Comments on: Transparency & Community Engagement: Part 1

By: Clyde, King of Community Engagement | Creating the Future!

Clyde, King of Community Engagement | Creating the Future! — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:39:03 +0000

[...] the focus on Transparency & Engagement that has captured me the past few weeks, it seems only fitting that I re-post last year’s [...]

By: Hildy

Hildy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:31:19 +0000

Carolyn:
Thank you for thinking about this! The most direct way to consider engagement is to ask, for each effort your organization embarks upon: “Are there groups with whom we might engage, that could enhance this effort?” That question will help guide you to all sorts of possibilities.

Melinda:
I love your parenting analogy – and the result! Yes, engagement and transparency really does change everything!!!

Menachem:
Your observation is spot on. It is 2-way and it does change everything. Change is not always fun – sometimes feels bumpy. But it does, as you note, help us move to what’s next. Most cool!

By: Menachem Michael Kniespeck

Menachem Michael Kniespeck — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:22:01 +0000

When we’re not being transparent, we can’t see eye-to-eye with our community. The lack, or disregard, of transparency is like putting up veils between us and our future.

Transparency isn’t one-sided. It’s much more than the outside looking in. Transparency releases those veils so the community benefit organization itself can evolve, experience & engage the outside world with greater clarity and depth.

By: Melinda Lewis

Melinda Lewis — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:45:18 +0000

We have a big front porch, and I’m out there most of the spring, summer, and fall with my 3 kids. And so another benefit of this ‘front yard living’, that I’ve noticed, is not just engaging others in our lives (we have a ‘community’ in large part, I believe, because we demonstrate that we want one) but also helping me to be conscious about how I parent in a way that perhaps I wouldn’t if we were always behind closed doors. So transparent, engaged organizations don’t just transform others’ lives with their transparency, but also their own.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:21:54 +0000

Thank you. It is a perpetual struggle to keep stuff out of the back yard (office) and show the institution’s real face not the glam photo. I don’t think it is because we’re hiding wrongdoing, but just as you say, we feel we must be perfectly manicured out front.
Making space for volunteers is one way of sharing our real operation. I’m wondering about others.