he could do was to keep his men alive. He succeeded. His unit lost no casualties to enemy fire. First he had to win their trust. He said he got spiritually "centered", and stayed standing to issue commands only when it felt safe, while his men were hiding in trenches from enemy bullets. He got their respect. Then he convinced them that there really wasn't any need to kill enemy troops, unless attacked directly. When they caught prisoners, they would release them unharmed at night and point them back to their own lines. Enemy units knew their unit, and wouldn't attack them. Now wouldn't that make an interesting movie, maybe more interesting than the usual revenge fantasies popular in movies like Rambo?

Why fight? Why not figure out what interests you have in common with others, and find ways you can work together to make it better for everyone? The only hard part is changing the way you think. Once you do that, everything else is easy. "Feeding interest", and using "win-win" methods, is a lot of FUN. Why? Remember the games you played as a kid, where somebody had to lose, and it felt like it was always you? Well, how about a game where everybody wins? Who would oppose you?

There must be a place for everyone. Think back to a time when you weren't respected, in a group. Were you a part of it? Of course not. And that group lost out by excluding you, didn't it. Think back to another group, where you were a respected part. You felt energized, and gave that group more of yourself than the first group, didn't you?

Diversity is a sign of health, in nature, and is something to welcome. The great creative cities and cultures of the past were always extremely diverse, almost hybrids of cultural ideas. From Muslim Spain, where the Renaissance started, to Venice in the late Middle Ages, where double entry bookkeeping was invented, to Norman Sicily, to Khublai Khan's Chinese capital, to Timbuktu, to modern-day Singapore, diversity has always been critical and essential to cultural creativity. Joseph Needham has catalogued hundreds of Chinese inventions "hybridized" to Western use, from gas used for heating to oil well drilling to tempered seven tone music. Cultures that have enforced uniformity, though, from the Inquisition to some of the former Iron Curtain countries, paid a very high price in cultural stagnation.

Welcome diverse members of your community as very useful and essential parts. The most creatively useful ideas sometimes come from people and situations you least expect them from. Milton Erickson, the gifted hypnotherapist, was gifted precisely because his polio-induced handicap forced him to become extremely observant. Synergy comes from alignment. An aligned community of 3 people doesn't have 3 times the brainpower, it has 9 times the brainpower. Fighting keeps the community from using its power. Remember the person who irritates the heck out of you might just be unfocused. Perhaps you can focus their energy. All enemies are potential allies.

Some of the causes of interpersonal conflict are:

- Poor or absent communication. - Differing perceptions of a situation. - Differing values. - Differing wants and needs.

There are four stages of group development. One of them is interpersonal conflict! The four are:

Orientation: Members seek their place in the group and reach common understanding of the group's goals and operational ground rules.

Interpersonal conflict/chaos: Individuals begin to compete for attention and influence. Divergent interests surface as members begin asserting their ideas and viewpoints of the tasks, and their feelings about other members. The group must settle issues of how power and authority will be divided among the members and how goals will be achieved. If conflicts are not resolved, the group may become so fractionalized that it disbands.

Cohesion: The group resolves conflicts and begins to develop a sense of identity or "team spirit." Individuals become more sensitive to each other's needs, and are more willing to share ideas, information, and opinions. Getting the job done becomes more important that personal goals and concerns.

Conflicts are *welcomed* as an opportunity to clearly define purpose and ways to get things done.

Interdependence: In this final stage of development the group emerges as a team. Members now work well together and have a high degree of commitment to achieving the team goals. Effort is directed toward productive problem solving, since structural and interpersonal issues have been resolved. A group at this stage is characterized by high morale, high creativity, and intense loyalty of members to each other.

Some ways of handling conflict are:

- Pinpoint the problem, separately from the people involved. Be you and the other persons against the problem, not you against the others. Have people share their feelings, needs, values, goals, problems, and concerns without attacking or placing blame on others.

- Clarify the group's purpose. Ask "What do we want here?" or "How is what we're doing right now getting us closer to our goals?"

- Brainstorm solutions. Try to come up with 10-12 possible solutions without judging the merits of any of them.

- Evaluate the solutions. What are the "pros" and "cons" of each? Work to find a solution that can be accepted by all parties, that won't cause new problems. Strive for a "win-win" situation.

If no solutions seem promising or feelings are too intense, table the issue, just sit on it, until more information can be obtained or until feelings can be settled. At the next meeting, review progress made on above steps, discuss new information, and then continue through to resolution.

Leaders can minimize conflicts and help teamwork happen with these rules:

* In a meeting, anyone who wants to make a point must first make the last speaker's point to that person's satisfaction. (Usually, when someone finally expresses the last speaker's point to that person's satisfaction, then their own point is simply, "I agree." Most disagreements are based on misunderstanding or miscommunication.)

* Nobody bad-mouths anybody. They have to go directly to the other person and talk about it.

Many ills flow from one error: wanting to change other people [rather than yourself]. -Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

Welcome conflict as a chance to improve your skills. It has been said that some people must have been put on this Earth to help us develop our patience. See this kind of person as a resource. Those people who really bother you have unfocused energy; if you can help them focus on getting things done, they will be your most energetic people. Sometimes just waiting quietly is the best thing you can do. That is a useful skill to practice.

9. A COMMUNITY IS UNIQUELY CREATIVE

The City of Baltimore used to delight in its ethnic celebrations. William Donald Schaefer, formerly the mayor of that city, said you could measure the hope and health of a community by the number of flowers visible in front of the houses. You can measure the health of your community by the thoughts that go through your mind, when you go to your car, late at night, in a dark parking lot, and hear footsteps behind you. Some native peoples would say that you can measure the health of a community by the beauty and energy of the singing of the women as they work. In our culture, women for the most part don't get to sing at all as they work, and probably wouldn't even if it was allowed... Some would measure community health by the level of development and beauty of whatever is unique about it. We could say that the health of a community is precisely equivalent to the health of the hopes and dreams of its residents.

This book can only offer ideas. This section is short, because each community will be different in whatever it does. Wouldn't it be boring if each community did everything in exactly the same way? You may come up with some really unique ideas that will be the next generation's inspiring success stories. Perhaps you will:

* invent something as earth-shaking in community healing as the stirrup, which led to the armored knight, castles, and feudal Europe. Wouldn't it be interesting if people started coming to your community, because what was going on was so interesting people had to come so they could copy what you're doing in their own communities?

* create a Community Reflection Garden so beautiful that people have weddings and graduations there.

* organize an Art Fair so popular that people decide they want it every year, like the Summer Art Fair in Ann Arbor, MI.

Whatever your community is, it has some unique characteristics that can be developed in a fun way to make it a better place to live. One book might be of interest: CITY COMFORTS: How to Build an Urban Village [CITY COMFORTS PRESS, 5605 Keystone Place North, Seattle, WA 98103 http://www.citycomforts.com/ ]

10. A COMMUNITY IS ITS CHILDREN

It takes a whole village to raise a child. -traditional African proverb

People who work with teenagers tell us the major problem with children is that they don't get enough quality positive attention from adults. We can debate the whys forever, yet this seems to be true of most communities, even the richest. Our children are perhaps the most precious part of our communities. Who can fail to feel sick to their stomachs at the news of children being hurt? These problems aren't confined to the "somewhere out there" anymore. Neglect of children reaches across race, economic position, culture, and all the other dividing lines that used to exist. Children don't have the resources, games, masks, escapes, addictions, and other defenses adults have. They have become "canaries in the mine", warning us with their problems, especially the increasing juvenile suicide rate, of serious trouble to come. We must integrate our children into our communities better, if we are to survive as a nation.

I saw a man on a beach, throwing starfish back into the sea. I said, "there must be millions of starfish on the shore, how can you possibly hope to make a difference?" The man smiled, threw another starfish back in the sea, and said, "Well, it made a difference to that one."

The cure starts with you. There is no "somebody else" to delegate it to. Whether it is making a contribution to a volunteer program that collects resources for children, or running a Boy Scout troop, or finding some way to get children involved in their community, anything you do makes a difference. If you decide to touch just one child's life positively once in your entire lifetime, that is a worthy accomplishment. We find that working with children is rewarding. For one reason, it demands work "from the heart", which is a useful skill not usually modelled in our culture. You don't have to take on the whole world. Just do one thing, however small. That's all.

One Services Coordinator we know of went to 2 quiet men in her community. She noted how much good a Cub and Boy Scout troop could do, and asked each for a 6 month commitment. She got it- no-one had ever asked them before. More importantly, she was present at each meeting, so it was obvious she was committed. There was one other factor to her presence. I personally know several men who loved the Boy Scouts, and would be great Scoutmasters. However, they will have nothing to do with Scouts at all, for fear of the abuse accusations so common in our country, where those accused are guilty and cannot be proven innocent no matter what happened.

The following material was adapted and expanded from a piece by Steve Fortier, M.S. CommuniTeam, Inc. PO Box 407, Frenchtown, NJ 08825 908-996-6416 It is cited here as an example of a healthy paradigm. No endorsement of anything, other than useful ideas, is implied or stated.

Two paradigm shifts are slowly taking form in American culture. The first is the unconscious realization that dealing with Community problems involves a lot more than reaction to individual events. One sees holistic efforts here and there, such as the "snowflake" Colorado uses to guide drug reduction efforts. It is a circle which shows everyone contributing- arms for each of business/labor, media, law enforcement, local officials/agency, schools, religious and civic organizations, parents, and youth. This shift involves developing local "capacity" and ability first. It involves seeing people as service providers with strength and abilities who can do a lot in their communities, no matter how "broken", not merely consumers of services.

The other involves seeing young people differently- as contributors just needing outlets. Only our culture has been able to afford the luxury of not allowing its young to contribute to the community. We can no longer afford this luxury. The young CAN contribute to communities, sometimes in surprisingly creative ways. What they most need is outlets to contribute, guided by adults with experience. I spoke with the coordinator of the Shelter Hill computer centers in Mill Valley, CA. They were run by a

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16 and a 17 year old. The 16 year old helped wire the Republican Convention in San Diego, in 1996. If children in your community aren't at this level, that means they aren't working at capacity.

Most news media are a negative feedback cycle of extreme negativity. I can't watch the evening news any more, it is just so incredibly depressing. We repeatedly hear complaints from people we work with that the media couldn't care less about anything positive in communities, especially where youth are concerned. Well, citizens have to change this.

People, and especially the young, for the most part have good hearts and much to contribute. They WANT to do good things for their community, it is part of their nature, they know at some level they must give to grow, part of being an adult. Only the most extreme of fear, resentment, and frustration can keep people away from "giving back". Our communities have MORE THAN ENOUGH resources to be healthy, and to solve all of their problems. Community healing means identifying those resources, and "weaving" them together with interest in community networks. When this process is led by youths, it can work even more efficiently. Why? Well, people will do more for their kids than they will for each other. Also, it is tougher to say no to a kid, than it is another adult. Kids are closer in time to the world of the spirit we all came from, and help remind adults of the joy of being in the moment. They are more idealistic, generally, and enthusiastic, and willing to try new things, all good qualities for entrepreneurship and new community efforts.

Steve Fortier trained young people to be experiential learning facilitators as part of youth-adult and community partnership development efforts. Books then available to support such efforts, written for adults, were not easily understood by the youth leaders. This was a limitation. Some of the students he worked with decided to provide a resource for youth leaders looking for new, effective, creative and fun ways to contribute to their community- Youth Leadership in Action (Kendall-Hunt Publishing, 1995 ISBN 0-7872-0107-3). Youth leaders wrote all but the preface of the book. Leadership issues sections were drawn from their experiences as facilitators. The directions to all fifty-five activities were written by the youths in their style and language.

