Making Your Mark

As with a car or any democratic organization, the direction it takes depends on who is in the driver’s seat. Among the couple dozen or so organizations that concern themselves with some aspect of the general welfare of the Island, you tend to see a lot of the same individuals. Why is that? Some of the more obvious reasons are: they have the time, they really care about the community, they like the social outlet, they have a vision for a better future, or maybe they just like to control things. Almost all of us fit into one or more of these categories, yet only a few serve.

If you have some free time, you may have a hobby or pastime that you are passionate about or you may just want passive entertainment, what we call "vegging out." You may not be happy with the way things are, but you are intimidated by groups. You may feel that your beliefs are way out of sync with the popular positions here on Vashon. (Yes, there does seem to be a thread of continuity in the politics and ideas of those that are most active here.)

The problem is that, like a household, a community needs some routine maintenance and repair or things start to get a little shabby. It also needs some whimsical and loving attention to make it a home. Between our paid-for county services and volunteer accomplishments, we do a fairly credible job in a lot of areas. However, applying more creative imagination to your home or your community can make it so much better. When a lot of people in a community decide to contribute, really great things can happen.

In a park near where my brother lives in Sacramento, there is a play structure built by the neighborhood under the supervision of a private company. It has a pirate ship, gangways, hideouts, communication tubes popping up here and there, slides, swings, you name it. The project was built at relatively low cost by a large number of people playfully and creatively engaged, and building community at the same time. An alternative is to pay a private company tens of thousands of dollars to build something far less imaginative or extensive, as we did at Ober Park. We are not going to "keep Vashon weird" for very long if we keep hiring professionals to design and provide for us. The mysterious appearance of exercycles at Portage was guerilla community activism at its best, not to mention weirdest – community mythos in the making!

In the last All Island Forum, we looked at what we care about and what our vision is for Vashon. We held a followup meeting to look at the results and a predominant theme was a desire for more connectedness, more community. In our discussions of what to do next, we realized that we were curious about what motivates a person to be active in the community; what discourages another person? What can we do to encourage people to make their ideas and dreams public, to apply their creative energy, make their mark, and take personal ownership in this community?

Our next forum, "Where, How and Why Do You Serve Your Community?" will be on Wednesday, May 9, 7-9pm at the "O" Space. If you are active in the community, either through your job or as a volunteer, we want to know why. We want to know what frustrates you or makes your work a joy. What insights can activists and non activists share with each other?

We realize that we are testing the patience of a lot of you. There have been a lot of all island meetings over the years that seemed to be a lot of talk and no action. Why do we keep having the same result? We feel that we need a solid foundation of communication and community building expertise to more easily move from talk to action; we need to build a bike before we can ride down the road. We would like to restore our confidence in the ability of the Community Council, or any other body, to deliberate on community concerns and make decisions that result in effective action. I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity about finding out what makes your neighbors tick. It might just be the thing you’ve been waiting for.

Comments? terry@vashonloop.com