An Impressive Effort

Hey, there! Remember me? Life has been C.R.A.Z.Y. I have been on the road for work five of the last seven days. I'm tired.

But I didn't come over here to bitch. Promise. I did come to tell you about a few of the days of my travel and the awesome project I got to be a little part of.

You see, there is this little town in southeast Iowa and in this little town is a little school. A little empty school. Two years ago this little town's school consolidated with a little bit bigger of a little town's school to cut costs. Now their school is empty. And it was scheduled to be knocked down. But this town of 185 said no! They wanted a community space and they wanted to reclaim this empty space. They wanted a place where the wee ones could get quality early childhood education, they wanted a place where people who needed help could come and get assistance, they wanted a place where people working to get things in order could have transitional housing, they wanted a place where the youth could play basketball in the summer. They wanted a place to be a community. And they are getting it.

I was invited in as a consultant to work with the community to have conversations using the World Cafe model and do some capacity building work with the community around asking powerful questions. I came to challenge others, but I also got the opportunity to learn and be challenged myself. Which is one of my favorite parts about my job working in communities!

So, not only did we talk.

We also cleaned some doors.

And some bleachers.

And we painted.

(I got in a little trouble for letting the youth paint with their hands!)

And we fixed the roof.

This wasn't all. We also dreamed for the future, talked about the present, made new relationships, learned from each other, and for a weekend we were all together.

Thanks for letting me be a part of this. :)

Irony at Hamburger University

So I've been at a training for the last three days. For maternal and child health leadership. At Hamburger University. Am I the only one who gets a little twinge of irony here as I sit at McDonald's corporate offfices talking about matters of public health? go McDonald's.

I'll be back tomorrow with some regular posting. I even got a little photo shoot done with my quilt last week at the lake. Tata for now. Time to take a walk down Ronald Lane past Lake Fred for some some healthy learning at Hamburger U. But hey, this morning's session is on immunity to change.

And-my yelp app found a yarn shop on my way home...

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Rocking Open Space Technology

**WORK ALERT** **WORK ALERT** **WORK ALERT**

You've been warned.

So, today for the first time ever I rocked facilitating an Open Space Technology gathering. Why, thank you.

I will admit. I was pretty much cold sweating a bit there over if I would be tarred and feathered for not having an agenda. I stared at the invitation for a community conversation email going out to like 150 or so people for a few minutes. I actually had to look away as I pushed send. What, you are a dorky community organizer like me and want to see the invitation?

Dear Community Members,



The _____________ would like to open our monthly July 7th meeting time and space to invite you all to join us in a community conversation around moving forward in caring for our community’s children and families. We all are aware these times have been stressful on us all and on community families and many of us are unsure what the months ahead hold. However, we believe that as a community what we can do is come together to have a space to acknowledge the barriers we have and name the elephants in our rooms, but also to recognize and celebrate the assets and resources that remain in our community and come together to sustain a strong community united in supporting children and families. We may not know all the answers, but we feel the best place to start is with the conversation.
This invitation is open to anyone in the community who would like to join in this conversation around sustaining a strong community united in supporting children and families. Please feel welcome to pass this invitation on to others in our community. We will be meeting from 8:30-10:30am on Wednesday, July 7th. We will also open the space for a conversation from 5:30-7:30pm on this same day. We will be serving a light meal at these conversations, so we do ask that you RSVP if you are able to join us so we can plan accordingly. We will be meeting at _____________. The direction of this conversation will be led by you community members who choose to participate and based on the topics the group chooses to have conversations around. Please feel welcome to bring any topics pertaining to sustaining a strong community united in supporting children and families you wish to discuss.


We hope to see you on the 7th! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need additional information.

But guess what happened. People replied. Some thanked us for going out on a limb and offering the space for people to be real. Then I had a whole 'nother round of panic as I realized that this was really going to happen and I was going to have to facilitate a room full of scared people who were probably going to be upset and what if I couldn't answer their questions or no one wanted to talk about anything? And then I breathed. And then I pulled this book off the shelf and brushed up on my open space technology facilitation know-how. Then I hauled tables all around a room and set up the space just so. And then this morning came and people were here.

Then there was an internal panic attack that people wouldn't want to stay or complain about what they were doing. But they didn't They had topics they wanted to discuss and suddenly I was making my rounds from group to group that were having real conversations about how we sustain a community united in supporting children and families. Conversation was buzzing everywhere. People were sharing with each other and learning from each other. It was a euphoric moment for a community organizer. And we did it.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!

OMG.
OMG.
OMG.

I can survive. Really I can. While I still love my job as much today as yesterday, today is one of those days I sat down and had a nice long talk with God asking for patience, grace, concentration, and peace. Here is a rundown of the day after the first hour and a half.

The book for next Thursday's Children's Mental Health Awareness Day that were supposed to be in yesterday (after the state failed to tell me they were only sending 9 even though I said I needed 40, so I had to frantically scurry around this week trying to find them and had to order over half), those books still aren't here. And I get to try to find enough model clay for 46 little 'uns and craft supplies for 36 classrooms.

The copy machine was telling me for the last two weeks "Toner Waste Tank is almost full. Replacement needed soon." I said, "I do not have time to deal with you copy machine, be a team player and suck it up". Copy machine=not a team player. It is not refusing to work and I have 1,200 "What is Early Childhood Mental Health?" handouts to get out. Today.

The expenditure repot is due to the state today. It's not done yet. And I have to find a board member to sign off on it.

I have not gotten minutes to my membership or board from this last month's meetings yet. They should have been out three days along with agendas for next week.

Next week's schedule looks like this:
          Monday-Kindergarten Readiness Fair (set up during most of the day, fair in the late afternoon, and I still have done 
                           NO PREP WORK!)
          Tuesday-Parent Cafe in the morning, advocacy meeting in the afternoon, small group in the evening
          Wednesday-my collaborative's monthly meeting, plus other committee meetings in the afternoon
          Thursday-CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS DAY. A trip to see my own therapist in the morning, then
                             driving all over town to take pics of the events. Knitting group in the pm.
           Friday-Leave home at 7:00am to drive three hours to be trained for my new consultant job, get home at about 7:30pm.
                        Brave Chicagoland traffic.

Time to stop blogging about busy and get the pedal to the metal. Just gotta get through today. Then repeat that thought tomorrow. Ahh, it's the life. ;)

Good news is-

-there is candy. And it's my favorite kind!