The book used youth-led "hands-on" team and community-healing. Activities were designed to develop individual skills like decision-making, communication, leadership, and group skills like shared leadership, trust, mutual respect and conflict resolution. Community members engaged in a fun, active process to improve their abilities to work effectively with others. Youth facilitators get a group into activities to help them learn each other's names quickly. They introduce activities to help the group discover the "common ground" that exists within the community - personal experiences, traits and facts shared by other members of the group. Youth leaders can also reach into their "bag of tricks" to pull out some communication, trust, and problem-solving activities. These "initiatives" develop the group's ability to work as a team, communicate more effectively and gain respect for the leadership capabilities and styles of the various community members.

In Brattleboro, Vermont, The Leadership Project Team led team building workshops for the local police department. In Akutan, Alaska, Jacob Stepetin trained young people in his community to lead community cooperative games days. A middle school group from Lowell, Massachusetts used to do a similar thing, hosting community games days once a month at an inner-city park.

The peer leaders at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey used the activities in a freshmen orientation program that matches groups of freshmen with groups of upper classmen. The Peer Leaders at neighboring Bernards High School (Bernardsville, NJ) used the activities to enhance their Health Education curriculum that they teach for freshmen. In communities all over, the activities are used to build "community" at the beginning of Dialogue Nights.

Dialogue Nights are community events that let young people and adults listen to and learn from one another, ideally in a circle very much like the council circles of indigenous peoples. Dialogue Nights bring together people of different ages, backgrounds, beliefs and assumptions in a safe environment. Participants discuss things like the differences and similarities between today's teen experiences and those of years past, personal values, and qualities of effective parent-child relationships. Dialogue Nights are sponsored by a community or youth group. Many are open to the public. At times, the youth group chooses to target an adult group to "dialogue" with.

Such groups have included PTA's, civic groups, parent education program participants, police departments and school faculties. The typical outline of a Dialogue Night consists of a welcoming period, followed by an icebreaker activity designed to loosen people up and begin to create bridges between participants. Following the activity, the youth group might present a skit, slide show or short talk tied to the evening's topic of discussion. Ground rules for the Dialogue session are then presented and the participants break themselves up into groups of six to eight people (with diversity in race, gender and age). Family members are encouraged to split up so that the discussion can be as open and honest as possible.

Each small group is co-led by teenagers trained to lead Dialogue Nights. Following forty-five to sixty minutes of Dialogue, the small group discussions give way to a large group wrap-up. This open forum, moderated by a youth and/or adult leader, allows for insights gained in one discussion to be shared with others.

Dialogue Nights were originally developed by Ron Gaetano, R.Ph., a national expert in substance abuse. In 1987, The Leadership Project, which CommuniTeam's Steve Fortier co-developed, took Ron's ideas and expanded upon the concept of youth-adult Dialogue as a community development and prevention tool. Please Talk With Me: A Guide to Teen-Adult Dialogue (Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, 1991, ISBN 0-8403-6488-1) deals with various topics of interest to both teens and adults (including ones for teens/teachers and teens/police).

Today's fast-paced world has taken away many opportunities which once provided for meaningful dialogue between young people and adults. Certain issues - violence, suicide, substance use, HIV/AIDS - can be tracked, to some extent, to the lack of interaction between youths and significant adults, and lack of trust and communication. Dialogue Nights are one way to restore intergenerational communication and learning. Communication events like Dialogue Nights must provide a safe and supportive environment, clear boundaries, and carefully crafted formats to produce conversations that are engaging, productive, enriching and meaningful. They provide a place where people can listen and be heard, where there are no wrong answers, only different perspectives, where we can beging working with one another to create healthier neighborhoods and communities.

John Kretzmann's "Building Communities from the Inside Out" has a section on involving children in communities. The key point is get out of seeing kids as "objects" or "recipients", and seeing them as intelligent, creative beings who want to give to the community, who have unique gifts to offer. Other books say this much better than this one can, and there are more than we can list. Following is an extremely brief list.

How to Save the Children Amy Hatkoff & Karen K. Klopp. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Boy Scouts of America Programs in Public and HUD-Assisted Housing BSA, NE Region, POB 350, Dayton, NJ 08810-0350. (908)821-6500, 2000 Cornwall Rd, S. Brunswick, NJ 08852. The Read-Aloud Handbook Jim Trelease E. Rutherford, NJ: Penguin, 1987.

How-to books are a great way to feed youth interests TAB Books, Inc. POB 40, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0040, 717 794-2191. Howard W. Sams & Co., 4300 W. 62nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46268. 800/428-3602 Bulletin of Primitive Technology published by the Society of Primitive Technology, POB 905, Rexburg,ID 83440. Edible wild plant information available from Linda Runyon, Wild Foods Co., 13239 Shadow Hills Dr., Sun City West, AZ, 85735, (602) 933-8675 and Wild Foods Forum, POB 61413, Va. Beach, VA, 23462. No endorsement implied.

If we are to create world peace, we must start with children. -

-Mahatma Ghandi

11. A COMMUNITY IS THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT IT: SO YOU FORM THE COMMUNITY WITH YOUR QUESTIONS

Perhaps you could take a few moments to ponder these questions:

o What else is a community to you?

o In your ideal community, what would you see, hear, and feel? What is missing from what you have now?

o How could you have fun helping to create a little bit of that ideal community right now?

A very common question that I get, asked or unasked, when I work with people in communities, is "Why doesn't anybody care about our problems?" What a worthless question! What would you do with the answer to that question, even if you got it? See, you always get answers to your questions. QUESTIONS CREATE YOUR REALITY. Think of your mind as a genie- which always answers your questions. Feel the following worthless questions:

Why am I fat? Why am I so dumb? Why am I always broke?

Those questions feel sick- because they are sick. You'll get answers, too, and they will be depressing. Wouldn't it be more fun to focus your attention on more exciting questions? Like:

What can I do to make sure this never happens again? How can I have fun losing weight? Or better yet How can I have a blast losing weight, improving my health in dynamic ways while really having fun? [Now doesn't that feel better?] How can I learn lots of new, fun, exciting things, now? How can I learn many new things that will increase my delight in life, joy, vitality, and happiness? What would I really enjoy doing, that would dramatically increase my income?

Somebody always says, "Well, that may work for you, but my situation is different. OK, fine. It would be pretty bad to be in jail, right? Tortured? Colonel Rowe, U.S. Army, thought so. As a POW in North Vietnam, he was really depressed by it, and was ready to die. Then he noticed a mouse, in his cell. Having nothing else to do, he watched her. She was feeding her children. There wasn't a lot of food, but she was going out and finding it. He noticed that she was missing a leg- that she was getting around on 3 legs. Well, that's pretty bad, he thought. He studied how she moved, and realized that she was also blind. Here was a blind, 3-legged mouse, in an area with not much food, continuing her mission. He decided that if she could do it, so could he. And he started climbing out of his depression. It's all in the "frame" you put around events. I personally set the thermostat in my room at 40 deg. F. in the winter, and use one thin blanket, to increase my resistance to cold. I like that. For some readers, that would be agony. A friend of mine became the buyer for a major restaurant chain, at 20 years of age. He negotiated with people who had more years of experience than he'd been alive. He asked a very simple question: "What is the lowest price you could give me, where you would still want to do business with me?" It worked well for him.

Your situation is probably not that bad. So, it is a lot easier for you to ask this question: "What's fantastic about my situation?" Hey, ASK THE QUESTION, with deliberate, genuine intent. You will get an answer, that's just how your brain works. Ask questions that cover the entire process. "How can I be sure my Christmas cards are out on time?" is not the same as "How can I be sure my Christmas cards are received on time?". Why questions are for philosophers. Ask "How.?" and "What.?" questions, they are a lot more practical. Here's a few more power questions:

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? How would you act? What would you see, hear, and feel if that were true?

Life is short, my friend. How would you live your life, if you knew you only had 24 hours to live? Because, you know, you really don't know how much time you have. All the "things" people say they want, are only a means to an end. What use is a car if you can't drive it, for example? People want "things" to help them achieve peak experiences. So. how can you make your life a succession of peak experiences, as you have fun improving your community, yourself, and your family?

How could you make your goals so exciting, enticing, seductive and alluring, that you just spent all your available time going after them, doing everything you possibly could to attain them? Virginia Satir used questions in a powerful way. Some years ago she worked with people on welfare. She wanted to show that everyone can be self- sufficient. She asked the county to pick a random group of people on welfare. She saw them as a group for three hours once a week. She also got some petty cash to work with [this whole story is a good model for successful community programs, with the petty cash playing the role of grants].

The first thing she asked after shaking hands with everybody was what their dreams were. They looked at her as if she were nuts. "Dreams? We don't have dreams.", they said. One woman said, "I don't know what you can do with dreams. The rats are eating up my kids." Virginia asked, "How can we fix that?" "Well", she said, "there are holes in my screen door that need fixing." Virginia asked, "Does anybody here know how to fix screen doors?" A man in the group said, "I used to do things like that, but now I have a bad back, but I could try." She gave him some money to buy screening to fix the lady's screen door.

The following week, she asked if the door was fixed. It was. "Then we can start dreaming, can't we?", said Virginia, and the woman smiled. Virginia asked the man who did the work how he felt. He said, "Well, you know, I'm feeling a lot better." The group began to dream. Seemingly small steps began to get people to see and feel that something really could happen. Virginia asked other people about their dreams. One woman always wanted to be a secretary. Virginia asked, "What's stopping you?" (That's always her next question). She said, "I have six kids, with no-one to take care of them." Virginia asked, "Could anybody here take care of six kids for a day or two a week while this woman gets training at the community college?" One woman said, "I got kids, but I could do that."

Everyone found something. The man who fixed the screen door became a handyman. The woman who took in the children became licensed to do foster care. In 12 weeks all of them were off welfare. Virginia did this not once, but many times- with questions. GETTING STARTED: Introduction

Local leadership, Resident Service Coordination [RSC] and Family Self-Sufficiency [FSS] for families are not new ideas in assisted housing. They are, however, becoming more and more necessary. We won't waste your time discussing the breakdown of community. Fencing, new locks, onsite security, and the usual reactive solutions don't work by themselves, and they do not increase our security. They are also very expensive. Local action is a cheap, proactive, organic, force-multiplying solution to community breakdown. We believe that RSC/FSS work goes hand in hand with resident empowerment, and with coordination, communication, and cooperation between individuals, agencies, and organizations to create the large cooperative entities necessary to solve community problems. RSC/FSS work is essential to creating communities of opportunity. No one agency or person can do it all alone. There is one significant point: if you as a Services Coordinator, Community Organizer, or whatever other identity are doing all the work, then you aren't doing your job. If you are doing your job right, you are "marketing" ideas that feed community interest so well that other people do most or all of the work. ALWAYS DELEGATE PAIN, it might not be pain to someone else.

In the past, leadership, RSC/FSS work and community maintenance was often seen by agencies and some organizations as "somebody else's job." The problem is that somebody else wasn't doing the job. I used to bitterly resent having to do somebody else's job, until I realized that I was that somebody else. Putting this guide together was not my job, no-one assigned it to me. It was "somebody else's job". It would have stayed unwritten had I not taken on the job, on personal time. Everyone interested in strengthening their community, and all the people who don't yet know of their interest in that, are that "somebody else." Think big! Maybe you have a counterpart at the property across the street. Introduce yourself. Try out your innovative ideas, see what works.

None of the programs or ideas here are mandatory. They are only suggestions. You have to tailor your work to your community. We feel that this work is very necessary, and look forward to the time when local community leaders/RSC's are a mandatory part of onsite staff. We aren't yet there. Part of the reason is that it is difficult to see and touch services programs from a distance - a politician can see "bricks and sticks" put up, but can't see the social "glue" that holds the community together. You have to market yourself, and RSC work. You have to project "image". If you don't "toot your own horn", no-one else will. Remember that even communications that seemingly accomplish nothing always have a meta-communication - they show that a leader is at work. Make sure your political representatives and local newspaper community affairs editor know of your problems, and of your success stories.

