Phyllis
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With over 25 people attending last week’s 2nd meeting in Mamaroneck, NY (based on what I’ve learned as a community connector at Idealist.org and my own experience), I was able to guide a group toward definite steps to help each other overcome our organizations’ and individual obstacles, putting money and time aside. It was especially great to have 2 fellow Idealist connectors whom I met at the Idealist meeting in NYC January 13th join our meeting. The group consisted mainly of local cultural arts leaders, their colleagues, board members, as well as individual artists. The first hour, new attendees answered the 3Q’s and then others who were at the last meeting joined in and we broke into smaller groups for more in depth discussions. I asked each of the 4 groups to assign a representative who would help monitor their group so everyone would get an equal turn to talk and listen to one another respond with suggestions of steps to take to overcome their obstacle. My main challenge was that I wanted to participate, too, as Chairperson of the Arts Council, but because I was guiding everyone else, the goals and obstacles of my organization were not addressed. Once we regrouped, the results for concrete steps were shared for individuals, individual organizations, and for the group as a whole. That everyone returned from the first 3Q meeting or sent a colleague from their organization was proof that this type of gathering is needed and necessary in our communities or settings. Given today’s tough economic climate, to survive and thrive, you can no longer run an organization in a bubble nor rely too heavily on social media. It’s the combination of face-to-face engagement and social media that produces the strongest ties to greater communication within a setting.
Phyllis Lindy Gutterman
ThePMagnet
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Lorene
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Thanks for the update about your second 3Qs meeting, Phyllis! We’re all learning so much from your experiences. Perhaps at the next meeting, another Connector in your group can play the facilitator role so that you can participate in the 3Qs with your Arts Council “hat” instead of your “Connector” hat?
Another thought: if either of the two Connectors who joined you at the meeting wanted to share their impressions, this forum is the perfect place to do so.
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This reply was modified 101 days ago by
 Lorene.
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This reply was modified 101 days ago by Lorene.
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Maria Mart
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Hei everybody!! Sorry don´t answer before. I was in this second meeting of Phyllis and I liked it, I am very happy to have gone. I think that Phyllis planning very well the day and it gave good fruits.
What I understood, the biggest problem is the connection between associations and, the vast majority of them were cultural associations,so that meeting is perfect for a first contact and people were very involved.
In my opinion,like the objective is to connect the associations,I suggested to Phyllis that could be wonder if they create an Association of enterprises of culture where each partner pays a few minimum to pay a part-time person charged with only stoking those relations.
The powers of such a person would be such as:
• Keep alive a block where express the different demands and offers of partnerships.
• Enliven social networks which would know (Facebook, Twitter…)
• Perform a mapping to visualize quickly where they are and what the key objectives of each association are. That could be like the subway map, where matter lines in colors according to cultural aspect work (music, painting, handicrafts, dancing…)and stops were the offices of the various associations.
• Conferences and fairs where they relate and know physically the members of the various associations.
I believe that the benefits of this connector to the various associations are clear and known by these and the cost is minimal (especially considering that one of the problems that came out was the lack of time).
On the other hand, I also suggested to make a conceptual map in the next session, an analysis of networks, I do not know if you know this concept, is about to make a mural which is conectarn associations, thus they relate with arrows interesting connections and you can see associations that for some reason are more close between them. For example, if one works with children and handicrafts and other crafts they would be closer on the map than another that is more interested in music and so forth. East it could carry out a workshop and believe that the results would be very interesting.
Like always I apologize for my English, I hope little by little I am going to improve it.
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Phyllis
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Maria,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful observations from the meeting and suggestions for the next direction that this group could go in. We will definitely attempt to create a “subway map”of smaller grouped organizations with commonalities for the next meeting. Several have asked when the next meeting will be held and more want to join. A neighboring cultural arts leader in New Rochelle, NY has asked to have a similar meeting at their library and to include neighboring organizations she has always heard about but never met.
As suggested and discussed by the participants, we will move to create an online, interactive space to congregate and share our local resources and information about events and programs. We’d also like to hold a fair where organizational leaders can meet with program directors and artists in the area. It will take baby steps to get there, but I believe with a few more meetings and with others stepping up to the plate, we can achieve it.
Thank you again, Maria!
Brooklyn is certainly lucky to have someone like you among them!
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