Ultimately, a leader or RSC is a bridgebuilder and a healer. RSC equivalents in primitive communities are always highly respected members of the community. Unlike many jobs, your work will have a definite, measurable effect on people. You will make a difference in people's lives. Even if it seems you are battering your head on a brick wall, you are making a difference. Fire yourself up with whatever you need to, be it the inspirational stuff earlier, or whatever you use. "Plug yourself in" to your purpose in life, every morning, for that surge of energy that will carry you to great accomplishments. One manager we know who does RSC work starts out with the mirror exercise - she looks at herself in the mirror each morning, and says, "Well, you lookin' good, today, girl, feel that energy movin' through you!" You may want to have motivational posters and reminders in your office. Nothing beats someone fired up towards a goal - not education, not position, not money, nothing. Put that fire in your gut every day. It can be done, and you can have fun doing it.

GETTING STARTED First: repeat the following many times:

LISTEN! TO YOUR PEOPLE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT FEED THEIR INTERESTS AND BUILD ON WHAT YOU HAVE

If you can't listen to your people respectfully and attentively, get out of this business. If you can, you'll do very well. Remember that feeding interest is the key to success in this business. Network addictively. Always network before you pay retail price for anything.

I. PLAN YOUR STRATEGY [out of an EXCITING VISION of the possible future]

Buy file folders, or a looseleaf notebook, or set up subdirectories in your computer, with the following:

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* property map [go to city offices if you have to, they have great site plans]. Plot your site on a photocopy of a Geological Survey map from the public library. See how your property is "woven" into the community. * a record of every "wish" your residents express * "Wiring diagram", or chart, of all persons and organizations you'll be working with, adding to it as necessary * mission statement, values, long term objectives, short term goals, schedule planners [See leadership section, earlier] * social event and program records of what worked, what didn't, and what you'd like to see happen, along with copies of any material you used to publicize it, and an annual schedule of such events * list of resources: people with material they can get, and all meeting space, from someone's unit, to nearby space like church basements and public library meeting rooms. If you can map resources on a map, so much the better. The book Mapping Your Community is available from 800 998 9999, and can be

helpful.

II. PLAN YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

* Bulletin boards on and off-site * door to door distribution channels [plan to have building captains ASAP. If you're doing all the work, you're not doing your job] and you could also have your building captains set up telephone networks to get the message out * community cable or radio announcements

Wherever possible, use existing methods. Not only is this cheaper, but also people are used to and trust what they already know. Know and listen to your people at every opportunity. What works in one community might not in another.

III. GETTING INFORMATION

* Find your natural leaders, those people who are already respected in the community, by asking folks who people go to for help with problems, who has done neat things in the community in the past, and so forth. They leave a wide trail. NEVER call them leaders, because most will deny it. Identify the three most popular and exciting things for residents, and pick one that is achievable within the year, to align your efforts. NEVER ask for direct help from leaders- ask to discuss the most exciting projects you have, and ask questions- who might be interested in making them happen, how children could be involved, what other resources there might be. Ask "what would have to happen for this to occur?" Developing leaders is subversively seductive, and can be a lot of fun.

* When you know and have a "feel" for your people, you may want to do a survey. Work with the natural leaders, figure out what the most useful information is, and also what people are more likely to tell you. This can vary in different communities. "Tailor" your approach to your people. Try to stay within their experience wherever possible.

* Surveys MUST be done IN PERSON, preferably by resident leaders. You find out all sorts of useful information you didn't know you needed, and this is an important part of building rapport. A community is not built with impersonal pieces of paper, it is built with face to face human interaction. If residents are very resistant, try to find local organizations where groups of residents go, like churches. ALWAYS solicit voluntary help for what you're doing. Faith Popcorn's books talk about tracking societal trends; you're doing the same thing at a neighborhood level.

IV. ASSEMBLING YOUR LEADERS

Hold a meeting of the leaders you have identified. A small focused group of 4 will accomplish much more than an unfocused group of 50 people. Getting the group aligned on a goal they like is far more important than having a lot of people. Success breeds success. Start small and do the job right. One small success is worth a thousand large failures- yet no effort is in vain, for there is no failure, only learning. "Breaking bread together", eating together, is an additional rapport builder, the extra cost for something to eat is worth it. Sometimes people come just for the snacks. Snacks are 80% of the reason I go to such events. Bran muffins, whole wheat bagels, and juice will bring me to just about any meeting. Always keep meetings focused, this is part of respect and rapport. You MUST forbid "venting". Venting MUST be done one-on-one. Venting in groups is poisonous and grossly disrespectful, and will destroy any positive effort. "Venting" is a form of draining, a necessary elimination process. One way to facilitate one-on-one draining is Re-Evaluation Counseling, aka Co- Counseling. The basic manual is available from Rational Island Publishers, POB 2081 Main Office Stn, Seattle, WA 98111.

V. THE GOAL

Decide on your goal. Low cost summer youth programs is a very popular goal we've seen. Be absolutely sure it is what your residents want, not just what you want. Residents know their desires much better than you do. The Peace Corps trains its people this way. This may seem very simple, but many

programs have failed because the organizers didn't ask residents what they wanted.

VI. EXPANDING CAPACITY

. Find every resource in your community that will support your goal. If you can find a "Community Resource Guide", great! If you can't, write up your own, so that your future allies can be brought up to speed more quickly.

. Expand your knowledge and "wiring diagram" by asking for advice from any local organization you think might be helpful, from government officials to social service agencies to churches to aides of your congressional representative. Always be pleasant, you will find that these people will start helping you automatically if you let them. Remember that you may be making their jobs easier, NEVER assume your request is a burden to them. If you can offer something useful to them, don't miss out on the opportunity! Don't let them take over, of course, but welcome any help you get. ALWAYS end your conversations with "and who else do you know who might be willing to help us achieve our goal?"

. For summer youth programs, think about all the specialized organizations that could help you. The Public Library is a great place to start for a list. If you are setting up on-site courses, be sure to try local colleges for advice.

VII. IDEAS

A. TO START WITH

Talk to your people! Go to your public library! We only list a few sample ideas, there are many more. Every activity is an opportunity to develop resident leadership skills- get as much mileage as you can out of events. If the RSC is doing everything, there's a problem. Learn to delegate to interested people. You'll be far more effective.

COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

This is part of communicating ideas. It can be very helpful.

SERVICE AGENCY LISTINGS FOR REFERRAL

This is extremely basic, you need this in your first week of work. Call your United Way helpline for help in locating one for your area.

COOPERATIVE CHILD CARE COMMUNITY GARDENS

4-H does agricultural programs. Perhaps part of the property could be devoted to a garden, or perhaps a vacant lot could be used. Perennial herbs like mint can take an incredible amount of abuse and still come up year after year. People need beauty as much as they need Vitamin C. Consider having a reflection garden, or a flower garden. Such gardens often become community centerpieces. Resource organization: American Community Gardening Association at 100 N 20th Street - 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1495 Phone: 215/988-8785 Fax: 215/988-8810

COLLECTIONS FOR THOSE IN NEED

You could have a food drive. Don't say that your residents are the ones in need, people can surprise you. Doing a food drive can be a great way to focus on something other than immediate problems, to enjoy the "larger self", and to realize that it is possible to take control of one's life and do things for others. Try your United Way agency, or even town government, for help in distribution.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications like newsletters can be a good communication tool. However, they are a "reflection" of the community, not really a prime mover. If someone wants to start one, that's ok, let them, but we recommend that leaders concentrate on more solid goals. They take quite a bit of work to do well.

SAFETY TIPS

You could invite your local Police Department, Fire Department, EMT unit, American Red Cross, and other such agencies in for presentations on everything from CPR and First Aid to Property Identification, Neighborhood Watch,

Alternative Dispute Resolution, Drug Abuse Prevention/DARE, sight/hearing testing, health fairs, medical testing, and so on. Army Reserve units, for example, can even do career choice presentations. The key is learning to ask.

ROLE MODELS/MENTORING

Check out the Big Brother/Big Sister, and Foster Grandparent programs.

FUN TRIPS

Parks, Zoos, Amusement Parks, Sports, Museums, can provide reduced cost tickets if you write to them ahead of time. You may be able to rent a schoolbus at reduced cost.

RESIDENT RECOGNITION

Best decorated unit, best holiday decorations, most helpful resident, tenant of the month, essay/art/service contests, there is no limit. Be sure the judging is perceived as impartial and fair, though. There are many inexpensive graphics programs out now that will produce nice certificates, which can be copied onto cardstock at a copy place.

B. LEARNING CENTERS/COMPUTER LEARNING CENTERS ON SITE

Consider setting aside space for a learning center. Attached to this guide you'll find information on Computer Learning Centers. Remember your survey of residents, and nearby organizations. You may be able to get volunteers to help tutor. Peer and older student tutoring can also work well. Your school may be willing to help. Remember that many organizations like to help. Be sure to at least ask area churches to solicit their members for donations of dictionaries and encyclopedias, and perhaps even computer equipment. If a resident gets a rent reduction for teaching classes, have a written contract!

CLASS IDEAS [Preferably on-site where possible- ask your Extension Service, at the State Land Grant college, for ideas on trainings.]

Cooking classes [try to get donated food if possible. Food has a definite effect on behavior, if there's interest, be sure you get these. Remember that someone on site knows how to cook well, possibly even good ethnic dishes. You might find yourself empowering a future leader.] Housekeeping [one owner we know of swears he makes back three times in savings on unit damage what he spends on housekeeping classes] Hair/Beauty/Cosmetic [always feed resident interest!] GED [General Equivalency Diploma, basically a high school diploma for adults, gotten through taking special tests] Exercise/Self-Defense Introductory Massage Hobby/Arts/Craft/Decorating [one property manager we know furnished her model apartment very nicely, and affordably, and then shows residents how to do the same. Her residents take more pride in their units.] If you have no other ideas, do collage classes - You take magazine pictures, cut them out to make other pictures, say of one's dream life. Glue them to a backing like cardboard or plywood with white glue, or a clear epoxy paint. ANYBODY can do that. People love their hobbies; people often love talking about what they love doing. ESL/TOEFL [English as a Second Language/Test of English as a Foreign Language] Adult Literacy Goal setting/Career planning Communication/Leadership training and development [see book listing] Workplace orientation- resumes, interview skills &c. Parenting skills Support groups such as AA, for any special interest group Folk Dance [note associated handbook on one form of it] Monthly workshops on various subjects Foreign Languages [great in diverse communities] Economic Development/Job Creation: Microlending/Microenterprises Weekly special topic discussion groups Child abuse prevention Prevention/dealing with Domestic Violence Rape Prevention and Treatment Stone Age skills [ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE- they know what they want, however odd it may seem to you.]

C. COMMUNITY EXPRESSION The key point with all of these is finding activities that generate positive emotions for people in groups.

CLEAN UP/PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT/FLOWER PLANTING DAY

Make sure your residents want this before you do it. Perhaps you could coordinate it with a city cleanup day.

HOLIDAY/BLOCK/STREET PARTIES

Holiday spirit can be a great boost to a party, and can help you start new programs with a bang. Don't forget ethnic holidays! Perhaps you can coordinate a dance. KNOW YOUR PEOPLE, we have been told by some residents that in their culture, it is impossible to refuse alcohol to troublemakers... Use the resources you have on hand as much as possible- find out who has a good boombox and CD collection, and see if they could participate with it.

DINNERS

Potluck is best to start, though later you may have an organization capable of running, say, a 4th of July roast. ALWAYS find out what people are already doing, and do it slightly bigger and better. People are comfortable with what they know. Many churches do these, so expertise may be easy to find.

TALENT SHOW/DANCES/ART FAIRS/CARNIVALS/LARGER EVENTS

Wait until you have the capacity to handle these- and try to have someone who's done it before to help plan. These can be fund raisers for other things, also.

SPORTS

BUSINESSES TO SERVE RESIDENTS, LIKE COOPERATIVE GROCERIES

D. FOR YOUNG PEOPLE There are teenage leaders! Find them wherever possible, empower them, and let them do as much of the work as possible. Develop a Liability Waiver or parental authorization form. You may be able to use what your school uses. Just have one.

CUB SCOUTS/BROWNIES, BOY/GIRL SCOUTS, EXPLORERS, BOYS/GIRLS CLUBS STORY HOUR/CHILDREN'S READING TIME [See public library] ACHIEVEMENT RECOGNITION [recognize academic achievement, or perhaps even just number of books read. This cheap activity is far more cost-effective than you might think. You might find a way to get them a lunch, or visit to a movie, or some similar reward.] SUMMER EMPLOYMENT HELP/JOB CORPS SPORTS STORYTELLING COMPUTER TRAINING

E. FOR THE OLD FOLKS

BINGO/CASINO, perhaps with play or Monopoly money. CHARITY IN KIND residents may enjoy making and/or donating articles for homeless shelter residents and children. A Quilting Guild my mother is in, for example, makes quilts for the local Ronald McDonald house, which houses children awaiting serious surgery. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS like Quilting Guilds. YOUR SURVEY SHOULD

BE BROAD ENOUGH TO IDENTIFY SPECIAL INTERESTS. DINNERS/BIRTHDAY PARTIES in resident's unit. FOSTER GRANDPARENTS/ TELEPHONE GRANDPARENTS DANCES Their generation did much more dancing. BOARD GAMES/CARDS Organize & add to what already exists.

F. FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES [See also the books section!]

BINGO/RAFFLES/DRAWINGS These can be great at holiday time. Be SURE you mention where the money will go. Check for any legal restrictions BEFORE you do anything else. We know of one property manager who has a drawing for a month's free rent, open automatically to tenants who pay their rent on the first of the month. It works for them.

CORPORATE/NON-PROFIT HELP Check out the Community Relations Department of all organizations nearby, as part of building your "wiring diagram". You would want corporations and groups like the Kiwanis. Personalize interest where possible: when our office solicited for donations to a homeless shelter, we got a certain amount. When we put a list of people, [5 year old boy: wants truck. 11 year old girl: wants sweater, woman's small] we got many more.

THRIFT SHOPS [Resource organization: NARTS, 20331 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Wood, MI 48238 800 544 0751] [Pat Kohnke tells of a thrift shop that became so profitable they had to hire residents to help with the traffic]

What unique, really fun activities that really define and strengthen your community will you, working with residents, come up with? How much fun can people have doing jobs they love? Perhaps you'll share your success stories, to make it easier for others.

APPENDIX 1 USEFUL BOOKS

Think of this as being like a phone book; LOOK UP ONLY WHAT YOU'RE INTERESTED IN. Books can in many cases be found in libraries, or ordered through Inter-Library Loan. If not, they may be ordered from most large bookstores, or by looking them up in Books in Print in the library and ordering directly from the publisher. This is NOT a comprehensive list; those books marked with a star [*] have more complete resource listings. No endorsement implied.

1. COMMUNITY FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE

Heroz: Empower yourself... *Creating Community Anywhere *The Quickening of America The Different Drum Systemantics Standing By Words Neighborhood Planning -- A Guide for Citizens and Planners Journey to the Ancestral Self Return to Creation BK II

2. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/RESIDENT EMPOWERMENT/ ORGANIZING *Building Community from the Inside Out Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood The Living Economy Putting Democracy to Work: a practical guide to starting and managing worker- owned businesses Economic Empowerment through the Church Organizing: A Guide for Grass-Roots Leaders A Catalog of Manuals, Reprints, and Training Materials Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization Successful Fundraising/Grass Roots Fundraising *Tools and Tactics for building neighborhood organizations New Community Networks: Wired for Change "The South Bronx bounces back", The Nonprofit Corporation Handbook Managing the Process of Sustainable Community Development Growing Your Own Community Economy

3. VOLUNTEERS

*Stand Up and Be Counted What you can do to help the homeless [volunteer ideas that are good in any community].

4. COOPERATION AND GROUP ALIGNMENT

Getting to Yes The Evolution of Cooperation Sarvodaya Shramadana [literally, "Everyone Wakes Up by Sharing Energy"] article Thoughtstorm Goals and Goal Setting

5. COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS Community work requires sharing ideas; it's an important skill.

a. Listening/Speaking

Listening The Art of Asking Questions, Interviews That Work Louder & Funnier, The Overnight Guide to Public Speaking Toastmaster's Storytelling skills are a great community builder, too

b. Effective Meetings/Presentations

How to Make Meetings Work The Book of Meeting Checklists Meetings, Bloody Meetings/ More Bloody Meetings Presentations Plus Workshops & Seminars A Conference and Workshop Planner's Manual

c. Miscellaneous

The Phone Book Language Acquisition Made Practical

6. MEDIA The Alternative Printing Handbook, The Printer's Devil The Samisdat Method How to Do Leaflets, Newsletters, and Newspapers

7. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

- Redesign of existing facilities Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design . Crime Free Housing Safe Cities Crime Prevention through Environmental Design FIXING BROKEN WINDOWS: Restoring Order & Reducing Crime in Our Communities - adding beauty to your environment Landscaping with Wildlife Birdscaping your Garden Feng Shui Greenways - a guide to planning, design and development Penjing Creating Japanese Gardens The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning

APPENDIX 2: FUTURE PACING

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Future pacing is a tool reported by Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Marshall Sylver, and several other people. It is a goal definition method that is totally outcome-based, and holistic- it draws on the total mind. Those who use this technique review their future "memory" on awaking, and just before sleep, at least, daily. This will align you like few other exercises. If you can be really excited about the future, you will find yourself washing away the negativity of others. Following is one such future pace.

I wake up as the Sun hits my bed, hearing the birds, singing. I think about the awards banquet last night, and smile. The mayor, and federal and state representatives were all there, to honor our group, Neighborhood Superstars, for doing the impossible in our community. We welcome attention like that, because it helps us be recognized as movers and shakers, and get more resources. Besides, they need people like us more than we need them. The "conference bird" was good, too. They used to call chicken the "gospel bird" when I was growing up, because that's what we ate when we ate at church, and it may as well be the "conference bird" too.

What have we accomplished in the last 3 years? Let's see, we got the bank to let us use that abandoned branch as a Learning Center for our children, with donated computers, encyclopedias, and so on. We made our own furniture for it. Our kids love it, we had to put together another center, it was so popular. They don't even think about roaming the streets anymore. They love the crafts we have now, too. Let's see, they make and sell wind chimes, from electrical conduit pipe thrown out at construction sites, and baskets from waste copper electrical wire. They carve beautiful stuff from wood scraps from the cabinetmaker's place, too, African designs, Celtic Interlace, Islamic designs. They got an old forge cheap at an auction, and Pete even has the kids doing blacksmithing, now, with leaf springs from cars. He got them into sandcasting, and they make foot treadles for sewing machines, and the woodworking kids make the wooden parts. Those sell well at our fairs. We found we could get cannonbones cheap from the slaughterhouse, and Pete taught the kids to make their own carving tools from concrete nails, and they make beautiful "ivory" boxes. The strangest thing he does is have the kids put chicken wire into water, he says it works best in seawater, but he just adds salt and other things, and then he runs current from a battery charger through the wire, and this concrete stuff starts coating it. He says that we could make all concrete this way, and that it costs 1/10 what concrete does, but I don't understand it all. He says the kids teach him more than he does them. He has them build tiny landscapes, with rocks, some Chinese art form, Penjing, I think he said. They're never larger than your hand. Art doesn't get much cheaper than rocks, and scrap wood, it's cheap, and beautiful. They had to learn calligraphy to do carvings, and it's helped them in school. I never knew the arts made it so much easier for kids to do well in school.

We have our summer crafts fair, with all the ethnic groups doing some kind of presentation. The Quilt guild started it, so they could sell quilts, and it just kind of grew from there. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of quilts. We have our own Storyteller's association now. We do a neat kind of folk dance almost every week, now, through the church, people didn't want to wait a year for another fair. 2 people started their own businesses with money they made at the fair, they're small, but they're off welfare. Another started a grocery coop, so the small stores around here can't rip us off any more, and we get much better food, cheaper. Then somebody got permission to garden on a vacant lot, and they did that Biodynamic gardening stuff, and we had so many vegetables we couldn't eat them all, we had to start selling them at the farmer's market. We got fast-growing trees, Pahlonia, I think they said, and we sell them to the Japanese. The trees also shelter our vegetable gardens, as they grow. Sure is better than the garbage heaps the drug dealers used to keep here. That one old Chinese guy did Feng Shui stuff, it sounded wierd, but his ideas were all cheap, we followed them, and somehow the park is just a much nicer place to be.

What do they call that program? Microenterprise? Yeah, the one where 6 people get a loan of $500 each, and they repay it as a team, to build small businesses. Mary sells pies, now, Jose' sells oak furniture, beautiful stuff. Ian actually does hypnosis, now, I didn't know it was so easy to get certified in that. We hooked up with those Alcoholics Anonymous groups, we decided to give the old guys as much to do as possible, if they have addictive personalities, well, we want them addicted to doing positive things in our community. They sure seem happier now, they have a place in the community, for some it's the first time. I was sure glad when we got the City to revoke the permits of those 2 package liquor stores, they say 80% of all crime is associated with booze and drugs, and seems like a lot of the troublemakers just went somewhere else when those stores closed down. We had that guy from Ithaca, NY come in and talk about they print their own money, it's legal if it doesn't look like U.S. money, and so we started doing that. Our money honors leaders we want to honor, like Dr. King, and Luis Betances, and it's a work of art. The police we have now say it's like a vacation, in this neighborhood, like we're all on happy pills or something. The Police Department sends out all its new Community Policing officers to our neighborhood first, they want them to see community done right, and have us train them right, before they go into the worse areas.

We got us a branch of Habitat for Humanity, and when housing is abandoned, and the city can't sell it, they give it to us, we rebuild it, and sell it to our residents. We got the churches involved in redevelopment, they could see they wouldn't survive without it, and they help a lot. We rebuilt one lot as a park, with all kinds of flowers, a stone maze for the kids to walk, huge wind chimes and wind harps, and a pond with goldfish and a Japanese rock garden that looks like one of those landscape paintings, all built because people each wanted something, and we worked together to make it happen. You know, every culture and person has something special to offer, and putting it all together is so beautiful.

You know, people need beauty in their lives, just like they need calcium and Vitamin C. Our community wasn't built to be beautiful, and that doesn't matter, because we've added so much beauty. Seems like everybody has flowers, now, and even perennial herbs, which taste so much better fresh. Seems like since I started eating fresh food, I don't need to go to the doctor nearly as often, and I feel so much better and have much more energy. It's time to get going now.

I shower, get dressed, look in the mirror one last time, and say, "You are really good, you know that?" [No need to be modest in the presence of greatness] and go. First, it's off to the community college, where we offer to trade having their instructors come to our community center to give job skills classes, for us giving crafts classes to other parts of the city. We don't beg any more, we overcame our poverty with our wealth of knowledge and skills, and we trade for what we want. Then it's off to meet with the community affairs editor of the paper. I'm really glad I got to know her, since we started working together they started writing such nice articles about all the good things in our community. I was just so tired of reading about arrests and drugs, and they were tired of writing about it, too. They feel so much better writing about positive things, and we make sure they have lots to write about. Now it's off to the church; we're getting the priest to let us go out to the suburban churches, and trade folk dance instruction for older computers, bicycles, and other things folks would get rid of anyway. It's kind of like missionary work, too, suburban folks don't have the richness of life we do, some of them are like walking dead people, we help them live life with more fun.

Lunch is always fun. I go to the coop bakery. They got this Persian guy in. He makes bread only from whole grains, and they have a taste that won't quit, you can make a meal out of the bread, it's just delicious. I can't believe people eat Wonder Bread here, it's like tissue paper compared to this stuff. They have this Essene Bread, they say the recipe is in Leviticus, it's kind of heavy, and with raisins, it's really good, like a fruitcake.

In the afternoon, I go to the Farmer's Market, to get some vegetables and fruit. Fresh carrots are sweet, when they're grown right. No grocery store has ever had apples as good tasting as fresh picked. The kids like the sweetpeas I grow in my backyard so much they pick them and eat them right there. I have mint and chives, they come up every year, all I have to do is pick them and eat.

Then it's off to the middle school. The kids wanted their own dances, with a Juice Bar, so we told them they could have them if they ran everything themselves, had people in charge of everything, and just had adults around to offer suggestions. There's one at least once a month. I have to make sure that mops and brooms are available, so the kids can clean up afterwards. Our young people want to do things themselves, and it wasn't hard to get them into doing what they wanted. Once that's done, I have a volunteer thing where I do storytelling for the kids in Mrs. Adam's class. It's fun. I used to be a medical records specialist, but since my community group recognized my talents, they pay me the same money just to get things organized in my community. It's not a lot of money, but it's enough. Besides, I have so much fun at it. Just the other day, Robert, who went off to join the Marines, came back on leave. He said he would have ended up selling drugs, and dead, if it weren't for being in this community. Some of his friends ended up that way.

It's really nice, knowing that I've made a difference in other people's lives, that I'm leaving something behind. I always wanted to do that, and I am.

Following is another future pace I shared with a friend, in response to what was originally a sort of joke. Think of it only as a model; what would YOUR ideal future be like? Could you write up a page or two, and enjoy "reliving" it every day, or so, to sort of help your mind get aligned with this future? This is more powerful than it looks; last year, I got an answer to a question I put to myself in high school. If you don't stop the process, your question will ALWAYS be answered by the Universe. I recently read a book about Albert Einstein, the physicist who came up with the theory of relativity. The book said that his secret was that he asked questions only a child could ask, and waited patiently for the answers...

My Perfect Day: Birthday 2010

5:15 AM Wake up feeling really great about life. Do Tai Chi, Aikido, and Chi Kung exercises. Run 5 miles, swim 3 miles.

8:30 AM Breakfast: fresh squeezed orange juice, croissants, and an assortment of fresh fruit. This food just seems to have an explosion of wonderful taste to it.

9:00 AM Begin workday. Today, we're planning a training for "energy" workers, a high level training for people with 5 years experience. These people are trauma erasers; some of their graduates have, among other things, ended executions worldwide, begun military games that have replaced war, come up with a 'free energy' source that left oil as a source of plastics material only, begun colonizing other planets, and even space, in Gerard O'Neill style habitats [Babylon 5 is based on an O'Neill design]. With the new Universal Apprentice program, no-one is unemployed any more. Local currencies, an old idea raised in the late 20th century by the E.F. Schumacher society, mailto:[efssociety@aol.com], meant that there was never a shortage of money. The Biodynamic Agriforestry program grows much more nutritious food at half the cost of before. Since the Forest Service originated this program, in Los Angeles, in 1992, it has become a worldwide part of cities as well as the countryside.

Climate engineers used careful tree plantings to reforest the major deserts of the world. It was finally realized that the Earth, having once been an Eden, could be again, with very minor shifts in human activity. The Sahara has been almost completely taken over with agriculture, using methods developed by Machaelle Small Wright, and Keith Varnum, among others, which require 1/10 the water of any other method. [Dream. The Dream drives the Action.]

Something about the Systems Theory paradigm critical mass, reached in August, 2001, caused people to realize that fighting accomplished very little. Since people realized they didn't have to struggle for what they wanted anymore, war ended. No-one felt it necessary to fight for their rights, or anything, as abundance, the natural condition of nature, was now the natural condition of society.

Prisons were emptied out after Native American leaders trained their team of trauma erasers. Crime doesn't really exist any more, because the conditions that breed crime just don't exist any more. Most prisons were simply demolished, however a select few were kept as museums to a barbaric age. The market for illegal drugs collapsed gently, shortly after the collapse in the market for food produced with artificial chemicals, as they were very closely related.

Teams of people in different localities do nothing but envision new forms of beautiful technology, which they then work into computer models. Skilled craftsmen and women work their creations into wonderful new forms. Perhaps the most beautiful of the new artforms were the cocreated, interactive ones, where the craftsfolks worked directly with the material. The first appearance of this technology was the use of computer-directed lasers, in the early 1990's; masters for machine tools could be created with light polymerized plastics, in a few minutes, instead of several days or weeks, with machine tools. The process was extended to crystalline materials in 2001, and metallic materials in 2003. Diamond sculptures made with this method were particularly iridescent.

Curiously, all the arts flourished as never before, and unique community celebrations were everywhere. Ericksonian storytelling competitions were held nationally. The new electroplating of concrete-like substances onto wire suspended in seawater, first pioneered at the University of Texas in the '80s, allowed for particularly beautiful structures that cost 1/20 the cost of comparable concrete. New housing is constructed in the shape of an octagon, allowing about 50 people to live together, about the size of a nomadic band. Earth-sheltered housing needs almost no heat. Most utility bills were reduced to zero by 2001.

12:00PM light lunch with best friends at outdoor cafe.

1:30 PM back to work. The timeline for the company for the next 10 years is finalized, and each person programs it into their own timeline in great detail. With the new rapport exercises based on Thoughtstorming, there is very little conflict any more. Most people can retire, financially independent, after 10 years in the workforce. They usually choose to follow their own pursuits.

4:30 PM time to end workday. Children just coming home from school, really excited about it. The enforced immaturity of past education is long gone; with the methods first developed by Georgi Lozanov in the 1970's, and popularized by Ostrander and Schroeder, and Colin Rose, among others, kids can learn at an incredible rate, for example, 3,000 words per day in a foreign language. The debate in Congress is whether the requirement to master 10 foreign languages for high school graduation should be dropped, since 95% of all students master 15 or more languages.

5:30 dinner for two.

APPENDIX 3 ONE POSSIBLE SURVEY FORMAT A tenant group we worked with used this survey format, based in part on one in the book Building Communities from the Inside Out. ALWAYS DO SURVEYS IN PERSON, so you can get the information you didn't know you needed, and ALWAYS SET UP SURVEYS BASED ON YOUR INTERESTS. If you can't get to people individually, try churches and similar organizations that reach your residents. Repeat the following mantra as you begin: LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE: THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT.

I. INDIVIDUAL SKILLS/GIFTS

FOOD-related: __catering __cooking with(out) recipes __preparing meals/serving/washing dishes for over 8 people __baking __operating commercial food preparation equipment__ bartending__ OTHER:______________________

OFFICE: __Typing (__WPM) __Calculator/Adding Machine __Taking phone messages __Filing __Writing business letters __Receiving phone orders __Bookkeeping __Operating switchboard __keeping track of supplies __wordprocessing __Shorthand/speedwriting __entering information into computer __OTHER HEALTH Caring for the: __Elderly __Sick __Mentally Ill __ Disabled If yes, what kind of care did you provide? __Bathing __Feeding __Preparing special diets __Grooming __dressing __Exercising/escorting __Making person feel at ease __OTHER

CONSTRUCTION/REPAIR, housing related: __houses __Porches __garages __swimming pools __OTHER CONSTRUCTION: __Painting __Wallpapering __tilework __drywall/taping __cabinetmaking __bricklaying/ masonry __furniture making __installing insulation __plastering __soldering/welding __concrete work __tuckpointing __installing floor coverings __heating/cooling installation __carpentry __putting on siding __chimney cleaning __installing windows __roofing __caulking __machine tool use __OTHER

__Tearing down buildings __knocking down walls __furniture repair __lock repair __bathroom modernization __building room additions __plumbing repair __electrical repair __kitchen modernization/repair __chimney repair__ OTHER

MAINTENANCE Washing/cleaning: __windows __floors __carpets __general household waxing: __floors __cars __wood __OTHER fixing: __leaky faucets __clogged drains __OTHER __mowing lawns __garden care __pruning trees/shrubbery __sanding wood __wood refinishing __OTHER

APPLIANCE/ EQUIPMENT REPAIR: __radios/TV's/VCR's/Tape recorders __other small appliances __automobiles __trucks/buses __auto/truck bodies __refrigerators __washer/dryers __heating/airconditioning __assembling items __jewelry __watch repair __OTHER EQUIPMENT USE:__forklift __dump truck __crane __backhoe __OTHER

SECURITY: __ushering at major events. guarding: __residential property __commercial property __industrial property. __crowd control __installing or repairing alarm/security systems __firefighting __armed guard

SUPERVISION: __writing reports __filling out forms __planning work for other people __directing other people's work __budgeting __recordkeeping __interviewing people __managing property __military NCO/officer __OTHER

SALES __operating cash register __selling products wholesale (WHAT KIND OF PRODUCTS? __selling products retail (WHAT KIND OF PRODUCTS? ) __selling services(WHAT KIND OF SERVICES?

) HOW DID YOU SELL PRODUCTS OR SERVICES? __store __home __mail __phone __door to door

SPORTS: __baseball __football __basketball __skating __skiing __OTHER DANCE: __folk __Contra __OTHER CLOTH RELATED SKILLS/ GIFTS __upholstering __sewing __dressmaking

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__crocheting __knitting __needlepoint __tailoring __quilting __felting __OTHER MUSIC __singing __play instruments(WHICH ONES? )

ART-RELATED INTERESTS: Painting: __oils __watercolor __computer graphics Sculpture: __clay __wood __metal __drawing __collage __papier-mache' __theater/acting OTHER

OTHER SKILLS/GIFTS: __moving furniture/equipment __hairdressing/cutting __telephone surveys __assisting in classroom __public speaking __OTHER

HOBBIES: technology: __electronics __model railroading __wargaming/roleplaying games __computer software OTHER

plants: __gardening __herbs __OTHER PLEASE LIST ANY ADDITIONAL SKILLS NOT CHECKED ABOVE:

** PRIORITY SKILLS **

1. Of your skills, what FOUR things do you do best?

2. What four skills do you enjoy doing most? [If same, __check]

3. Which of your skills are you good enough with that other people would hire you to do them?

4. Which of your skills would you enjoy teaching to interested people?

5. Who else do you know who would enjoy teaching skills?

6. What skills would you most like to learn?

II. COMMUNITY SKILLS

1. Have you ever organized or participated in: __Boy/Girl Scouts __Church fundraisers __Bingo __Parent/Teacher associations __sports teams __camp trips for kids __field trips __political campaigns __block clubs __community groups __rummage/tag sales __church suppers __community gardens __neighborhood organization __card games __OTHER GROUPS/COMMUNITY WORK:

PLEASE CIRCLE ANY ACTIVITIES YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN IN THE FUTURE. Who else do you know who does this?

2. Please describe your ideal form of community activity, even if you've never experienced it. Please continue on additional pages if needed.

III. ENTERPRISING INTERESTS/EXPERIENCE

1. Have you ever considered starting a business? __Yes __No a. what kind? b. did you plan to start it __alone, or __with other people? c. did you plan to operate it out of your home? __yes __no d. what obstacle, if any, kept you from starting/continuing business? NAME ADDRESS TELEPHONE other people interested in community activity:

1. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CHANGE HERE? LESS:

2. Since nothing will change without your participation, WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO TO MAKE IT HAPPEN? [BE BOLD!]

USING THE FORM BELOW, PLEASE DESCRIBE ANYTHING THAT NEEDS FIXING, OR ANY PROBLEM WITH YOUR UNIT. PLEASE ALSO DESCRIBE ANYTHING THAT WORKS REALLY WELL.

Security Ideas

Police Residency - i.e. letting police officers and other security personnel not otherwise residency eligible reside in dwelling units, possibly with a rent reduction. HUD's Single Family division has a program where Police Officers can buy selected homes at 1/2 retail value, to have officers present in communities.

Resident Patrols - The Virginia Crime Prevention Association conducts a 3 1/2 day training of trainers course in this, and they also have a public domain handbook. The book The Winnable War is also available from 800 578 DISC.

Operation Weed and Seed - Office of Justice Programs, US Dept of Justice, 633 Indiana Ave. NW, WDC 20531 (202) 307-5966.

Operation Safe Home - cooperative crime control effort in public housing between HUD and the Dept of Justice.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design [CPTED] - see book list. A public domain handbook is also available from Sparta Corporation, 7313 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 (301) 656-6600.

Community Policing - National Criminal Justice Reference Service, POB 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000, 800 851 3420. Also, 800-578-DISC has a pamphlet on it. Block Watch programs are associated with this, usually.

When you have an insoluble problem, fill your mind with all the details of the problem, especially just before bedtime. Then forget about it totally. Have a notebook ready for when ideas for solutions come through. We are aware of one development where drug dealers congregated under a tree. The manager had maintenance staff soak down the area thoroughly with a hose when the dealers weren't around. The dealers moved on. Simple, cheap solutions like that can be very cost effective.

APPENDIX 4: Excerpts from a Community Healing Memorandum of Understanding.

How can you get somewhere, if you don't know where you're going? How can you create a healthy community without defining what you want? The following does just this.

I. SUBJECT This Memorandum of Understanding, hereafter referred to as the "Memorandum" or "Agreement", will document a consortium established upon the intent to Renew and Rebuild Paradise Apartments and the surrounding neighborhood, including Garden of Contemplation Village, Golden Age Retirement Community, and the Napoleon Hill School. Along with participation in such programs as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighborhood Networks Center, and the Department of Justice's Weed and Seed program, a wide ranging comprehensive approaches to community revitalization will be undertaken.

This consortium will create innovative and inclusive partnerships, programs, community services, activities, and agreements with the objective of building a stronger, safer neighborhood, where crime is exceptional and rare, and where neighbors work together toward the benefit of all.

III. STRATEGIC MISSION

OUR MISSION:

Creating a healthy, entrepreneurial teaching/learning community of opportunity that takes care of most of its own problems while they are still small, that naturally resists drug-related activity, where persons and organizations can focus on long term positive goals instead of "putting out fires", where people take care of each other, like they used to, where everyone can pursue their mission and interests in life, developing "leaders of leaders", with "win-win" mutual support.

*BASIC PRINCIPLES*

These principles are the guides for healing and developing individuals and community relationships at their five levels: mental, emotional/ social, vocational, physical, and spiritual. Speaking as one community, which seeks to heal itself, we seek a new way of living, from a new awareness, that will heal our problems, and allow us to sustain and enhance our community. We recognize that our problems are growth opportunities.

HEALING

Beginning within ourselves, and working together in common interest and well-being, we endeavor to heal the conditions that cause social and physical illness, drug abuse, and crime in our families. Among these are: * the neglect of hope, faith, and opportunity * the loss of appreciation for the strengths and gifts of our neighbors * a solely punitive approach to crime

We will work together to generate an atmosphere of expectation, conviction, appreciation, creativity, commitment, and joy.

RESPECT

Respect is the center of the circle of community. It is the right of every person. Since what we concentrate on grows, we respect and honor all positive activity and achievements in our community, and each person in it.

COOPERATION

Cooperation is how humans survive. Even a football game, an icon of competition, is 98% cooperation: to build the stadium, to get fans in their seats, to train the teams, &c. We will find new ways to cooperate.

DEVELOPMENT IS FROM THE INSIDE OUT.

All individual and community healing flows from within to the outside. Developing local "capacity" and sustainable activity is absolutely essential to effective use of outside resources. People must be actively engaged in the process of their own growth and development. Without participation, there is no development.

ALL ACTION IS VISION DRIVEN

Vision is the seed around which all positive efforts crystallize. Where there is no vision, nothing positive occurs. What we concentrate on grows. We form an exciting, motivating, clear, detailed picture of what our community can be, when it uses all of its strengths, values, and contributors.

A PLACE AND TASK FOR EVERYONE

A community has a place for everyone, or it is only a faction. All people must be actively involved, using their unique talents. We work to involve everyone. Every person will be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of income, social involvement, age, prior actions, or other characteristics. Everyone will be accorded the opportunity to contribute to the community, to heal, to participate in collective and personal growth, and to share the benefits of this growth.

SYSTEMS

There is a path of balance at the center of each individual and community, which can be found and followed. The community is more than the sum of its parts. Accurate moral and ethical boundaries serve the community and individual. Addictions are a direct result of imbalanced communities and lives. Each person has a Mission in life, and they are happiest when they are following that mission. All problems have the seeds to their solution within them. We seek solutions that solve many problems at once, synergistically, in a "win-win" fashion that benefits all. Because every living thing is connected to all living things, and because we are all linked in the family of human kind, any aspect of our growth, healing, and development must be interconnected to that of all others (personally, socially, culturally, economically, politically, etc...). When we work on any part, the whole is effected.

UNITY

We need the contributions, acceptance, encouragement, and support- the "mirror" of others, to develop and grow. Unity is the starting point for renewal, and as renewal unfolds, unity deepens. We use "win-win" approaches wherever possible. We vent privately, with friends, before meetings, never during, and concentrate on the positive.

WORK WITH WHAT WE HAVE

We use what we have, first, effectively. Diversity is a sign of health in nature and in communities. We seek sustainable processes and activities.

COMMUNICATION IS HEALTHY

A community is a web of relationships which is more than the sum of its parts. A relationship IS communication. Anything that improves communication improves the community. Friction is how diamonds are polished, and it is essential to community growth.

BALANCE

We consider the ramifications of our actions, and work to balance our lives. The center of life is spiritual. Spirituality and meaning in life are the same thing. Heart-centered approaches tell us what to do, and the "head" tells us how to do it.

GROWTH AND GOALS

Humans and communities are goal-oriented, and are happiest when they are working towards positive goals. The creator put fun on the earth to mark out correct solutions.

CULTURE

Our city is rich with cultural pride, wisdom, and diversity. We encourage expressions of ethnicity, and strive to learn more about the cultures of our neighbors. We respect differences, seek common ground, and come together in an atmosphere of mutual learning and celebration. We recognize diversity as a highly positive characteristic, found in every creative city of the past, from Rome to Timbuktu to Muslim Spain to many others.

ACCUMULATING MERIT, aka "GIVE-AWAY"

We intentionally give out to others everything we can offer, without expectation of return from the recipient. Instead of collecting the contributions of others for our own use, we approach relationships with the sole intention of contributing all we can to the greater community. Healthy community begins within the individual, extending to each relationship, family, community, and nation. Lasting growth cannot be made independently of any of these entities, nor can it overlook the impact it will have on others. The seed is planted within ourselves, and cultivated to extend to all those around us. What we do for ourselves becomes what we give to others. What we give to others we will be giving to ourselves. Life is a circle, a system, we cannot give anything away without getting a return, somewhere.

EMPHASIZE THE POSITIVE

Since what we concentrate on grows, we emphasize the positive at every opportunity, building on what we have.

CULTIVATE COMPASSION, PATIENCE, JOY

Where there is understanding, there is no conflict. In compassion, we accept the pace at which change occurs, and with patience celebrate each small triumph, every step taken, no matter how modest. Joy in all efforts creates ever increasing fulfillment. Our work is a cause for celebration!

WE BECOME THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE

We become living models of the truths we want in our lives, for all to see.

ABUNDANCE

We already have everything we need for restoration and growth. The resources in our community, those of human potential and those of capital assets, are many. What we lack is simply the acceptance of these strengths, the confidence in our intentions, and the "bridging" of resources to interest. Seeing our abundance is to be one blink away from seeing complete fulfillment of our goals.

KNOWLEDGE GAINED MUST BE SHARED TO BE COMPLETE

There is no wisdom without willingness to give. The experiences we gain in any of our programs and activities will be shared with all who seek them from us. We further reach out to others whenever possible, to assist them with the knowledge we have gained.

OTHER TOOLS

Traditional cultures communicated positive community values through storytelling. We will use this tool, using as models resources provided by at least the following groups, and any others cited in the Encyclopedia of Associations.

National Storytelling Association POB 309 Jonesboro, TN 37659-0309 National Story League 3508 Russell Apt. 6, St. Louis, MO 63104 Association of Black Storytellers, POB 27456, Philadelphia, PA 19118-7456 lnternational Network of Biblical Storytellers 181O Harvard Boulevard, Dayton, OH 45406

Traditional communities also expressed "community" through the medium of folk dance. To the maximum extent possible, we will use this tool, using as a model Folk Dance organizations cited in Encyclopedia of Associations, and PeaceWorks International Center for the Dances of Universal Peace 444 NE Ravenna Blvd, Suite 306, Seattle, WA 98115, USA (206) 522-4353 Internet: mailto:71763.2632@Compuserve.com

IV. OBJECTIVES

This Memorandum of Understanding, or Agreement, is intended to document a relationship to serve mutual goals between Paradise Apartments, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties, to take on tasks that no one organization could do by itself. This Memorandum of Understanding establishes a relationship between XXXXXXXX Apartments and the United Way, a 501(c)(3) non-profit or educational institution, and other entities joining by letter of intent, to more efficiently foster the creation and growth of a healthy community in and near Paradise Apartments, and to serve the mission of the XXXXX Agency and other parties to the agreement.

COMMUNITY OBJECTIVES:

CHILDREN AND YOUTH

We seek to create a drug-free, vibrant, healthy community where:

.Children feel supported, grounded, with opportunity and hope in a positive future

.Children have positive growth opportunities, and responsibilities

.Children have positive guidance and secure environments

.Children are honored, esteemed, and respected as human beings, by themselves and others

.Children learn tools to address pain and anger, their range of emotions are respected, and they have ways to express emotions healthily

.Children's physical, emotional, spiritual, and vocational needs are addressed, in addition to their mental needs, and they enjoy balanced health in all areas

.Children are challenged to the extent they should be, learning essential life skills like discipline, trust, respect, and problem solving

.Inter-generational ties are strong, parenting skills are commonly practiced, and role models are in evidence

.Adult issues are addressed without trauma to children

.The responsibility of raising children is joyfully returned to parents, grandparents and community, rather than leaving it by default to formal institutions and the media

.The community welcomes its responsibility for raising children

.Shortcomings are accepted, and people work openly to overcome them, without stigma

.Children grow healthily, and are allowed to be children

.Healthy relationships with elders and others occur

.People recognize the effect of their actions on children, and choose positive activities

.Family and community traditions, such as ritual and bonding processes, and rites of passage are practiced

.Parents are more involved with their children

.People learn from children and youth

.Youth are respected and respectful

.Abuse is consigned to the history books

.Peer mentors work well

PEOPLE

We seek to create a drug-free, vibrant, healthy community where people:

.are respected and esteemed by others and themselves .have supportive, healthy, loving relationships .have opportunity, security, education, autonomy, employment, opportunities for expression, and support .have opportunities to grow and express themselves in relationships, family, community life and all other spheres of life. .have community support, encouragement and acceptance for their growth, transformation and self improvement .know who they are, and have so many positive opportunities have opportunities to contribute to family and community .are so involved in positive activities that feed their interests they have no time or energy for negative pursuits or addictions .are spiritually healthy, free from addiction and a need to abuse, empowered with a healthy sense of self-esteem, respected and loved as members of their families and .communities and positive role models for children. .have their basic needs met, from within the community wherever possible, using outside resources in an integrated way

ELDERS

We seek to create a drug-free, vibrant, healthy community where:

.Elders express a mental, physical, emotional/social, spiritual, and even vocational wholeness which inspires all members of the community .Elders live in health, in support, free from dysfunctional patterns, providing guidance to youth, and sharing the journey of healing and growth with the younger generation.

FAMILIES

We seek to create a drug-free, vibrant, healthy community where:

.Families are secure, save havens, in mental, emotional/social, vocational, physical and spiritual balance .Families operate at an optimum level, where each member's needs are met, free of addiction and abuse, supportive of the continued growth and development of everyone in the community .Useful community values, such as kindness, respect, love, honesty, generosity, unity, responsibility, caring, empathy, sharing, discipline, commitment, nurturing and humility are modelled and practiced .Families have internal and external mutual support, that reinforce positive activities

ECONOMY, EDUCATION, AND GOVERNANCE

We seek to create a healthy, vibrant, drug-free community, where:

.Everyone has useful, meaningful work .government assistance is used to create self-sufficient people and employment .Cooperative coalitions of leaders with vision, and clearly defined short and long term goals, produce a healthy economic condition in the community .Leaders are constantly developed. .Leaders are role models .Resources to create opportunities for all are constantly gathered and used efficiently .a healthy, sustainable economy promotes financial self-reliance and moral and ethical accountability .people become contributing citizens, living up to the American ideal

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Generally, this Agreement formalizes a mutual interest, "win-win" relationship, among diverse people, organizations, and agencies working together towards common goals. No requirements of any party, beyond their capacity and/or willingness to provide resources, can be made under the terms of this agreement. As a "win-win" agreement, any party may of course drop out at any time by written notice.

The goal is fostering programs which foster interrelationships among the residents, the housing owner and management, the local law enforcement agencies, and other community groups. Resident participation in the determination of programs and activities to be undertaken, working jointly with community groups, the neighborhood law enforcement precinct, and residents of adjacent properties and the community as a whole, is strongly encouraged.

QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED IN OUR COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION PROCESS:

Questions are very powerful, because they focus awareness. What we concentrate on grows. If you don't like some aspect of your situation, it is time to ask new questions. We ask the following new questions.

* If our community were perfect, what would it be like? . What's missing from the way it is now? . How can we work together, and have fun creating a bit of that right now? . What's stopping us? How can we have fun working around that?

* How can all players have more fun, healing our communities, through our work? What other people can we cooperate with, to do the job better, and to do things no one agent could do alone? How can we make it "Win-Win"? How can we serve more people in a better way that is more fun? More effortlessly?

* What are resident interests? How could we have fun locating resources to feed those interests? How can we give our residents more hope? How can we work with resident leaders better? How can we grow leaders of leaders?

* In looking at goals, how would we describe them for an elf who had no concept of adjectives? How could we make them so specific a child could understand them? How could we make an exciting picture of our goals, perhaps as a collage or treasure map?

* What available resources could we put to better use? How?

* How can we celebrate small victories better? * How can we reward positive behavior better?

* How can we introduce more beauty into our housing?

* How can we turn apparent enemies into allies?

* Who doesn't fit into our community? How can we reweave them into it, so they can have fun expressing their unique gifts?

* How could we speak to the ideal person inside everyone we meet, so they would sometimes act in an ideal way?

* How can we so fascinate people with community healing efforts, how can we help them have so much fun, that they forget about TV and the other time wasters they engage in, and just pitch in and create a healthy community?

* How can we find great fascination in learning to use our attention, and respect, to bring a new, healthy community into being? How can we work together to fascinate and inspire people, with better stories, respectful attention, and other tools, so that they laugh, play, and enjoy life, and abandon all the negative things they do, because they just weren't interesting any more? How could our programs be so powerful, so fascinating, so enticing, that even violent and immature people recognized that it was just a lot more fun to mature, and work with others cooperatively?

* How could we create a local economic system so compelling, so fascinating, so inspiring, that everyone pitches in to make it sustainable, and we employ everyone in useful work?

* How could we create that same economic system, in the next 5 years, so that everyone has a job, some residents are transitioned into homeownership, and everyone is incorporated into a healthy community where their needs are met, and interests fed, with the opportunity to pursue happiness and their mission in life?

* It is a known maxim in community development that more than enough resources exist to solve all problems. How can we reconnect community

systems so that every nightmare people live now becomes a forgotten memory, preserved only in dusty archives?

* Since beauty is food for the soul, how can we add more beauty in our community?

* How could we help every resident realize their heart-felt dreams, effortlessly, joyfully, and lovingly, as we realize our own?

VIII. MEASUREMENT OF PROGRESS

We will measure our progress in accomplishing the goals stated here by comparing our outcomes to the ideal community image cited earlier. It is expected that the ideal will change over time.

We will use negative indicators, such as Type I & II crimes, where required by grant applications. We will supplement these with positive indicators of increasing community health, including at least:

1. Extent of program coordination, and breadth of partners. We expect to have involvement with as many groups as possible, including at least: Business/Labor, Media, Law Enforcement, Local Officials/Public Agencies, Schools, Religious Organizations, Civic Orgs, Youth, Parents.

2. A coordinated services provision of whatever is needed to help transition residents into a situation where drugs will lose importance. This will be resident-driven wherever possible. This includes some coordinated coverage of Household/ Financial Mgmt, Career Prep/Job Placement, Social Skills/Comty Partic, Spirituality/Arts, Physical Health, Emotional Health [like anger mgmt], Relationship/Communication skills, and family life/child development. All of these factors must be considered together.

3. Major resident involvement, with residents as service PROVIDERS as well as service consumers. Section 3 employment and similar things are relevant and will be considered.

4. Youth group activity.

5. Interest group activity.

6. Free programs, and anything offered by outside agencies to residents on-site, or even off-site.

7. Flowers planted by residents

8. Educational achievements, such as high school diplomas, GED's, higher education attendance.

9. Any and all economic improvement, from getting jobs, to keeping jobs long term, to getting better jobs.

10. Any transitioning to homeownership, especially if it stabilizes surrounding neighborhoods.

11. Resident-initiated social activity- cookouts, parties, easter egg hunts, whatever else there might be. It may be that we can have friendly competitions between different complexes, to see who can score highest for positive activity.

12. Any activity that positively affects the above. Any positive solutions to child care and transportation issues, for example, will be counted.

13. Anything else our residents would see as evidence of a healthy community.

14. Anything else that could be seen as a success story.

We recognize, in this task, that there are 2 activities: taking small slices off the beast, and celebrating small victories. Anything else is gunning the engine in neutral, it might sound great, but you get nowhere.

We will adapt other indicators from the following, and other sources, as they fit our needs: http://www.hazelhenderson.com Redefining Progress in San Francisco. http://www.rprogress.org/ Community Indicators project described at http://www.rprogress.org/progsum/cip_progsum.html

Resource List:

The following organizations offer training and resources in partnership/coalition building:

School & Main, The Health Inst New England Medical Center 750 Washington St., NEMCH328 Boston, MA 02111 617 636 9154 Internet:mailto:betsy.baker@es.nemc.org one resource: The Partnership Primer

AHEC/Community Partners 24 S. Prospect St. Amherst, MA 01002 413 253 4283 one resource: Coalition Building

The following organizations offer training or resources in some form of community building, generally or specifically:

Foundation for Community Encouragement POB 17210 Seattle, WA 98107-0910 mailto:FCEonline@aol.com

National Civic League 1445 Market St., Suite 300 Denver, CO 80202-1728 303 571 4343 one resource: Healthy Communities Storybook

National Housing Institute 439 Main St. Orange, NJ 07050 (201) 678-3110 Internet: mailto:hn0344@handsnet.org one resource: A Tenant's guide to Arson Prevention, $5

Nonprofit Education & Training Program [NET] Lincoln Filene Center, Tufts University Medford, MA 02155 (617) 627-3549 one resource: Community Empowerment, $4

National Center for Tenant Ownership, Harrison Institute for Public Law Georgetown University Law Center 777 N. Capital St. NE, St 405 WDC 20002-4239 202-371-2415/9200 one resource: Economic Development through Microenterprise

Enterprise Foundation 505 American City Bldg Columbia, MD 21044 410 964 1230

LISC 733 Third Ave NYC 10017 212 455 9800 resource: Building Community

Low Income Housing Info Svc 1012 14th St. NW, St 1200 WDC 20005

University Associates, Inc. 8517 Production Ave San Diego, CA 92121 619 578 5900

Community Service, Inc. POB 243 Yellow Springs, OH 45387-0243 513 767 2161

Chattanooga Venture 506 Broad St. Chattanooga, TN 37402 615 267 8687

Corporate Scenes, Inc. American Working Theater 2842 Prince St. Berkeley, CA 94705 510 547 5169

ACORN 730 8th St SE WDC 20003 202 547 9292

Nat. Ctr for Neighb Enterp. 1367 Connecticut Ave NW WDC 20036 202 331 1103

American Society for Tng & Devel 1640 King St. POB 1443 Alexandria, VA 22313-2043 703 683 8129

NPA, NTIC 810 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 312 243 3035

Ctr for Community Change 1000 Wisconsin Ave NW WDC 10007 202 342 0519

Community Design Exchange 923 23rd Ave E Seattle, WA 98112 206 329 2919

National Civic League 1445 Market St. St. 300 Denver, CO 80202-1728 303 571 4343

Volunteers of America 3939 N. Causeway Blvd St 400 Metairie, LA 70002

Working Capital 99 Bishop Allen Dr., Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 576-8620

Faron Lawrence New Haven Investment Corp. City Hall New Haven, CT 06510 (203) 776-6172.

MAXIMS [Rudyard Kipling had a poem about maxims being all he remembered of his schooling... what are your maxims?]

LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE: THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT FEED THEIR INTERESTS: AND BUILD ON WHAT YOU HAVE

Feed Interest. Think Win-Win. Sell first to emotion. People want most to realize their dreams. Help out as you can.

All successful people are persistent. If what you're doing isn't working, try anything else. Do what you can where you are. Right now.

Choose a goal, and take action. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly just for the education. Start small. Great oaks from little acorns grow. What you concentrate on grows. Start by choosing a goal first, then looking at what you have.

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're real. Look first to the ideal inside every person and situation. All enemies are potential allies. The worst enemy is potentially your best ally. Everything is a resource in some situation.

One must see the invisible to do the impossible. [Force before form]. Delegate pain wherever possible. It may not be pain to the other person. If you sin, sin boldly [Martin Luther]. If you fail, fail grandly.

Solutions must be unique, tailored to the situation. There are always more solutions than you ever thought possible. Stay flexible, and adapt as you learn. Keep your agreements. It doesn't exist until people understand it. No answer or explanation is final.

Model the behavior you want from others. Reward behavior you like. Assume everyone operates from the highest of motives, and show surprise at any evidence to the contrary. People want to help you. Sometimes they just need help calibrating their perception. ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT.

It can be done. You can have fun doing it. Live in the center of your fears. Fear of the unknown is nature's way of marking that which you most need to learn. There are no mistakes. There is only learning. All experience is valuable. What would you see, hear, and feel if it were perfect? How could you create a little bit of that perfection right now? Results are the only report card. I'm excited! I'm EXCITED! I'M EXCITED

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-- Nelson Mandela

There are many different ways to learn. Some people learn visually, some by hearing, some by moving with their bodies. In the interests of reaching all, the following rap lyrics are offered. The standard rap percussion beat is easy to do, and can be used to accompany the following.

LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE'S DREAM THINGS ARE NEVER AS THEY SEEM UNDERSTAND AND LIVE THE STORY AND REALIZE NO GUTS, NO GLORY FEED THAT BURNING INTEREST IF YOU LIKE YOUR PEOPLE BEST

TWO MEN LOOKED OUT FROM PRISON BARS ONE SAW MUD, THE OTHER SAW STARS IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN AWFUL LOT WORK THOROUGHLY WITH WHAT YOU GOT IF YOU HATE YOUR REALITY BECOME THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE WAY IT IS HERE THEN MOVE TO THE CENTER OF YOUR FEAR

TELL THE TRUTH AND DON'T BE LYING SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE KEEP ON TRYING BE PROMPT, STAY AWAY FROM LATENESS PROBLEMS ARE THE SEEDS OF GREATNESS

KEEP POSITIVE YOUR MENTAL POSE WHAT YOU CONCENTRATE ON GROWS CHOOSE A GOAL, AND TAKE SOME ACTION THE ONLY BLOCKS ARE IN YOUR PERCEPTION IN EVERY PROBLEM, THE SEED OF SOLUTION NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ARE JUST POLLUTION IN EVERY PERSON THERE'S AN IDEAL HELP THEM ... TO MAKE IT REAL

YOUR COMMUNITY YOU CAN MEND MAKE YOUR ENEMY YOUR FRIEND IF YOU SIN MY FRIEND SIN BOLDLY AND IF YOU FAIL, WELL THEN FAIL GRANDLY START OUT SMALL, DON'T MAKE A MESS NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS AIN'T NO MISTAKES, MY FRIEND, JUST LEARNING KEEP IN YOUR GUT A FIRE BURNING IF YOU WANT TO SHINE LIKE A STAR BURN LIKE FIRE, AND BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE ASK FOR ALL YOU WANT UNDER SUN JUST WORK TO NOT HAVE TOO MUCH FUN

Getting to Yes, by Fisher and Ury, details it nicely for negotiation. Jean Houston and Joseph Campbell's books address this subject. You may also want to eliminate the crabs in your own thoughts, because if you haven't, you're doing someone else's job. Always delegate pain. [800 292 6839] and [800 979 1776] [Anthony Robbins. Fireside:1991] [800-800-MIND] Publ. Star's Edge, 237 N. Westmonte Dr., Altamonte Springs, FL 32714. see especially Jack Canfield, The Aladdin factor. Deerfield Beach, FL:Health Communications, 1995. Planting the Seeds of Hope HOPE L.A./U.S.A Project, privately printed by representatives of Cell- Tech, Inc., in Hartford, CT, 1995. Used by permission. Sugar was cut from the diet by: Rinsing canned fruit in syrup with water, using 100% fruit juices instead of soft drinks and lemonade, honey and molasses replaced sugar; peanuts, cheese, popcorn, peanut butter, and celery replaced candy bars, cakes, pies, cobblers, pudding, & so on. Boxed breakfast cereals were eliminated; only whole grains, like oatmeal, were used.

These addresses will be helpful for anyone seeking grant information: The Foundation Center, 79 Fifth Ave., NYC 10003-3076 800-424-9836, The Grantsmanship Center, POB 17220, LA, CA 90017-0220 800-421-9512. Website on writing grant proposals: http://www.scn.org/ip/cds/cmp/proposal.htm. "GrantsWeb" -- yet another outstanding compilation of information about various sources of potential funding: http://web.fie.com/cws/sra/resource.htm

You Can't Do It Alone [Wm. B. O'Brien. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993] discusses Daytop, a drug rehab center in New York with an 88% success rate. It suggests that addicts only exaggerate dysfunctional behavior generally present in society, and that solutions that work with their behavior can be applied generally in community healing. Manitonquat aka Medicine Story has worked with village with a similar purpose, named Metanokit, in Greenville, NH, as is Tamarack Song in Teaching Drum school, 7124 Military Rd, Three Lakes, WI, 54562- his related book re community is The Journey to the Ancestral Self [Station Hill Press, 1994]. The European "Industrial Revolution of the 10th Century" came out of monasteries run similarly to Peace Villages. A related concept is restorative justice, as in Burt Galaway and Joe Hudson, "Restorative Justice: International Perspectives," Criminal Justice Press, 1996. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States received two coded messages from the Kremlin, one about twelve hours after the other. One offered conciliatory terms, the other was totally hard- line. This threw the U. S. negotiating team into confusion until they hit upon their strategy -- ignore the hawk, respond to the dove. By doing this, they empowered the peaceniks within the Soviet Union ... and eventually forged the deal that resolved the crisis peacefully.

In the early part of the Twentieth Century, the major oil companies (Anglo-American, Standard Oil) negotiated concession agreements with Middle Eastern potentates. After thirty or so years, the agreements had become so lopsided in their effect that the potentates were much better off breaching them completely; doing so then forced a renegotiation. The same thing with professional athletes who have contracts far below the market -- at some point, sitting down is economically sensible.

Please do not take this as libel of an entire profession, but the reality of negotiations is that lawyers always have litigation in the back of their minds; thus they are concerned that nothing be said which could later be used against the principal if taken in the worst possible context. Problem-solving, by contrast, is a search of the best possible context. So keep out lawyers. My personal rule is that the more lawyers in a meeting, the less progress will be made. "When the United States Navy ship Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans about twenty years ago, protracted negotiations ensued to get it back. ne North Koreans wanted the United States to admit that it was a spy ship, which the U. S. was not prepared to do if there was any risk that anyone would believe this. Eventually they settled on the following deal: the United States would sign a document admitting the Pueblo was a spy ship, but before delivering it, the United States negotiator would read a statement that the document was simply a device to get the men and ship back and that in no way did the United States believe what it was signing. This statement was duly read, television cameras whirring, and the document handed over. Everyone went home happy.

To cite the Cuban Missile crisis again, the essential negotiation was conducted between an American White House correspondent for NBC News and a third-level Russian attache's who was known to be politically wired. The key meetings were held, as if by chance, at a coffee shop in Manhattan. A college psychology professor told his class to work on another teacher. In their next class, when the professor lectured from notes, they were to act uninterested (yawning, shuffling papers, closing their eyes), but when he lectured without notes, they should show intense

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interest (bright eyes, hands raised, energetic note taking). In just 3 weeks the professor didn't use notes at all. References: 1. Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher and William C. Ury. Penguin U.S.A-, 1982. ISBN # 0 14 01.5735 2 2. "Working Out Troubled Real Estate Properties: Making Stone Soup", David A. Smith. 3. "When Bankruptcy is the Best Survival Strategy," David A. Smith 4. "Refinancing a Syndicated Property," David A. Smith [further info available from his nonprofit, StoryStone, 173 Merriam Hill Rd, Greenville, NH 03048, 603 878 3201] Resource organizations include PINDUP, 444 NE Ravenna Blvd, Suite 306, Seattle, WA, 98115-6467, and those listed in Encyclopedia of Associations, in your library, such as Folkalliance, POB 5010, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-5010, (919) 962-3397, Performing Arts Foundation [formerly Folk Dance Foundation], 500 Riverside Dr., New York, NY 10027, (212) 316-8430, Lloyd Shaw Foundation, 2924 Hickory Ct., Manhattan, KS 66502 (913)539- 6306]. The Evolution of Cooperation details a number of very interesting events in history. who formalized the Japanese martial art Aikido, which was founded by Morihei Uyeshiba]. Aikido is a system of using the enemy's energy against him, and indeed welcoming enemies and experience as part of life. It involves using the "force" of Star Wars fame, known as "ki" in Japanese. It doesn't use the adversarial paradigm we know and love in this country, it is a more cooperative, holistic approach. William C. Byham. New York: Ballantine, 1994. Carolyn Shaffer. Tarcher, 1991. by Lappe and DuBois. Peck, M. Scott. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987 John Gall. Ann Arbor, MI: General Systemantics Press, 1986. Wendell Berry. Berkeley, CA: North Point Press, 1983. Bernie Jones. American Planning Association, 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637. Tamarack Song. Station Hill Press, 1994. Medicine Story. See book I; publication expected late 1997. John McKnight. ACTA Publications, 4848 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60640. Peter Medoff, Holly Sklar. Boston: South End Press, 1994. Ed. Paul Ekins. London:Routledge, 1986. F.T. Adams. Barret Koehler, 1987. Gregory Reed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994. Si Kahn. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1982. Peace Corps publication RE014, Peace Corps, 1990 K St NW, WDC 20526 Similar publications available from VITA, 1600 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22209 Bruce Hopkins. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1993. Joan Flanagan. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1993. Citizen's committee of NY, Inc., 305 7th Ave., NYC 10001, (212) 989-0909. $12. Douglas Schuler [mailto:comnets@u.washington.edu] Addison-Wesley, 1996 pp. 100-113, Smithsonian magazine, April, 1995, vol. 26 no. 1. Nolo Press, 950 Parker St., Berkeley, CA 94710 Wildman, P. and Hubley, G. Prosperity Press: Nundah, 1992 Wildman, P. Prosperity Press: Nundah, 1992 Judy Knipe, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Kenyon, T.L. Hew York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Roger Fisher, W.C. Ury. Penguin, 1982. R. Axelrod, NY: Basic Books, 1984. in The Next Whole Earth Catalog, publ. 1982. Star's Edge, 237 N. Westmonte, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714 Larrie A. Rouillard; Crisp Publications, Inc., Menlo Park, CA; 1993. Steil, Summerfield. Heightstown, NJ: McGraw Hill, 1983. S.L. Payne. Lawrenceville, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979. Shirley Biagi. Florence, KY: Wadsworth, 1986. R.B. Nelson. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1985. Ed Wohlmuth. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 1983. 23182 Arroyo Vista, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688:public speaking experience nationwide. the Connecticut Storytelling Center has a cheap weekend conference the 4th weekend in April at Connecticut College in New London, near the Coast Guard Academy. The National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, POB 309, Jonesboro, TN 37659-0309, is an excellent resource nationally. Other books include Just Enough to Make a Story, N. Schimmel. Berkeley, CA: Sister's Choice Press, 1982, and The Family Storytelling Handbook, Riverside, NJ: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1987. M. Doyle. E. Rutherford, NJ: Berkley. 1976.

Helen Adam. Jenkintown, PA: Helen Adam & Assoc., 1985.

rentable videos by John Cleese. Northbrook, IL: Video Arts. 800 553 0091. D.A. Peoples. Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1988.

P.R. Materka. Old Tappan, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

L.B. Hart. Boulder, CO: Leadership Dynamics, 1979. free catalog of support materials from Minnesota Western at 800-635-8600. Richard Zarro. Portland, OR: Metamorphous Press, 1989.

E.T. Brewster. Pasadena, CA: Lingua House, 1976.

C. Treweek. Islington Bus Col, Palmer Place, London N7 8DH ENGLAND, 7 pounds. Joe Singer. Mother of Ashes Press, POB 135, Harrison ID 83833-0135, free on request. M. Clifton, POB 129, Ridgeford, VT 05476-0129.

N. Brigham. NY: Kampmann, 1982.

Oscar Newman. New York: Collier Books, 1973. Poyner, Barry. Oxford, England: Butterworth Architect, 1991 Wekerly, G.R. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995. Crowe, T. Stoneham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991. G.L. Kelling, C.M. Coles The Free Press: http://www.thefreepress.com To Order: 1-800-323-7445 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 People have an inherent need for beauty in their environment, which isn't always met. National Wildlife Federation book. George Adams. Rodale Press. Derek Walters Loring LaB. Schwarz, Editor Charles A. Flink and Robert M. Searns, Authors The Conservation Fund Island Press (1993) ISBN 1-55963-136-8

Hu Yun-Hua. Portland: Timber Publications, 1987 ISBN 0-88192-083-5 Alvin Horton. San Ramon, CA:Ortho Books, 1989 ISBN 0-89721-148-0 Julie Messervy. 1995

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